Welcome to AW Insights, a character interview series presented by @AW_Research . Today, we invited Sebastien Guillemot , co-founder of PaimaStudios and dcspark , to discuss Web3 game engines and on-chain games.
In this show, we’ll delve into the realm of on-chain gaming and autonomous worlds, talking to pioneers who have made significant contributions to these fields.
Our mission is to conduct exclusive interviews with the founders, innovators, and visionaries of the world of blockchain gaming. We aim to reveal their unique perspectives, gain insights into their innovative projects, and explore the intersection between blockchain technology and gaming.
wonderful review
Introducing the Paima engine and on-chain games built on it, including Jungle Wars, Volcanees NFT, Wrath of the Jungle, Tarochi and Oracle RPG;
Compare the Paima engine with engines such as MUD, DOJO, World Engine and Curio;
Why Paima chose to deploy on Milkomeda;
From on-chain gaming to an autonomous world;
Paima’s different game design models;
How to improve the user experience of on-chain games and solve user acquisition problems.
Moderator : KaiKai
Guest: Sebastien Guillemot
Paima Studios is a framework for on-chain games and creates on-chain games from Japan.
Paima Studios is also the core developer of the Paima Engine: a novel Layer 2 solution that allows for the creation of on-chain games linked to NFTs, where game states can be linked to NFTs.
Paima Engine is the industry-leading framework for creating Layer 2 solutions for games, gamification, and autonomous worlds. Paima solves the four main barriers to Web3 adoption: 1. Expensive development costs; 2. Security risks; 3. Difficulty in user acquisition; 4. Challenges in iteration. Paima engine provides four solutions: 1. Simplify development costs; 2. Safer interaction; 3. Easy user acquisition; 4. Smooth iteration.
Based on the Paima engine, the team has also developed several on-chain games, including playable Jungle Wars , Volcanees NFT , and Wrath of the Jungle , while continuing to develop Tarochi , Oracle RPG, and more.
Jungle Wars is a casual on-chain PvP game that is the first to demonstrate the potential of trustless Web3 gaming. Built with the Paima engine, the game implements a completely new gameplay where all player actions are recorded in blockchain data and can be replayed from it. In addition, Jungle Wars also highlights a brand new game primitive, Stateful NFTs (Stateful NFTs), where player statistics are accumulated into an evolving NFT as the game is played.
Volcaneers are the first stateful NFTs launched. This new type of NFT opens up a whole new world where the value of your NFT will accumulate based on the achievements, stats and other in-game accolades your NFT has achieved. Volcaneers are the first step into the emerging world of stateful NFTs.
Wrath of the Jungle: Tower Defense
Wrath of the Jungle: Tower Defense is a fast-paced game where players can choose to play as an attacker or defender. As the attacker, the player will lead swarms of enemy creatures through the jungle, destroying the defenders' base, while the defenders use a variety of defensive towers to fend off the attackers.
The game provides multiple maps for players to choose from, and players can upgrade their defense towers and gain new abilities to maximize their defense capabilities. The game provides an exciting gaming experience for both attackers and defenders.
About Sebastien Guillemot
Sebastien: Hello, my name is Sebastien Guillemot. I'm the co-founder of PaimaStudios and dcspark. About five years ago, I officially entered the crypto field, and I became interested in Cardano, which also prompted me to travel to Japan, the birthplace of Cardano to live. I joined a company called America as a 2nd engineer on Cardano and eventually became the head of the Cardano R&D team.
After working there for about 2.5 years, I decided to take the plunge and start my own company, dcSpark . dcSpark focuses on general infrastructure and is committed to building Layer 1 blockchain and developer tools. During our time at dcSpark, we have had increasing interest in Layer 2 solutions.
Our focus shifted to Layer 2 solutions for non-EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) blockchains as we observed that most of the attention was focused on Layer 2 solutions for scalability, whereas we saw significant improvements in Layer 2 solutions. 2 for the potential of internal verifiability, aiming to add EVM support to non-EVM blockchains. This led us to develop and deploy our Layer 2 solution Milkomeda , an optimistic upgrade to our brand that includes support for Cardano.
After further evaluation, we realized that DeFi was already a widely explored area, and we wanted to pursue some different areas that others had not yet ventured into. It's clear that gaming is a promising area, and we noticed a lack of well-optimized Layer 2 solutions for gaming use cases.
