TechFlow: Reviewing Solana's On-Chain Gaming Ecosystem — From Infrastructure to Games, a High-Potential Untapped Frontier
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TechFlow: Reviewing Solana's On-Chain Gaming Ecosystem — From Infrastructure to Games, a High-Potential Untapped Frontier
Solana's on-chain gaming ecosystem is still in its early stages, but it undoubtedly holds tremendous potential.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Akina, WASD
Translated by: TechFlow
Over the past few months, Solana has become a focal point in the cryptocurrency space due to its unique blockchain technology and rapidly growing ecosystem.
Fueled by approximately a fivefold increase in SOL’s price over the last three months, the network experienced explosive growth at the end of 2023.
SOL/USD over the past 3 months
Thanks to its low transaction costs and fast confirmation times, Solana has already built strong communities in DeFi, NFTs, and DePin. However, what's less known is that Solana is also building a robust on-chain gaming ecosystem.
Today, we’ll explore the current state of on-chain gaming on Solana, including:
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Why build on-chain games on Solana
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Key infrastructure being developed on Solana
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Games being built on Solana
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Why I’m bullish on the future of Solana’s gaming ecosystem
Why Choose Solana
Before diving into its infrastructure and projects, let’s first understand why Solana is an ideal network for building on-chain games.
Scalability
Solana offers transaction fees under one cent and high throughput, consistently maintaining over 3K TPS.
This is especially important for on-chain games, which require support for large volumes of low-cost transactions.
Additionally, Solana has a localized fee market that helps mitigate network-wide gas spikes, reducing cost volatility for games.
Low Latency
Solana is extremely fast, with block times around 400 milliseconds.
This is crucial for on-chain games, which need minimal latency and near-instant confirmations to ensure fairness and deliver the best user experience.
Composability
As a single shared state machine, Solana offers high composability.
This greatly simplifies the user experience by eliminating the need for users to bridge across different networks, and enables games to easily interoperate with DeFi protocols, NFT markets, and other dApps.
Multi-language and Virtual Machine Support
Solana supports multiple programming languages. Although not natively EVM-compatible, developers can use tools like Neon to build with Solidity directly on Solana’s L1.
This makes it easier for Ethereum-based teams to build and deploy their games on Solana.
Key Infrastructure
Now that we have a deeper understanding of Solana’s value proposition as a platform for on-chain gaming, let’s examine some of the key on-chain infrastructures.
Magicblock
Magicblock is a framework for building on-chain games on Solana and the SVM.
Similar to engines like MUD and Dojo, Magicblock provides developers with contracts and tools that reduce complexity and make game development easier.
Overview of features provided by MagicBlock
Magicblock includes several key features, such as support for the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture—a development pattern widely used in Web2 game development.
The framework also allows teams to build with Unity using the Solana Unity SDK, embed achievements and leaderboards via the Solana Achievements and Rankings (SOAR) system, and use session keys. Session keys act like burner wallets, enabling smooth, signature-free gameplay experiences.
Moreover, MagicBlock is compatible with the Solana Mobile Stack, enabling studios to develop mobile games for Android devices and the Saga phone.
BOLT will allow developers to create personalized horizontal rollups on demand, further enhancing scalability.
HoneyComb
Honeycomb is another critical piece of Solana-based infrastructure.
Like MagicBlock, this protocol provides studios with programs and SDKs that streamline the development process.
Honeycomb Logo
Much of what Honeycomb offers relates to specific game features and mechanics.
This includes modules for creating quests, issuing assets, building player profiles, supporting gaming guilds, and rewarding players through staking, loot boxes, or RNG-based rewards.
In addition to Magicblock and Honeycomb, there are many other important infrastructures emerging on Solana for on-chain gaming. For more details, click here.
On-Chain Games on Solana
Now that we’ve covered Solana’s capabilities and infrastructure, let’s dive into some games being built on the Solana network.
SolCiv
Game Overview
SolCiv is a turn-based strategy game inspired by Civilization.
In SolCiv, players aim to grow their on-chain empire by building cities, gathering resources, trading, building fleets, and engaging in combat.
Throughout the game, players must strategically manage resources, deploy units, and allocate research points to advance their civilization level.
SolCiv is currently available for testing on devnet.
In terms of user experience, the game uses session keys to automatically send testnet SOL to players. As mentioned earlier, this enables a wallet-free, gas-free, and signature-free gameplay experience.
