Best Technologies for NFT Game Development

One of the areas of interest for the non-fungible token industry is NFT games. In particular, the development process and how the final product is able to deliver profit to investors.

NFT games are still in their infancy, but this sphere’s potential cannot be understated. The trading volume of NFT solutions reached an impressive $10.67 billion for Q3 of 2021. And 22% of the overall NFT market value was generated by the trading volume of NFT in-game items, reaching $2.3 billion.

NFT gaming has enormous potential to change the entire gaming industry. According to Gartner, NFTs now rank as the leading emerging technology ahead of the digital decade. 

For those who do not yet know what NFTs are, they are unique digital collectibles on the blockchain. They can be used in games for almost any item such as characters, consumables, weapons, and other means of exchange. 

But how to develop your own NFT game? What technologies are ideal for getting the job done? Let’s figure it out. 

The Concept of NFT Games

On the topic of NFT in games, the subject matter encompasses a range of use cases — a character, weapons, appearance, game elements, cards, etc. They can reward players with bonuses during the game such as reputation, strength, efficiency, etc. Or an NFT can just be a visual effect that does not give you any in-game bonuses but makes you stand out from the crowd of other players.

There are two dominant types of NFT games. 

1. Play-to-Earn is a concept that allows you to earn money by playing computer or mobile games. In crypto games, this is most often the native cryptocurrency and applies to the game’s items. Cryptocurrency can be exchanged on a crypto exchange (for example, Binance), and in-game items can be sold on special marketplaces.
2. Pay-to-Win is another concept. It refers to an in-game opportunity to donate and get advantages over other players. For example, buy cool equipment, weapons, or local currency.

Many crypto games work by combining both of these concepts. The most common model follows that users need to invest money before they can play and earn. 

Most blockchain developers don’t have gaming expertise, and most gaming pros aren’t well in blockchain – Unicsoft covers both!

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Choosing a Blockchain Technology for Your NFT Game

Many NFT games currently run on ETH networks, but other blockchains are also actively developing — Flow, Tezos, SOL.

Ethereum Blockchain 

Ethereum is the first blockchain platform to be used for creating and launching NFTs. 

1. ERC 721 Standard. This is the first NFT standard (and also the most popular). The standard ensures the uniqueness of each NFT. It works great for digital art pieces, music, and more. 
2. ERC 998 & ERC 1155 Standards. These two standards allow for the registration of fungible (ERC20) as well as non-fungible (ERC721) tokens.

• The ERC 998 standard allows for organizing assets of this type into complex positions which can be traded within a single transfer of ownership. These can be portfolios, unique sets of assets, etc. 
• The ERC 1155 standard is mostly used in the gaming industry. Fungible tokens represent a transactional currency. Non-fungible tokens represent the collectible in-game items and exchangeable assets. NFTs are a critical component for creating the new play-to-earn experience.

3. ERC-1190 Standard. It was designed to enable the creator to benefit each time the rights for their item are used. The standard is mostly related to the sale of ownership licenses, creative licenses, digital item rentals, etc.

Flow Blockchain

The main idea of the Flow blockchain is to resolve the problem of scalability. This problem first popped up on the radar with the sudden growth of users in the CryptoKitties game. The first version of Ethereum that was used couldn’t cope with such growth. 

Flow blockchain relies on multi-node architecture for enhancing vertical scalability while ensuring high-level security within the decentralized processes. The work in a Flow is divided among different nodes within this blockchain to better compliment the desired level of scalability.  

Tezos Blockchain

Tezos is known as a self-amending blockchain. It aims to minimize the forkability of its blockchain by creating two separate cryptocurrencies with two different pricing models. The creators wanted to keep the transaction fees low to make it widely adopted and used. There are three primary token standards in Tezos. Only one of them is non-fungible — the FA2 Standard (also known as TZIP-12). 

The FA2 Standard is a unified token contract interface that supports a wide range of token types: fungible, non-fungible, non-transferable, and multi-asset contracts. It allows for greater flexibility when creating new token types and designing their complex interactions. It also supports the API standard for external apps and wallets. This enables NFT structures to contain a number of different gaming items with tons of interactive and modifiable features. 

Summary

NFT games use digital collectibles and create rules for players to interact with each other’s NFTs. At the same time, different users may have different interests: for some, the gaming benefits of NFTs are important, while others are more interested in their collection value. And while many NFT games are card games, not all collectors play with their decks. The Game-fi industry has given way to an entirely new gaming economy. Along with NFTs, it has completely changed the way a player can make money — players no longer have to rely on luck to collect valuable items but are now rewarded for the time they spend playing with the ability to earn a profit.

Choosing a technology for creating an NFT game may be quite challenging. Most blockchain developers don’t have gaming expertise, and most gaming experts aren’t well versed in blockchain development. Thus, you have to find partners in both fields and then somehow combine their expertise. 

Unicsoft provides a full cycle service for NFT game development that is led by leading blockchain and game development specialists. We build complete game ecosystems that allow for the real ownership of in-game items, decentralized markets, and in-game monetization. Contact us today!