Cryptocurrencies and the technology which enables them – the blockchain – are going through something of a moment right now. From obscure alternative digital currency to, potentially, the future of a host of industries (both online and off).
It’s caught in a bubble, one which has seen the price of a single bitcoin rocket to above $17,000 before crashing to a more modest, though still highly inflated, $9,499 at time of writing.
It’s in this environment that developer Gem Rose Accent has launched MonteCrypto: The bitcoin Enigma, a 3D puzzle game with a central hook designed to cash in on bitcoin mania by offering a single bitcoin to the first person to crack its fiendish puzzles.
The game, out now on PC, features 24 puzzles to solve in fully 3D environments. You’ll need to know outside information as well as information available in the game’s environments, within its files or even found out in the world if you want to finish it.
The real intrigue will be in how players work together and compete to win the prize. Typically, you can find a huge range of advice online for completing games. However, in a race for a potentially life-changing prize, can you trust the advice you’re getting and will you help your fellow gamers?
It’s an interesting idea, but reviews of the game have proven mixed, with some even claiming that the game itself is utilizing GPU power in users’ computers to mine for bitcoins, while others simply suggest the game isn’t much fun. It’s a shame, given the headline-grabbing nature of the title, though it is only $2 to give it a whirl.
Nevertheless, MonteCrypto goes some way to demonstrating the current excitement around bitcoin, joining a growing slate of games which utilize cryptocurrencies and the blockchain to build exciting, innovative and unique experiences.
Specifically, developers are increasingly looking to the blockchain to create trading and collectible experiences which benefit from the security and strength of that aforementioned technology. But what are these games, and how does the blockchain enable these experiences? Let’s take a look.
CryptoKitties Leading the Crypto Gaming Revolution
Cats are an ongoing obsession for a large corner of the internet, so it’s no surprise to find that when it comes to crypto gaming, kittens have taken the throne.
Cryptokitties is a “crypto collectibles” game based on the Ethereum blockchain that allows players to breed digital cats using smart contracts. It’s proven immensely popular, with sales on the platform created by Canadian developer Axiom Zen hitting $12m in December 2017 and some cats with rare attributes being sold for over $100,000!
The game involves buying and breeding digital cats to produce the next generation of kittens with distinct and unique attributes which, in turn, make them valuable commodities. Each cat is effectively a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain which establishes unequivocal ownership over the digital assets, the value of which is determined entirely by the market.
To understand how the blockchain can power the likes of Cryptokitties and EtherWarfare, you need to understand how the blockchain works. Put simply, the blockchain is a “shared single version of the truth of anything digital”, according to Mark van Rijmenam. It enables digital information, be it a bitcoin transaction or a smart contract, to be recorded and distributed among a vast network, but not altered or copied. Another popular description explains that the blockchain is a type of digital ledger that creates a permanent and tamper-proof record of transactions going right back to the very first transaction on the ledger. The record is then verified and transmitted by everyone else on the network, effectively ensuring that everyone has a true record of the entry.
So, when you sell a CryptoKitten, for example, your transaction is added to the blockchain, which verifies that you have the kitten to send (by referencing the blockchain) and who you’re sending it to, before broadcasting the transaction to the network and locking it into the blockchain as a permanent notice of the transaction.
But why is that a big deal? Well, because the ownership of items (cryptocurrencies, land, property, kittens, digital weapons, et cetera) is cryptographically established on the blockchain, it’s impossible to dispute, destroy or alter the information. It ensures that even though your items are digital, they are verifiably yours and yours alone.
CryptoKitties and MonteCrypto are certainly not the only blockchain focused video games out there, though.
More Crypto Games Spreading the Trend
Spells of Genesis
Built atop the bitcoin blockchain is Spells of Genesis, which takes the strength of the blockchain and uses it to power what could be described as a cross between a Magic the Gathering-style trading card game and a classic arcade game.
Developed by Swiss team EverdreamSoft, the game allows players to purchase and trade cards using their in-game Bitcrystals (BCY) cryptocurrency. With many of your traditional strategy game hallmarks in tow, it’s a familiar yet fresh take on digital card games like Hearthstone, one which makes use of both cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.
EtherWarfare
Medieval fantasy is here to stay, but among endless Lord of the Rings and Game of Thone’s inspired television products, the rich lore and compelling drama of medieval fantasy has inspired a different type of experience – EtherWarfare.
Applying many of the same principles of Cryptokitties, EtherWarfare is a medieval-themed blockchain game which utilises the blockchain to allow players to forge armor and weapons with unique attributes which can be traded or sold using the in-game marketplace. Unlike Cryptokitties, however, EtherWarfare features battles between players as you pit yourself against the competition for supremacy over the map.
CryptoCelebrities/CryptoPuppies/CryptoPets
Success will always breed imitators, and in the case of Cryptokitties, that’s meant the rise of CryptoCelebrities, CryptoPuppies and CryptoPets – each intended to expand on the formula laid down by Kitties and encourage those that aren’t cat lovers to hop aboard the crypto hype train.
While the Puppies and Pets variants work in much the same way as Kitties, CryptoCelebrities twists things slightly by removing the breeding aspect of the game. Yes, you’ll have to retire your Bill Musk technology god fantasy. Instead, players buy, sell and trade celebrity “contracts” (cards), with the value of each contract hard-coded to increase.
For example, if you bought a contract for 0.02 Ethereum (ETH), another player can buy it for double the price, netting you 0.04ETH. Contracts double in price with each transaction until they reach 0.05ETH, at which point they climb 1.15x with each transaction. It’s a neat way to ensure the market keeps moving and preventing early adopters from holding vast swathes of contracts, and a fine example of innovation within the crypto collectible field.
What does it all mean?
For businesses, the blockchain is a wildly inventive and hugely practical system, one which could theoretically save billions of dollars in transaction verification costs for banks, help establish ownership in companies or even be used to establish more accurate voting practices, with everyone voting on the blockchain for results which are instantly tabulatable and verifiable.
Beyond the spate of articles covering crypto-innovations like bitcoin, it’s the blockchain which promises to be the truly vital innovation for gaming, finance and beyond.
