Forte

Creating New Economic and Creative Opportunities for Billions of Gamers Around the World Through Blockchain

Announcement

The Master Class: Our Next Four Partners

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Across the world, people are engaging with games in a seemingly inexhaustible number of ways. They’re playing them, watching them, streaming them, preserving them, preserving things inside them, being educated through them, socializing in them, performing in them, getting married in them, and more. At the heart of all this activity are the people who create them: developers.

Today, we’re announcing our next wave of developer partners. They’re an extraordinary group of pioneers who have made their distinct dent (or three) in the universe of digital experiences, and helped define—and continue to shape—the industry at large. Their proven ability to bend cutting-edge technology to their creative will, and craft captivating experiences is essential to bring forth the next era of games.

Together with our partners, we’ll be exploring, validating, and integrating new gameplay and economic designs rooted in community economics, a system where the interests of developers and players are aligned. This will open up new pathways for economic and creative empowerment within the community, and allow people to engage with, benefit from, and simply enjoy games in ways never before possible.

Without further ado, these are our next four developer partners.

Gallium Studios

Gallium Studios was founded by Will Wright and Lauren Elliott, two recognized visionaries from the game industry. Wright forever changed what people thought games could be with his open-ended, unconventional games SimCity, The Sims, and Spore. Elliott, on the other hand, forged a new path for games that were educational in nature by creating the iconic and dearly loved Carmen Sandiego series.

The aggregate impact from the two is impossible to calculate, but their influence over the last 30 years can be seen everywhere. Emergent gameplay like that found in Grand Theft Auto, the rising use of games like Minecraft in education, asynchronous experiences popularized by mobile games, the gamification of real-world tasks: these can be traced back in some form to the work of Wright and Elliott.

At Gallium Studios, Wright and Elliott are once again thinking about what lies beyond the traditional game design space—but this time, they’re doing it with the community in mind.

https://galliumstudios.com/

Penrose

Penrose is one of the most celebrated companies working in virtual reality today. Founded by Eugene YK Chung, previously Head of Film & Media at Oculus VR before its acquisition by Facebook, the studio creates virtual worlds that are immaculate in their sense of cohesion. This has enabled them to tell moving stories that are brilliant in both their technical and creative execution, and, importantly, feel deeply organic.

As it continues to craft new virtual worlds and evolve as a studio, Penrose will be leveraging Forte’s technology to build a robust economic foundation, adding a new dimension to their digital experiences. By grounding its worlds with a true economy driven by genuine human interactions, Penrose will be able to offer even more collaborative and consistent human experiences in their journey to empower the pursuit of meaning.

https://penrosestudios.com

Monster Ideas

The work of Jeff Tunnell, founder of new studio Monster Ideas, has left a broad but deep footprint on the game industry. Over the course of more than three decades, he’s done everything from create genre-defining games to helping democratize game development and distribution through his work on the Torque game engine. He was also an early advocate for making games that were accessible by anyone, predating the casual games trend facilitated by social platforms by well over a decade.

At Monster Ideas, Tunnell is looking to bring one of his long gestating career goals to fruition: community integration. By making players a part of the game experience and designing around player-developer alignment, Tunnell sees a bright future where games can be funded and created in entirely new—and mutually beneficial—ways.

www.monsterideas.io

GC Turbo

GC Turbo is at the forefront of a new generation of “instant” game experiences. These post-social games are built using open web standards and can be played anywhere, from a web browser to inside a messaging app. And because these games don’t have the burden of a heavy app, a proprietary platform, or other legacy constraint, they have unparalleled reach and convenience. Combine these aspects with thoughtful game design and authentic social interactions, and you can start to see how instant game experiences will play an incredibly important role in the future of games.

This forward-looking approach to games wasn’t an accident: GC Turbo was founded by Jia Shen and Tony Sun, who cofounded and served as CTO of early social innovator RockYou, and helped bring hit games like Crossy Road and Rodeo Stampede to millions of players around the world, respectively. Their skills as technologists, talents as game makers, and experience as entrepreneurs make them perfectly suited to rethink how the underlying economics of games can work.

https://www.gcturbo.com

Follow @FortePlatform for the latest updates.

Economic Technology for Games

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This year has made evident that games transcend entertainment. While not a revelation for the game community, the burgeoning use of games in health, politics, science, and other important domains has upended the mainstream notion of games as simply recreation. Their nature as a creative, interactive reflection of our lives and ideas gives them the capacity to be truly anything.

We believe they can be economic platforms—ones that create radical new pathways for economic empowerment. 

This year has also been pivotal for Forte. Work on our free and open platform has made great strides, our developer partnerships have grown, and the games using our technology are rapidly advancing. Together, the progress made in these three areas brings us markedly closer to enabling true community economics in games, and bringing its benefits to the game community at large.

As we approach the turn of the year, we’d like to pull the curtain back a bit and share more on our thinking, where we are today, and what to expect going forward. 

The Forte platform

Our platform consists of several congruent technologies and services that give developers everything they need to create and operate a token-based economy for their game. This economy can be an additive layer that complements existing revenue sources, or serve as the primary one. There are no rules or limits—the token economy’s scope and role is entirely up to the developer and their gameplay design. 

One of the key focus areas for our platform is ease of use. For developers, this applies to their entire experience, which runs the gamut from tokenizing assets to creating and operating live token-based economies. Our aim is to enable them to accomplish  all of this without having to worry about any of the underlying complexities of the technology or economics. To achieve this, we believe an end-to-end solution is the most sensible approach, based on our own experiences making games, operating live services, and playing games ourselves. 

A simple developer experience directly translates to player benefits as well. Our platform facilitates player-facing features integral to token economies in general, but without  the complexity that’s all too common today for even the most basic tasks, such as creating a token wallet. Removing these barriers means more players can participate in and benefit from a game’s economy. And every minute and dollar saved by developers from not having to become experts in economic theory, blockchain technology, and regulatory compliance can be invested into the player experience instead. 

The Forte platform is currently pre-alpha and invite-only as we continue to build out features, strengthen security, ensure stability, and more. Much of the core functionality is already in place and being actively tested. As of today, there are over 2.5M players across our partner games using Forte technology on a test network. The learnings and insights we’ve gained so far have been invaluable in our ongoing development, and have already improved the platform in meaningful ways. 

We’ll have more platform specifics to share in the coming months, including our marketplace framework. This has been an area of intense focus for us since day one given its critical role in token-based game economies, and we’ve come up with new solutions and safeguards that we believe effectively address many of the challenges and pitfalls found in token markets today. The framework is designed to directly benefit developers and players via better security, increased stability, more accurate value estimation, and faster compute times.  

Our developer partners

Blockchain is a foundational technology that underlies our platform. Its distinct characteristics make impossible-sounding ideas like genuine property rights, embedded public histories, and uniqueness for digital files possible. But these and other newly viable features in and of themselves are not useful nor do they magically result in community economics. They require practical application and thoughtful economy design wrapped in a great gameplay experience, and this is where the true challenge lies. 

We’ve partnered with some of the best, brightest, and most respected game developers in the world to take on this challenge. They already know how to fuse technology and creativity to craft engaging player experiences. And we’re working with them to apply that expertise to their game projects, using the economic foundation and designs provided by our platform. 

A fundamental goal we set for the platform was to make it useful for developers of any size, background, or expertise. It benefits immensely from being built in parallel with our partners’ projects in this regard. While we used our own experience making games as a starting point for the platform, the reality is that we’re building a platform that has no precedent in terms of features or scope. Accordingly, the daily feedback we receive from our partners helps ensure the platform not only meets their needs today, but other game developers in the future as well.  

As for the partners themselves, we’ve announced eight well-established developers to date, covering a spectrum of experience. We now have over 20 developer partners, from across an even wider spectrum of backgrounds working with the Forte platform. While each partner is remarkable in their respective ways, the group as a whole is one we simply could not have imagined when we first started this journey. 

Games using the Forte platform

All of the work we’re doing is fundamentally for the benefit of games and everyone they touch. This includes the traditional ecosystem of developers, players, publishers, fan communities, and so on. It also includes the people, organizations, and industries that might not be part of the established ecosystem today, but will be increasingly relevant to games due to their ever-expanding ubiquity and utility. 
 
An important decision we made related to this was to design our platform to fully support existing games, not just the games of tomorrow. The latter may have been simpler from a platform perspective, but to leave behind the deep ecosystem that exists today—the one we grew up with, contributed to as industry participants, and whose pain points we intimately understand—would undermine our aims as an organization. For this reason, we have two broad categories of partner games: existing and bespoke. 

Existing games are ones that have already been publicly released and have active player communities. When ready, these games will be updated with new experiences made possible by our platform, and will demonstrate how established games—and traditional game designs in general—can benefit from it, even post-launch. Bespoke games are those being created from the ground-up to be blockchain native, with the benefits of the technology and our open platform woven into the core player experience. 

In total, there are over two dozen game projects in active development integrating the Forte platform, split roughly 50/50 between existing and bespoke games. We specifically chose projects that cover an extensive range of genres—competitive, role-playing, simulation, strategy, sports, etc.—to help ensure our platform will work and benefit as many games as possible. 

Over the last year, our team has been working closely with our partners to explore, validate, and integrate Forte-enabled game features and economic designs. Some of them augment trusted, proven concepts like earning cosmetics and rewards, while others more deeply explore the possibilities that our platform opens up: guild ownership and governance, in-game player-to-player services, and something we call “community lore” (we’ll have more to say about this down the road). But first and foremost, all of them are of service to great player experiences. 

What’s to come

We’ll be announcing the next wave of developer partners in the very near future. As much as we’d like to, we can’t share details just yet. But we can say that each one has had an immense impact in their respective fields. Some of you might be surprised by the announcement, but you will not be disappointed. 

Looking further out, we’ll be unveiling more partners, announcing their games, detailing platform integrations, and more. We also have some exciting creative projects that we’ll talk more about in the new year. 

With regard to the platform, we’ll have a lot to share after it moves out of pre-alpha—and not just in terms of features. As mentioned, the Forte platform comprises multiple components that will carry developers through token design ideation to token economy operation, and transform players from devoted customers of their games to aligned, economic collaborators in their worlds. 

This is a tremendous undertaking that goes beyond digital asset ownership or scarcity, and involves things like protocol and economy design, market making, compliance, tool creation, player services, and game development. Our plan is to openly share our learnings, economy designs, and other resources as soon as they’re properly validated, and to open source applicable platform components so that anyone can benefit from them.

In closing

Many technologies used by games (3D graphics, surround sound, haptics, etc.) have an obvious and immediate impact for players, because they generally work to amplify player immersion via our senses. Our platform is different in that it works to amplify community alignment via economics. 

We believe many of the issues that exist in the game community today can be meaningfully addressed by enabling economic systems within games that encourage players and developers to work together. These systems offer immense creative possibilities as well. An open, transparent infrastructure is what’s missing today, and is exactly what we’re building. 

The next generation of game hardware is just around the corner. As players, we’re excited for the better graphics, faster load times, and other quality of life improvements they’ll bring. But as industry participants, we’re committed to building the foundation for the next era of games—one that will be defined by the new economic opportunities it brings to the world. 

Follow @FortePlatform for the latest updates.

PayID: An Open Payment Standard for All

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PayID

We created the Forte platform to empower game developers in creating more equitable and sustainable business models. Their player communities will benefit from the platform, too, through novel game designs, the ability to trade and sell digital goods on marketplaces, and more. A key part of this next generation of game experiences will be a payment system that allows money to be easily sent and received around the world. 

