Genopets: Pioneering Walk-to-Earn Blockchain Gaming on Solana

In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain gaming, Genopets stands out as a groundbreaking project that combines physical activity incentives with cutting-edge blockchain technology. Built on the Solana blockchain, Genopets is revolutionizing the way we think about mobile gaming and cryptocurrency rewards. In this in-depth exploration, we'll dive into the innovative features of Genopets, its development journey, and the future of blockchain gaming as envisioned by its co-founder, Albert Chen.

What is Genopets?

Genopets is a mobile game that encourages physical activity and promotes a healthy lifestyle through blockchain-based incentives. At its core, the game revolves around players earning energy by tracking their steps, which can then be used to level up their digital pets, known as Genopets. This unique "walk-to-earn" model sets Genopets apart from traditional mobile games and other blockchain gaming projects.

The concept behind Genopets is to create a gaming experience that not only entertains but also motivates players to lead more active lifestyles. By tying in-game progress to real-world physical activity, Genopets bridges the gap between virtual engagement and tangible health benefits. This innovative approach has garnered significant attention in both the gaming and blockchain communities.

The Evolution of Genopets

Since its alpha launch in 2022, Genopets has undergone significant development and refinement. The game initially focused on step tracking as its primary mechanic, with players accumulating energy based on their daily step count. This energy could then be used to level up their Genopets, feed them, and interact with them through various in-game activities.

As the game evolved, the development team, led by Albert Chen, recognized the need for more engaging and interactive features. This realization led to the introduction of new game modes, such as arcade-style mini-games and the innovative "Age of Discovery" expansion, which we'll explore in more detail later.

The Core Gameplay Loop

The basic gameplay loop in Genopets is designed to be accessible and engaging for players of all levels. Here's how it works:

1. Players summon a pet, which becomes their companion on their fitness journey.
2. The game tracks the player's daily steps, converting them into in-game energy.
3. Players use this energy to level up their Genopet.
4. To keep their pet happy, players must regularly interact with it by petting, feeding, and playing with it.
5. Additional game modes, such as arcade-style mini-games, provide opportunities to earn food and toys for the pet.
6. As players level up their Genopets, the pets evolve, changing in appearance and abilities.

This core loop is designed to keep players engaged over time, with the evolving appearance of their Genopets serving as a strong motivator in the first 30 days of gameplay. However, as Albert Chen notes, the team recognized the need for more active and varied gameplay to maintain long-term player interest.

The Age of Discovery: A New Era for Genopets

Recognizing the limitations of the initial passive gameplay model, the Genopets team has developed an exciting new feature called the "Age of Discovery." This expansion aims to transform Genopets into a more active and engaging experience, further blending the real world with the game's virtual universe.

Hexagon Sectors and Real-World Exploration

The Age of Discovery introduces a novel concept where the entire world is divided into hexagonal sectors. Players can claim these sectors by physically visiting locations and taking photos. This mechanic encourages players to explore their surroundings and interact with the real world in new ways.

AI-Generated Lore and Imagery

One of the most innovative aspects of the Age of Discovery is its use of generative AI. When players take photos of real-world locations, the game's AI system transforms these images into elements of the "Genoverse" - the game's virtual world overlay. This process creates unique lore and visuals for each sector, effectively building a player-driven narrative and game world.

Albert Chen explains the concept: "We're combining with AI, generative AI to convert these images that you take into what we call the Genoverse world. So as more and more players take pictures of the world, you see the map of the world kind of fill in and then the entire game world is another layer on top of the real-life world and every location has its own lore and has its own images."

The Fog of War Mechanic

Drawing inspiration from classic strategy games, the Age of Discovery implements a "fog of war" mechanic. Initially, the entire game world is shrouded in darkness. As players explore and capture sectors, they gradually reveal the map, uncovering the unique lore and visuals of each area. This creates a sense of discovery and exploration that keeps players engaged and encourages them to venture into new areas.

Competitive Elements and Energy Incentives

The Age of Discovery introduces new competitive elements to Genopets. Players who are the first to claim a sector gain ownership of it, similar to a virtual land grab. Subsequent players who interact with that sector will generate energy, a portion of which goes to the sector's owner. This creates an incentive for early exploration and strategic sector claiming.

Albert Chen elaborates on this system: "The first to claim the sector, you kind of own it. It's like a monopoly thing. So then the next person that comes in and take a take picture, you actually get a cut of the energy that they earn. So it becomes an energy incentivized energy game on top of that."

Revamping the Energy System

Alongside the introduction of the Age of Discovery, Genopets is overhauling its energy system to create a more balanced and engaging gameplay experience. The new system aims to reward consistency and active participation over raw step counts.

Challenges and Streaks

The updated energy system introduces challenges and streaks, shifting the focus from pure step counting to more varied and engaging activities. This change is designed to keep players motivated and provide a more diverse range of ways to earn energy within the game.

Balancing Passive and Active Gameplay

While step tracking will remain a part of the game, its importance in energy generation will be significantly reduced. Albert Chen explains, "We are actually going through a full revamp of how energy works. We're making the game much more active in which step banking, the main action will only yield a very, very small amount of the total energy you can earn for the day."

This shift towards more active gameplay is intended to create a more engaging and sustainable game ecosystem, addressing some of the limitations of the initial passive model.

The Play-to-Earn Aspect of Genopets

Genopets incorporates play-to-earn mechanics, allowing players to potentially earn real-world value through their in-game activities. This aspect of the game is carefully balanced to create a sustainable economy while providing genuine rewards for player engagement.

Energy and Token Systems

The game's economy revolves around several interconnected systems:

1. Energy: The primary in-game resource earned through physical activity and game interactions.
2. KI Tokens: A utility token that can be harvested from energy, used for crafting in-game items.
3. GENE Tokens: The game's governance token, which can be earned through high performance on energy leaderboards.

Seasonal Energy Leaderboards

Genopets features seasonal energy leaderboards, where top-performing players can earn rewards in the form of GENE tokens and potentially tokens from partner projects. This competitive aspect adds another layer of engagement and reward to the game.

Albert Chen describes this system: "The more energy that you gain at the end of the season, we will be airdropping the governance token and any partnership tokens that we've acquired. We've actually talked, we partnered with a lot of other projects, quite a few that are offering some rewards pool from their play to earn token."

Crafting and Item Systems

A key component of Genopets' gameplay and economy is its crafting system, which utilizes blockchain technology to create unique and verifiable in-game items.

Semi-Fungible Tokens (SFTs)

Genopets uses Semi-Fungible Tokens (SFTs) for its in-game items. This choice was made to balance the uniqueness of NFTs with the practicality needed for a game with many instances of similar items. Albert Chen explains, "We realized that it didn't really make sense from a rent perspective, but also just like, um, like programming, just writing out like, uh, programments. So this was back when collections was, wasn't well defined either."

Randomized Crafting Process

The crafting system in Genopets incorporates an element of randomness, adding excitement and unpredictability to the item creation process. Players use recipes to craft items, but the exact outcome is not known until the crafting process is complete. This system has proven engaging, with players excitedly sharing their rare crafting results on Discord.

Seasonal Items and Rarity

To keep the crafting system fresh and exciting, Genopets introduces new batches of craftable items each season. This seasonal approach, combined with varying levels of rarity, ensures that there's always something new for players to strive for.

Mobile App Integration and Compliance

One of the significant challenges faced by blockchain games is integration with mobile app stores and compliance with their policies. Genopets has navigated these challenges successfully, creating a seamless mobile experience that integrates blockchain elements while adhering to app store guidelines.

App Store Compliance Strategy

From the outset, Genopets aimed to be viewed as a standard gaming app on app stores. This approach involved creating an in-game currency (Cubits) and a shop where players can make purchases, similar to traditional mobile games. The key difference is that these purchases are actually on-chain transactions.

Albert Chen elaborates on their strategy: "We want to be viewed on the app store as just any, any gaming app, which is, you know, you have an in-game currency, you have a, you have a shop where you can buy items. The difference is all the items you're buying is actually on chain and you're basically providing a different type of front-end for people to purchase items."

Multi-Platform Policy and Price Parity

Genopets takes advantage of app store policies that allow for multi-platform experiences. This enables players to access the same items and experiences across different platforms, including direct on-chain purchases. Importantly, price parity is not required, allowing the team to account for app store fees in their pricing structure.

Technical Challenges and Solutions

As a blockchain-based game, Genopets faces unique technical challenges. The development team has had to innovate and find creative solutions to ensure a smooth and engaging player experience.

