Out In The Wild
Since our last Syntax error, we’ve done A LOT of work on the new proof-of-concept products being built for the Emergence Protocol. In our last article, we looked at two such products - our Avatar System and our Inventory Service, both of which are major elements that will provide the tools, pipeline, and workflows to bridge Web 3 content to any Game World.
We also gave the world a first glimpse of our Avatar System during our 1st AMA on May 11th. Several of our team joined to show off our first prototype and talk about the challenges the team is helping to solve for the Web 3.0 and gaming communities.
Avatar System Deep Dive
We first started working on the Avatar System when we got feedback from some of our early access developers working with the Emergence SDK. Through our wallet connect system, they were able to view their NFTs and display them in game worlds, but the majority of what people have in their NFT wallets today are PFPs - 2D Avatars. Our community of developers kept saying, “So I can view my PFPs and display them in 2D in game worlds. But what I really want is an Avatar that is fully functional in a game world!”.
Easier said than done…
One of our Open Meta community members wrote a great post explaining the 20-step manual process of going from an NFT to something game-functional. The process is very time-consuming and this was our driving force to start building out the automated pipeline to help creators, and especially those without extensive technical art knowledge, make interoperable avatars functional for any game world.
We are currently working on three major parts of the product:
The Avatar Smart Contract - Building out the foundation of on-chain data to be wrapped around any NFT Collection, so that the required standards and data can be used by any Avatar Collection and build upon the standard for how to function in any game world
Automated Tools and Pipelines to bring game-ready models into game engines. This in-game engine tech is being built so that the retargeting for rigs, shaders, and textures then work in-game
Data Storage and end-points for game creators to access both on- and off-chain
You can check out our proof-of-concept article here. We’ve had a lot of great feedback from the community! We’ll be launching our Open Beta this summer and are looking forward to having game makers, world builders and collection creators get their hands on it and try it out for themselves.
Utility, Utility, Utility
A few months ago, our team started talking about the importance of utility. We expect this to be the next buzzword that gets overused, but true utility is key. Giving the tools to game makers to utilize on-chain assets is one thing, but knowing the context of what that asset is meant to be, is key to creating an experience of value. How do you know if an on-chain asset is an avatar? Or a prop? A weapon? A piece of clothing? A potion that has 50% left and provides 500 XP? These are all examples of data that game creators need to know when using assets in-game.
Our team has also started working on an inventory service, so that Web 3.0 content can have Dynamic metadata tied to it. This means that users and creators can start associating data with NFTs. They can have dynamic metadata that gets updated through gameplay. They can associate gameplay based on the attributes tied to that metadata. For game makers, sure, we do this all the time, but for Web 3.0-based gaming, it’s all new.
And when we think about Web 3.0 game worlds, the key is thinking about how data will be interoperable. Let’s say my Avatar went through a crazy battle in one game - the state of that avatar can be reflected in another game. Or perhaps an item I used in one game world was used to defeat an epic boss, and now has a legendary attribute tied to it. That item’s “legendary” metadata could open up new experiences in another game world.
As this technology grows, there will be so many great opportunities for the community to think about how they will want to shape the kinds of templates items might hold, and how different game worlds might want to implement the takeaway from them.
We’ll also be sharing this in our Open Beta this summer, and we’re really looking to getting more feedback from the community!
FBX, VRM, GLTF & GLBs
One of the challenges we’ve been tackling, as I'm sure many of you have, is that of file format standards for content in game worlds. Honestly, we’re still having loads of internal debates as many of our early access developers build for what works for their game worlds, and there isn’t one standard file type for building avatars or props. As we’ve been building out the Avatar System and the Inventory Service, we have asked questions like, “Do we just tell people to use VRM only?” It would certainly be easier for us to find a solution. But then, “Do we go down the hard road of supporting FBX as well?” After all, it’s kind of the OG industry standard, but it’s way more work! Or how about, “Do we wait for NVIDIA to try and push for a USD standard for the Omniverse and patiently wait it out?”
There’s a reason why we don’t yet have a solution for asset interoperability across any game world, and file formats and standards are a major part of this. Our approach is that we want to be the bridge between Web 3.0 and game worlds, and if we want to do that, we can’t choose just one file format. We need to help support any creator and not force them to update their workflow. But this is also why we know it will take lots of R&D, development, and testing to get there. To be perfectly honest, this has been a heated discussion internally :) Please do send us your thoughts!
What’s Next?
We’re focusing on getting our Avatar System and Inventory Service ready for an Open Beta launch this summer, to go alongside our Emergence SDK. We’re also working on some in-game use cases, showing off what we hope will be fun examples to inspire creators to think about utility in novel ways.
We’ve got a lot more developers joining our current Closed Beta and they’ve been giving us some great feedback! So, if you’re interested, please join the Discord and reach out!
‘Till next time…
Aleissia Laidacker & Ryan Gill