The Baking Sheet - Issue #142

March 17, 2023

As we approach Mumbai, let's take some time to focus on Tezos Gaming

Welcome to this week's issue of the The Baking Sheet, your weekly newsletter for all the latest and greatest in the world of Tezos.  

Tezos is known for its upgradability, scalability, community, and security which makes it the premier chain to build games on. Recently, We have seen a major gaming publisher, Ubisoft, become a Baker on the Tezos network, major game launches on Tezos, and marquee development platforms to empower gaming devs to build on Tezos — Let's dive in for a deeper look! 

Meta me at the Track: Stables x Tezos

PMU is one of France’s largest and most successful gambling brands. It boasts more than 500,000 players across its online horse racing, poker, and sports betting platforms, and has been in operation in France for almost a century. PMU’s move into the Web 3.0 space with Stables represents a significant shift in approach for the sports betting giant, but it isn’t a decision that the brand has taken lightly. It comes on the heels of new regulations in France around gambling and betting, which served as a motivational tool to push the PMU team to explore new avenues and opportunities. As PMU Innovation Director (and Founder/CEO of Stables) Constantin Garreau puts it,

"The idea when we started this project was to say maybe we should use Web 3.0 as a company as a way to move from gambling to gaming, and to gain space and freedom as a company and be able to reach new audiences. That was the bet we made one year ago.”

To that end, the team at Stables began conceptualizing an ambitious and robust vision of a horse racing-centered metaverse with a strong organic connection to real world horse racing and the economies and stakeholders within it. In Constantin’s words,

"We really want to leverage the link with reality. We don’t just want to build a virtual game. That could be cool, but as a company we are owned by horse owners in France and we want to leverage the value of our very strong partnerships in horse racing. The work we are currently doing as a team is to build a complete digital universe where you will have real races, where we will have hybrid races — where you will link your horse to a real horse that will be racing, and where you will be able to buy equipment and increase the value of your horse and to make choices about how to train your horse and enter it in virtual races as well. That’s the first stage of our game. The next part is, we want to build a complete economy around the game — places to breed your horse to create new NFTs, stables for your horses to live in, jockey clubs where you’ll be able to meet other players. The idea is to recreate the real atmosphere of the horse racing world.”

While this type of “Play to Earn” gaming — where participants receive digital rewards with real world monetary value for participating is certainly not new, the team at Stables, with its huge PMU user base, links to the real world gambling economy, and its ambition to build a functional digital economy within the metaverse itself, holds the promise of delivering a ‘Play to Earn’ gaming model that far exceeds what currently exists in terms of functionality and user participation.

Stables has scheduled its first generation horse NFT drop for March 27, 2023, and the community clamor to claim a spot in the Stables whitelist and participate in this drop is very real.

In its search for stable ground upon which to build this fascinating and ambitious Web 3.0 project, Constantin and the Stables team decided in the very early days to stake their claim right here in the Tezos ecosystem. In a recent episode of the TezTalks Live podcast, I had the opportunity to ask him why. Here’s what Constantin had to say:

“Tezos appeared to be a good choice because we didn’t want to build something speculative. We really wanted to make it a long-term project. We thought that by choosing Tezos, we could be involved in the governance of this blockchain. We also pretty sure that there weren’t any huge wallets with hundreds of millions that were going to come and disturb what we were doing. It’s definitely part of the backbone of the project. It was the best choice when we took the decision almost 1 year ago. We are really happy with what we are doing on Tezos and we are really enthusiastic about the Tezos roadmap. We’re pretty sure we are in the right place.”

As the reality of Web 3.0 and metaverse projects like Stables begins to come into sharper focus, and as these platforms build audiences and attract new users to the space, it stands to reason that their connections to the Tezos ecosystem will shine an increasingly bright light on this ecosystem’s technological advantages and utility. For anyone participating in the success and growth of this dynamic ecosystem and the amazing projects being rolled out within it- this really can’t be viewed as anything other than fantastic news. A brighter and more fascinating tomorrow is right around the corner and we have a front row ticket to witness this event, so grab your popcorn and let the fun begin!

Enter the Emergents Universe: Trading Card Gaming on Tezos

The Emergents TCG is a new digital trading card game built by InterPop and powered by the Tezos blockchain. At the forefront of the newly released game, the focus has been very much geared towards reducing barriers of entry for the non-crypto native, while being streamer-friendly, and incentivizing more player interaction and activity.

The game itself also has some unique aspects that make it quite addictive and fun.

  • Deep and fast-paced

  • Regular releases of new cards

  • True ownership of cards with the ability to buy, sell, and trade

  • Ability to flex special cosmetics for individual cards unlocked by completing quests

On the point of obtaining true ownership over cards, The Emergents TCG has its very own in-house digital marketplace where you can purchase characters to add to your decks and be on the lookout for new characters which are regularly released (every single week, M-F). This can be purchased with tez (XTZ) or a credit card.

Speaking on the recent public launch of the game, one of the driving forces behind the game, Brian David-Marshall of InterPop shared a few words on the release.

"When you buy a card from the marketplace, we’ll buy it back from you for 90% of the value of the card. There’s no worse feeling than playing a free-to-play trading card game and spending money on it, using up resources on it to complete a deck, and having that deck or strategy end up being very bad. You are essentially stuck with no digital autonomy over those cards. You just have to spend again. This discourages players from experimenting and exploring all the deck-building design space the game has to offer. You have to optimize your spending at all times to build the prevailing best deck. We did not want this experience for players.

Even if something is the best card in the game, it might not feel good for you as a player. So, you can take this tez that you get back and send it back to the marketplace for new cards. We will always buy that card back from you based on that percentage of the marketplace price.

