Steemcraft - A Blockchain Based Game [Expanding the Concept]

I’m more motivated to create a follow up on this post after seeing the support it got. Thinking about developing this idea is nothing more than a fool’s daydream. It is possible but I have no skill set to develop anything beyond the idea. As far as my effort can go, I am trying to learn how to program a discord bot starting from zero knowledge about programming on the sidelines. I think creating a simple discord bot about the game would give me more insight about some flaws of the game in baby steps.

Disclaimer: In no way do I think this game will ever come true but if I were capable of creating games, this one, or something that is similar to it would be on one of my priorities to make it come true.

Summary of the Post:

Steemcraft core game concept in depth
Inserting mmorpg elements in the game
Possible topics to follow
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Steemcraft in Depth

I had several ideas pitched into mind in the previous post but it felt like those ideas weren’t written cohesive as originally intended. Steemcraft (working title), is a blockchain based player driven economy mmorpg game using Steem blockchain technology. There are a lot of things going on in that previous sentence and this post is dedicated to explaining them as brief and concise as possible.

First, it has been proven that there are creative ways people could interact with the blockchain through games from simple dice rolls to @steemmonsters level. Creating more steem blockchain based games is not a distant future as it was before.

Any mmorpg would have an economy but the shape of the economy will be decided based on how much the system in place will leave room for player influence. I envision this game to be a player driven economy because this complements what a decentralized blockchain is about. Players will decide how the in game market is based on supply and demand for a given period. In this game, I expect volatility in component prices will be a consistent thing.

Because part of the game’s core mechanic is the gathering components and creating new items from the raw materials, you can expect the game to take up some time before a player sees their efforts come into fruition even for non-casual gamers. Items are not readily available and they will take time to gather and be turned into something that could be a raw material for another item.

MMORPG Elements in the Game

This game isn’t skill based (intense keyboard pressing) but focuses more on developing better player decision making in terms of resources allocation and prioritization. This is a sandbox game where people are free to take up creative routes to reach multiple goals within the game. But expect gathering and crafting would be one of them.

I’m imagining the game as text based with static images or maybe a few sprite animations. Text based in the sense that outcomes, progress, and everything else is written in a reporting fashion. That’s more feasible to accomplish than animating everything.

Credits goes to @kothy for creating the avatar. The above image is a very very very rough draft of how I imagine the interface. Too simplified for something so complicated. I may make a separate post about this image but for those hardcore gamers reading, this is already intuitive.

This is a sample map of the world. It's grid and the game is text based. Each tiny box will open up to several tiny boxes until we can have coordinate locations "XXX,XXX". the vast lands, weather conditions, terrain, and monsters to explore. Though the game is mostly static, imagination would carry it. I really believe you don't need lots of fancy animations or high end graphics to be a prerequisite to a successful game.

So what are the goals I could possibly think of in this sandbox game?

Goals aligned with a specific Job Class
Goals aligned with the Steemcraft Universe (Become the First Player to Craft Philosopher’s Stone, Reach a Max Level of a Job Class, Craft Formula XII30, Captured Boss Level Monster and so on and so forth)
Goals aligned with the Steemcraft Lore (There are placeholders for flavor texts here. Collect story scrolls and decipher the canon story hidden in the game’s universe)

One has the choice to bother with those goals or not. I imagine it would be easy to be distracted from doing one thing to another because there are a lot of ways to play the game and be occupied. It would attract a diverse set of gamer mentality. From those seeking the thrill of discovery, race for global achievement, and monetary gain. The components can be treated like digital assets and it’s not a far fetched idea to trade some rares components for Steem. And because Steem’s value can be volatile to fiat, expect there would be several ways for volatility to be another factor players to consider.

While most games would have predetermined guides on how to direct players into the world, I'm thinking of opting most of the details out and leave it to players to discover on their own. This means no guides from the admin side that would explain what items exist and what doesn't, where to go and what actions would help bring one player a step closer to achieving the grand goals of the game. There would be items that have no clear value from the beginning until someone else discover's a formula that specifically mentions the use of the item in question. This happens on a global scale where one needs to find the golden ticket to enter Willy Wonka's Factory experience.

I just think that leaving players to figure out how to play the game on their own opens up to unique adventures of make believe. Imagining that you are the only person who brought it up in a niche community about an unknown item. A community mobilizing to figure out a jigsaw formula.

I agree that this really sounds complicated to play and more complicated to carry out. The game’s target niche is for people who have a thing for studying economy, strategic finance, and just casual players who enjoy crafting games. It’s not a game meant for everyone to dive into but filters people willing to explore and enjoy this player driven economy niche games.

How would the gathering system be like?

Players enter an area, see an object in an area to interact and extract components based on available prerequisite tools they have. Each gathering and crafting order would require action points that would prevent players from doing further gathering or crafting once it reaches zero level. The points replenish at a fix rate (haven’t thought about the exact rates since I’m not at a point of game balancing dilemmas).

The difficulty of gathering components can be based on terrain, tier rarity, weather, and hour of day. Components may also come from difficult to eliminate monsters that further add value. The reason for these added mechanics in gathering is to reward players that know how to time their gathering patterns. Item A would have less the chances of dropping or be found if it was night time or during rain than Item B which has the opposite conditions. Players that suit their component gathering styles to these external factors would be able to maximize their profit.

Crafting in broad scope

Gathering and crafting are two different things and yet both entail a unique set of game development plans to make it work. Crafting in this game is as straightforward as gather all materials and click craft. However, I do like the idea that success rates for crafting any item will depend on current Job Class level and some other stats to consider.

Players that want to level their Job Classes would require them crafting certain items affiliated more on their given profession. Blacksmiths won’t benefit much from crafting paper compared to Librarians as an example. But this doesn’t mean Blacksmiths would not get any benefit at all. One thing to be emphasized in this game is that there are no limits to crafting even when you have a different job class not aligned with the target item you are trying to craft.

However, one runs the risk of less success if they do attempt to craft something not aligned with their profession. In comes services from other professions in the game that bridges this gap. This is to encourage more community involvement in the game because one can accomplishment so much alone before becoming inefficient.

Failed crafting attempts will have some repercussions but it’s not in my priority to dwell on the consequences at the moment. The ideas presented here are being developed as I go along. There would be downsides to failure other than losing components during the failed attempts.

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Possible topics to follow

It took a lot of time for me to compose this post than originally planned. I wanted to extend the post but I might end up boring the most dedicated readers to have reached this far. On my next post about Steemcraft, I might discuss a bit further about Lore, Professions, Economy, and Combat systems. Not in particular order. Thank you for your support.

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art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics