Steem is a bit of the red headed step child in the land of crypto. The token launch has a bad rep, Steemit leadership has been questionable, the witnesses haven't always provided much utility, and promotion of the blockchain seems scammy and spammy. AND YET!!!! We're still here, new apps are coming every day, and the there's a ton of people that have built and continue to build projects here!!!
Why is that?
Steem, despite some flaws, has some pretty awesome things going for it.
Community- The number one thing Steem has is a real community of people. Whether we're gathering hundreds of people for Steemfest, hundreds of people for radio shows, or seeing a hundred thousand or more posts a day what Steem has is people. Essentially all of crypto is a marketplace, and the hardest part of starting a marketplace is getting people to populate it to begin with. Steem has done that better than any other token out there. You can find active Discord's with tens of thousands of people in them and now the apps themselves are getting active communities too. You're going to have to sell your products to people. Steem has people!
Technology- There's still some great complaints about Steem, but it's important to note that there's some great technology behind it. It's a product that has some challenges in front of it to scale, but they seem managable rather than impossible. People will continue to worry about us scaling until we've scaled! That said, 3 second block times, free transactions, easily handled transactions are all major deals. They work at the speed that games and apps need to support their operation.
A note about the free thing... it's a pain in the ass to play a game where you have to spend money every time you want to do something in the game. You want to play a match, buy an item, or do the thing? Each time it costs money to be allowed to do it. That's a bad user experience. With Steem you have to stake Steem, but once you have everything is free.
DEV Needs- C++ devs can cost you more than a NYC attorney these days. What's amazing about the way steem is built is that with langauges that web developers have been using for the past 20 years you can build apps on the blockchain. Development is fast, inexpensive, and the developers are plentiful in the world. It took two months to get the first iteration of Steem Monsters out the door. You still have 10 months of building your own side chain if you put your game on ethereum before you're even ready to start working on your main app. I think C++ devs might look down there nose at JS devs, but it's a little silly to me while JS devs are running laps around them.
An ecosystem of tools- Steemmonsters didn't have to build a way to accept other cryptos. Tools for that already existed. I didn't have to find brand new users from scratch. There was already PALnet with 20k Steemians in it. We did build a token platform and we did build a key service, but now those are two more parts of the ecosystem you don't have to put in there. Now with things like steem ninja there are easy ways to do account creation. Steem has a number of apps and tools that exist already that make it easy to do the thing that you need to do. If you look it's highly possible there's already some code for the thing you want in a github somewhere.
How can you make money?
Ok, here's some simple steps.
- Get a team together. One person is going to manage the community and one person is going to lead the dev work.
- The community person starts a Discord group and starts gather people there through posting and networking.
- The dev gets a project built with the minimum amount of work necessary to launch the game and iterate on V 0.00.01.
Some requirements for your Steem app
You're going to want to integrate with payment and login solutions right away-
Fabian has Steem Connect
Jesta has Vessel
and Yapapmatt/Stoodkev have Steem Keychain
Putting your keys into a website manually to buy an in game item is like giving your bank account and password to your CVS teller when you want to buy deodorant. It's dumb, and people won't trust it. So, make sure you're adding ways to interact with your app that don't involve manually copy/pasting keys into the site. Imagine if you're hacked... even with your best intentions you could be putting your customers at risk.Get a simple working prototype out the door.
The product or service you're offering has to cost money. If it doesn't cost money somewhere it's not a business. Start by just accepting Steem, but you can integrate with tools like blocktrades.us, coinpayments.net, and paypal to accept other types of currencies for your project. Fortunately, Steem payment integration should be pretty easy to setup for you so you can start monetizing this stuff right away.Tokenization
This one takes a little care, but I strongly suggest making your in game items or vouchers for services you provide tradable tokens. Like kickstarter you can even presell some of your tokens to get development money to get the project off the ground. If you're game has a fungible resource I recommend getting a token made for it. The caveat to this is you have to make sure it isn't a security token or you'll likely face consequences. So, check with an attorney to make sure you're not offering a security (The Howey Test is a good place to start doing your own research on the topic).Financial incentive for players
You're going to want to make sure to reward players for playing your game, using your app, and referring people.
Recent Example
I just want to shoot some praise over to the the drugwars.io team. @hightouch and @fabien have a winner over there. They've gotten almost four thousand people playing and their account is sitting at 70k Steem after 7 days. That's a great start. They've got a functioning website, an easy to play and easy to learn game, a community gathered, and they've started raking in some cash.
You can do this!
Honestly, this isn't rocket science. I imagine that the blockchain gaming industry is going to look like the video games industry back in 1980s. We're going to have a fair amount of low visual effects games that are fun to play, but a lighter on amazing graphics than what your xbox offers. That said, these games have the ability to provide direct value to players in ways that modern games fail to do that. I'm waiting for Oregon Trail or something like it to get released here. I'm looking for some simple RPGs. The people that get these games out the door in an alpha early will get rewarded. Then when there's a big more money in some of these companies and games we'll see more high end games come out. It won't take a decade... just one nice price pump and some development work after that.
I think one thing many devs in the Steem ecosystem are still failing to realise is, we are still at ground zero for Steem. It's actual true potential has yet to come. Steem Monsters is an amazing start and with other games and dApps coming out, I am seeing immense growth.
I think now is the right time to "buy into" Steem if people haven't already done so. A blockchain with an active community and flourishing ecosystem of functional dApps is a big deal, given many other blockchains and coins have no real-world use or community.
