Steemcraft Concept - A Crafting Game based on the Blockchain

I thought of a game idea for discord or on the blockchain as inspired by this post by @enjar that I frequently procrastinated posting. I had other things to do in the real world and it’s taking quite a lot of my time to be steeming. Writing this post so as not to let the idea pass by and be forgotten.

I am not game dev. I have no experience in creating games. Expect my gaming concepts introduced here will have pitfalls. Please provide constructive input to improve the idea. All items, areas, and character names are fictitious and only serve as a hypothetical example.

The image below are just icons I came up with when I was doodling the idea.

Summary of the Post:

The Overview
Classes
How will it create value to the platform
Updates on my personal misery
Footer

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Overview

Steemcraft is the draft title I could come up for now. I’m not particular about names and would usually think of it as the last thing to accomplish when doing projects. Steem for the blockchain version and craft because it’s what the core mechanic of the game.What is it about as described in a short paragraph?

Steemcraft is a crafting game that uses the steem blockchain for recording player transactions. The objective of the game is to craft virtual items from components gathered by engaging with the blockchain. Each component has a corresponding code in the transaction and proof that it the only one of its kind by a string of codes generated from each transaction. The goal is collect, craft, and rule the blockchain in an mmorpg style. Note that the game is imagined as simple icons and text based events. No 3D graphics or heavy animation.

For people familiar with how MMORPG’s work, the short version is gathering the items and collect as many rare items from the game as much as possible.

Sounds like a laborious grind right? Sort of like that, but I envisioned the game having several layers of complexity. Let’s say the currency of Steemcraft was virtual gold, players can earn gold through selling collected items to an NPC like any game. Gold from Steemcraft can be traded for Wood, a component in a formula, to craft a chair as an example.

This game would also be a game of economics.

What if that virtual wood can be exchange directly for Steem? Usually, games have set specific prices from NPCs. Price changes will never happen if they are fixed by NPC rates. To simulate spontaneity, the game would regularly change an item’s market value. If the market price of the wood set by the game is priced as 2 gold per piece for now, when it hits refresh time, price changes will occur and wood bought from the same NPC will now cost 3 gold per piece or less. Naturally, selling your wood bought would earn you a profit.

I want the game to be a player driven economy. Players decide where the market is heading because resources are “mined” by players and scarcity, value, and etc economic factors of components gathered are decided by the mainstream market. The items available at NPCs could be just random or fixed sets of items that are commonly found but useful in the beginning stages.

Wood, or any component in the game, may be required by a formula to craft a rare item. Even formulas may require prerequisite formulas to be created. Formula X requires x10 Old Parchment, Formula A, and Formula B to craft.

How does one acquire components? There is a game on the surface that facilitates the interaction. In a separate app, players will create their profile, interact with the game through the standard mmorpg browser based gaming. Players will have a world to explore, decide their course of their avatar’s actions in that world, if the avatar decides to chop trees, they gain wood, if they open chests from a dungeon, they may get formulas or other rare components, they can slay monsters and loot items, or buy the components from other players through auction, shops, or trade.

It’s basic fantasy mmorpg but based on the steem blockchain with a focus on crafting as the core mechanic. Players can equip items they forged to help them slay stronger monsters for rare component drops and add more diversity to the games market.

For players familiar with how Professions work in WoW, this is the direction where I envision the game to be but we have to dumb it down so that even casual mobile app players can adapt to it.

I want to emphasize this game will have plenty of unknown factors left for the players to explore and be intuitive about discovering. For example, the game didn’t mention Formula A19 exists or this component exists at all until some lucky soul was able to trigger the code from an action in the game. Let’s say you just happen to dig in Area 514 of the game, you Found a Fossilized Spider Egg. The flavor text may tell you that it is a component for Formula blah blah blah or not at all. Or the Spider Egg will virtually have no purpose until some other player discovers the Formula that could make use of that item and post it on forums.

There is an element of the unknown and exploration in mining the blockchain for more components and materials. It’s a race to see who gets to acquire the most number of rare items. The rare items in the game will have special effects on their own. There is so much randomness that you may not know you’re already sitting on a component that is rare. There would be guides but most of the intuitive work will be left to the player to explore.

The lore of Steemcraft is open for interpretation.Meaning, the only hints that there is a story is through interacting with the game. Flavor texts and there something in it for anyone that has a steem account and enjoys passing the time with browser based games.

If you like to discover stories, piece up the flavor texts and see a pattern. Enjoy being an economist? the game’s economy is player driven and free for all.

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Classes and Other Stuff I need to expound further:

Professions in the game. This one will be tackled on the next post since it’s another broad concept I’m playing with but if you are familiar with World of Warcraft, you may already have the idea on where this one is going.

Players can have roles in the game that enable them to be adept at doing a particular action than without the role assigned to them. So if a Warrior class were to sell something to an NPC shop, they will only earn 100% of the current shop price. However, if a Merchant were to sell their wares on an NPC shop, they would have a few percent raised value of their wares.

This game will never be a pay to win because luck and strategy levels the playing field. Everyone has an equal chance of finding a rare component to craft one of the rarest items in the game but they will have to “craft’ their own strategy to acquire the item, either they find it themselves, hire someone to find the item for them, buy it, invest in strengthening their avatar to fight monsters.

A merchant may not be the best profession to participate in a raiding party but with the right gear, material bribe to party members, or wise economic decisions, they will be able to acquire the target item better eventually, even if most of the items in the list are acquired through slaying monsters which the warrior profession has more chances of finishing the same formula early.

There are no limits to how many professions you want to enter. You can have all the roles but each role has a specific objectives in their leveling that can take quite a lot of time to level up. For example, a Physician will have to craft x1000 bandages to reach level 3 in first aid. But Firs Aid is only 1 of the several skills in the skill tree of the profession. To proceed as a Level 4 Physician, one may need to craft item A, have Level 3 First Aid, Level 3 Suturing Skills, and blah blah blah.

Each role will have an an influence the success of crafting the ultimate rare items. Some items may only be crafted by a Level 7 profession Blacksmith, so if there is a scarcity of Blacksmiths playing the game, the goal of crafting all the rare items all a global effort will take longer until there is an active player that reached the level 7 Blacksmith status.

This game requires community participation, a lot of economic and political strategy. The political strategy will be inserted when the guilds are established in the game. I’m dropping a lot of concepts here and there but it can’t be helped. There’s so much to tackle with this idea.

How will it create value in the Platform?

If Steemmonsters can trigger enthusiasm from the steemit community as a blockchain based game, why not this one? Or any game that is built on the blockchain. These projects can help draw more attention to steem based projects, the community, and steem.

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Updates about My Misery

I’m currently trying to find extra sources of income just to pay for my grandfather’s hospital bills. He has Liver and Laryngeal Cancer on palliative treatment. Yes, he won’t last long but the debts acquired during his care will live on eating up the family budget. Not gonna bug you with a sad soppy story, that’s not what you read this post for.

I don’t look at steemit as a place where I could earn money without giving some value to the blockchain. So if you think this post was worth the upvote, please do and thank you.

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art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics