Devs

API Functions

Currency Systems

The API supports the management of currency types. In a pre-blockchain context, these are referred to as “Hard Currency” and “Soft Currency.”
Hard currency is game currency- such as “gems”- that is purchased with fiat typically known as an IAP (In-App Purchase).
Soft currency is currency - such as “coins” - remunerated through game actions, such as successfully clearing a level, as a reward. It is typically not purchasable with fiat.
In a Web 3 context, Hard Currency can be backed by a token, using a smart contract. A developer could opt to mint a fixed volume of gems, back them using fractionalized $PLAY tokens through the smart contract.
Players can then use these gems for the purchase of in-game content, save those gems (assuming an appreciation of the underlying utility token), and sell their gems to other players.
In-game currency backed by a smart contract is a powerful method to support “play to earn” mechanics by developers.
Integrating the gems to a fixed asset - the $PLAY token- controls for cross-game economics. A game can then opt to “accept” gems from another game, into their game (at the developer discretion). This can be useful especially when developers control multiple titles, and want to create cross-game benefits as a means of rewarding player loyalty.

Developers can mint game objects to create additional value for game objects players purchase or receive as rewards.
$PLAY tokens can be used to mint non-fungible tokens. The benefit of using a native token- the $PLAY token- for this purpose is faster “off chain” processing, lower gas fees, facilitating the type of smaller transactions that are the lifeblood of many casual games.
The minting in-game democratizes access to the blockchain, by rendering the minting process in a context that is friendly to a mainstream adopter (as opposed to an existing early crypto adopter).
An intermediate step- known as “FuseBlocks” sits between the $PLAY token and the final smart contract. The FuseBlock opens a development path in the ecosystem where, in the long term, the community can opt to permit additional tokens, such as Etherium, to mint game objects.
FuseBlocks have an additional beneft of serving as a smart contract, governing the methods and rewards related to "melting down" a minted object. This serves to reduce the number of tradeable tokens, and inflation, by rewarding long-term behavior, and discriminating against short-term financial speculation. (More details below).

Developers can opt to accept UGC (User Generated Content), and receive “marketplace commissions” for hosting the sale of the item.
For example, in the avatar system, cosmetic items can be designed by third-parties, known as “Creators.” A creator could be another player, or a fashion brand.
PLAY has developed powerful customization tools that can run in-game, at the option of the developer.
By accepting creator items in their game, developers reduce the obligation to expend resources designing every game asset. They can opt to bring in the marketplace feed, and allow players to equip items from third-parties.
This allows for a thriving “Creator Economy”, with ownership and property rights seamlessly bound into smart contracts backing the objects for sale.

PLAY provides live analytics on the performance of game economies, by leveraging the Google Firebase integration with Google Analytics.
This offers developers and creators a uniquely powerful window into the game and product economies, with the ability to track and analyze performance.
This data can be used to A/B test pricing, adjust pricing, and optimizing pricing as needed.
It means blockchain-backed assets can be tracked- where they appear in the gaming ecosystem, the downstream royalties (e.g. from the sale and re-sale of an NFT where the dev has royalty rights)
The integration of analytics with Web 3 economic management is a critically important aspect needed to “steer” a distributed economy in a healthy direction.

Last updated 3 months ago