Randomness and Verifiable Random Functions (VRF)

One of the key technical challenges faced by Genopets was implementing fair and verifiable randomness for its crafting system. While the team explored using Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) through providers like Switchboard, they ultimately opted for a simpler solution based on timestamps and hashing.

Albert Chen explains their approach: "Right now our randomness is based on, um, timestamp and that, that's gameable, uh, in a way, but we actually haven't the price. I guess the fruit, the juice has not been worth the squeeze for people to exploit it so far."

The team implemented additional safeguards, such as instruction introspection, to prevent potential exploits. They also regularly cross-check the distribution of crafted items against their intended probability rates to ensure fairness.

Balancing Technical Ideals with Practical Needs

The decision to forgo VRF in favor of a simpler randomness system illustrates a key lesson in blockchain game development: balancing technical ideals with practical business needs. While VRF offers superior verifiability, the added complexity and potential points of failure weren't justified given the lack of player demand for such verification.

Albert Chen reflects on this decision: "We spent a few months getting VRF to work and I was like, wow, this is the coolest thing ever, right? And then on the business side, it became obvious that it wasn't like the complexity of maintaining the node, the node potentially going down, uh, having to rewrite some of the logic so that it's, uh, you have to allow for some time for the crank, the crank, the crank, the cranker to, to actually crank and, um, for the randomness, uh, to the result to come back there. All of that complexity really wasn't worth it for us because nobody was questioning how random it was."

The Future of Genopets and Blockchain Gaming

As Genopets continues to evolve, it offers insights into the future of blockchain gaming and the potential for these technologies to create new, engaging experiences that bridge the digital and physical worlds.

Expanding Beyond Traditional Gaming Boundaries

With features like the Age of Discovery, Genopets is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in mobile and blockchain gaming. By incorporating real-world exploration, AI-generated content, and physical activity incentives, the game is creating a unique blend of virtual and real-world engagement.

Focusing on User Experience

A key focus for the Genopets team is creating a seamless user experience that doesn't alienate non-crypto users. By offering both traditional in-app purchases and on-chain transactions, they're building a bridge between conventional mobile gaming and the blockchain world.

Iterative Development and Community Feedback

The Genopets team emphasizes the importance of rapid iteration and community feedback in their development process. This approach allows them to quickly test and refine new features, ensuring that the game evolves in line with player preferences and technological advancements.

Lessons for Blockchain Startups

Albert Chen's experience as a developer-turned-CEO offers valuable insights for other blockchain startups and founders transitioning from technical to business roles.

Avoiding Decision Paralysis

One of the key lessons Chen emphasizes is the importance of avoiding decision paralysis. In the fast-paced world of startups, especially in the blockchain space, the ability to make decisions quickly and iterate based on results is crucial.

Chen advises: "As long as you can get, I think you get 70, 80% of the way there logically, uh, internal support and data support should just go for it. Uh, there has been times in the past, I think less so now where we were stuck in internal debates on whether this path is better or that path is better. What I found, uh, consistently is that it's probably better if you can push something out next month, let's just say next month versus debating for another month."

Balancing Technical Ideals with Business Realities

Another important lesson is the need to balance technical ideals with business realities. While blockchain technology offers exciting possibilities, it's crucial to prioritize features and improvements that directly enhance the user experience and contribute to the project's success.

Continuous Learning and Adaptation

The blockchain and gaming industries are rapidly evolving, and successful projects must be willing to learn and adapt. Genopets' journey from a simple step-tracking game to a complex, AI-enhanced exploration game illustrates the importance of staying flexible and responsive to market trends and user feedback.

Conclusion: The Promising Future of Genopets and Blockchain Gaming

Genopets represents a bold step forward in the world of blockchain gaming. By combining physical activity incentives, AI-generated content, and innovative gameplay mechanics, it's creating a unique gaming experience that could help bring blockchain technology to a mainstream audience.

As the project continues to evolve with features like the Age of Discovery, it offers a glimpse into the potential future of gaming - one where the lines between the digital and physical worlds are increasingly blurred, and where players can earn real value from their engagement and exploration.

For the Solana ecosystem, projects like Genopets demonstrate the platform's capability to support complex, user-friendly applications that push the boundaries of what's possible with blockchain technology. As Genopets and similar projects continue to innovate and grow, they pave the way for a new era of blockchain-based entertainment and utility.