With this understanding, we founded Paima Studios about a year and a half ago, with the main goal of becoming a Layer 2 solution focused on on-chain gaming. We strive to create a platform that can enhance the gaming experience and bring innovation to the on-chain gaming ecosystem.
About Paima engine
AW Research: Can you introduce the Paima engine from another perspective?
**Sebastien:** It seems that most Layer 2 solutions are mainly focused on execution, similar to the way Layer 1 is executed, such as Ethereum. However, you think about the Paima engine differently by thinking of it as a Layer 2 that focuses on data rather than execution. This means you pay more attention to how data is written, read and synced between chains, and how it is associated with user accounts and different NFTs. This is a unique paradigm you've chosen, seemingly driven by your interest in zk cryptography.
You mentioned that you tried to build a game using zk, but ran into scalability issues due to maximum circuit size constraints and progressively increasing proof times. To solve this problem, you think an autonomous world, like a large and fast world, needs a solid data management platform at its core. Games often revolve around data management, involving user accounts, item ownership, and various interactions that rely on data management.
You see ZooKeeper as a core component of the game, which is why Paima serves as the foundational underlying layer for these autonomous worlds, emphasizing the importance of data management in ensuring scalability and efficiency. By focusing on data, you aim to provide more scalable and sustainable solutions for building complex and interactive game worlds.
AW Research:: At present, the game engines used to build games on the chain include MUD , DOJO , World Engine , and curio . What are the differences between the Paima engine and these game engines? Can you give an introduction?
**Sebastien:** In the area of autonomous worlds, it is interesting to see different projects in the autonomous world space taking different approaches to solving specific aspects of the problem.
For example, MUD pioneered the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture and primarily focused on building its component system using Solidity. Argus, on the other hand, focuses on cartography and aims to connect game worlds between different chains. DOJO has invested a lot of energy in the core zk technology, trying to create an effective zk platform.
As for Paima, our main focus is on scalability and user acquisition for autonomous worlds. One common use case we see in integrating AI is AI generating content for games.
An important challenge facing current systems is the one-way flow of information. Building models are mostly one-way and cannot update the world state. Paima aims to revolutionize this process by enabling two-way interaction, making it more dynamic and programmable. We effectively close the loop by processing user actions through powerless lectures and using the data to update the user's NFT.
This unique approach sets Paima apart from other engines as we pursue a more innovative direction. Despite appearing to be rivals, these engines can actually be combined synergistically. Progress can be made with different World Engine mapping solutions, leveraging MUD’s smart contract state and then layering powerful features like Paima on top of that.
By combining these diverse approaches, we can create more comprehensive and powerful solutions for autonomous worlds, greatly enhancing the overall gaming experience.
About on-chain games built on Paima engine
AW Research: Can you introduce the first on-chain game "Jungle Wars" based on the Paima engine?
Sebastien：
Jungle Wars is the first game deployed on Milkomeda C1 , demonstrating the Paima engine’s ability to create simple yet engaging on-chain games. The game uses a battleship-style gameplay, where players can choose their favorite character from six ferocious jungle animals and participate in exciting turn-based battles against other players.
After the success of Jungle Wars, the Paima engine was upgraded to version 1 (Paima v1). The update introduces several key features, including Gas transaction support, multi-chain compatibility, and state entities. Players can now own NFTs that upgrade based on their actions in the game, adding a dynamic and interactive element to the gaming experience.
Currently, the team is actively developing Paima v2, extending its support to second-layer solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism. This development will enable players to use NFTs on Ethereum while leveraging the cost-effectiveness of second-layer solutions for game settlement.
In addition, the team is also focused on developing the "Tarochi" game, an on-chain RPG game that promises to bring a more immersive and innovative experience to the blockchain gaming world.
Through continuous enhancement and innovation, Paima Studios strives to lead the way in creating enjoyable and rewarding on-chain gaming experiences for players.
AW Research: Why are “Jungle Wars”, “Volcaneers NFTs” and “Wrath of the Jungle” all deployed on Milkomeda C1?
**Sebastien:** First of all, my background and experience include working on Cardano, which gives me a deep understanding of the Cardano community. They have been very supportive of me over the years and I have a personal connection with them.