One thing the community has shown is even in the face of a painful bear market and all of the drama surrounding witnesses (HF20 anyone?), STINC's lack of transparency and constant delays on crucial whitepaper promises, is they'll forge ahead regardless.
As someone who has built on the Ethereum blockchain as well as apps that incorporate Bitcoin and Litecoin for payments, I can attest to the fact that it doesn't get any easier than Steem. I can think of no other blockchain platform out there that is as easy or easier.
I think EOS technically is great, but it still isn't as easy to build apps on it as it is for Steem. Now that we have Steem Engine plugging the gap left by SMT's failing to launch and be constantly delayed, I feel like there isn't much missing from Steem now. 2019 is going to be a big year for Steem dApps, and I have a few things planned myself.
Yes to this!
▀
Why are you spamming on my comment? I don't even know who you are, nor really care about what happened. I wasn't involved and I don't want to know.
@aggroed,
I had this question since the day I heard about SMT!
Is there any way to run UNITY type game engine on STEEM blockchain?If that happens more games will run or atleast will use STEEM blockchain and coin as well! Some how I might be wrong! But that's what I am seeking an answer!
Cheers~
If you are unsure whether it's a security, take the Coinbase Survey -> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QxOV2dgxO3C_TyVE0-41ZwLlzPmB-EE1NNshJGuedCU/edit#gid=0
omg u forgot to source yo image imma call the feds
nice gif :p
One of many that I have downloaded over the years. I keep them for just such a scenario!
I've been an up-and-coming supervillain for a long time now, and the Steem community is the first place I've been able to really launch my career, you know, without any lawsuits or HR complaints unlike when I tried to convert the McDonalds oven into a rocket launcher on my lunch break, or when I was told it's not ok to motivate employees by feeding the useless ones to alligators...
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Inspiring article. Thanks for it!
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you should be a steem advisor for up n coming projects to help guide them and get them off the ground. These steps are stated simple but are quite complex... especially when it comes to building a community in Steem.
This is such an awesome, inspirational post I’m favoriting it on @partiko and coming back to it when I have some time to build on STEEM. I have some ideas... but working on a much bigger project now. I like the idea that you can build something here with just a couple folks. Like it’s a real project, not a full-fledged enterprise. And you’re right, so much is already there for you, you just need to find your own little profitable niche!
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Thanks for the information, it is always good to read to you.
Receive an affectionate greeting, although I have to be away from Steem for a while, I always stop to see what my favorites say.
great information. lots to think about. cheers for doing this. are you considering making more games aside from steem monsters?
It is good to see that much great information in one post it should help new developers to Steem know what they can do here in short order.
It should help others that have been here know they do not have to have fortune to get something going.
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When I first joined about 14 months ago you actually bothered to answer my questions I posted on your comments. You were quitting the day job as I remember.
Really pleased to see thing going so well for you.......
Of course, I also remember you saying in an interview that Steem could be at 50usd by xmas 2018! I like it when people I admire arent perfect lol ;-)
Contined best wishes to you and yours fella :-)
Great article covering what you and I talked about at Anarchapulco, was great meeting you and I look forward to picking your brain in the future.
You are an inspiration! I love Steem Monsters, and I love the integration of Steem that can occur between games. That’s why we built @dlux-io here, to give everyone a VR layer to see their in-game assets in a new way, create mini games, and strengthen the interactivity. Any game on Steem could have a VR component with immersive presence, whether it’s a store, battle, or social hangout. You have blazed a trail for us to follow, keep it up!
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!tipuvote 10 hide
great tips here, even applies for starting other business endeavours. Thanks
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Hi aggroed maybe a dumb question... But isn't it possible to make it a real app? Like last shelter survival? You can buy then the in-game items with cash also but will be converted in-game to steem. Or isn't that possible I play steemmonsters and drugwars on my phone and tablet but need to scroll etc. I think it will reach so much more people if you make a game and put it in the app store. It's just a mindspin what I'm playing with.
Oh and I can reach 2 c++devs I forwarded this article to one of them.
The fact is difficult to find the good partner to establish the business together 😢
Great guides @Aggroed. I like your approach to business via steem and wouldn't mind if we talk more. Discord ID???
Always B Haaaaaaappy with #Steem ♨ ! :) ♥ ♩♬♩♬
Posted using Partiko Android
so inspirational @aggroed. Nice one. resteeming.
Fantastic post
This post has really inspired a go ahead in my scripted business plan for the steem blockchain, I hope the SMTs backs it up as planned.
Don't wait for SMT's, https://steem-engine.com/ has your back. If you wait for SMT's, you might be waiting a very long time.
Awesome thanks for the link, exactly what I was looking for!
Does Steem Engine have a stake weighted voting feature for dapps like Appics?
@bait002 Steem Engine just offers the basics of token creation and issuing at the moment. Anything overly complex will require the work of a knowledgeable dev.
Friend your post is great
I really your fan
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Hi, @aggroed!
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This is a great guide on how to build a game on Steem. Thanks.
I continue to get encouraged about the direction we are headed as an ecosystem and community. I have started to feel more entrepreneurial as of late and always come to the blockchain to think of how it can be integrated into my ideas. While I still have not found it, I can only begin to imagine how many others are doing the same thanks to the few pioneers who have inspired us to do so with their great projects. Thanks for sharing!
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How were the tokens generated via Steem? Do you guys have the source available for doing this, or even some articles or examples you could point to? Very curious what is involved, and what the limits, thresholds and capabilities of such tokens are.
Thanks for the info!
@aggroed Could you answer me on discord? thank you
Hi @Berniesanders is flaging me out of nowhere. And being a pussy about it because now I wanna throw hands with him.