Weekly Developer Update #34

Cosmicrafts Reforged

Easter eggs and April Fools pranks are behind us, and it’s time for some real talk. Cosmicrafts is at a turning point — we’ve taken years of learning the hard way and channeled it into a focused, six-month push to rebuild our game from the ground up.

It’s a bold move, and in this Weekly Developer Update, we’ll share the how, the why, and the WEN of it all.

The Sunset of Old Systems

We’re not afraid to outgrow old tech and ideas that don’t serve our long-term vision. We’re transitioning away from the 2021–2023 Single Player version and before we dive deep into the ‘Reforged’ upgrades, let’s take a moment to say goodbye to the systems paving the way for a better future.

Saying good bye to:

Good’old Gameplay

Yeah, this one stings for the dev team and anyone who put their heart into those early builds. But as we refined the vision, it became clear: trying to force-fit our gameplay into a powerful multiplayer platform like Photon Quantum would be a disaster. It would have meant years of frustrating workarounds for a compromised result.”

React-WebGL

The relic that bridged Unity and the Internet Computer in a time before better options existed. This arcane plugin, while essential for early game developers, was like trying to build a spaceship with duct tape and string. The dual-language coding it needed (JavaScript for React, C# for Unity) was not exactly the path to developer happiness or speedy progress.”

For more details you can check WDU#20.

Usergeek

Farewell to Deep Data (For Now): Usergeek has been our go-to for understanding player behavior and optimizing Cosmicrafts. Sadly, the tool relies on that same outdated React plugin we’re ditching. This doesn’t just mean losing those DAU/MAU metrics we openly shared with you. In the meantime, we’ll be exploring alternatives like Juno to keep tabs on the data that matters.

Login Methods

Security First: Unfortunately, some wallets (Stoic, Bitfinity, Plug) haven’t yet got a way to securely authorize outside apps through the browser. The player experience (and protecting your assets) is our priority, so these are on hold for now. We’re in talks with the Plug team about workarounds, and you’ll be the first to know when they’re back in action!

NFT Anvil

Forged Our Future (Literally): While our Airdrop NFTs are still migratable to the new ICRC7 standard, a big shoutout to the Master Blacksmith who hammered out our early NFT experiments! The Anvil Team provided the foundation for us to learn and explore the possibilities, paving the way for the awesome NFT features coming in Cosmicrafts Reforged.”

CXP Leaderboards

Honoring Our Early Champs: As we shift to Boom DAO and Guild leaderboards, we won’t forget those who battled it out for the first Cosmicrafts Web3 glory! Your dedication during this testing phase has earned you a place in the history books — AND a special commemorative airdrop is coming your way. Consider the upcoming rewards a badge of honor on the upcoming DAO for being part of the journey.

Still Going

EXT NFT Standard

You know it, we know it — the EXT standard paved the way for NFTs on the IC!, we even have our Genesis Collection and the Cosmic Tacos that we love and will continue to support until the end of times. So yeah, EXT NFTs are still a Constellation in Our Galaxy.

CXP Token

We recognize CXP, built on EXT, needs to migrate to ICRC1 for long-term growth and to unlock amazing new possibilities. But before this happens, we’re absolutely committed to finding the fairest way to reward our early supporters. Don’t count CXP out yet — its journey is far from over and will come stronger than ever with new use cases that will make you wanna spend it!

New Tech, New Features

Remember in WDU 17, when we teased a whole new architecture for Cosmicrafts? Well, it’s time to go in-depth on the tools and infrastructure making it possible.

Let’s start with the star of the show:

ICP.NET

Honestly, I could write a whole blog about ICP.NET — and I most likely will! But for now, understand this: this tool is a game-changer for building on the Internet Computer. It’s not just the ease of use, the awesome docs and examples, or how it automates getting those smart contracts into C# / Unity. The real magic is the SPEED. Our benchmarks show queries and updates amazingly fast compared to other languages.