This is a massive differentiation from virtually every game on the market. Not only can you sell your cards back in our marketplace but you can level up the cards you do decide to keep with achievement-based cosmetics and variant arts. Players can show off those achievements by playing with those leveled-up cards in their deck or they can take those versions and trade or sell them on the secondary market.

Our goal was not to build the best blockchain game ever but to build the best game we could make. Our aspirations are to be mentioned in the same breath as the evergreen trading card games that we have a ton of respect for. And uses this new technology to create something fresh and exciting in the process."

Additionally, check out the latest review from XTZ.news which calls this game extremely addicting to go along with other positive reviews from the gaming community. Huge props to the talent behind Emergents, developed by a team of experts in Magic The Gathering, Marvel Comics, and TCG tournaments. The game can finally be played for free, with some cards available as NFTs, check out emergentstcg.com and start playing now! 

Get Started with Tezos SDK for Unity

OpenTezos has published a guide on how on how to get started with the Tezos SDK on Unity. This powerful tool will enable any game developer to start building their games on Tezos. 

Read the full guide at OpenTezos and start building your game on Tezos, we can't wait to see what the community builds. 

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

McLaren F1 Race Collectibles: Drive Your Way to Exclusive Rewards on the Tezos Blockchain

McLaren Racing has announced the release of exclusive McLaren F1 Race Collectibles. Fans and collectors now have the opportunity to claim a unique digital asset for each of the 23 races in the season. These limited edition collectibles offer access to special rewards, enhancing the overall F1 experience for enthusiasts.

Available at https://collectibles.mclaren.com, the McLaren F1 Race Collectibles are built on the Tezos blockchain, a leading platform for creating and managing digital assets. Tezos is known for its energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly consensus algorithm, making it an ideal choice for hosting these innovative collectibles.

The collectibles can be stored and showcased in the Kukai Wallet, a user-friendly, secure, and feature-rich wallet designed specifically for the Tezos ecosystem. Kukai Wallet's compatibility with McLaren's digital assets ensures a seamless integration and easy management of your collectibles.

To claim your free McLaren F1 Race Collectibles, visit the official website and follow the instructions provided. Don't miss out on the chance to be a part of this groundbreaking collaboration between McLaren Racing and the Tezos blockchain. Get ready to vroom with your digital collectibles and unlock special rewards as the F1 season progresses. 

Welcoming Ethereans to the Tezos Blockchain

Until now, OBJKT.com primarily focused on the Tezos ecosystem, accepting only XTZ for transactions. With the addition of Ethereum, the platform acknowledges the growing influence and adoption of one of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies. Ethereum's large user base make it an ideal choice for integrating into OBJKT.com's payment options and can now easily dive into the vibrant art world of Tezos. 

For Ethereum holders, this update means that they can now seamlessly use their ETH to purchase digital art and NFTs on OBJKT.com, tapping into a vast collection of unique and innovative art pieces on Tezos. Artists on the platform will also benefit from the increased exposure to a larger audience, potentially leading to greater sales and broader recognition for their work. ETH holders can also easily swap their tokens to XTZ, check out this guide by Cryptonio on how to swap ETH to XTZ without using a decentralized exchange. 

With this exciting update, OBJKT.com strengthens its position as a leading digital art marketplace and solidifies its dedication to supporting artists and collectors in the ever-growing world of NFTs and digital art. Ethereum whales and enthusiasts alike are now welcomed with open arms, as they can effortlessly participate in the exciting and diverse world of digital art on OBJKT.com using their ETH holdings.

This Week in Tezos Development

Important: Octez v16.0 will be required for Mumbai

As stated in a previous blogpost, upgrading to v16.0 (or later) is necessary to participate in consensus once Mumbai is activated, independent from the discussion above.

We remind the community that bakers representing at least 2/3 of the total stake must be running the same protocol version for the chain to stay live, due to the requirements of the Tenderbake consensus algorithm.

The Mumbainet test network will be restarted shortly to instead use the Mumbai 2 protocol. Joining the new rebooted test network will require Octez v16.0~rc3, or the upcoming stable release. Please check this page for further details.

We acknowledge that this is coming at a late stage in the current voting process, and we ask for the community’s understanding and cooperation in addressing the situation. A full write-up on the vulnerability will be published when it is safe to do so.

We are confident that the measures outlined in this post will sufficiently address the present issue and look forward to unleashing the potential of the ground-breaking features contained in Mumbai!

Nomadic Labs

the new LIGO page on Tezos.com is live, this is your go-to resource for developers interested in building on the Tezos blockchain. The updated documentation offers tutorials, templates, libraries, and additional resources to support developers in their projects.

In his 2nd article, Pierre-Louis Dubois (software dev at Marigold) shares how to originate a kernel bigger than 24kB

Better Call Dev (https://better-call.dev/mumbainet) contract explorer added basic support for the Mumbai protocol: interact with contracts, statistics on basic metrics, and more.

TezBake with Octez 16.0 and Mumbai2 protocol support has been released. Reminder that All Tezos mainnet bakers are required to update before March 29, 2023 to keep baking on the blockchain.

Now Streaming

Tune into our next TezTalks Radio episode featuring Valerie Whitacre from Trilitech!

We are thrilled to welcome a very special guest: Valerie Whitacre, who is at the forefront of scaling the Tezos art ecosystem as part of her work at Trilitech (http://trili.tech/). Valerie will share her extensive knowledge and expertise in the field, and provide valuable insights into how Tezos is being used to create new and exciting opportunities for artists and creators.