Editor’s Note: We love spotlighting people building on GalaChain. The following article was written by Graham from the NFTD team, the top Judges’ Choice pick during March’s GALAthon. NFTD is a tower defence game being developed by several long-time Gala community members, who are currently working on integrating the game into GalaChain. The game itself offers multiple opportunities to utilize items from across the Gala ecosystem… we love some cross-utilization here at Gala!
Graham (who you may know as cryptograham on Discord) was gracious enough to write not only a description of NFTD and their work at the hackathon for us, but also gave some amazing insight into their process and design philosophy! Far be it from us to get in the middle here… so we’ll hand it off to Graham himself!
NFTD is an arcade style tower defence game with the goal of defending your fortress from endless waves of attacking enemies. You can mine resources in the game by placing resource extractors and use the proceeds of those extractions to buy and place towers to defend your base. There are a variety of towe rs you can place in the game; arrow towers, cannon towers, fire, ice, poison, etc.. all dependent on the NFTs you have in your connected wallets.
The towers in NFTD, are all representations of different NFT projects from various groups/companies throughout the web3 space. The Gala Games project Fortitude is the main source of inspiration, where holding a Fire Tower in your Ethereum or GalaChain wallet lets you place a similar themed fire tower in the game. Having one of the BT Orbs, which dropped about 2 years ago, lets you place an Orb inspired tower in the game with healing range effects on surrounding structures.
During the GalaChain Hackathon at GDC, we introduced A Snoop Dogg inspired “BeatBox” tower, where holders of the “Death Row Records – Gold Chain” NFT are able to place that tower in-game and holders of the “888 Inner Circle – Blue Realm” NFT can place the “Blue Realm Orb” tower.
Also at the hackathon, we introduced our own custom GalaChain contracts to create $HOPIA, our in-game minable token and “The Tower of Hopia”, a GalaChain NFT Tower purchasable in $HOPIA. $HOPIA is generated through mining activities performed by our in-game extractors. There is a small percentage chance of hitting a HOPIA Motherlode and being able to extract it. This provides players with another in-game task of protecting their extractors in addition to their fortresses, so they can stay alive longer and get their hands on more of the token.
As part of our custom GalaChain contracts we also introduced functionality for starting and ending games with various pieces of data that we can store for after game analytics. What’s really interesting about the way we did this is that when you start a game, the custom contract will lock the GalaChain NFTs you are using in-game.
So, when you start to play the game, you can’t immediately send your towers to someone else, that wouldn’t be fair. Once the game ends, your towers are unlocked, and you can trade as you please. This is really interesting functionality that I’ve only ever seen available to Galchain. It’s really neat!.
Image: Token lock snip
Caption: GalaChain is designed for utility and customization. This is just one benefit of permissioned contract functionality on GalaChain
As a bonus, during the hackathon, we had the opportunity to chat with Mark Skaggs, a legend in the RTS space and one of the key minds behind Farmville, Red Alert 2, LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, and numerous other successful titles. He played our game and was able to give us some excellent feedback on his experience and ways we could improve.
A wild Mark appeared!
This was invaluable information that we wouldn’t have received if we didn’t come in-person to the Hackathon. This moment alone was worth it for me. As an homage to him, we added a secret code in-game to unleash the Kirov Airship from Red Alert 2 in-game. I won’t tell you what the code is, but it’s in there.
The origin of the game
The idea for this sort of cross-chain interoperable game came from a conversation in the Gala Games Platinum Club discord, when forgedincrypto posted a picture of his Fortitude collection of NFTs sayings “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could actually play with these towers in game”, as the Fortitude game is still in development. I then responded, saying that I had built a tower-defence prototype a while ago, while learning some new game development coding concepts, and with a few changes, e.g.. adding in wallet lookups and putting in some specialty towers, we could put out a quick game for people to play while they wait for the real one to launch from the Fortitude developers.
I began working on the project to create the proof of concept, showed it to a few community members, which brought me in-contact with Timboslice (Tim) and Deadily (Drew), who were also excited by true interoperability in web3, so we partnered up, and they began working on a new art design direction.
In terms of how the three of us work on NFTD, Tim leads the design efforts, game art style, tower design, game lore, tokenomics and player economy management. Drew has built out the galachian blockchain integrations, custom contract code and the REST API layer to talk to GalaChain. I (Graham) do all the core game development work needed to play the game, taking the artwork and turning it into playable game objects, wave management systems, upgrades and game progression, scoring and leaderboards. I also do the web3 wallet and player authentication integrations too. There is a lot of stuff involved in making a game and we’re a pretty balanced team seeing it through.
A lot of existing projects out there build their own NFT collection for their own games. What brought us all into the space was the promise of taking NFTs from one project and being able to use them in different projects, or in different ways entirely, as we own our own assets.