BoomDAO

Built with ICP.NET at its core, BoomDAO is the power tool every IC game dev needs in their toolbox. If you missed our deep dive in WDU31, let’s just say our old methods were like building with hand shovels, this is the heavy construction machinery that gets the job done faster AND better. Faster development and even resource-saving update because you don’t need to redeploy canisters on each upgrade.

ICRC7 NFTs

The Future is Here: We’re all about embracing the latest standards, and the brand-new ICRC7 was no exception! We’re probably the first game to implement it, and it unlocks a whole new world of possibilities.

These aren’t just spaceships and characters anymore — your ICRC7 NFTs can be lootboxes with hidden treasures, tradable on upcoming compatible marketplaces, and even interoperable with other games on different blockchains, GG WP!

For a deeper dive, check out our WDU 27”

ICRC1 Tokens

A Rock-Solid Foundation — ICRC1 might not be the newest kid on the block, but it’s a tried-and-true standard powering everything from SNS DAOs to ICP itself. That reliability is what makes it perfect for our core in-game assets: Shards, Flux… all built with ICRC1. This gives you smooth trading, the ability to power up those NFTs, and soon, easy swapping on ICP exchanges.

Looking ahead, we’re keeping close tabs on ICRC2 and 3 — when the upgrade makes sense for Cosmicrafts, you bet we’ll be making the leap!

Want the history of our token system? Check out WDU#18, #27, and #28.”

Matchmaking

Get Ready for Fairer Fights! Matchmaking 2.0 is Here. Since October 2023, we’ve been transforming our matchmaking system to run entirely on-chain. What started as basic game rooms has evolved to include ELO rankings — measuring your skill just like in chess or other competitive multiplayer games. Ready to put your abilities to the test? Track your progress in our WDU#14 and #26 updates.

Statistics

Not to be confused with UserGeek metrics, these are statistics specific to the use of the game, like games played, wins, damage and energy usage. This is laying the groundwork for powerful new features like leaderboards and personalized strategy guides. Want the technical details? we developed a full blog about this on WDU#13.

Validator

We’re committed to fair play in Cosmicrafts. That’s why we’ve implemented a powerful new system to validate every match, keeping those stats and rewards hard-earned. While no system is foolproof, even the most skilled Spirat will find it significantly harder to exploit our game.

Want the technical details behind our anti-cheat measures? Check out WDU# 16.

New Login Methods

A full blog on WDU#32 covers this in detail, but here’s the thing: we’ve massively expanded your login options! We’ve integrated @dfinity:auth-client ICP Wallets, added support for blockchain wallets like Metamask and Phantom, AND you can now use Web2 accounts — including the super-convenient One-Click Google button.

Quantum

The new core of the gameplay, we’re not hiding the fact that we used a template provided by Quantum — but that doesn’t mean it was easy! In fact, the opposite is true. We’re still learning how it works, how to customize it, and how to integrate it with the Internet Computer. Essentially, it’s a multiplayer engine, but the technology behind it is cutting-edge — especially for RTS games like Cosmicrafts.

For a deeper dive into Quantum, check out our WDU #22 blog.

Rewards and Achievements

The foundation of our web3 economy is under construction! While we can’t reveal all the ways you’ll earn yet, we’re tirelessly developing and testing our rewards and achievements system as you read this. This powerful feature will soon let you earn Tokens and NFTs within our free-to-play model. Keep an eye out for future updates as we get closer to launch!

What’s in for the future?

Well with so many new systems in place, its fair to say that the next stage will be perfecting these systems, we’re all about polishing, we just laid out the foundation for the game in the upcoming months to get valuable feedback on where should we go from here now.

The final shape of the game is far from over, this is another, yet very powerful iteration of Cosmicrafts and was made thanks to you, so shoutout to all our supporters for making this possible.

Our commitment remains, deliver the best and most advanced real-time strategy game on Web3.

Farewell commander, time to log out and see you next week.

Stay Reforging the future, Stay Cosmic.