Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Matt[1], Ben[2], Ronan[3], Shora[4], Rodrigo[5], Remi[6], Daes[7], Lib[8], Rohan[9], Sylve[10], apix[11], Funblocks gang[12], and Jake[13] for their review and feedback on earlier versions of this article.
01. The Main Issue Limiting Composability
The metaverse (AW) space is steadily growing. Game engines like Mud and Dojo have been developed, and the number of developers and games is increasing. Even large game studios like CCP Games have started developing fully on-chain games. Everything seems to be progressing smoothly.
However, there is still a crucial missing component. Despite the vision of the metaverse being that anyone can develop and expand upon the game, we haven’t seen many plugins being developed. I was relatively unfamiliar with this field. A year ago, when some of my friends started developing in the AW space, I thought, “Deploying the entire game on-chain doesn’t make sense; it’s too slow and limited. Who would play this?”
However, the main feature of blockchain – allowing anyone to create and enforce new rules on its system – is highly relevant to the gaming world. This shifted my focus from DeFi governance to the AW space. The entire game exists on-chain, and anyone can create new rules and features that depend on them. There is no distinction between game studios and third-party developers. When I realized this, it truly felt like the path to the “metaverse.” I also gradually realized that there is a significant gap between the current vision and reality. Developing a fully on-chain game is extremely challenging and requires a high level of control from game studios. But game logic is a paradise for players. If these on-chain worlds don’t successfully expand, I would ask myself the same question as a year ago. What is the purpose of putting the entire game on-chain?
Only Dark Forest attracts more plugins than all current AWs combined
02. Why Aren’t People Developing Plugins?
Many traditional games like Fortnite and Minecraft have various mods developed by their communities, so why aren’t people creating plugins in the AW space? Shouldn’t fully on-chain games make plugin development easier? The simple answer is that the AW landscape is still in its infancy, and there aren’t enough games attracting players. But there are two main reasons beyond that.
First, developing plugins is highly challenging. Current fully on-chain games are still in the exploratory stage. Their source code is often not fully open-source, documentation is incomplete, and game logic changes frequently. Therefore, every time they make changes, there is a need for extensive communication and ongoing maintenance with game studios. Additionally, there is no guarantee that the game client supports your plugin (usually it doesn’t), so you have to develop a frontend that non-technical players can use. Yes, even simple plugins require a significant amount of time and effort.
Second, funding is also a major issue. Ideally, developers create plugins out of their love for the game. However, as mentioned earlier, this requires a substantial amount of time and effort. If you can’t even cover your basic development costs, it becomes very challenging to incentivize development or sustain running plugins. In fact, I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who is a game developer passionate about AW. He told me that he was interested in collaborating on developing a plugin but would need compensation due to the significant time and effort required. The obvious source of compensation would be the users of the plugin or the game studio itself. However, in this developing field, there aren’t enough users willing to pay to cover the development costs. Additionally, most game companies in the AW space, usually startups, have no revenue, so expecting them to provide financial support is unrealistic. Another option is seeking funding. For example, Starknet recently provided a $2 million STRK grant to Realms, demonstrating their commitment to game development, although not all games are built on Starknet. Additionally, Dark Forest held a plugin competition in 2021, successfully attracting many high-quality plugins. However, as mentioned earlier, not all games can provide financial support, and there isn’t enough funding to support all games and on-chain projects. The business model for plugins remains a significant issue.
03. The Solution
So, how can we create an environment in this field where more plugins can be developed? The first idea that came to mind was to create a guild focused on plugin development. However, we would still face the same issues mentioned earlier. Given the current state of fully on-chain games, developing plugins requires a significant amount of effort, and developing them one after another would take a considerable amount of time. Additionally, ongoing development of plugins requires funding. But where does that money come from? Regardless, I would establish a guild, but I also thought, what if we could create a mechanism that allows developers to profit from their plugins? This idea is simple – a grant protocol that provides funding for plugin developers. Developers can submit proposals presenting their ideas for developing plugins, and the player community can vote on the plugins they want. The ideas most needed by the community will receive funding.
The grant protocol provides funding for plugin developers
04. Funding
Initial funding will be raised from L2 grants, companies, venture capital, and individuals active in the AW space. Additionally, the first funding round will be open to any plugin ideas. However, to make the protocol and project more comfortable to provide funding, I am also considering future donation options to only fund plugins based on their projects. This funding supports the development of plugins on your protocol, game engine, or game, helping to attract more users and plugin developers and creating a growth flywheel that benefits all projects and ecosystems within the AW space.