As a kid growing up, I could take my Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) action figure and put him in my Ninja Turtles Party Wagon with Michelangelo (TMNT) and drive over to go all Cowabunga/Jedi on Shredder (TMNT) and his Cobra villain associates (G.I. Joe). That’s the level of true interoperability that the three of us are looking to build in the web3 space.
For me personally, over the past couple of years, I have been working on a few indie game projects taking NFTs from various projects and mashing them up into quick game prototypes. For example, one of my games, “Vox Battles: The Dead” (https://voxbattles.com/thedead) puts characters from the Vox Collectables: The Walking Dead project into a zombie runner style game, where you play as one of the human VOX characters, scavenging for resources, weapons, health boosts, and batteries for your flashlight, you run around avoiding or killing the Walker VOX characters. As you play the game, the eerie music that plays in the background is actually from one of my NFTs from the BT Orbs collection. All of the characters that I used in that game were provided by community members (with attribution in-game).
I have also been working on a multiplayer battle royale game called Vox Battles, which puts a group of Vox players into an arena, heavily inspired by the Hunger Games series, to battle it out until one person emerges victorious. You can wishlist it on steam now!
What I really love about working on NFTD, is that it really expands on the opportunity for interoperability, especially with the thematic design that Tim has created, where each NFT you own becomes a sort of chess piece available to use on your tower defence board, and depending on the board, you won’t be able to use them all at once, so you’ll have to be strategic with which pieces you bring into the match.
Future Plans
With NFTD we are just getting started. The 2D isometric version was our proof of concept, to see if there was appetite out there for a fast paced tower defence game bringing in NFTs from lots of different projects. Turns out, there is.
We’re committed to continue building out the experiences. Adding more NFT project integrations into the current version and working with Gala to bring NFTD to GalaChain, so you can generate $HOPIA and spend it… not just on the few select GalaChain Towers, like the Tower of Hopia, but also on a few other things.
Besides that, we are working on the competitive aspects of the game. The competition we held during the Hackathon saw about 100 players join in on the NFTD fun, but also showed a few platform vulnerabilities that we will need to work out.
We are moving towards an authoritative server architecture, and I’m taking that opportunity to re-work some core logic and add a third dimension to the game.
In the coming months, as we continue to iterate and fine-tune NFTD with the community, our goal is to truly embody what web3 interoperability and collaboration are all about. If our work with Gala proves successful, GalaChain will play a central role in this mission and we are very excited to be building on chain.
As an editorial, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are those of individuals on the NFTD team and not of Gala.
Last week’s hackathon brought a wave of new innovation to GalaChain! We saw new tools and platforms come to life before our very eyes. Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who followed along with the development frenzy!
We’re already starting to think about future developments on GalaChain based on some of the major innovations from this event! Before we leave the GalaChain Hackathon in the past, however, we wanted to just recap some of the biggest developments from the event!
Big Names, Big Prizes
As you may have noticed over the past few weeks, we had some big names show up to help judge entries from the Hackathon!
Judge’s carousel
While our chain team and the judges are still deliberating over category prizes for the entire hackathon, the Judge’s Choice Awards for in-person participants has already made some GalaChain hackers into big winners!
Caption: (Left to Right): Jason Brink, Team NFTD, Team NoREST, Team Corgi AI3D Forever (+ data dog)
The winners of the in-person Judges’ Choice Awards took home a combined $450,000 prize pool! The awards are far from over though, as more than $500k of prizes will soon be awarded for the rest of the general category winners!
Congratulations to the winners of The Judges’ Choice awards… and a special thanks to all the judges who joined us for this major development event!
Caption: Check out the presentation for the first place Judges’ Choice – NFTD!
Innovation on Chain
Each of the three teams picked by the judges contributed massively to GalaChain, but that only scratches the surface of what came out of this hackathon!
💜 The Fuzzle Prime team participated in the GalaChain hackathon from @GoGalaGames, and we're thrilled to share our journey with you.
Below, you'll find three links to explore the results of our hard work. Dive in and discover the innovation! 🥂
Those in-person represented just a portion of total participants, and there were projects that we haven’t even touched on yet diligently coding away through the 24-hours. We want to give each of those projects a chance to get the attention they deserve. Expect us to be talking more about individual efforts in the near future after our chain team has had time to appreciate the nuance of each project.
Open source development isn’t just a sprint and then done. Everything that is crafted on chain creates more tools and opens the floodgates for better and better innovations.
Those gates are open on GalaChain, and this is just the first trickle of the torrent to come.
Thanks for Joining Us!
Whether you were laboriously swatting bugs and troubleshooting code all night along with us or you were at home just following along on Discord or our livestreams… thank you! The GalaChain Hackathon is about creating a better ecosystem for our community, and not only the techies among us benefit from that. Your comments, suggestions, support and excitement are a vital part of this process. Even if you’re not actively building on GalaChain, GalaChain is building for you!
