How do I launch my own NFT game?

Introduction

NFTs, short for Non-fungible tokens, became extremely popular in early 2021. Before delving into their role in the gaming industry, it's important to understand the rapid expansion of the gaming industry itself. In 2020, the industry was valued at approximately $160 billion, a remarkable achievement despite the negative impact of the pandemic on businesses. Surveys predict that the gaming industry will reach a value of $268 billion by 2025. Now, let's explore how NFTs contribute to this dynamic gaming landscape.

To grasp their role, it's necessary to understand what NFTs are. They are unique cryptographic tokens that cannot be replicated, considered as assets in the digital world. Similar to physical property, they can be bought, owned, and sold. Blockchain technology ensures the uniqueness and verification of ownership of these tokens.

Although NFTs share similarities with cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, they cannot be exchanged or traded. They can represent various files, such as tweets, art, and music. These files hold the same value as their originals, and one can purchase them along with proof of ownership.

NFTs typically include a license to the virtual asset they represent; however, this doesn't grant copyright ownership. The copyright holder retains the right to reproduce the work, and the NFT owner does not receive any royalties.

Developers are eager to integrate NFTs into the gaming experience. For example, Gold Fever, a free-to-play RPG, has incorporated NFTs, elevating the gaming experience through blockchain technology. Gold Fever is a multiplayer platform that encourages community building and allows gamers to make valuable purchases using NFTs. Assets like digital land plots are crucial for progression in these games. Gaming Arcade - a crypto gaming platform has put together some advantages of using NFTs in the gaming industry through which platforms like Gaming Arcade itself can make the most benefit.

How to Create your Own NFT Game?

Did you know that the success of your NFT game relies more on the quality of pre-development preparation rather than the development process itself? Drawing from our experience in creating multiple gaming projects, we have identified six essential steps that can help you bring your NFT project to life with minimal difficulties.

Step 1: Clearly define the concept of your NFT game

At first glance, the NFT gaming market may appear to be a vast, untapped opportunity, where any well-promoted NFT game can quickly become a hit. However, if you aim for long-term success with your NFT game, it's crucial to be well-prepared. Start by conducting thorough market research to ensure there is space for your idea. Identify and study your main competitors, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses not only in game mechanics and functionality but also in game economy and marketing campaigns. Additionally, delve into competitors' user reviews to gain insights into your target audience's preferences and desires.

Your existing NFT collectors can provide valuable insights as well. Once you have created your NFT collection and people start buying your items, you can reach out to them for their opinions at any stage of game development.

Choosing from different NFT game types

If you have already determined the genre of your game and the style of your NFT collection, that's great. If not, you can generate fruitful ideas by studying popular NFT games from last year. Here are a few examples:

• Role-playing games (RPG), such as Six Dragons or My Crypto Heroes
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), like Legends of Bezogia or DoRac
• Multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA), such as Thetan Arena or Brawl Stars
• Card battle games, like Gods Unchained or Sorare
• Metaverse video games, such as Sandbox 3D or Alien Worlds
• Player versus player (PvP) and player versus environment (PvE) games, like RaceFi or Star Atlas
• Creature breeding simulations, like Axie Infinity or Crypto Kitties
• Arcade games with various mini-games, like Wasted Whales or Crypto Shooter

Listing NFT games can be done on various platforms, including mobile devices, desktops, consoles, and web browsers. However, practical challenges arise due to the current lack of regulation in the NFT market.

For instance, major app stores like Apple's App Store and Google Play Store have reservations about games that incorporate NFT items due to concerns about fraud. However, their policies regarding NFT games remain unclear, resulting in a scarcity of NFT games on these platforms.

Developing an NFT game app is possible, but getting it approved for release on app stores depends on the individual app store reviewer's judgment.

In the case of desktop platforms, Steam, which holds a 75% market share for PC games, banned crypto NFT games on October 15, 2021.

These obstacles have led many creators to develop their NFT games as progressive web apps (PWA) and distribute them through their websites.

Choosing the appropriate blockchain for integrating NFTs into your game is another crucial decision that needs to be made early on. It is challenging to switch to a different blockchain midway through the development process.