The journey of Genopets, from its initial concept to its current state and future plans, offers valuable lessons for other blockchain projects and startups. It highlights the importance of user-centric design, rapid iteration, and the willingness to adapt to changing market conditions and user needs.

As blockchain technology continues to mature and find its place in mainstream applications, projects like Genopets will play a crucial role in demonstrating its potential and driving adoption. By creating engaging, accessible experiences that offer tangible benefits to users, they're helping to build the foundation for a more decentralized, user-empowered digital future.

Facts + Figures

• Genopets is a mobile game built on the Solana blockchain that incentivizes physical activity through a walk-to-earn model.
• The game was launched in alpha in 2022, focusing initially on step tracking as its primary mechanic.
• Players earn energy by tracking their steps, which can be used to level up their digital pets (Genopets).
• The game is introducing a new feature called "Age of Discovery" which divides the world into hexagonal sectors that players can claim by taking photos.
• Genopets uses generative AI to convert player-submitted photos into elements of the game's virtual world, creating unique lore and visuals for each sector.
• The game implements a "fog of war" mechanic where players gradually reveal the game map through exploration.
• Genopets is revamping its energy system to focus more on active gameplay and consistency rather than pure step counting.
• The game incorporates play-to-earn mechanics with seasonal energy leaderboards that reward top performers with governance tokens (GENE) and partner project tokens.
• Genopets uses Semi-Fungible Tokens (SFTs) for its in-game items, balancing uniqueness with practicality.
• The crafting system in Genopets involves randomness, with players not knowing the exact outcome of their crafting until it's complete.
• The game introduces new batches of craftable items each season to keep the system fresh and exciting.
• Genopets has successfully navigated app store compliance challenges, offering both traditional in-app purchases and on-chain transactions.
• The development team initially explored using Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) for randomness but opted for a simpler timestamp-based system due to practical considerations.
• The project emphasizes rapid iteration and community feedback in its development process.
• Genopets aims to bridge the gap between conventional mobile gaming and blockchain technology, creating a seamless user experience for both crypto and non-crypto users.

Questions Answered

What is Genopets?

Genopets is a mobile game built on the Solana blockchain that encourages physical activity and promotes a healthy lifestyle through blockchain-based incentives. Players earn energy by tracking their steps, which can be used to level up and interact with their digital pets, known as Genopets. The game combines elements of traditional mobile gaming with blockchain technology, offering play-to-earn mechanics and unique, player-driven content creation through its new Age of Discovery feature.

How does the Age of Discovery feature work in Genopets?

The Age of Discovery is a new feature in Genopets that divides the real world into hexagonal sectors. Players can claim these sectors by physically visiting locations and taking photos. The game then uses generative AI to transform these photos into elements of the "Genoverse" - the game's virtual world overlay. This process creates unique lore and visuals for each sector, effectively building a player-driven narrative and game world. The feature also implements a "fog of war" mechanic, where players gradually reveal the game map through exploration.

What types of tokens does Genopets use?

Genopets uses several types of tokens within its ecosystem. The primary in-game resource is energy, which players earn through physical activity and game interactions. The game also features KI Tokens, a utility token that can be harvested from energy and used for crafting in-game items. GENE Tokens serve as the game's governance token and can be earned through high performance on energy leaderboards. Additionally, the game uses Semi-Fungible Tokens (SFTs) for its in-game items, balancing the uniqueness of NFTs with the practicality needed for a game with many instances of similar items.

How does Genopets handle randomness in its crafting system?

Initially, Genopets explored using Verifiable Random Functions (VRF) for its crafting system to ensure fair and verifiable randomness. However, due to practical considerations and lack of player demand for such verification, they opted for a simpler system based on timestamps and hashing. The team implemented additional safeguards, such as instruction introspection, to prevent potential exploits. They also regularly cross-check the distribution of crafted items against their intended probability rates to ensure fairness.

How has Genopets addressed app store compliance challenges?

Genopets has successfully navigated app store compliance challenges by positioning itself as a standard gaming app with in-game currency (Cubits) and a shop for purchases, similar to traditional mobile games. The key difference is that these purchases are actually on-chain transactions. They take advantage of app store policies that allow for multi-platform experiences, enabling players to access the same items and experiences across different platforms, including direct on-chain purchases. This approach allows them to offer both traditional in-app purchases and blockchain-based transactions while remaining compliant with app store guidelines.