GENERAL QUESTIONS
What is dRealms?
dRealms is a decentralized gaming universe where users can truly own their game assets to buy, sell, rent, or use as they wish. Game assets are designed to have built in interoperability across games or realms from different creators and even across multiple blockchains. dRealms empowers creators to make and sell game items, games, or realms and collect ongoing royalty micropayments when these items are resold or when games are played.
What is “true ownership”?
True ownership means that the owner of a dRealms asset alone has the ability to buy, sell, rent, and control it. These assets do not exist on a centralized company’s server but on a decentralized blockchain that no one entity can control.
What is a “realm”?
A realm is a gaming world or environment. dRealms is a gaming universe made up of many realms. A realm can be as simple as a single game that uses dRealms digital assets. A realm can also be an environment that allows many kinds of assets to enter and interact and to play several smaller games within the realm. Realms may limit which types of assets may enter in order to create a curated experience. A “Dungeon” realm, for example might only allow characters and weapons that would be appropriate there. The realm could support many mini-games and quests where players can earn prizes.
What’s the difference between a realm and a game?
Any game that imports dRealms assets can be a realm, which includes mobile, desktop, or console games. But what most dRealmers will mean when they talk about a realm is a larger sandbox-type game where dRealms characters can interact and play games or quests within that realm. A “game” generally means one of these games or quests within another realm.
Will my dRealms game assets work in every realm or game?
dRealms assets are designed to make it easy for game assets to work together. Of course, not every game or realm will use every asset. There are just too many types of games and assets. dRealms assets will be able to work with a variety of games. Any asset with the required properties (as noted in an asset’s ATI) should work with any game that allows or requires those properties. This also means that future games can use assets together in ways not yet expected.
What makes dRealms a “decentralized gaming universe”?
dRealms does not have any centralized company or server controlling assets. This means that no one can kick off an asset from the system. Anyone can create a dRealms asset without fear of censorship. (Of course, the various realms and games do not need to allow all types of assets to enter their particular realm.) Creators can also build and curate realms for players to visit with their characters and game assets. We envision thousands of realms where people can interact in a wide variety of ways. Together, these many realms and assets make up a gaming universe that is not under the control of any one person, group, or company.
Why is end-to-end decentralization important?
To truly own your game assets, they need to have their ownership and accomplishments recorded on a computer system that no one company controls. The data for these assets also needs to be stored on decentralized storage so that if some servers go down, the game asset data (3D models, graphics, animations, etc.) remain available from other servers. All dRealms assets are recorded on a decentralized blockchain that no single company controls. The various data components that make up each dRealms asset are stored on decentralized storage (IPFS) which means that there is no single point of failure or control for the images, 3D models, and other data components that make up an asset. This is different from most games—even blockchain games.
Will I be able to use dRealms game assets in games from major publishers?
In time, yes. Immediately, probably not. dRealms envisions that gamers and creators will come together to make dRealms the leading platform for cross-game gaming assets. dRealms is the only platform enabling easy creation of high-level user-generated assets. User-generated content is a massively powerful force in platform-building and we expect that the enormous audience that will result on dRealms will entice large publishers to also support dRealms.
Where do I buy and sell dRealms assets?
dRealms assets can be bought and sold in the dRealms Marketplace. There are also EOS and Telos wallets with built-in decentralized exchange functions, which we expect will be compatible with dRealms assets.
Do I need to set up a blockchain account or wallet to use dRealms?
dRealms will provide game creation tools to make games that manage most blockchain functions invisibly, so many games or realms won’t require players to set up any blockchain functions in order to play. For dRealms creators, some it will be necessary to set up a blockchain wallet and account, but this can be done very easily with the dRealms tools.
Do dRealms assets interact with the blockchain for every action?
dRealms assets store their information about ownership and important asset stats and actions on the blockchain. Some games may also store all actions on blockchain to keep games provably fair. But many games will not need this constant interaction for every interaction. We expect that game designers will choose to write highly consequential actions to the blockchain and not record less important actions in order to conserve network resources.
How can dRealms see assets on multiple blockchains?
