Introduction

You would have to blind not to have noticed the run away success of @steemmonsters or the amazing work of @clayboyn in his recent Steem Monsters inspired rpg demo. They are both examples of what can be done when people are inspired and driven. It also shows how well this community works, and how bright the future can be for video game developers and enthusiasts alike.

In a series of posts I will try to highlight and explain my thoughts on how we can:

• Foster game creation on STEEM for STEEM.
• The importance on forming a consensus on HOW to use the platform to minimize the bleeding of Mana and RC.
• Create a functioning economy built around the games.

Feel free to respond with your thoughts on any of these posts. My primary goal is to start the conversation, and in time have a working solution. If there are any projects that you know of that fits with the topic of the post feel free to share it in the comments.

High Scores

The cornerstone of any game is the high score system. Its a rather simple affair as you are simply taking a number a number along with some sort of user identifier and posting it in a database. However, when we start talking about online leader boards it becomes a bit trickier. To date this is the best solution I've come up with.

• The developer sets up an account here on STEEM for their project(s). This keeps the noise to a minimum on their main account, and for the fans of your game(s) it gives a quick an easy place to get information.
• The account creates a post with a template for high scores (we as a community would need to create this template) then tags it with a unique identifier for the game.
• The game would parse the template on launch (or when the online leader board is visible) displaying the information from the blockchain.
• In game users would need to connect to STEEM if they wanted to post on the high score list and would send 0.001 SP and a in game generated memo including username, score, and gameid. At the end of every game -OR- after accepting a prompt from the game informing them of the transfer.
• Depending on how the developer has designed their back end (and depending on how much RC they have) the list would be updated automatically now that we have "forever edits" in place.

note: due to the a-synchronicity of the updates once the transfer is sent the developers might want to do some magic within the data displayed to ensure the player that they're score was submitted.

Achievements

As achievements are basically non score based rewards given out during a game the implementation would be similar to the leader board system. However there would be a few changes to the general flow. Here are my thoughts:

• The developer creates a set of achievements based on a community created template. (I'm leaning toward using the first part of the image tag ![in here] as a place to store a unique identifier, how its achieved, etc.)
• The game downloads, or contains the list of achievements (one is more flexible, the other less network reliant)
• When an achievement is unlocked the players client should send 0.001 SP and a memo verifying the gameid, the user, and what ever is required for the reward.
• When verified the developer sends back a memo with at least 0.001 SP with the gameid, and the achivementid. This way both parties are in agreement that indeed the achievement was given. This could also be used to award players with even more rewards depending on the level of the achievement or specials that are going on with in the game.

About

I have been a gaming developer (hobbyist) for most of my adult life. My first game was built entirely in blender, and have developed games for various Linux powered handhelds (GP2X, Pandora). I have built my own engines, and used those built by others. So though I have never made a living off of games I see the power in the medium and believe it is as much art as it is entertainment. I am currently teaching a class on Game Development and will be posting tutorials based on what I teach in class on my @v-entertainment account.

I have several applications on Android some games, some not. If you are interested in any of them check out Vague Entertainment on the google play store, or click here

I also have a few projects on Fundition with a few more on the way. Check out my blog here on steemit to find out more about them.

Thanks for reading,

Your humble servant.

P.S. (is that a thing here?) I have a contest post in @v-entertainment if anyone is interested. Its a bit open ended but that's kind of the point. Feel free to check it out.