Making a Blockchain Game
This has been a long time coming. We’ve been trying to get a game off the ground ever since we entered this space, around 4 years ago. It’s been tough. Our goal has always been to make a real game, something people will enjoy, not some uninspiring clicker. Realistically, we could’ve made a clicker game many moons ago and likely made a lot of money. But that wouldn’t have satisfied us, and we’ve never made decisions based around money, so we’ve taken a harder path.
Out the gates, we approached multiple gaming studios — from the large to the small — and we encountered a lot of resistance. Blockchain? NFTs?? Crypto??? They didn’t want a bit of it. We pretty much hit a brick wall.
But it didn’t deter us — and the reason for this is quite simple. I’m a gamer — always have been. Games quite honestly are my favourite hobby. In my life before NFTs, I was a screenwriter here in the UK. I always wanted to get into games writing and as fate would have it, I was due to take a job as a games writer at a high level gaming studio. Until the pandemic struck.
So when we embarked on this crazy NFT adventure, making a game was always part of the plan. It was a deal-breaker honestly. If my business partner, Richie, wasn’t up for a game, this likely wouldn’t have happened. But he was up for it, he wanted a game as much as me. Although the only game he plays is FIFA. And he’s shit at it ;)
When we hit those brick walls, we didn’t stop knocking on doors. We kept reaching out, looking for a team to partner with, who shared our passion for this weird and wonderful Web3 world.
And then we found a team — a team who’d worked on some pretty huge games. They were interested in blockchain — seeing it as the future of gaming, much like ourselves. We had many meetings, lengthy discussions, formulating roadmaps and strategies. We were finally on our way and we were super excited.
Until they ghosted us. Our emails were no longer returned and communications shut down. Now, call me cynical, but I do wonder whether these guys were using us for knowledge and experience around blockchain gaming and NFTs.
At any rate, we found ourselves down another dead end. With many more months wasted. We were pretty defeated, wondering whether our dream of creating our own game was over.
But we dusted ourselves down and we got back on the horse. And as luck would have it, we came across another studio, a team who were already working on the blockchain who knew all about Ultra Rare and how we were pretty much one of the few teams in the space who could be trusted. We had talks, we agreed on a project and we were away.
And then crypto crashed, and everything changed. We were pretty devastated, but such is the crypto life. It was at this point we considered throwing the towel in. We were watching projects fold or walk away or straight up rug pull around us. Maybe this was the end for us?
No chance. We’re a tenacious pair of bastards. We had to recalibrate our plan though — how could we build a game without a studio? Simple. We build it ourselves.
So we set about gathering a small team of developers. We had the artists, we had the ideas, we just needed a team of talented developers to bring it to life.
I’m not going to lie. The path has been tough, filled with knocks and setbacks, but I’m delighted to say our game is on its way very very soon. And it’s just the start. LFG!
So in answer to the original question: how do you build a blockchain game?
Easy peasy. You find the right people. The people who plug the gaps your skills don’t cover. People you like, who you’ll be able to work on a project with for many months and years. You work really fucking hard. And you don’t give up. Oh, and you don’t rip people off. Pretty important, the last bit.
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