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Check out what Solana Games’ General Manager Johnny B. Lee and Tech and Product Leader Matt Sorg see for the future of gaming
The UNITBOX team attended Solana Games Day in Lisbon and chatted with Solana Games techs. They are seniors in technology and business, but above all they are builders. Not surprisingly, Johnny and Matt have their eyes lit when they talk about building next-gen games with the Solana Foundation. Times may be strange right now, but builders keep building.
Despite being affected by the FTX turmoil, Solana dapps never stop growing their project due to market fluctuations. The Solana Foundation is currently looking for talent to join the team. As Matt said on LinkedIn after the interview, “Focus on building” and “Focus on shipping” are positive reminders of a healthy development community as a whole.
UNITBOX dives into an exclusive interview with Solana General Manager Johnny B. Lee and Product Lead Matt Sorg.
You both have an extensive background in tech and gaming. What made you decide to bet on Web3 gaming so early on?
Matt: My colleagues at Riot and I have seen firsthand how difficult it is to ship games at scale. Such as connecting databases across all different continents was difficult. Being able to do monetization and player data openly and transparently seemed like a really exciting problem to solve.
Johnny: I was previously the general manager of Dark Horse games, working with a comic book company in the games division. I thought Web3 and blockchain had a bigger opportunity than the gaming industry. And what really got me excited was figuring out the deeper value proposition of play.
What blockchain does in games is the ability to easily play and own digital items.
But really, the deeper value proposition is allowing players to own their data and progress across titles, studios, and platforms.
We’ve seen various mainstream gaming studios embrace Web3 or invest in it. Do you dare to predict when PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox will jump on board?
Johnny: These three in particular use their own console platforms and are probably lagging behind. But if you ask about when Major will appear in our space, it’s already happened.
Looking specifically to Asia, all major game and entertainment companies have not only launched projects in our space, but have also shifted company-wide strategies across their IP portfolios.
Rather than stepping in and experimenting, these guys are shifting their entire company to resource-focused Web3 and launching games in our space of blockchain gaming with top IPs.
What are the top games and projects on Solana that gamers should keep an eye on right now?
Johnny: (At Solana Games Day) You have 33 game developers and you have 37 games, right? I plan to No, because we play across genres. However, there are some games that have the potential to be decades-long service titles for Web3.
The Star Atlas is a clear, very big vision. Again, the emphasis is on the Earth from another Sun.
We also have a number of other titles with very experienced teams and triple-A experience, significant IP development opportunities and significant IPS builds.
Game studios have access to tons of Software Development Kits and other tools to build their game. Where do you see SDK for Web3 components going?
Johnny: About two months ago we were able to put together the Solana Games Kit. It has three main categories: game backends. All of these have leading providers from the web to integration into the Solana SDK. Next is marketing and distribution. Especially since it turns out that massive performance marketing has yet to get him into the Web3 game.
Solana has probably 30+ tool providers as part of the Solana Games Kit, all audited and open source. Many of them are already used in live and scalable products like STEPN. So the developer can participate in his Web3 product strategy. To build it on most other blockchain protocols, you would have to start developing custom smart contracts. At Solana, it’s very different.
thanks to the solana Games Kit, over 95% of Web3’s current product strategy in games can run without custom smart contract code in Solana.
Matt: So, depending on how the game is configured today, this could be easier for the game. Think about STEPN which is a really good example what can you say about the game. They had two developers, he recognized entities and fungible tokens. And use Orca DEX. They said he made $120 million in the second quarter of 2022 alone, but that was during a bear market. And they did so simply because they have worldwide access to anyone on the internet who can use those tools. Solana doesn’t require a large development team. All you have to do is use the Games Kit.
What are the key ingredients for every Web3-powered game to meet the expectations of gamers?
Johnny: You have to think hard about whether the blockchain and the backend of the game you’re building can handle the load. Can you keep the player experience very positive?
Gamers are the most patient people. So you don’t have to wait minutes for Web3 transactions to complete. It’s just a beginner.
If you’re designing a game that keeps people coming back and enjoying it consistently, I’d say you’ve achieved 90.
Matt: Another thing to consider is that if you’re sharing data and an open platform, people can commit code to it.
We can actually have players start building the game and build the experience with you.
You probably don’t need to do full script and art like Roblox. But a good example is Dota. Their own matchmaking wasn’t very good, so much of their early matchmaking was actually done by the community. It could be organized around that. It would have been a much smoother experience if we didn’t have to have separate systems. We can help you build it together.
How is developing a product in Web3 different from Web2, aside from the obvious NFT and token integrations?
Matt: I think the main thing in my head is, “Are you willing to let go of some control?” Giving up that little bit of control gives players more options to contribute. When I’m thinking about what to optimize for Web3, that’s my headspace.
Another thing about it is that it doesn’t necessarily need excessive monetization only. It looks very lootbox heavy when they just want to have fun.
But if you say, “Hey, now that we have this data, we can build a community around Discord with them and have a good time,” that could be a really good possibility.
You have to find a community that will build with you.
When people start to realize how healthy it is, they become simply excited to contribute to that ecosystem.
From games, NFTs, and everything around Solana dapps. What can we expect to see in 2023?
Matt: The difference between the Solana ecosystem and other ecosystems is that everything is really connected. It’s not just the tools people create, but what Johnny and I talk about is that it’s all very connected to gamers.
So what we’re trying to do is promote it as a game ecosystem as a whole.
But in Web3 it can be done by someone who just ships the code that makes it possible. A raid leader will cause items to be dropped at that address. That way you can have a very transparent distribution to everyone in the raid how they get the item.
And it’s a tool that someone in the solar ecosystem, whether it’s the game developers themselves or someone in the community, is trying to build so that everyone can use it.
This kind of vision is very unique to Solana, not only in how the program is used, but also in how everything is connected in a shared state.
Interoperability is quite a big topic in Web3 at the moment. How do you look at interoperability, and is that something you have high on your priority list?
Johnny: Yes, the Solana Games Kit gives voice to that vision to ensure that these games and providers on Web3 are focused on interoperability and built towards a true play-and-earn vision is giving
And they are real game developers looking to build really fun plays. That’s where we focus. Then on top of that, always ask why Web3?
Not all games need to be in the blockchain space today. Also, we are not looking for Web3 or Blockchain. It’s either because it’s getting attention or because it’s what VCs are looking for. We want our games to have true product and player value and prop focus.
There are currently 37 games, all of which are paid, and all of which have a significant value proposition of why they do what they do.
About the Web3 gaming industry as a whole, how do you see it developing in the next few years?
Matt: I think you’re going to see a lot of clutter. With so many startups, naturally some games don’t work. Some games are overly monetized, which is kind of a minus for players. I think that’s something that Johnny and I are very much aware of.
The games we support, all games here provide a positive playing experience. This is clearly on track to ship next quarter. It is very high in our hearts.
Whenever I spend my personal time helping game developers, I make sure that I am not helping something that is bad for the community. Consumer protection will be our top priority.
What else does it mean that Solana’s block is less than 10% full instead of almost full? Solana is ready to scale up to 5000 transactions per second in games.
Also, over the next year, we have a lot of cool announcements explaining how to experience custom execution, runtimes, and more. So the fact that we didn’t fragment too quickly is going to be really exciting.
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