Step 2: Establish a sound game economy

The second step involves designing game mechanics that support the growth of your NFT assets. A poorly designed game economy can lead to inflation and a significant decline in the value of NFTs.

To illustrate, let's consider an example. Suppose you announce the sale of unique NFT swords for $100 each. Later, you launch an NFT game where players need to collect 10,000 crystals and open a trunk to obtain one of these swords from your NFT collection. As more players engage with your game and meet the required conditions, the number of these swords increases, causing their value to plummet from $100 per sword to a mere 5 cents.

It is crucial to maintain the value of valuable items within your NFT game to ensure its long-term success.

Developing NFT apps that support the growth in value of native NFT collectibles is not a simple task. However, we have a few proven tactics at our disposal:

• Create scarcity for different in-game items.
• Implement additional in-game currencies.
• Develop multiple games where the same NFT collectibles can be utilized.

Since each project is unique and has distinct requirements, the methods for establishing the right game economy may vary from case to case.

Step 3: Design the UI/UX concept

During this step, you and your game development team will collaborate to create a prototype of your NFT game that visualizes its structure and fundamental features. It is likely that multiple prototypes will be developed, and you will have the opportunity to choose the most promising one among them.

Step 4: Game development

The comprehensive process of developing an NFT game involves connecting the frontend, backend, and crypto wallets. This is particularly applicable to games where the use of NFT items is limited to gameplay rather than selling or exchanging them.

If you intend to allow players to obtain, purchase, sell, or exchange NFT items within the game, you will also need to integrate smart contracts into the game to enable blockchain functionality.

The following three steps outline the process of creating NFT games using Unity, WebGL, and MetaMask:

• In Unity's main menu, select WebGL and switch platforms to enable your Unity content to run in a web browser. The WebGL build option converts Unity content into JavaScript programs supported by HTML5 and web browser APIs.
• Utilize the Unity platform and WebGL build mode to design game graphics, avatars, 2D or 3D scenes, and develop the front-end components of your game.
• Configure Web3 authentication via MetaMask to identify the NFT items available in players' crypto wallets.

Step 5: Testing and improvement

To ensure your NFT game is free of bugs before launching it on a website, it is essential to conduct thorough testing. Similar to any other software, our developers and quality assurance engineers follow four main stages of testing:

• Smart contract testing (if integration is involved) to verify that your game mechanics, transactions, NFT trading, and other blockchain-related functions work correctly. Tools like Ropsten from the Truffle suite are commonly employed for this purpose.
• Unit testing to identify and rectify critical bugs promptly during the development process.
• Alpha testing to ensure that the game meets all predetermined functional and non-functional requirements.
• Beta testing to allow genuine users to play the game, record any encountered bugs, and provide feedback to our QA specialists through comprehensive inspections.

Step 6: Launch and promote

Once you have completed the aforementioned steps, it's time to launch your NFT game in the market. In terms of promotion, we recommend creating anticipation for your NFT game launch and developing a marketing strategy even before the development and pre-sale of the NFT collection.

As you start acquiring collectors who purchase your NFT collection, it is important to continuously engage and maintain their interest in your planned NFT game development. This can be done by conducting polls, seeking their feedback, involving them as beta testers, and keeping them informed about the progress of game development.

By actively involving your target audience throughout the game development process, you can achieve impressive results, including increased downloads, return on investment, and enhanced brand awareness.

Launching an NFT game:

Launching an NFT game entails a number of stages and considerations. Here's a step-by-step tutorial to help you get started:

Pre-launch Preparations

a. Define your NFT game concept: Conduct market research, discover rivals, and learn about the preferences of your target audience.
b. Select a platform: Choose the platform(s) on which you will launch your NFT game, taking into account considerations such as audience reach and technological needs.
c. Gather game assets: Create and design the NFTs that will be included in your game, making sure they are consistent with your game idea and appealing to collectors.
d. Create game mechanisms and an economy: Create compelling gaming mechanisms that interface with and assist the expansion of your NFT assets.