Realms and games read information about dRealms assets from servers that can track assets on more than one blockchain. Similarly, games will know which chain each asset is recorded on and can write any blockchain transactions to that chain. Game interactions will occur on the servers of various realms and games, but all information written to an asset will follow the rules established for that asset based on its blockchain token. So dRealms assets have the benefits of recording ownership and other important information on the blockchain while still being able to look at items stored on multiple chains.
How is dRealms different than other token standards?
Only the dRealms standard is optimized for game assets only and designed to maximize asset interaction and creator innovations. The dRealms standard while allows multiple games to “license” the ability to write their own data to an asset’s token contract for better game design. dRealms tokens also have a number of token states to support better games, such as consumable tokens that can be owned but also used up in play. No other token standards include this level of game-focused innovations. Other token standards enable a wide variety of uses from theater tickets to real estate tokenization. These uses are exciting but they add considerable resource usage that game assets don’t need. As a game-specific standard, dRealms is much more lightweight on resource usage which makes it less expensive for gamers and game designers.
Can I create my own game assets to use myself without selling them?
Absolutely. Part of the fun of dRealms is the ability to customize your gaming experience and have characters and items that no one else in the world has. But if you make really cool and interesting assets, don’t be surprised if other players start asking you if they can buy your creations! That’s a big part of the fun too.
GAMER QUESTIONS
How can I tell what assets will work with a game (or vice versa)?
The dRealms Nexus is an on-chain registry of what traits tokens will need to possess in order to interact with various games and realms. This means that when creating a new asset in the Asset Factory, you will be able to select a number of games or realms that you want your token to be able to be able to work with, and the Asset Factory will generate a list of these traits for you to fill in. This should assure that your game item will work in all the realms and games you want it to. Conversely, when shopping for game assets in the dRealms Marketplace, you will be able to quickly see what realms and games a given asset can work with. Realm builders and game designers can easily update the dRealms Nexus registry so that anyone in the dRealms universe will know how to work with their assets.
CREATOR QUESTIONS
Can I create assets for dRealms with the same tools I use for modding other games?
Yes. Creating dRealms assets is essentially like creating assets for any single game. There will be 2D and/or 3D files and a series of traits for each item. You can create these components with the software tools you are used to using, like Photoshop and Blender. dRealms will soon have plug-ins for these programs to make exporting in proper format easy. The Asset Factory will enable creators to upload files to IPFS decentralized storage and export an ATI file so that every realm, game and asset in the dRealms universe will know how to interact with your game items.
What is the Asset Factory?
The Asset Factory is a simple interface that lets creators author dRealms assets and publish them into the dRealms universe where they can be bought, sold and used. The dRealms Asset Factory will be as simple as choosing traits for your asset (is it a vehicle? A biped? A weapon?). Most assets will easily be described by one of the common types of game assets, but this is not necessary. dRealms objects are limited only by their creators’ imaginations. The dRealms Asset Factory also helps ensure that common names are used by various assets for the same traits and that the traits required for a given game will match those published in the dRealms Nexus registry. You can make anything you like in dRealms, the Asset Factory helps maximize the ability for various game items to work together seamlessly.
What is an ATI?
An ATI is an “Application Token Interface.” It’s common in computing to use an API (Application Program Interface) to let one program talk with another about its properties, etc. The ATI works the same way by letting realms, games and other assets query a game asset (token) about its properties. Using the ATI allows dRealms items to remain interoperable, lightweight on resources, and be unlimited in their creation. There are no cookie-cutters in dRealms that assets/tokens must fit; instead each token can have the traits its creator imagines and then describe them to other elements of the universe through their ATI.
What are drealms.js and drealms#?
The dRealms system provides many tools to creators so that they can create items as easily as they want, or as powerful and customized as they like. The drealms.js and drealms# libraries are collections of actions that a dRealms game or realm may use to read and write token traits. These also allow creators to significantly lower the friction for their customers in using blockchain games. We believe that most gamers will come to blockchain gaming sooner if we can eliminate the friction around creating accounts, keys, and tokens. The drealms.js and drealms# libraries help game designers and realm builders make coming to a dRealms game as easy as downloading any other game.