GALAthon has finally come to its close, but the innovations it spawned will continue to incubate and grow in the minds of their creators. For the past 24 hours, this event was the talk of the cryptosphere, presenting GalaChain to the world as a petri dish of innovation, collaboration, and groundbreaking developments in the blockchain world.
Before we all rest for a long nap, it’s time to ease the anticipation of the entire web3 ecosystem with the eagerly awaited announcement of our “Judges’ Favorites” winners.
A Showcase of Pioneering Talent
GALAthon brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry, giving hackers a chance to demonstrate their web3 prowess, game development and digital artistry. The diversity of projects submitted has been nothing short of remarkable, reflecting the vast potential and dynamic nature of the web.
The Role of Our Esteemed Judges
Our panel of judges has had the challenging task of evaluating these innovative projects. Their expertise and insights have been instrumental in identifying entries that not only showcase technical excellence but also embody the spirit of innovation and community engagement.
The Judges’ Favorites
The “Judges’ Favorites” segment of the GalaChain Hackathon is a much-anticipated moment, where each judge selects a project that resonates with them on a personal or professional level. These picks are not just endorsements of the projects’ current achievements but also a nod to their potential impact on the future of gaming, entertainment, and blockchain utility.
Without further preamble, let’s get into the Judges’ Favorites.
Left to right: Jason Brink, NFTD team, Team NoRest, Team Corgi AI3D Forever
3) Corgi AI3D Forever
With generative AI hot in the news, we were extraordinarily pleased to see an onsite entry with such promise that focused on generative AI using GalaChain.
This team successfully created the world’s first AI3D x LLM “AI Virtual Human” to be minted on a blockchain, and GalaChain is proud to have been that blockchain.
Basically, AI3D is a plan for a system that allows users to create and configure a 3D person that will “live forever on GalaChain.” Primary characteristics and programming for your AI can actually be stored on GalaChain with UUID (Universally Unique Identifiers), ensuring the permanence (immortality) of your AI companion.
AI3D essentially bridges the gap between Large Language Models and the blockchain ledger, allowing users to input commands and iterations for their AI that are digested and remembered by the blockchain.
While we don’t have much to share, hopefully we will see a lot more from this San Francisco based development team, pushing the limits and possibilities of generative AI in blockchain tech. Well done!
2) Team NoRest: RESTful API for GalaChain
Team NoRest clinches second place by introducing a transformative RESTful API for GalaChain. This open-source project simplifies interactions with GalaChain, offering functionalities like token balance checks, token grants and automatic minting on startup. Designed to make blockchain more accessible, Team NoRest’s API lowers barriers for developers eager to explore GalaChain’s capabilities.
Key Features and Future Vision: Beyond its current offerings, Team NoRest outlines future enhancements including user registration for custodial wallets and extended token contract functionalities. Their focus on ease of use, with a “Plug n’ Play” approach, promises a user-friendly ecosystem that invites more developers to innovate on GalaChain.
Team NoRest’s project is a notable step towards bridging traditional web technologies with the blockchain, significantly expanding GalaChain’s potential applications. Congratulations to Team NoRest for their pioneering work and for setting new standards in blockchain accessibility and developer engagement!
1) NFTD
The overall Judges’ Favorite winner is a gaming project built by well-known members of the Gala community, collectors of Gala Games NFTs from way back.
Beautifully demonstrating interoperability with existing GalaChain NFTs, the team created a fully playable alpha playtest build for their aptly named game, Non-Fungible Tower Defence.
In addition to designing and GalaChain integrating a well planned and brilliantly executed playable project, this team presented a comprehensive and transparent slideshow presentation, complete with animated slides and aesthetic appeal. To learn more about Non-Fungible Tower Defence, check out their presentation HERE.
Incredible job to Deadily, Timboslice and Cryptograham for an extraordinary effort at GALAthon. Thanks for participating, and we hope the prize will empower your team to greater heights and innovations in web3 than you imagined!
After closing this important chapter of Gala history, we reflect on the incredible journey of discovery, growth and innovation that this event represents. GALAthon may be over, but the ripple effects of the projects showcased and the connections formed will be felt long into the future. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all participants and a special word of thanks to our judges, whose contributions have been invaluable.
Announcements about additional winners as outlined in this blog will come within the next couple weeks, as the GalaChain team has time to examine and evaluate the multitude of remote entries.
Thanks for your participation! Let’s do it again soon.
The GalaChain Hackathon 2024 teams are currently heads down, with only 24 hours total to bring to life their best GalaChain visions. With an impressive panel of guest judges from all sorts of unique web3 perspectives, hundreds of participating teams (both remote and in person), and over $1 million in total prize value up for grabs, this event has the whole web3 world abuzz with excitement.
