The web3 gaming space is replete with new developments and enticing updates every now and then. The craze of Web3 games is undeniable and is raging like wildfire amidst the gaming aficionados.

Building Web3 games require immense attention and extensive resources in comparison to developing traditional games aka Web2 games. 

The journey usually begins from Pre-production>The Game Design Document (GDD)>Prototyping>Production>First playable>Vertical slice>Alpha>Beta> And finally, the last step where the game is released to the public.

Seems like a long process, right? Infact, building games is much more vast and time-consuming than building most SaaS products. As a matter of fact, MMO and AAA-like games usually take 5-8 years to build.

Of course, developing and building great, fun, and enjoyable web3 games is no different. It requires a lot of commitment and iterations before its being released. 

So, let’s run through the 10 important factors that decide the future of your Web3 game and can actually make or break the deal for you.

1- Think Unique

Building a Web3 game is not everyone’s cup of tea. Had it been so, everyone would build one. Creating anything worthwhile, especially a Web3 game, requires more than bravery. Game development is a full-stack journey that involves planning, designing, implementing, distributing, and maintaining the game. As a Web3 developer or game creator, you should be all in to invest time and money to transform your vision into a product that the world will play and appreciate. To create a killer like Axie Infinity or Roblox , you must think outside the box.

2- Conduct extensive market research

Before building a Web3 game, you must conduct an extensive market analysis. Do a detailed research on similar games in the market by comprehensively analyzing their user interface, user base, technology and reviews. Also, don’t miss to keep an eye on competitors’ weak points that you can avoid while developing your game. 

Well, it is normal to assume that you have the most original idea until you come across tons of similar games. So, better watch out your competitors before you set the ship going.

 3- Set a budget

Setting up a budget is of paramount importance in Web3 game development or else it is most likely to create a hole in your pocket. 

Typically, a game’s budget can be divided into two categories: 

• One-time costs - includes all the costs of activities in production and launch
• Recurring costs - involves all the expenses of game maintenance, marketing, new upgrades, salaries, taxes, insurance, rent and many more

Once you’ve decided the one-time costs for your Web3 game, you can determine how quickly your game can be deployed.

4- Be transparent with your community

If you are building a web3 game, project or protocol, you must be very well aware of your community’s importance. It is the heart of everything you are building. In fact, before even developing your game completely, you first need to build your community.

Once you have built a sizable community, be transparent and true to them. Establish regular communication with them, including team and activities. Your community would appreciate this effort and also feel a sense of belongingness.

Right from the beginning, Axie Infinity made sure to build the community first. Be it the game design and content to give ownership to players, “community” has always been the core of Axie Infinity.

On June 24, 2018, they did their first ever live stream to release their whitepaper and announce the first community art contest! The session was first opened by Aleksander L and Jiho and introduced everyone on the team.

If your Web3 game has a DAO, you probably won’t want them to take every product development decision. You would try to make sure that the decisions are taken by the right people - the engineering department doesn’t take marketing decisions and marketing doesn’t take engineering decisions. 

The best alternative to it is to probably have Sub-DAOs for each area of operations and verticals. It is advisable to run your DAO like a business where you give and create value at the same time, have a clear layout constitution, and follow it. And let it be inclusive, invite capable people to contribute to the project.

5- Design your tokenomics for holistic good 

Tokenomics have the potential to either make or break your project, so pay attention to it. When you design your tokenomics, ensure that it is designed for the common good of all the community members. When it comes to distributing tokens, investors’ and teams’ shares are vitally important, but the open market should have the highest shares of it.

Great tokenomics design should align rewards with value creation. While rewarding every participant in “play-to-earn”, ensure there is “x-to-earn” where players with better skills and contribute more get higher rewards.

6- Create a rich and efficient marketplace.

Games always have marketplaces. Since P2E games assets are tradable and convertible, having a rich and efficient marketplace is extremely important.

Majority players prefer an in-house marketplace rather than an external marketplace for the trade because:

• An internal marketplace allows rich customization of NFT assets and better choice options. 
• It also allows multiple currencies to trade the assets.
• Games with an in-house marketplace have higher liquidity trade volume than other external marketplaces.

In the case of Axie Infinity, over 80% of all Axie sold happen on the Axie marketplace.

7- Choose the right technology

Choosing an apt technology is vital for the success of a Web3 game, And when the developer has to choose any blockchain technology, there are three important things to consider:

• Security
• Scalability
• Decentralization

Security and scalability are two sides of the same coin.  If you choose better security, scalability is compromised and vice versa.

Bitcoin is touted to have the highest level of security and decentralization, but it somewhat lacks scalability, and so does Ethereum.

For instance: L2 chains like Polygon offer high security with Ethereum mainnet and scalability with its sidechain technology. On the other hand, native blockchain like Solana also offer great scalability with low gas fees.

In today’s time, there are multiple blockchains out there that address specific needs and problems. As of August 18, 2022, there are 1575 Web3 gaming projects - 40% of those exist on the BNB chain, 26% on Ethereum and 15% on Polygon. Choose the one that fits the problem statement and aligns with your goals while developing your Web3 game.

8- Select a suitable game engine

Selecting a game engine is easier said than done. All the game developers have unique objectives and feature requirements, hence making it indispensable to select the platform that best meets your needs. 

Gone are the days when developers had to worry about starting from scratch. Wondering what and how?

Well, metaENGINE is here to make it a cakewalk for you. It is the world’s only all-in-one Web3 game development platform, that boasts off the most advanced infrastructure and the integration of a kitty of tools for creating and launching Web3 and metaverse games. 

Its multi-chain infrastructure enables a frictionless decentralized network system that outperforms any traditional game engine.

9- Develop a roadmap

As the name suggests, a roadmap defines the visions and missions of your web3 gaming project. Simply put, a roadmap implies a destination, a path. Building a web3 game is very different from building a game in web2. 

Your roadmap needs to define goals to achieve in the following terms 

• Technology
• Marketing
• Partnerships
• Sales

10- Publish and market your game

While you are almost at the end of the development phase of your Web3 game, you should start with strategic marketing across many relevant platforms. You can do the following activities: 

• Create a website for the game to give detailed information
• Promote it through various social media platforms
• Put a demo version of the game on the website to generate interest in the game. 
• Distribute free or subsidized versions of the game and then later upload it to app stores after completion

Key- takeaway 

A very important lesson for all the web3 game builders out there — don't stress about generating profits for your users too much, instead care about delivering ownership and a great game experience to them. 

After all, no successful games were ever worried about profits, instead they have always been focused on delivering ‘fun’, which is the main ingredient of games. Let ownership and fun be the secret sauce to your Web3 game’s success.

So, all you need to do is keep all these ten key factors in mind while building your Web3 game and you will be all up and running with every gamer going gaga over your Web3 game.