My Take
Screenshot of SolCiv gameplay
Overall, I really enjoy SolCiv. The game is well-designed and plays smoothly, thanks to no transaction confirmations during gameplay.
I also appreciate the small tutorial, which helps onboard new users more easily.
I’m also a big fan of the team. Not only did they win the Solana Hyperdrive hackathon after about four weeks of development, but they’re also very active in engaging with the community on X and Discord.
However, like most on-chain games, there’s still work to be done on the development side. Currently, my biggest complaint about SolCiv is that players have to play against bots instead of other real players—it’s not yet a multiplayer game.
That said, features including multiplayer will be introduced in the next major update, along with:
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In-game reward systems
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An asset marketplace for third-party creators and developers
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A story mode
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Game mechanics such as alliances
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NFT achievements powered by Helius Labs’ compressed NFT API
Additionally, after speaking with the team, I learned they’re considering implementing a "fog of war" mechanic.
This would hide parts of the map from players while keeping them visible on their personal digital assistant (PDA). While this could add fun and excitement in NPC battles, it might be seen as unfair in multiplayer settings.
Sage Labs
Game Overview
Sage Labs is a 2D browser-based game designed to help players enter the Star Atlas economy.
The game shares similarities with Eve Online, where players explore, extract, scan, and craft items to progress.
Eve Online is complex and often requires Excel-like tools to assist players. While Sage Labs isn’t quite that formalized, players can still use various community tools to analyze the in-game economy and inform their decisions.
Sage Labs is already live and playable. Before playing, you’ll need a ship (an in-game tool), with basic ships costing around $9 and high-end ones costing thousands of dollars.
My Take
Sage Labs Logo
I really like Sage Labs.
However, due to its complex economy, it’s not easy for new players to grasp initially, as it targets a similar audience to Eve. But once you get past that learning curve, you might find yourself deeply immersed in the game.
From a UX perspective, I appreciate that fees are paid in ATLAS (the game’s native utility token), which is a great feature for holders.
I believe Sage Labs has significant potential. Although still early, Star Atlas is one of the largest teams in the space, with over 40 people dedicated to the project.
Geoverse
Game Overview
Geoverse is a top-down resource management role-playing game built on Solana.
In this game, players engage in activities like mining and crafting while exploring a procedurally generated world. Players can also discover "hidden keys" by strategically managing resources and using different equipment.
Geoverse was created during the Solana Breakpoint Hyperdrive hackathon in November 2022, and its beta version is currently playable.
My Take
Screenshot of Geoverse gameplay
Geoverse was the first on-chain game I played on Solana. It exceeded my expectations, though I believe there’s room for improvement.
There are plenty of activities and resources to mine, and transactions are confirmed instantly.
However, my main issue is that the game doesn’t use burner wallets, so every action requires manual transaction confirmation.
Combined with visuals that aren’t particularly appealing, this significantly hampers the gameplay experience.
That said, the game is still in its early stages, so I expect the team will improve both visuals and user experience over time!
Other On-Chain Games on Solana
The games above are just a few examples of on-chain games being built on Solana.
Many other projects are in development, including:
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Kamikaze Joe
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Valhallas Forge
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Sol-Chess
I also recommend checking out games submitted through the Speedrun hackathon!
Don’t Overlook Solana
Compared to other gaming ecosystems like MUD and Dojo, Solana’s on-chain gaming ecosystem is still in its infancy—but it undoubtedly holds immense potential.
Thanks to its blazing-fast confirmations and ultra-low fees, games on this network offer an excellent user experience.
The community is also actively building the necessary infrastructure to support developers, with tools like MagicBlock and Honeycomb.
Moreover—and most importantly—existing games like SolCiv, Sage Labs, and Geoverse show tremendous promise.
Furthermore, the Solana Mobile Stack and Saga phone could help bring the Solana ecosystem into the world’s largest gaming market.
Of course, there’s still much work to be done.
The number of developers building on-chain games on Solana is far smaller than on other platforms, and the community could benefit from more infrastructure development and events like hackathons.
Additionally, it remains to be seen whether teams will embrace greater network-level customization offered by L2s and L3s.
But overall, I’m highly bullish on the future of on-chain gaming on Solana. I can’t wait to keep playing Solana games and see where the ecosystem ultimately goes!
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