my proposal is for the continued development of Algodot, Algorand SDK plugin in Godot Game Engine. This proposal aims to bring in tons of indie game developers and hobbyists from the godot engine ecosystem into Algorand games development by offering off the shelf tools for working with Algorand SDK within Godot Game Engine. This proposal aims to streamline development efforts into
A Godot 4 Port of Algorand SDK
A Godot 3 & 4 android plugin of Algorand SDK
Maintenance builds for windows, linux, android and macOS platforms
Godot Engine’s Native Scripting Language support for Algorand SDK.
I believe the types of games this would benefit are Indie, AA games & hobbyists 2d/3d games, the kind of garage band hacker type games that developers build solo or in very small teams. 2d/3d hybrid games. Unreal game engine is a AAA game development engine targeting high fidelity 3d games with large development teams. Although Godot can handle high fidelity rendering with Vulkan rendering in Godot 4, The only AA game to have taken advantage of Godot engine’s 3d rendering so far is Sonic Colours : Ultimate, a remastered game published by SEGA in 2021. Most Godot games are Indie, retro, AA games & hobbyists 2d/3d games, the kind of garage band hacker type games that developers build solo or in very small teams. 2d/3d hybrid games.
Hi, thank you for your proposal. Two clarifications would help me understand your product better and probably give you some constructive feedback from a perspective of game dev on Algorand.
Is the plugin already available? If yes, can you point me to a game/demo that uses it (or even docs)
does the plugin have pera / defly / lute wallet integration
The plugin is depreciated and Archived. It only works on testnet. Here is a link to the documentation on Github.
No, that’s the reason for this proposal; to ship a maintenance update for implementing modern wallet connect features and web3 best practices into the plugin.
The infra & UX for implementing wallet connect in the project is dated as it involves manually typing in the user’s PK and it uses the rust implementation of algod node , statically binding the algod nodes functions to the engine’s native scripting language. Using the rust implementation for the backend completely bottlenecks the codebase to two rust based dependencies and limits how maintainable the project is. This update/ proposal aims to fund development to rewrite the code base using algorand’s modern best practices for wallet connection & algod node implementation, as well as implement defly, lute, & pera’s wallet2connect functionality into the code base. Currently the infra for implementing algod sdk into a gaming project requires either porting the game into Unity Game Engine, to use the C# Algorand SDK, or porting the game to Typescript/Javascript to use the Javascript SDK. These are not ideal steps for indie developers who have polished their games in an Opensource game engine and aim to ship their games on to multiple platforms. It was one of my personal pain points working on my own game project that took an additional 7- 12 months of development time. Considering that game development is already hard enough, the on-boarding experience for games developers and game hobbyists ought to be much easier.
These are my analytics for the page’s itchIO hosted frontend. There is an active community of godot engine game developers being ignored with no working production ready infrastructure to onboard them and their games. Godot 4 is currently not supported by this plugin, it’s still stuck on older versions of Godot game Engine.
I 100% agree that lack of good game engine integrations was always a pain point for game dev on algorand and ofc its unrealistic for someone who has a game built in godot to port it to another game engine in order to enable algorand features - especially as algorand gaming community size doesn’t make it commercially viable (yet).
To me its simple… if a single successful game gets built on algorand using this plugin, it makes it worth it and i will personally help advocate for support for such plugin if you decide to do it - just keep in mind its always up to the xgovs in the end to vote yes/no for the funding.
One thing i feel its important to bring up is, that xgov funding is currently only available for oss retroactive proposals - meaning you would have to first deliver the plugin and then it would be up to the xgovs to grant you the funds asked. Now… if you are planning on build a game on algorand using godot and this is something you would do anyway - i think it’s a no brainer, but if you are doing this solely for grant money then you need to understand its not guaranteed.
A deal breaker for me with any game engine integrations is lack of built-in support for native algorand wallets (not PK, but integration with wallets such as pera or defly). as long as you have that and an ability to trigger tx from within the game it covers the game engine integration for most of the use cases. The actual SDK be it rust or c# imo is not really a part of this, and should remain external dependency with updates slowly being migrated to the plugin when needed.
Looking forward to your progress and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Thank you! This proposal comes from my personal pain points in trying to build & prototype a couple of games on algorand. Also my in-depth knowledge of the Godot game engine’s http request architecture would come in handy as i already have a portfolio of porting several existing browser plugins into the engine e.g. GodotChrome, GodotFirefox. I will definitely be integrating existing ecosystem wallets into the project once this proposal gets approved. It’s really not about the grant money, because xgov already implemented numerous anti-spam mechanisms into the proposal application process. I expect to spend 6-12 months re-programming this plugin so it’s production ready, my proposal is asking for development funds to cover up for parts of this development process. As a member of both the godot game dev community and algorand dev community, it falls on me to make a case for our core ecosystem tool. This is a responsibility which I take very seriously. The total ask sum of the grant is around $1500 (11,111 Algos), which is alot lower than other open proposals here on xgov (it’s the second lowest open xgov proposal). The upside is a tool that enables easier on-boarding for game prototypes & demos onto Algorand from the 3rd largest open-source game engine community in the world.
My analytics also shows payment data, meaning someone was vested enough in this free plugin to donate $2 for it’s continued development. This more than makes a use case for the product if nothing else, including the downloads, impressions and Eco-system engagement. If users are willing to pay for a free tool, it can be inferred that these users would have no problem buying Algos, memes, or utility tokens once their on-boarding experience is seamless and actively being maintained by devs.
Just to reiterate: You need to deliver working product first then ask for grant for it - it’s retroactive grant system, you cannot ask for any funds up front.
Respectfully, I don’t think i have it in me to deliver a godot 4 port and ecosystem wallet integration within any meaningful time-frame, without any support, considering that I have a job as a freelance dev and other projects to consider and develop for. I believe that I have made a case for an ecosystem tool that i believe in, and staked my personal funds to try an secure further development for a project that I contributed code and alot of time into. Do rejected proposals get their 3% escrow back and 100 Algo application fees back or is that just forfeited once a proposal is rejected?
I have made a case for this plugin and provided analytics for it’s use case and a repository for the code. There is absolutely no assurance that this proposal even gets funded in the first place. Personally, i believe that It’ll be more easier to develop for another project and get paid as a freelance developer than do all of this work for free, open source it and potentially not even get funding. It’ll be more productive to use that time to make a Roblox game or 10 web games, or even 2 staking websites instead as a freelance developer. I believe that this is a very solid deal breaker for me as a dev, and I’ve made my peace with getting this proposal rejected if a prerequisite is having to develop the ecosystem tools on my personal funds with a 50/50 chance of not getting refunded for the time and financial costs of development. Consider that making an application for this proposal already cost me around 500 Algos of my personal funds, i believe that i have done my best for my community, and put my money where my mouth is; If i have to write the godot 4 port and wallet integrations without any assurance of the costs of development being covered, I’d rather prefer not to do all that an instead talk about what happens after a proposal gets rejected. Does the application fee even get refunded or it’s just gone permanently?
i’ve only pointed out the constraints of the current xgov framework to you as it seemed you weren’t aware of them, whether you proceed with your application or not is up to you.
Are we also allowed to promote games in our threads? Because I have a game currently on steam Dystopia RPG that uses algorand sdk for it’s marketplace transactions. Its a retro-style 2d rpg. I initially prototyped it on testnet with algodot but eventually had to port the entire code base to Typescript to Use Algokit mid development. If you are a fan of retro RPG’s like Link’s Awakening and the Zelda Games, wishlist my game on Steam through this Link . Thank you!
This is my first time applying for a Grant actually, so It’s all very new to me. I was encouraged by someone in the algorand meme community to do so sometime last year. Thank you for your input in these discussions, I appreciate your guidance through the current xgov framework and I look forward to further discussions on this matter with you.
This makes sense then, initial/pilot xgov iteration was different and actually allowed for upfront payments - unfortunately that’s not the case anymore.
These are my analytics for the page’s itchIO hosted frontend. There is an active community of godot engine game developers being ignored with no working production ready infrastructure to onboard them and their games. Godot 4 is currently not supported by this plugin, it’s still stuck on older versions of Godot game Engine.