Hackathons have long been celebrated as fertile ground for innovation, collaboration, and the rapid development of groundbreaking technologies. These intensive events are often compressed into short, adrenaline-fueled sessions, and our GDC 2024 event (co-sponsored by AWS and Alienware) is no exception.
Hackathons bring together the brightest developer minds to solve complex challenges or breathe life into novel ideas. You might be surprised at how many notable products and technologies began as hackathon projects, going on to transform industries and shape our interaction with the digital world. Here’s a look at some of the most remarkable innovations that started from the a hackathon:
GroupMe
GroupMe, a mobile group messaging app, was conceived at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in 2010. It allows users to create private chat rooms with friends, significantly simplifying group communication. The idea, spurred by the need for better group communication tools at festivals, quickly gained traction. Within a year of its inception, GroupMe was acquired by Skype for about $80 million, showcasing the potential of hackathons to generate viable, high-value products.
Firebase
Firebase, now a pivotal component of Google’s development platform, started as a hackathon project called Envolve. Initially, it provided developers with an API to integrate chat functionality into their own websites. However, the founders recognized the broader potential of their technology for providing real-time backend services, which ultimately led to the creation of Firebase. Today, Firebase offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing databases, analytics, messaging and more.
Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift is a pioneering virtual reality headset that has become synonymous with immersive gaming and experiences. Development of this headset was significantly propelled forward by hackathons. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, developed early prototypes that gained attention and development momentum through community hackathons. These events showcased the potential of VR technology, leading to a successful Kickstarter campaign and eventually, a $2 billion acquisition by Facebook.
Easy Taxi
Launched at the Startup Weekend Rio in 2011, Easy Taxi is a prime example of a hackathon project that addressed a real-world problem—hailing taxis in busy urban centers. The app connects passengers with drivers, making taxi services more accessible and convenient. Easy Taxi grew rapidly, becoming a global brand operating in multiple countries and exemplifying the potential for hackathon projects to scale into significant business ventures.
Docracy
Docracy, an open-source platform for sharing legal documents, was first conceived at a hackathon hosted by General Assembly. It addresses the need for accessible, reliable legal documents, allowing users to find, sign, and secretly share agreements. Docracy democratizes access to legal resources, illustrating how hackathons can foster solutions to widespread challenges beyond the tech industry.
Building a Decentralized Future
By providing a space for creativity, rapid prototyping, and collaboration, hackathons have contributed to the launch of products and technologies that impact millions of lives worldwide. Given the right environment and resources, a simple idea can evolve into a revolutionary product, driving progress across various sectors.
We’re thrilled for the opportunity to host this GDC Hackathon, co-sponsored by Amazon Web Services and Alienware. We hope that for its participants, the experience is even more highly valued than the incredible array of prizes.
GalaChain‘s integration of TypeScript for smart contract development via the GalaChain SDK represents a monumental leap towards democratizing web3 tech, making it much easier to work with for mainstream developers. This move is a testament to Gala’s commitment to fostering an environment of inclusivity and empowerment within the burgeoning web3 landscape.
“GalaChain allows you to write smart contracts in TypeScript, a programming language that is much more familiar to the modern developer. TypeScript is descended from JavaScript, which is practically mandatory for modern web application development and continues to be the most used programming language for eleven years running. Compared to something like Solidity (for Ethereum smart contracts) or Rust (for Solana smart contracts), there are MANY more developers that know and are comfortable with TypeScript. StackOverflow’s 2023 Developer Survey shows this very clearly. JavaScript is the most commonly used language with 63% of respondents using it; TypeScript is in 5th place with 38%. Rust is at 13% and Solidity at 1.3%.”
-Adam Price, GalaChain CTO
Traditionally, the complexity of blockchain development has created barriers to entry for many developers accustomed to more widely-used languages. GalaChain’s adoption of TypeScript invites a broader community of developers to participate in the web3 revolution.
TypeScript, a superset of JavaScript, brings the benefits of strong typing and object-oriented programming, making it an ideal choice for developing complex, large-scale applications. By leveraging TypeScript, GalaChain not only appeals to a vast pool of existing developers but also streamlines the transition from traditional web development to blockchain-based development. This approach aligns perfectly with Gala’s mission to onboard a billion users to web3, recognizing that empowering developers is equally important to empowering application users.
The significance of this development cannot be overstated. It opens the door for countless innovations in the Gala ecosystem, enabling developers to easily create decentralized applications (dApps), games, and digital assets on GalaChain. Furthermore, by reducing the learning curve and embracing a language familiar to millions, GalaChain is poised to catalyze a surge of creativity and participation in the web3 space.
In essence, GalaChain’s embrace of TypeScript is a game-changer, offering a bridge for web2 developers to enter the web3 world seamlessly. This initiative promises to enrich the Gala ecosystem with a diverse array of applications and experiences, driving forward the vision of a decentralized future where technology empowers and connects us all in unprecedented ways.
