Game development on the Flow blockchain just leveled up.
Unity – the gaming engine used for more than half of all games – has updated its Asset Store to include a category for decentralized gaming technology, and it features the brand new Flow SDK for Unity. This collection of tools for game developers will make Web3 gaming more accessible and transparent for everyone.
It’s now easier than ever to build Web3-native games with fungible tokens, Flow-based digital collectibles, and other on-chain elements within Unity games. Regardless of if you’re already pushing the boundaries of gaming on Flow or you’re just getting started in Web3, our SDK will help bridge the gap between modern decentralized technologies and native game development.
Tapping into the power of Unity on Flow will unlock an entire universe of possibilities for game developers. It will also help expand the reach of our network into traditional gaming, opening fresh opportunities for the Flow ecosystem.
The elephant in the room: high-friction UX for Web3 game developers
Blockchain technology is steadily gaining traction in the digital gaming sector, but traditional game developers looking to implement these exciting technologies often don’t know where to start. They can also find themselves struggling to answer key questions, including:
- How is owning a digital item on the blockchain any better than a micro transaction or downloadable content?
- What can I do on a blockchain that I can't already do with custom servers or third-party services?
Flow has a great set of learning resources for its smart contract language, Cadence, as well as a playground to help flatten the learning curve. Yet, even with those starting points, a developer could still benefit from dedicated game development resources.
At the same time, game developers using the Unity game engine have been restricted from developing great experiences via their tools of choice due to the lack of resources and learning curve presented to them when trying to connect the dots between the blockchain and games development worlds.
Unity x Flow: Creating powerful decentralized games at consumer scale
Today, everything changes.
Now, developers can craft games with Unity’s robust native game development tools, while at the same time leveraging Flow’s lightning-fast transaction speeds, endless composability, and nearly nonexistent gas fees. This will unlock more immersive Web3 gaming experiences with endless composability and limitless scaling potential on Flow.
The Flow SDK is built within Unity from the perspective of a games developer with links, tutorials, and clear examples to streamline leveraging the power of Flow in a more complete way. Traditionally understood game concepts such as Leader boards, matchmaking, and transparent arbitration systems for high latency game logic all can all be implemented on Flow, with both game side code and the smart contracts to power them.
Build experiences, not infrastructure
The Flow SDK for Unity does far more than enable transacting with Web3 tokens in games – it helps developers to understand and fully utilize the blockchain-based tools available to them. This empowers them to build richer experiences based on real ownership, while at the same time eliminating most infrastructure costs by going serverless with on-chain logic. For an example of on-chain logic in a game, check out this tutorial.
From day one, Flow was built for mainstream scale and adoption, and by using the Flow SDK for Unity developers can streamline the user experience for everyday gamers. For example, incorporating walletless onboarding creates a familiar onboarding experience for mainstream users that helps them enter Web3 in stages, minimizing the up-front learning curve and reducing attrition.
This is only the beginning. More examples and tutorials will be added to the SDK along with refinements to the development process and feedback from the community. Be sure to check back regularly for the latest updates.
We can’t wait to see what you build with these new tools, and look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of Web3 gaming with you. Check out the Flow SDK for Unity on the Unity Asset store to get started, or look at the Version 2.0 pre-release on our GitHub repo here.
Interested in meeting up with the Flow team during GDC? Reach out to us on Discord!