Second, when we think about the gaming industry and what it takes for a game to be successful, enthusiastic players are critical. Unlike other industries that may require large liquidity providers or institutional investors, the gaming industry lies in enthusiastic players. The Cardano community is known for its passion and dedication, making it an ideal environment for a gaming NFT ecosystem. Especially for use cases that don’t involve too much complex DeFi financial instruments and instead focus on creating engaging experiences, the Cardano community can be a source of enthusiastic support for our gaming projects.
AW Research: Can you introduce the on-chain game Oracle RPG built on Paima Engine, which seems to be a distributed chat-based GPT?
Sebastien: The concept of Oracle RPG was developed as an on-chain artificial intelligence system for autonomous games. Many autonomous worlds include artificial intelligence components, and Oracle RPG serves as a proof-of-concept project to fill that need. In this game, players join and start with a blank NFT representing their character. They then describe their character in-game, and the NFT is visually updated to reflect the character's attributes. As the game progresses, the NFT will dynamically change according to the player's actions, such as entering the forest.
This demonstrates how Paima’s parallel system enables two-way interaction, allowing large world models to provide feedback and update NFTs, thereby affecting the state of the game. The decentralized nature of the system ensures that there is no reliance on a centralized AI provider like OpenAI, enabling a fully distributed experience.
As we further explored this concept, we started the Shinkai Network project. After showing Oracle RPG demos to various projects, they expressed interest in using this AI system to drive NPCs (non-player characters) in their own autonomous worlds. However, providing AI at scale for multiple NPCs will face significant challenges. To solve this problem, we realized we needed a peer-to-peer distributed network designed specifically for AI agents with on-chain identities. Each NPC in the world has its own identity and interacts with other NPCs off-chain through the Shinkai Network. When NPCs make decisions, they submit relevant information to the chain.
A network of peer-to-peer AI agents with unique on-chain identities, it is a viable solution for powering NPCs in on-chain games built on Paima.
AW Research: Last year, you designed a new zero-knowledge game called "zk nonogram" using Mina. Can you give us a brief introduction to the game? If possible, can you share some interesting aspects in detail?
**Sebastien:** The reason we are interested in Mina Protocol is that for Paima, we want ZK Layer to meet two main needs. First, we need to support private inputs.
If you look at many current ZK platforms, they do not support private computation. All content must be public. I don't think this is great for games because you really want to have private cards or private states. We need a ZK platform that supports private inputs, and Mina is one of the few platforms that provides this feature.
Secondly, we want the game to be easy to write. With Paima, you write your game in JavaScript and Paima will convert it into an on-chain game. Fortunately, Mina shares the same philosophy. It allows you to write ZK circuits using JavaScript. This means that with Paima you will be able to write games and ZK circuits for games using the same programming language and environment. This compatibility makes Mina perfect for our needs.
About on-chain games and the autonomous world
AW Research: Could the game you're building be considered an autonomous world? If not, are you considering building an autonomous world in the future?
**Sebastien:** We are gradually moving towards the vision of an autonomous world. An example of our efforts is the game Tarochi, where we are building an entrepreneurial role-playing game to move toward creating these game worlds. In addition, we have been focusing on Shinkai Network to develop artificial intelligence for these worlds. Partnering with Mina Protocol allows us to build private state and provide verifiable world state, which is consistent with our ultimate goal.
Creating an autonomous world is a complex task, but we are steadily making significant progress in this direction. Through our determination, dedication and collaboration with various partners, including Shinkai Network, we are actively driving towards realizing this ambitious vision.
About on-chain game design
AW Rsearch: Compared with the “P2E” model, on-chain games have different characteristics in terms of game design and player experience. What do you think?
**Sebastien:** That's a great question. I think this is something everyone is struggling with. The reason autonomous worlds are stronger than " P2E " in my opinion is that " P2E " is essentially companies subsidizing gaming experiences. By contrast, autonomous worlds gain real value by creating their own meaning and value. So I think a key aspect is to have a flexible world where users can bring value to the platform. That's exactly what we've worked towards in the Paima engine, because it allows people to modify the rules of the game if they want.
You can think of it as the difference between a board game and a video game. In video games, the rules are usually hard-coded by the developer, and that's it. But in table games, as long as you and your friends agree on the rules of the game, everyone is happy. Paima takes this looser interpretation of the rules of the game.
