Hi, I've created an online role playing game that uses bitcoin

[bitfantasy]

Hi everyone, I've been reading these forums quite a lot but never created an account.

In the next few days i'm going to launch a multiplayer role playing game where the loot is sometimes real Bitcoins and fight/collaborate with other players on quests to find them (amongst other standard RPG fare).  I don't want to be too spammy but I thought people might talk about it here and I should really join in!

www.bitfantasy.com  I'll announce when we are accepting signups on twitter (@bitfantasy)

I'm an indie game developer who is keen on the potential of Bitcoin and this is my contribution to the ecosystem, I've actually quit my job as a professional software developer to work on my own projects so your support is greatly appreciated! 

Cheers!

[greyhawk]

Bad timing. Hope you've got a sturdy door when ATF comes a-kicking.

[bitfantasy]

Because?

[netCoins]

because they are party poopers

[Risse]

Hey man, that looks awesome! Just out of curiosity, what technologies are using for the game? Is it browser-based or standalone?

[greyhawk]

Because?

You're taking in an entry fee, then are raffling off (via loot) BTC to players. Look like gambling to me. Why this is a bad idea? See Satoshidice.

[Chrithu]

Because?

You're taking in an entry fee, then are raffling off (via loot) BTC to players. Look like gambling to me. Why this is a bad idea? See Satoshidice.

Have to agree. One has to be careful in what way he returns BTC to the players, to make sure his project isn't subject to restriction due to gambling laws. I'm a hobyist in those regards but as far as I am aware you need a license for offering a gambling service and you have to clearly declare your service as such in most countries. In some countries even the chances of winning must be known.

Also the concept itself is crap. Without an outside source for BTC (which means other than the entry fee from the players themselves) this basically is a zero sum game. That means that some players will be able to break even, some will make a profit and some make a loss.

If I were to run a game project like that I'd use affiliate programs, advertisements and referals to have an outside source for BTC. I'd even research into offering ad-space in the game. Hopefully by those measures one stacks up enough BTC to allow for all players to at least break even. For item trades I'd take a small fee aswell as keep up an offer for buying the ingame currency using BTC to ensure that players have an incentive to reinvest whatever profit they make back into the game. Earning BTC for quests wouldn't be random based but done in a deterministic way. Like through achievements for solving an exponentially growing number of quests between consecutive payouts.

Christ this sounded really negative didn't it? Sorry about that. I really welcome such initiatives. The idea of using BTC directly in games is an interesting concept.

[STBradley]

Cool concept!

[reich]

Very cool concept, I just think it should be free. I dont think your gonna get many willing to spend 0.1 BTC on this game.

[redwine77]

I like the idea a lot! I wish you luck with it.

[bitfantasy]

Thanks for your replies, sorry it took me a while to get back to this thread, being a small indie outfit i've just been concentrating on trying to finish features and sort out servers and a million other things

The technology is HTML5 - it's just HTML and javascript. It's admittedly clunky now - you can see other players move around in "real time", but it's not smooth - imagine a game like Civ where you play square to square. Having said that there's very little you can't do with HTML5 right up to and including full 3D so there's lots of scope

In answer to the concerns, I understand and have been aware of them - this is a RPG with bitcoin trading built in, it's not a thin shell of a game hiding a lottery.  Prizes exist in the game but they are at the end of quests and are definately not games of chance.  The prizes are there to entice players but really want I want people to appreciate in the game is the direct player to player trading via BTC.  (I would actually also like players to be able to set BTC quests for each other, e.g you have a grudge on another character, you can hire another player for real BTC to assasinate their in game character).

Here's the details on the Bitcoin aspect:

Signup fee is 0.01BTC to create your character, after that you have to pay absolutely nothing and can complete the quests and play the game without bitcoin (our tester completes the quests totally without btc).  The USP for this game is that you can then trade directly with other players using bitcoin like so:

https://www.bitfantasy.com/screenies/escrowBuy.jpg
(Fry here is a players character they created, NPCs don't sell things for BTC, only GP)
It's like an in game Bitcoin marketplace for players.  As you can see in the picture, you always have the option to just pay in GP, Bitcoin isn't mandatory.

We use a notification API to register the payment and transfer the item when the BTC has been confirmed, the money goes directly to the bitcoin address specified by the user on sign up, we don't take a cut.

I canned the idea of being able to let people buy in game Gold Pieces for BTC as I am trying to avoid "pay to win" style games.  We are effectively doing an open beta with crowdfunding so people who pay more get a little more (but not in a gameplay breaking way).  

Launch early next week  

edit to add: there's a bunch more info and screenshots over at the subreddit @ http://www.reddit.com/r/BitFantasy  Cheers!