South Korean blockchain game startup Planetarium is planning to launch a test version of a new decentralized game, Nine Chronicles, later in this month. The role-playing game will store its storyboard and data all on a blockchain.
Its own blockchain.
This is the first game developed with Planetarium’s game authoring tool which will be officially released as an open source platform this year. Once Libplanet, the authoring tool, is made public by the end of this year, developers will be able to use it to make games as well as blockchains for the games.
Planetarium CEO Kijun Seo thinks blockchain game developers are shoehorning games into existing blockchain platforms like ethereum or EOS. Instead, Planetarium suggests that a game should be made and run in an independent and complete ecosystem, which means that if there are ten games, there should be ten different blockchain platforms made for each game.
Image via CoinDesk Korea
“Decisions about the game are to be determined by the needs of the games, not by the platform. We should define the game first, not the blockchain underneath it,” Seo said.
Planetarium expects that its open-source platform will let the users create their own versions of games following the example of the legendary online game League of Legends.
An earlier game, Warcraft III, featured a popular custom map made by gamers which led to the birth of League of Legends, Seo noted, adding that blockchain can remove hindrances to such creativity:
“When game companies found out that any secondary creation by users’ modding went against their interests, they blocked the private servers that gamers installed or sued the users for violation of copyrights. I believe that decentralized games built upon our open source platform will be able to open a new era for secondary creations.”
Planetarium has already attracted seed investment from South Korean venture capital firms and it plans to adopt a dual-license system, encouraging the use of open source code but receiving funds for commercial uses.
Originally published on CoinDesk Korea. Translation by Oihyun Kim