New Project: Decentralized Game on Steem

I've been building a new project which is now open source and can be found on github here: https://github.com/shredz7/steem-turn-based-game

The Project

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The game will be a multiplayer turn-based strategy game running on the Steem blockchain. It will be easily editable, so developers can create new games using the code as a foundation, everything from an online chess game to something more akin to Steem Monsters.

> Technology Stack

The game client will run on NodeJS and support a CLI running directly in that client. The NodeJS application will also have the ability to host a REST API so that a frontend running on the Unity3D game engine (or other frontend) on the same machine will be able to connect and display a 3D, easy-to-use interface.

> How it Works

The client will read through all previous blocks it has not yet read and update an internal state containing data about ranking, card ownership, battle history, etc, then once it becomes caught up to the latest head block it will stream blocks and update the state in real time.

> Checkpoints

This can take a very long time if the user hasn't logged on for a while or is logging on for the first time, so a user can retrieve 'checkpoints' from nodes that are always online. Every hour, every client who wishes to creates a 'checkpoint,' a recording of the state at that time. Then a user who logs on later can retrieve the latest checkpoint from someone (likely multiple people for verification) they trust and only compute on average 30 minutes worth of state changes. The hope is that this will evolve into being similar to witnesses on the full Steem blockchain, where trusted members of the community will create checkpoints for others (a reward system for this would be great as well.)

Roadmap

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> v0.1 -- Prototype version -- End of 2018

This will include basic matchmaking, gameplay (likely a placeholder game such as tic-tac-toe or chess), and checkpoints as described above.

> v0.2 -- Better battles -- End of Q2 2019

The next version will have one new feature - off-chain battles. This will allow battles to be fought off-chain in a connection two clients without filling up blocks by recording all transactions on-chain. Once the battle begins, the two clients send each other signed transactions for each move of the game. Once the two clients complete the battle, they post who they think is the victor on-chain. If the two disagree (at least one actor was malicious and changing the result to them winning), then they must each show a full replay of what they think is the correct battle, and the one that is valid is chosen to be the final result. You can see a visualization of the structure of the network after this addition below:

This method allows for very inexpensive battles in terms of on-chain data required, while still being verifiable if a conflict arises.

note: this addition may be skipped to speed up development if it is deemed unneccessary

> v0.3 -- Cards, packs, market support, and leveling -- Early Q3 2019

This point in the roadmap is just as it seems: the introduction of cards/heroes which are used in matches as well as buying packs or cards from a market. There will also be support of leveling. During this time and during the next version, the placeholder game will be replaced with the full one, a turn-based strategy game.

> v1.0 -- Unity frontend as well as full game -- Q1 2020

At this stage, we hope to have a community that can help design art for the game and build the frontend for its full release (the frontend may be built over time throughout earlier versions as well).

Contribution and Current Development

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So far this project is very early in development, the basic CLI framework and block streaming is set up, all that is left for version 0.1 is key storage and encryption and the state computing engine with basic matchmaking and a placeholder game.

Contributors are welcomed, and I will be posting tasks for potential contributors very soon. To contribute,

1. See if there are any issues on github.
2. Check on my account page for any utopian-io task requests.
3. Ping me on Discord, I'm in the SteemDevs chat under the username Shredz7. I'm happy to give you tasks for this project and would love your help.

You can find me on github at https://github.com/shredz7