The Most Important Thing
The seamless experience for developers is a necessary condition for attracting developers from other Web3 ecosystems and traditional game studios. Developers need to use tools to enhance the user experience and promote the prosperity of the ecosystem. StarkNet is an Ethereum Layer2 that provides tools to help developers build better products for users. Therefore, StarkNet has become the primary choice for game application developers, especially because it builds on StarkWare's existing focus on game players.
Cairo 1.0 and DevEx
Cairo is an intelligent contract language developed by the StarkWare team. Although this Turing-complete language has gained more and more usage in the past year, its popularity has not surpassed Solidity or Vyper. Due to its novelty, Cairo has low usage and is unique to StarkWare. Currently, Cairo only accounts for 6% of the total TVL of smart contracts, second only to Rust-based contracts.
On January 5th, the StarkWare team announced the release of Cairo 1.0, a new version inspired by the Rust language, which is more developer-friendly. Rust is a relatively new language with a high reputation for usability, and developers familiar with Rust will find it easier to use Cairo 1.0, which will promote the development of toolkits and further standardize the developer experience using the language.
Cross-Liquidity of ImmutableX
ImmutableX is a specific application zk-rollup deployed on StarkEx (an Ethereum scaling engine) and is one of the most promising game ecosystems with over 100 games. In 2022, Web3 games are one of the tracks to obtain a large amount of funding, and ImmutableX has raised over $900 million. Compared to general zk-rollups like StarkNet, its specific application architecture supports higher throughput and a single sequencer for synchronous transaction confirmation.
In the near future, the ImmutableX team plans to integrate with StarkNet. Although StarkEx is very suitable for game transactions, StarkNet also provides additional features that developers may find useful. These features will allow developers to build games more freely and allow players to trade on both networks. With the increase in block space and liquidity of StarkNet, more and more games will develop on this basis.
StarkNet and Account Abstraction
Account abstraction converts user accounts into smart contracts, simplifying the user experience and providing more secure asset custody. StarkNet provides account abstraction locally through signature abstraction, allowing programmability of ownership verification signature types, thereby simplifying the wallet recovery process. For the 3 billion global game players, accessible wallet recovery is a necessary condition for enjoying Web3 games.
StarkNet's Game Ecosystem
In addition to the games themselves, StarkNet also has a complete infrastructure and community that will drive the development of its game ecosystem. Wallets on StarkNet provide some of the best usability features: Argent X and Cartridge are StarkNet wallets that provide account abstraction. Cartridge's approach mimics traditional game platform Steam, providing a login process for Influence games that only requires a username and fingerprint.
Ecosystem participants are also emerging. MatchboxDAO is a community of developers, players, and designers focused on funding and promoting game projects on StarkNet. They are hosting the 0xMonaco competition, a Solidity programming competition between teams from Polygon, Uniswap, Yield Guild Games, and others, aiming to find the best technical team in the gaming field. This esports-style competition has attracted a lot of attention from participants and viewers.
Once StarkNet goes live and receives support from ImmutableX, both new and existing games have the potential to benefit from the thriving game ecosystem of ImmutableX. StarkNet has a competitive advantage in the gaming field because it focuses on improving the developer and user experience through advancements in Cairo and account abstraction, which sets StarkNet apart from other ecosystems.
Key Events
Game Token Unlocking
On January 23rd, Axie unlocked 2% of its token supply. Prior to the unlocking, the price and sales volume of AXS soared. Other games with upcoming token unlocks include Yield Guild Games (1.7% of supply) and Sandbox (12% of supply), both of which experienced similar price increases. After the unlocking, AXS trading volume decreased.
Influence Testnet Launch
Influence, a space MMO game on StarkNet, has just launched its highly anticipated testnet, allowing users to create accounts using Argent X, Braavos, or Cartridge. This incentivized testnet allows users to earn the project's base currency, $SWAY, by playing the game, creating content, and providing feedback.
Illuvium DAO Launches Third AAA Game
On January 6th, Illuvium game studio launched its third game, "Illuvium: Zero in Alpha," following the release of its second game in December.
Createra Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding from a16z
Createra is an integrated on-chain platform for quickly creating and discovering games. The company recently closed its Series A funding to develop its web engine, which helps developers create and distribute games. Game players primarily focus on Gen-Z.
Game Filters
With the broader crypto market recovery, game and metaverse tokens have also seen a resurgence. In the past 30 days, all of the mentioned tokens have experienced positive price trends: STEPN (+125.06%), Decentraland (+110.09%), and Axie Infinity (+78.41%) have undergone the largest changes. Project announcements, upcoming token unlocks, and development progress will also stimulate interest from traders.