Technical Integrations

a. Minting and displaying NFTs: Include ability to mint and produce unique NFTs depending on in-game accomplishments or assets. Connecting to a blockchain network and employing smart contracts to handle NFT creation and ownership is required.
b. communicate with blockchain networks: Include the APIs or SDKs required to communicate with blockchain networks for smooth NFT transactions, ownership transfers, and other features.
c. Integrate wallets: Link the game to users' crypto wallets to enable seamless ownership and administration of NFTs.

Testing and Optimization

a. Test NFT for functionality: Perform thorough testing to guarantee the seamless operation of NFT minting, listing, transfers, and in-game interactions.
b. Put in place strong security measures: Put in place strong security measures to protect users' NFT assets, transactions, and sensitive data.
c. Improve user experience: To increase interest and simplicity of use, continuously improve the game's interface, navigation, and general user experience.

4. Launch:

a. Community engagement: Use social media, forums, and events to build buzz and receive input from your community.
b. Post-launch updates: Based on user feedback and market trends, continuously update the game with new features, content, and enhancements.
c. Ongoing improvement: Monitor user input, evaluate data, and make data-driven decisions to improve game performance and fix any issues that develop.

To create a successful and engaging experience for users, the launch of an NFT game necessitates meticulous preparation, technological integration, and post-launch operations. You may manage the procedure successfully and maximize the possibilities of your NFT game by following our step-by-step guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do NFTs provide value and ownership to players in a game?

NFTs provide players in a game value and ownership by representing unique digital assets that can be purchased, traded, and owned on the blockchain. NFTs, unlike typical in-game objects or currency, are immutable and cannot be copied or falsified. Because of their rarity and scarcity, NFTs are valuable because participants have provable ownership of their assets. NFTs also allow players to trade or swap their assets both within and outside of the game, resulting in a thriving secondary market where the value of NFTs can fluctuate depending on supply and demand.

What are some successful examples of NFT games in the market?

In the market, there are various successful cases of NFT games. Among the most prominent are:

• Axie Infinity: A popular blockchain-based game in which players gather, breed, and combat Axies. It has received a lot of attention for its play-to-earn approach, which allows gamers to earn money through in-game activities.
• CryptoKitties: CryptoKitties, one of the first NFT games, lets users gather, breed, and trade virtual cats. It became viral in 2017 and showcased the potential of NFTs in gaming.
• Decentraland: Decentraland is a blockchain-powered virtual reality platform where users can buy, sell, and exchange virtual land and digital valuables. It provides a one-of-a-kind decentralized metaverse experience.
• Gods Unchained: Gods Unchained is a digital trading card game in which players acquire and exchange one-of-a-kind cards known as NFTs.

How can I monetize my NFT game effectively?

Consider the following techniques to efficiently monetize your NFT game:

• To generate income, provide limited edition NFTs or unique in-game products for sale at the game's first launch.
• Allow gamers to purchase, sell, and trade NFTs on a secondary marketplace, where you may make a commission or transaction fees on each sale.
• Optional in-game purchases of NFTs or other goods that enhance gameplay or give unique rewards are available.
• Create a native token for your game that players can earn, stake, or spend to get access to premium features, services, or events.
• Create limited edition or co-branded NFTs with other projects, businesses, or artists to broaden your reach and income possibilities.
• Organize in-game events, competitions, or challenges in which users compete for important NFT incentives, hence increasing engagement and revenue potential.

Conclusion

Finally, creating an NFT game involves meticulous preparation, strategic decision-making, and attention to technological minutiae. Every phase, from pre-launch planning through platform selection, deployment, and post-launch activities, is critical to the game's success. Integrating NFT capabilities into the game provides players with a unique sense of value and ownership, allowing them to gather, trade, and own digital assets in a secure and transparent manner. 

NFT games have the potential to transform the gaming industry and offer new channels for revenue by harnessing the benefits of blockchain technology. To create a flawless and entertaining gaming experience, it is critical to conduct rigorous testing, implement solid security measures, and optimize the user experience. NFT games may survive and offer long-term value for both creators and players in this quickly changing market with a well-executed launch and continuous community interaction.