a unique sci-fi blockchain game built on cutting-edge cryptography

integration of games and innovative web3 technologies

Developed by MIT graduate Brian Gu under the pseudonym Gubsheep, Dark Forest is the world’s first decentralized game with incomplete information, and possibly the most complex app on the blockchain. Dark Forest is a unique intersection of gaming and cryptography, redefining the possibilities of what can be achieved in web3, using cutting-edge technologies like zk-SNARKs in ways we haven’t seen them used before.

The game takes users on a quest to explore a vast blockchain-backed universe, on a mission to conquer surrounding planets while staying safe from attacks from hidden opponents. As players navigate this unknown void, however, they have no idea how their conquest strategies will play out. The entire state of the universe, including the locations, movements, and planets of the other players, remains hidden behind a cryptographic fog of war. Only as the player captures more and more planets does the universe slowly begin to reveal itself.

A recent article by MIT Technology Review also shows that the game’s innovations extend far beyond its unique gaming experience, to point towards a “new vision for the metaverse”where these technological innovations can be used in new ways to host autonomous, decentralized digital worlds.

all images © Gubsheep / Dark Forest

conquer a cryptographic universe of hidden information

Dark Forest is one of the first incomplete information games ever built on a decentralized system. Built on Ethereum with zkSNARKS – a powerful cryptographic tool that validates each player’s movements on the blockchain without revealing this information to other players – the real-time Roman conquest strategy game is set amidst an infinite procedurally generated universe filled with millions of hidden planets.

Players begin their journey by spawning on to their own home planet. Their mission is to explore the giant expanding universe, competing with hidden opponents to discover and capture other planets and resources while completing round-based competitive tasks to grow their empire. At first, players only have vision of a small part of their map, while the rest, along with their opponents, is hidden behind a cryptographic fog of war (no vision). As they capture more planets, more of the universe gradually becomes visible to them. Each move is recorded on the blockchain and validated, although their coordinates in the universe remain hidden from opponents.

Until recently, incomplete information on blockchains was almost impossible as information about each transaction and party is public. However, with advanced applications of zk-SNARKs – zero-knowledge encryption – on Ethereum, the transparency of blockchain has recently begun to be revolutionized. One of the best examples of this is Dark Forest, which unlike other online strategy games that rely on a server, runs entirely on a decentralized blockchain, meaning that players have no control over how their actions will unfold.

What makes this sci-fi adventure game so different from other similar online strategy games is the underlying technological innovations. In particular, Gubsheep’s unique use of blockchains and advanced cryptography not only provides a more interesting and complex gaming experience, but also diversifies the ways these technologies can be used beyond their current, common financial functions. Actual, MIT notes that the game could even be seen as a revolutionary step toward constructing and hosting rich new digital realms, such as shared decentralized metaverses, that no one owns and no one can stop.