Paima is like a sovereign dice roller, which is very different from optimistic or zk solutions. This means that the rules of the game are largely determined by the community, and people can introduce new game rules. The game world can be updated over time as long as everyone agrees to these new rules. That's what we're striving for - creating something that's flexible enough that players can come in and figure out how to bring intrinsic value to the game world.
AW Research: How to design game models for games based on the Paima engine? Can you give an example of a game as a reference?
**Sebastien:** For example, in the Tarochi game, it acts as a game of catching monsters, and players capture monsters through NFT. Through Paima, these NFTs will gradually upgrade based on in-game actions. Each monster's level, health, and moves are tied to its NFT, meaning the value of the NFT increases as it progresses. Paima focuses on this upgradeable NFT system, called Stateful NFTs. In another game we released, Tower Defense, players can play for free, but to enter ranked mode, they need an NFT. All wins and losses are tracked within the NFT and appear on the leaderboard. This encourages players to continue playing and improve the attributes and ranking of their NFT.
In addition, Paima provides templates for other companies, including trading card game templates. In this template, the entire deck is represented by a single NFT, and each card in the deck is included as Stateful NFTs. Unlike other trading card games where each card is a separate NFT, Paima's approach reduces gas costs and mint fees. Players can earn new cards as they play without having to create new NFTs each time. If they decide to sell the cards, they can split their deck into separate tradable NFTs, representing individual cards. The cards can be listed on platforms such as OpenSea, and when someone purchases the card, they can re-integrate it into their own deck.
This demonstrates how Paima can use Stateful NFTs to encode more complex states, create efficient and flexible systems, and still allow for trading on the open market.
future plan
AW Research: Can you share your future plans for the Paima engine and other projects?
**Sebastien:** Of course, our main roadmap at Paima is focused on implementing a cross-NFT system. Currently, we are already working on supporting the Tarochi game so that its Layer 1 NFTs can run on Layer 2. In the future, we plan to expand this functionality to support other games. For example, our goal is to enable games on Polygon to leverage Ethereum’s NFTs, or games on Milkomeda to leverage Cardano’s NFTs. The ultimate goal is to create a modular gaming stack that allows developers to choose different chains for settlement, wallets, and NFTs and connect them together seamlessly. This vision is consistent with our efforts to integrate the zk layer and Shinkai Network for the AI layer.
Another important aspect that we are working on is the implementation of an automatic signing mechanism. In the context of on-chain gaming, constantly signing transactions can be tedious and time-consuming. Paima solves this problem by ensuring that each game or app is an independent Layer 2 within the platform, meaning they have their own isolated data format. This allows us to implement a secure and easy-to-use automatic signing mechanism. By implementing this feature, users will not need to create temporary wallets or new recovery phrases for each game. They can enjoy a smooth and user-friendly experience.
As we move forward, we're excited to bring these features to life and continue to enhance Paima's capabilities for the benefit of the gaming and self-governing world ecosystem.
Challenges faced by on-chain games
AW Research: On-chain games face challenges in user acquisition due to barriers to entry and complexity, which may not be suitable for ordinary players. How can on-chain games solve the problem of user acquisition?
**Sebastien:** I agree with this status quo. To solve this conundrum, Paima has been working hard to find a solution. One of the ways is to deal with this problem by developing automatic signing mechanism. This mechanism aims to simplify the user experience by automating the transaction signing process, making it easier and more seamless for players to interact with on-chain games.
In addition, Paima is also working on cross-chain and NFT support, as well as cross-wallet support. By enabling interoperability between different blockchains and wallets, Paima aims to expand the user base of on-chain games and attract players from different blockchain ecosystems.
Additionally, Paima is focused on improving the onboarding process for developers. They've built a variety of templates that developers can use to jump-start projects, making it easier to build autonomous worlds and try out different game ideas. By lowering the barrier to entry for development, Paima hopes to enable developers to iterate faster and find the right product-market fit more efficiently.
Overall, Paima is dedicated to overcoming user acquisition challenges and enhancing the user experience of on-chain games. Through these efforts, they hope to make blockchain gaming more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, thereby driving the growth of the autonomous world ecosystem.
Follow AW Research:
https://twitter.com/AW_Research
Follow Paima:
https://twitter.com/PaimaStudios
Follow Sebastien Guillemot:
