Photo Credit: NASA/JPL
Building a game....
I'm working on creating a science fiction based RPG adventure game that uses Bitcoin as a currency. With enough support, I could add Steem as a currency in the game as well.
Why? I grew up playing adventure games on the C64 like "The Pawn" and "Adventure" on the Atari 2600. These games captivated the imagination and got me interested in computers, which then led me into a career in enterprise infrastructure for more than 20 years. Games like Kings Quest and Space Quest from Sierra were played all night long, sometimes with a high degree of frustration (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻.
Photo credit: Jeff Easley
/attack zombie
I played D&D and that's where imagination really came in handy. You and your friends gathered around and played for hours, questing, conquering, and arguing over who's saving throw was really valid or not. As computer games became more sophisticated, I found myself drawn into those worlds, games like Myst which had a rich story and puzzle driven quest. Then, everything changed as the first-person shooter came out and gaming took a different path. I loved those games too, especially the splinter cell series. Anyway, back to the game development...
Cryptocurrency is the future of gaming
I became fascinated with cryptocurrency, I dove in head first and never looked back. In fact, I sold my star wars collection and bought a Bitcoin miner back in 2013.
From this:
To this:
People were building cool applications and the dice games were fueled with chat which reminded me lot of earlier online MUD games from BBSing. That's when it hit me... I started to dream about building SpacePirate.io, a RPG/Adventure/Strategy game that worked like the games that I grew up with at a young age, using Bitcoin as currency , with imagination as a member of the party on a long quest.
Crowdfunding...
I wanted to get a little help with it, so I had an idea to crowdfund it, but the site I wanted to use was down. So, I ran into the member on BitcoinTalk who had built it and he was telling me that he had worked with a developer to build the bitcoin crowdfunding platform (like KickStarter) but for Bitcoin (Bitcoinstarter) but all the code was... LOST! So I looked at some old screenshots of the site and started to rebuild it feature by feature and I brought BitcoinStarter back from the dead so that the community could use it... However, I made a key change, I made it so that pledges could be accepted with over 30 different kinds of cryptocurrency.
Back to the game....
With the crowdfunding site re-created, I've gone back to spending time on the game. It's getting close to being finished now. Not only is it provably fair, but it has puzzles, adventures, player versus player, and player versus environment combat. It even has a hidden treasure in crypto built into the game :)
Thank you for reading...
Anyway, I was thinking about ways to add Steem into the game and need some help from you, the community... Send me your ideas and what you think would be a great way to integrate Steem into my game.
About me:
Bitcoin Enthuasist / Entrepeneur
Personal twitter:
https://twitter.com/SpacePirate_io
“Legendary Member” on Bitcointalk.org
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=99498
“I’ve been in enterprise IT for more than 20 years. I started my career working at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena and got to work on some great projects like Mars Rover and Cassini. Bitcoin has become a passion for me like how being involved with NASA was, I’m excited to be part of this adventure!”
Edit: 7/24/16: A shout out to Jeff Easley's amazing (!) art for his D&D work: http://www.jeffeasleyart.com/
Steemit Is Not A Casino
@cloverme! No you are no the creator of spacepirate!
Mark Watney is!
Ha! Yeah, when I was watching the movie, I was like, wtf?!?! Coincidence, but I'm staking my claim first though since the movie takes place in future :D
I would love to get into RPGS like this, but they just take up so much time and sleep deprivation. One day... One day....
Nice to meet you please support my press up challenge
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@cryptofunk/1-up-vote-1-push-up-d
RPG's and exercise are mortal enemies... :D
I used to love Adventure on the Atari..moving on as arcade games got better my first encounter with Dragons Lair blew my mind. Good luck with your game and look forward to playing.
I remember running around with that key in Adventure and trying to avoid that damn dragon :)
Yeah, dragon's lair was amazing, the animation by Don Bluth was great, it was that laser disc generation of games in the arcade. I remember the guy who ran the snack bar at the bowling alley would get thoroughly annoyed at one point and tried to unplug the game because the sound was driving him crazy :)
So far nobody has managed to pull it off a good game with bitcoin curency, bitcrystals and others are taking an age to move to a full game, I will have retired and be pooping in an old folks home before somebody manages to do this.
It's a tricky pickle for sure, I think there are some aspects that make a good game for crypto and others that doesn't seem to lend itself well to it. If you've read Ready Player One, that's kind of where I'm going with SpacePirate in a general sense. I hope people like the game, it's old school, retro, but it will be fun.
Really keen on giving this game a try when it's launched. Not sure what you could do about implementing Steem but all the best of luck to you good sir. :)
Thanks, I have the site down right now (spacepirate.io) while it's still in development, I think Steem was ready before I was... lol.
Hi Cloverme! Thanks for posting! NASA is amazing. I'm a huge fan to say the least! I just posted my own introduction with pictures and a short video! I upvoted you! https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@brianphobos/hi-steemit-i-m-brian-from-arizona-i-m-into-sports-traveling-having-fun-and-computers-here-are-some-pictures-and-a-short-video-2
Thanks man, I returned the favor. :D
Clover!!! So glad to see you on here buddy. It really is remarkable that this platform is bridging the gap between passively talking to someone in the cryptosphere and having a deeper understanding of their background. Never knew you were an ex-Nasa networks engineer man.. which location?
v1rt :) Hey bro...Good to see you here man. It's a good platform for sure to share something outside of a 5 second stream of thought in chat. It's interesting because there's so many places to share information, twitter, forums, reddit, etc... I like the format here, so it will be interesting to see what this all turns into.
Yup, I worked over at JPL in Pasadena, I was in bldg 303 :D
Now you know. I am joining you to welcome him
I dont have a lot of money to offer, but if u need game assets modeled and textured i can help out there. Love the idea of adding steem to it, thanks for this.
Nice, I am looking for a good list of resources and sound and even some voiceover stuff too :) I'm playing with turning some images into ascii which makes for a cool effect in the game, very retro! See below for an example:
We appreciate tour kindness on the matter
Stand by for boarding!
Good post, thanks)
with rcp calls and a local run full node you could use steem for everything from account verification to cash economy built into the game...
Very good, thank you... I plan on taking a closer look at how to communicate with a steem wallet. I'm assuming there's some kind of rpc-based wallet out there for either linux or windows?
@cloverme, Awesome article.
I have a friend that who use to help writing programs for NASA. He has the same idea as you. I truly believe that this will be the future of online gaming.
Good luck and all the best .
Crypto makes a good use case for things in games, tracking assets across platforms, etc. I think it's just a matter of time before large crypto systems like iota and other crypto is leveraged into games. I think it would be interesting to leverage steem for some in game things, but I haven't settled on who, what, how.... yet :D.
I upvoted it solely for having an eye of the beholder video game picture.
Yes! This game was bad-ass! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_the_Beholder_(video_game)
The first dungeon and the wall puzzle is well embedded in my memory. The magic is alive and well :D
hi @cloverme nice to meet you and welcome to steemit! 8]
Wow ! the first time I talk to someone like you !
I wish you good luck in your endeavors , @cloverme
Hey maxim, I am your follower
Thanks to you
I found this post
@cloverme Indeed a brilliant engineer
Wow working for NASA , must be someone really important
Now 's look !
I appreciate it, I'm no stranger to hard work :) Happy to be here and part of this movement.
Yes , we matter very cool thing!
Welcome cloverme! That's really inspiring. I have always thought cryptocurrency was the future of microtransactions and in-game currency! It's can just be far more elegant than fiat. All the best for your project.
I am hugely interested in space exploration, by the way. Out of curiosity (pun intended), which projects did you work on at NASA?
Exactly, it's used in dice games exclusively and some of these sits have millions of dollars worth of crypto that have only been running for a couple of years. I think it's not only a great way to leverage crypto, but open it up outside of gambling.
I've always been deeply driven in aerospace and space exploration myself. I was super extremely lucky to be able to work for nasa over at JPL. Some of the projects that I was exposed to there were Cassini, Stardust, and the first mars rover :) My signature was added to a dvd that was put on the spacecraft and I think on a chip on Stardust as well. The public also had a chance to get their names added too, so it wasn't exclusive or anything, but still cool :D
That is so awesome! Would love to see you share more about your NASA days. :)
Welcome. I too got my passion for computers the commodore64. I loved those old rpg games like Temple of apshai. Cant wait to see what yours is like.
Yeah, some of those early games were great where the devs really put effort into it. They really found their stride in the Amiga days I think. :) Somone has a youtube of it here:
Memories...
As a Ex NASA Network Engineer on Bitcointalk... have you seen or heard about the NEXUS Project?
Thanks, I hadn't heard of this. Found the announce thread though.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=657601.0
Devs father was founder of Space X and now owns Vector Space Systems. Working together to make this happen.
Brilliant idea for steem games. Must be interesting! Steem On!🤗
Awesome man, what do you think of cryptocurrencies focusing on games like Digibyte, Game Credits & BitCrystals, I would love to hear your comments.
Great topic you've got... So yeah, I actually looked at Digibyte and bought some that I was holding onto for awhile. They went to new york and gave a presentation and I think it fell short of what was needed. Their wallet for Chrome started to fall apart and well, it's sort of lingered there. I started to look at Game Credits as well as Hyper which seem to have a good following. I think if a game just picks one currency, it might alienate (pun intended) the other communities. So I want to say a game should support a few different ones. That might be a bit of a coding nightmare though, the solution might be through services like ShapeShift.io which allow fast conversions without the need to setup an account. I sold off my Digibyte coins, but I think these types of coins are important to gaming. Assets, tokens, or coins will be important to gaming in the future, that I'm convinced of.
Nice insights, I edited my post because I forgot to mention BitCrystals as they are releasing the game on September supposedly, do you think it will have some success?
I think you dont have to be scared about any site that will help you with crowd-funding.
Because steemit is probably the best one :) I think that you can get more donations,not only from votes over here.
Good luck buddy,im waiting for your game to play it :)
Thanks, I keep working on it and hope to have a playable version up soon. For me, this is less about the rewards in the post and more about working with the community. I have my own crowdfunding platform that I built, so I trust that, but yeah, I get your meaning :)
I'm not techy enough to know what Steem would do vs BTC as a game currency. BTC is likely to have some cool & fast payment channel stuff available by the time your game is ready. Keep your options open. Maybe you could integrate Shapeshift from within the game and you could then trade with an 'exchange NPC' or another player's avatar in a virtual marketplace. How cool would that be? Game items should definitely be blockchain tokens like Spells of Genesis is developing.
Maybe Steemit could be used for leaderboards, and as an alternate staging area for groups ready to go adventuring, raiding, etc.?
It all sounds awesome... I've been waiting for a game with real crypto. I'm sure you are aware, don't hold even a single customer satoshi on your servers... don't tempt The Man!
This is great advice and your line of thinking is right along the same lines of what I had in mind (and currently in development). I had been watching spells of genesis and at one point was considering making SP a card-based game, but I wanted a true campaign that people could lose a full night of adventuring into. I like that the Spells game has an element of ephemeral quality to it as an asset outside of their game.
Leaderboard that's steem based, I like that idea, very original and has that community tie in. Wow, I'll need to chew on this a bit as I learn more about Steem/it.
Oh yeah, security is a big must, there shall be two-factor authentication, encryption, and hashing for the game functions. Each game roll is also currently probably fair as well, even though it's not gambling, I want to prove there's no "rigging" involved :D
Cool idea,
you could allow for the game to use any crypto - set up an exchange
https://steemit.com/bitshares/@ihashfury/run-your-own-decentralised-exchange
and dont forget the security
https://steemit.com/@steve-walschot - security
For sure, been thinking about shapeshift.io integration to support more than 30+ cryptocurrencies.
I dig the article on security, I see it is trending as well. Being in IT infrastructure for 20+ years, I've been focusing the last year or so more on security. Here's kind of where my head is at security-wise in general as far as best practices:
-NIST 800-171 controls
-CCSS Standards - https://cryptoconsortium.github.io/CCSS/Details/
Excellent intro, welcome aboard... At the time of me writing this, you are at 7k (so around 3.5k liquid payout), so it will go some way to crowdfund your game (btw there is a small typo in the article, it says crowdfInding - but the site now has edit function so it's correctable).
Thanks, I did see that typo this morning and thought it was an interesting pun given Steemit in that I'm finding a new crowd. I changed it though lol... so anyway, right, I'll apply anything that comes from this article to the game. The game will also give out rewards in the form of cryptocurrency to players, so some of the funds here will cycle back to players, so people are rewarding themselves in some fashion if they decide to play the game. I fully believe in paying it forward. I often "make it rain" in chat with tips and will do so in SpacePirate as well :D
tell us the secret about aliens dude
They're out there :)
i wanna help you make this happen!!!
☺️
Nice keep it up
Im lookimg forward on your game as a fellow D&D player i believe your game would be great, keep us informed on your progress
For sure... As development progresses, I'll do updates and then find a way to reward the community :)
welcome to steemit
please follow me @ikamili
thank you :)
Looking forward to trying out our game! Have you thought of integrating any other crypto coins into your game? Seems like there are quite a few with decent market cap but searching for their niche.
Early on I was looking at Hyper and GoldPieces, but I'm leaning towards shapeshift.io integration to allow the use of over 30 different kinds of crypto. Steem isn't on ShapeShift yet, but I want to find a way to integrate Steem in some way, shape, form.
Thanks will give those a look, I'm trying to expand my crypto arsenal and it feels like I've only just scratched the surface of what's out there. Good luck with your integration efforts!
I am not verse with all these technologies.Good luck with the game. Hope it will be successful.
I just mentioned a minute ago that time will come lots of special people will meet here on steemit and there we are an ex NASA engineer. Its nice to have you on steemit cloverme, hope we can get to know each other. Im nothing, Im just a nobody.
Not true, everyone is someone my friend. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Remember this, build upon it and good things will happen in your life. All anyone really needs is a friendly smile and a handshake in life. Glad to be here and bring you along :)
Hi, very happy to get you abroad in this project
Your wealth of experience in nasa is needed in steemit. You welcomed
Your perspective is refreshing.
Did you ever play Netrek back in the old days? That was some epic networked gaming.
It sounds familiar, I did play a star trek like game though in the early days but can't quite remember what it was.
Very intense, hellacious learning curve.
And together we will go to the moon and beyond!
this is the coolest post id ever seen and theres no titis on it
Welcome to steem clover. <3
Welcome to the dark side! Muhahahaha
You are wonderful personality great work by you. proud to be commenting on such a personality post which live in my dreams.
I really hope to see more from you :) And welcome! Also my first day here
Very good! Thank you!
This could be a great Steem Starter (kick starter) experiment. You should create an account just for the game and use the posting here like a kick starter. You could fund raise and give updates on Steemit!!
That's a good idea, I'll add that to the list of things people are asking for :D
Is this the Mark guy from Devcoin? Devcoin could have really worked if you guys hadn't started banning people. Most of those people using Devcoin were doing so because I was posting about it all over the place, when I stopped posting about it they stopped using it. You guys messed up.
inspiring! always wanted to work for nasa!
Welcome to stremit @cloverme..
Welcome to steemit @cloverme
excellent. very interesting! which movie is this? XD