What is the dRealms Unity SDK?
To build top quality games and realms, creators need the best tools. Unity is a leading game development engine that handles the functions of interacting with dRealms items so that creators can focus on building awesome realms and games.
Can I create assets now and update them in the future?
It depends on how you set up your assets in the Asset Factory or dRealms SDK. Some assets will be immutable where certain traits can never change. Other traits may be mutable that can be updated by in-game actions that are recorded on the blockchain. (All assets will have an internal checksum so that traits cannot change without recording those changes on the blockchain.) As blockchain games evolve, the game assets will go from the completely immutable NFTs of early blockchain games to assets that can be updated on the blockchain through play. As a creator, you can set up assets to add new features to. For example, an asset that starts out as only a 2D asset, such as a game card, could later have a 3D model and animations added to it to be a character or item within realms and games.
Can I write data from my game to game assets created by someone else?
One of the unique traits of dRealms game assets is that other games may “license” the ability to write data onto their game token contracts. It’s difficult to make a great game without the ability to write data about various items that pertain to a given game. This has been one of the challenges in designing assets to work across multiple games. dRealms provides a way for many realms and games to record the data that they need. For example, when bringing a character from realm to realm, some aspects of their appearance, behavior, or stats may need to be modified by the needs of that specific realm. Also, it’s beneficial to be able to modify stats like the characters’ HP, XP, damage, kills, or wins for one specific game or realm without changing them for all games. Only dRealms creates this functionality for users and creators.
Do I have to let other games write data onto my asset?
Allowing other games and realms to write data to a game asset is a major benefit for game design. However, some creators will not wish to license their assets to others. Major brands are likely to be slower to adopt the full power of cross-game development on dRealms for their IP, for example. For this reason, dRealms allows three levels of licensing (writing data to other creators’ assets): disabled, where only the original creator can write data to an asset’s token, permissioned, where the creator can allow only certain parties to write data, and open, where any game or realm can write their own data. Other parties writing data to your tokens will never modify your own data, by the way. This is one of the advantages of allowing other games to write the data they need, rather than changing any data common to all games.
Can I set up my dRealms assets to pay me a royalty for all future sales?
As assets trade and gain value, their original creators should be able to enjoy some of this price appreciation as well. This is similar to a royalty enjoyed by authors of other creative works. It also provides an ongoing incentive for creators to support and improve their assets in the future. dRealms builds in the ability for creators to set a price percentage that they will receive from all future sales. This is built into both the Asset Factory and dRealms SDKs.
What amount of royalty should I program in my assets?
Each asset creator will be able to choose their own royalty payment. We expect that general standards will emerge in the dRealmer community as to what royalty rates are acceptable. We expect that royalties in the 3-5% range will be common for most assets and perhaps higher royalties for more complex or unique assets.
Can I release artwork as a digital asset?
Artwork can be an ideal game asset. We expect that many artists who have retained the copyrights for their original works will choose to sell tokenized versions of them on the dRealms Marketplace as an entirely new market. Digital asset artworks will decorate 3D spaces in the dRealms universe and may be rare or unique. These assets can even evolve over time into new uses as dRealms grow.
How do I upload assets to IPFS?
dRealms takes advantage of decentralized storage called Telos IPFS (Interplanetary File System) to ensure that the models, graphics, and other data that makes up assets does not rely on any one company’s servers. Prior to official launch of the dRealms marketplace, there will be limited upload ability. Once the Asset Factory and dRealms SDKs are released, these upload functions will be seamlessly integrated into these tools.
Who pays the cost of storing game assets on IPFS?
Telos IPFS storage is not expensive. Accounts that store or consistently access large amounts of IPFS storage will pay fees to maintain the ongoing storage fees. dRealms, itself, will cover the storage fees for many assets to encourage more user-generated content. Larger content creators, will maintain their own IPFS accounts. It’s expected that this cost will be far lower than the ongoing royalties collected by asset creators.