Building a thriving on-chain gaming community with MatchboxDAO
This article was written by 0xStingRayL0
GM!
We at MatchboxDAO have been busy building for the last several months, and we thought its finally time to share what we have been up to.
Our trial runs with 0xMonaco and 0xTitans (which is a more complex version of 0xMonaco) competitions ended in great success, which further motivated us to execute our grand strategy to create a more accessible on-chain gaming experience. However, we quickly discovered that building a single game wasn’t enough to realize the vision we had.
Thus our thesis became more than just building a game like 0xTitans; we wanted to create a purpose-built ecosystem to make viable on-chain games more enjoyable and accessible.
To that end, we are building multi-layered solutions centered around esports that can address the multitude of problems on-chain gaming. We separate our building process into different phases. Phase 1 will encompass the core components of our envisioned ecosystem, while Phase 2 is the scaling and hyper-growth period.
Phase 1
In phase 1, we will be working on building out the core infrastructure that will become the main gameplay loops and attraction for our ecosystem, which will include elements like:
- Esports — Building out further gameplay components in 0xTitans
- Speculation — Building a card-based prediction system based on said esports for meta-gameplay
- Analytics — Building simple yet comprehensive dashboards to display esports analytics
- ZKP Development — Building a cutting-edge ZK privacy layer for on-chain games
Doubling Down On Esports Through 0xTitans
0xTitans was the first closed-off competitive web3 on-chain tournament and it proved esports could be a viable model to advance on-chain gaming. Moving forward we will continue to improve the game and run scheduled closed tournaments to showcase high-level smart-contract coding gameplay. Teams will also be more structured and formalized for a better viewing experience. The purpose is for all of this is to build narratives in 0xTitans, as narrative elements like team rivalries and dynasties are what drive viewership and engagement beyond just high-level gameplay in esports.
Prediction As A Meta-game
While 0xTitans is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in smart contract development and on-chain-gaming, we realize it is definitely not the most accessible game to understand, much less participate in.
Therefore, we want to use a prediction meta-game (similar to League of Legends Pick’Ems) that will allow anyone, with a technical background or not, to participate in 0xTitans beyond either as a competitor or a simple stream watcher. The prediction system will both be a way to increase engagement from existing stream viewers and a way to attract new viewers into 0xTitans by generating emotional attachment through financial and social incentives.
To start off the first official season of 0xTitans, we will launch a Season Pass that will be an entry ticket for the prediction game. Individuals who mint our season pass and play the prediction game, otherwise known as Skillerz in our ecosystem, will accumulate points by correctly predicting the top-performing teams. Points will then be redeemable for special prizes and rewards. Holders of the pass will also be eligible for future airdrops of NFTs, collections, and tokens.
Moving forward we plan to launch a season pass for each season where viewers can mint and become a Skiller to participate in the prediction game for only that specific season.
Ultimately, we want to open the competitive on-chain scene to not just highly technical developers, as competitions only thrive when there is an audience to watch it. This prediction game offers a meta-game to build a sticky audience for 0xTitans.
Analytics on In-House Dashboards
To facilitate a better experience for all nondirect competitors in 0xTitan, we will create dashboards to contain all sorts of analytics about the game which will serve as a perfect complementary dish to the prediction system. Adding this layer will allow anyone to easily digest what’s going on in 0xTitan with little background info. It will also act as a conversion gateway to convert more interested viewers into Skillers as it will offer them insight to make better predictions.
The dashboard would contain information such as a team’s win rate, play style, tournaments participated in, and much more, which will be presented in a gamified manner for easier comprehension. Armed with more information, Skillerz will have the confidence and knowledge to make bets if they so choose.
Our ultimate goal is to make the analytics dashboard easy to use but hard to master. We want it so that is flexible enough to cater to anyone from the most casual stream viewers to the most degen Skiller scraping any information for their next big prediction and anyone in-between.
Developing a ZK layer Solution
The most crucial component to make MatchBoxDAO become an open on-chain gaming ecosystem powerhouse is the development of our ZK solution. We are building an Infra-as-a-service ZK plug-n-play solution for any game studio wanting to take advantage of ZKP benefits such as enchanted security, informational asymmetry capabilities, and generally low gas fees. We will be developing this infra solution as a joint venture with the leading ZKP research companies in the web3 space. Over time we want to decentralize the ownership of this infra solution through tokens, as we believe this is the best way to develop industry standardization in the on-chain gaming space.
Phase 2
Once we are able to roll out those core features in Phase 1 and garnered community feedback on how to build better, we will move on to Phase 2.
0xTitans Continuous Improvement + 24/7 Game
We will continue to improve on 0xTitans to provide a better experience for competitors and spectators alike. However, to what extent these improvements will be, only one thing is certain:
0xTitans will eventually become a 24/7 game rather than a tournament-based game. This means games can function autonomously and/or not be hosted only by us, which unlocks much more scalability and interactability.
Moving forward we are working on unlocking many cool partnerships both in and out of web3. These partnerships will shape how 0xTitans continue to grow, so stay tuned for what we have planned for the future.
No-code Meta Card Game
In the future, we want to create a standalone card game that will be based on 0xTitans. Each card will be an NFT inscribed with different properties based on certain data points from 0xTitans. Players can then assemble a deck and assemble dream teams and compete with other players, similar to Fantasy Sports.
We will provide more details on the mechanics of this card game as we build out more content in 0xTitans with the partnerships we have planned, so stay tuned!
Expanding Games We Are Hosting
Last but certainly, not least, we will want to begin attracting builders and game studios that want to utilize our ZK layer solution to build their games. 0xTitans will act as our halo product to attract users, and by building with our ZK infrastructure product we will also indirectly offer these games exposure to our community. Over time, we want to turn MatchBoxDAO into a discovery platform for all things related to on-chain gaming. Even further into the future, we are looking forward to creating new on-chain games ourselves to diversify our gaming offerings.
Conclusion
In future articles, we plan to break down our entire vision into multiple better-elaborated and in-depth but digestible articles. Don’t worry if you felt this piece was a little vague, as we will be sure to update you on our process every step of the way. Do be on the lookout for the articles here or when we post threads about them Follow us on Twitter | Discord | Twitch