Example of a funding mechanism
For the first experiment, we plan to raise a total of $15,000. Each approved proposal will receive a fixed amount of $5,000, so we will ultimately support the development of three new plugins on existing games. In the future, I hope to support larger-scale plugin development and more developers, but due to the current lack of plugin developers, I plan to gradually expand while cultivating a culture and community of plugin developers.
05. Voting Mechanism
As for the voting mechanism for the player community to decide which plugin ideas to fund, I am considering adopting a competitive voting approach. During the submission phase, anyone with plugin ideas can submit proposals to compete. Each person competes by showcasing their skills and ideas. When the voting phase begins, the player community votes on the plugin ideas they want to see implemented. If a proposal receives enough votes to be declared a winner (in our first round, the top 3 proposals), the proposer will receive funding and continue developing their plugin. Similar to the Prop House mechanism in Nouns ↓
Voting mechanism
Ideally, there would be a round every month, and a fixed schedule could help AW players develop a habit of checking for new plugins available on a specific date (e.g., the 10th of every month).
Regular check schedule
Determining the best allocation method for voting rights is highly challenging. Currently, I lean towards using a whitelist approach rather than distributing governance tokens. This would allow for flexible adjustments to the whitelist requirements in each round, avoiding complexities associated with tokens such as airdrops, whale issues, and price fluctuations. One idea for the whitelist is to whitelist accounts based on in-game resources for each round (e.g., holding over 500 orbs in the SS game or 2000 kimberlite in the Primodium game).
By the way, if you love AW and want to be involved in building, feel free to reach out to me via Twitter or Telegram (@koheingt). Any feedback, ideas, or requests regarding the grant protocol are greatly appreciated!
06. The Rise of Plugin Developers
In the AW space, there are currently three types of people: game studios, game players, and game guilds. But imagine if we could introduce a new role: plugin developers. I believe this grant protocol can help achieve that goal. It will showcase how new features and clients can be developed. Instead of solely relying on game studios, the game will continuously evolve based on the needs and desires of the player community through the power of third-party developers. Additionally, I’ve always felt that plugin developers are undervalued in the current AW landscape but hold tremendous potential. Today’s teenagers are not just consumers of games; many of them have already started creating their own independent games on platforms like Roblox. Statistics show that by December 2023, over 5 million game developers will be creating their own games and earning Robux. However, when you try to create your own game on Roblox, you’ll find that the scale and quality of games you can create are extremely limited. So far, usually only large game studios have the capability to develop AAA games. Autonomous Worlds will change that perspective. Anyone can expand upon the game world based on AAA games without needing permission and without worrying that their plugins will be banned in the future. This democratization of game development not only allows for more people to develop games on a larger scale but also provides more opportunities to make money. We need to develop a product that makes it easier for people to build plugins, a product that allows game players to discover and use plugins, and a product that helps developers profit from plugins (without relying on grants)…
There is still much to be done to realize the full potential of modding. The AW space is still in its very early stages, and now is the best time to shape its future. Let’s continue to boldly experiment and explore forward!
References
[1] Matt: https://twitter.com/mattvv
[2] Ben: https://twitter.com/BenGiove
[3] Ronan: https://twitter.com/wighawag
[4] Shora: https://twitter.com/0xshora
[5] Rodrigo: https://twitter.com/GaonukRodrigo
[6] Remi: https://twitter.com/remi_gai
[7] Daes: https://twitter.com/0xDaes
[8] Lib: https://twitter.com/lib_defi
[9] Rohan: https://twitter.com/YeomenAI
[10] Sylve: https://twitter.com/sylvechv
[11] apix: https://twitter.com/apixtwts
[12] Funblocks gang: https://twitter.com/0xFunBlocks
[13] Jake: https://twitter.com/proofofjake_
[14] Plugin competition: https://blog.zkga.me/v5-plugins-contest-winners
[15] Prop House: https://prop.house/0x767a3bdf2aa3b3201b794927a997fcf4e50d4702
[16] Twitter: https://twitter.com/koheingt
[17] Statistics: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1376688/roblox-annual-earning-creators/#:~:text=Roblox%20Corporation%20annual%20number%20of%20creators%20earning%20money%202021%2D2023&text=In%20the%20month%20ending%20December,in%20the%20Developer%20Exchange%20Program.
