We're getting pretty close to the ability to have a pretty good user experience with mobile for gaming on Hive. In fact, we're putting some of the finishing touches on the first version of our game launching app that we're going to roll out pretty soon, and then it's time to roll out mobile app versions of Stake House Den and Moon Karts as our starting goals.

Mobile Blockchain Gaming is the holy grail of adoption

There's no doubt that one of the fastest ways to get users is via gaming. It's a several hundred billion dollar per year industry and practically everyone has a phone and plays games on it. If you're trying to get attention and keep it then one of the best ways is to get the thing you want someone doing on their phone and having them interact with it.

To date, that's been pretty hard. You probably don't have a lot of blockchain mobile games on your phone. Blockchain is hard, mobile is hard, and blockchain mobile (especially for something as complex as gaming) is really hard. So, the industry isn't that big, and only now am I really seeing anyone even attempting to do it.

Invennium has nearly cracked the code

We've been working for a few years to expand the initial game of Splinterlands into a platform for games. And it's not good enough to have React or javascript games that are time intensive to build because it's all custom work. Our primary goal is to be able to use game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine to make games and then play those games on mobile devices with assets and rewards that live on Hive.

And..... we're close. We're putting the finishing touches on the rewards system for Stake House Den, and then we're going to work on launching the system for mobile into production.

Arcade Colony Homepage will go mobile first
Stake House Den is next
Moon Karts comes after that

What will it look like?

Well, the fun thing about blockchain is that the backend is stored collectively in one place, but you can have multiple front ends for it.

We'll likely have an IOS app, an android app, a mobile browser version, and a desktop browser version. You'll do slightly different things in those different versions.

The desktop browser will be the fullest experience that will be able to play the games and also be able to do all the financial things like buying, selling, trading, and staking cards etc.

The mobile apps will be a great place to play the games, but because of a lot of restrictions around crypto payments etc they are likely to be exclusively used for playing the games, and less useful for financial transactions.

The mobile browser version is probably not a great experience for playing the game, but should work pretty well to buy, sell, trade, stake cards and do financial things.

One of the tricks to all of this is that we've worked extensively with @stoodkev from Hive Keychain and @goodkarma who helps manage Hive URI. Between Invennium, Keychain, and Hive URI we're making it work so that you can use your default browser on your phone like chrome or safari and still be able to do blockchain things because we'll deeplink actions to Hive Keychain.

Keychain Mobile App is critical just like Keychain Browser Extension

Right now, if you want to do anything with Hive on your desktop you really need to have the Hive Keychain extension or your life is a mess. Once you have your keys and accounts in Hive Keychain as a browser extension life is pretty simple. You interface with your favorite website, like tribaldex.com, and you can login or authorize transactions.

Similarly, for the mobile experience, instead of having the Hive Keychain Browser Extension you'll need the Hive Keychain Mobile App. Setting that up the first time might be a little annoying, especially for new users, but once you get that setup Hive is a breeze. You'll be able to login to websites or mobile apps, and whenever you want to do something that requires your keys it'll call Hive Keychain Mobile App and give you transactions to sign.

And you won't be bound to use the Hive Keychain Browser specifically. You'll typically use your default browser to do things with Hive and if you choose to do an action that requires keys it'll deeplink/ping Hive Keychain Mobile, pull up a transaction to sign, and just like that you'll be doing onchain Hive actions via your phone.

But to be clear you'll need at least 2 apps. Hive Keychain Mobile to securely hold your keys, and the app you want to use like Moon Karts or Stake House Den. The game app will ask Keychain Mobile App to show you transactions to sign when necessary. Hopefully it'll feel easy and intuitive after Keychain Mobile App is installed.

Two things that will make life easier for Invennium users

For the folks that play our games there's two things that will help users get started. The first is that when users first create accounts we store their keys for them. They can get going without having to deal with any of the key stuff until they are ready. So, there's a little warm up period where they might just play or read or chat or do something that isn't financial before they really wants keys and they need those keys on a mobile device.

The other piece is that users delegate some amount of authority to Invennium to do actions on their behalf. Things like Play, Spin, Battle etc that might otherwise require a posting key can have delegated authority granted to our game accounts so that we can start games without you having to sign something every time. The ID is still verified, and the transaction is still initiated by you, but you are pre-approving these transactions so the system can submit on your behalf rather than asking you every single time. Delegated authority is optional and revocable, so if at any time a user wants to trade the convenience for the additional security of signing everything personally they can do that at any time.

New Games

We're working to get our games launched and then turn those games into mobile experiences.

Once that's done we'll be working to help others do it too. If you're a Unity game maker or think it's worth exploring hiring people to make a game for you then we'll have a place where you can add your tokens and assets onchain. Your players won't just earn gold. They'll earn gold tokens that can be swapped in liquidity pools, borrowed, sold, traded, leveraged, or all manner of financial wizardry. As a game owner you'll sell your products, provide liquidity, push out rewards, and if it's all part of a fun game we're hoping to see users flock to this platform and pay you handsomely for the entertainment and assets you're providing.

As a game maker you don't want to deal with all the problems of building a blockchain platform for assets, tokens, and rewards... you just want to build a fun game that can make serious bank and be differentiated from the other bazilion games on STEAM. We'll have you covered soon, and once you get the hang of Keychain Mobile with your mobile phone like Keychain Browser Extension with your desktop it should feel fairly intuitive.

So, we're on the cusp

We're nearly there. We have test transactions already working and being signed. It's pretty cool to see as I've been working on this for something like four years. If you think Hive Apps working on your phone seamlessly is cool then be sure to check out what we're doing at arcadecolony.com and support our projects and games at Invennium.

Thanks y'all,

Aggy