The Key to Enabling Plugins in the Autonomous World

The autonomous world (AW) field is steadily developing, with game engines like Mud and Dojo already emerging. The number of developers and games continues to increase, and even large game studios are starting to venture into full-chain game development. However, one important link is still missing - plugin development.

Although the vision of the autonomous world is for anyone to develop and expand on the game foundation, we have not yet seen many plugins being developed. This forms a huge contrast with AW's original intention.

The core advantage of on-chain games lies in allowing anyone to create and execute new rules on top of its system, which is significant for the gaming world. The entire game exists on the chain, and anyone can create new rules and features based on this, eliminating boundaries between game studios and third-party developers.

However, there is currently a huge gap between this vision and reality. Full-chain game development is highly challenging and requires game studios to have a high level of control. If these on-chain worlds cannot successfully scale, their existence becomes questionable.

Challenges Faced in Plugin Development

Traditional games like "Fortnite" and "Minecraft" have rich community-developed mods. Why are there so few developers creating plugins in the AW field? Shouldn't on-chain games make it easier to develop plugins?

In addition to the fact that the AW scenario is still in its infancy and the player base is insufficient, there are two main reasons:

1. High development difficulty. Current on-chain games are still in the exploratory stage, with source codes often not fully open source, documentation being incomplete, and game logic frequently changing. Developers need to maintain close communication with game studios and continuously maintain plugins. Additionally, since game clients usually do not support plugins, developers also need to build a front-end suitable for non-technical players.

2. Funding issues. Developing plugins requires a significant investment of time and effort, but currently, it is difficult to cover basic development costs. Users are not willing to pay, and most AW game companies, being startups, are also unable to provide financial support. Although there are some funding programs, they are far from sufficient to support all games and projects. The business model for plugins remains a major challenge.

Potential Solutions

In order to create an environment conducive to plugin development, a feasible solution is to establish a funding agreement (Grant protocol) to provide financial support for plugin developers.

The way the protocol operates is: developers submit plugin development proposals, and the player community votes on the plugins they need, with the most popular ideas receiving funding.

Initial funding can be raised from grants from the L2 ecosystem, companies, venture capital, and active individuals in the AW field. Future targeted funding options for specific projects can also be considered.

As a first attempt, we plan to raise $15,000, with each approved proposal receiving a fixed grant of $5,000 to support the development of 3 new plugins. As the community of plugin developers gradually grows, the funding scale will be gradually expanded in the future.

Voting Mechanism

In order to allow the player community to decide which plugin ideas to fund, a competitive voting mechanism can be adopted. During the submission phase, anyone can submit plugin idea proposals. Once the voting phase begins, the player community votes on the plugins they wish to use, and the proposal with the highest votes will receive funding.

Ideally, a round of voting should be held every month, and a fixed schedule helps cultivate the habit of players regularly checking for new plugins.

Determining the distribution method of voting rights is challenging. Currently, there is a tendency to adopt a whitelist approach rather than distributing governance tokens. This allows for flexible adjustments to the whitelist requirements for each round, avoiding the complex issues related to tokens.

The Rise of Plugin Developers

The introduction of the new role of "plugin developer" in the AW field will bring significant changes to the ecosystem. It will demonstrate how to develop new features and clients, allowing games to continuously evolve based on the needs of the player community, rather than solely relying on game studios.

Plugin developers are underrated in the current AW field, but the potential is enormous. The autonomous world will democratize game development, allowing anyone to expand upon AAA games without permission and without worrying about plugins being disabled. This not only attracts more people to participate in game development but also creates more profit opportunities.

In the future, we need to develop more tools and products to make plugin building easier, help players discover and use plugins, and support developers in profiting from plugins. The AW field is still in its early stages, and now is the best time to shape its future. Let's continue to boldly experiment and explore forward!