Today, we’re excited to announce our commitment to natively support PayID in the Forte platform. PayID allows you to send and receive money across any payment network using just a simple ID that’s easy to remember, versus a routing, credit card, or other unintuitive number. 

Importantly, PayID aligns with our vision of an open and interoperable future: it is free, open source, and works across any payment network. Moreover, PayID has the security, privacy, and compliance features necessary for a global payment system built into it. 

By streamlining the process of sending and receiving payments—and making it simple to integrate—game developers and players will be able to more easily reap the rewards of their efforts, and help community-driven game economies flourish. 

We look forward to sharing more on our support for PayID in the coming months. For more information go to payid.org.

Our Next Five Partners

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Forte Announces Next Five Developer Partners

“What does a blockchain game look like?” 

This is a question we often hear from a wide spectrum of people including players, developers, business people, blockchain enthusiasts, and more. The truth is, a modern game that uses blockchain technology looks like any existing game on the market today, regardless of genre or game platform. The multitude of technologies that power a game—blockchain included—are simply a means to an end: great player experiences.  

But there is a distinction to be made between games powered by blockchain technology versus those that aren’t. That distinction is largely an experiential one rooted in the alignment of incentives between players and game creators. This unprecedented shift in the player-developer dynamic will manifest in games in different ways as each game creator designs around the unique benefits blockchain technology brings to games, e.g., asset ownership, item provenance, the ability to integrate peripheral markets.

At Forte, we firmly believe that blockchain technology by itself is not enough. Engaging player experiences must accompany it and are paramount to bringing the benefits of blockchain technology to the mainstream. That’s why we’re partnering with the best game creators in the world—ones that have an intimate understanding of how to harness cutting-edge technology to create engrossing, rewarding, and innovative game experiences for their player communities. As experts of their craft, they will elevate modern games from pure entertainment experiences, to ones that will take on a new relevance in players’ lives through community economics. 

Today, we’re absolutely delighted to announce our next five game developer partners.

Based in Alpharetta, GA, Hi-Rez Studios is longtime leader in the games industry, with successful titles across every major game platform including PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. As one of the first Western developers to recognize, embrace, and successfully implement free-to-play and games-as-a-service business models, the studio has shown it has a prescient eye when it comes to new trends and technologies in games. And most importantly, the studio puts great experiences first, as evidenced by the 70M people around the world that have played its games.

Netmarble is one of the world’s largest game organizations, consisting of nearly a dozen first-rate game development studios, and offices in eight different countries. The company epitomizes what it means to be a global games network by not only reaching millions of players around the world, but by also working with local developers in different regions, thoughtfully localizing and culturalizing its games, and even organizing education and mentorship programs. Netmarble is a true giant in the global games space.

A genuine aficionado when it comes to card and board games, Magmic has developed over 100 titles with nearly 250M total game downloads. The award-winning studio has worked with the biggest brand holders in the card and board game category including Hasbro and Mattel, and has developed its own portfolio of successful games as well. With nearly two decades of experience developing games for mobile that reach millions of players, Magmic has a degree of experience and wisdom in its domain that few others can match.

Composed of seasoned developers and leaders from some of the biggest and best game companies in the world, nWay has a clear vision of how new technology can be used to not only improve the player experience, but also the developer experience. The company specializes in building games and technology for competitive multiplayer games. Its laser focus over the years on one of the most exciting and popular genres / formats in games has helped nWay grow into a master of its realm.

Founded in 2016, DECA Games is an indie games publisher that focuses on building upon beloved games with loyal fan communities. DECA’s veteran team uses its extensive expertise in live services and operations to create ongoing, unique experiences that foster trust with its players, and keep its game communities active for years after launch. With more and more game communities staying active for 15+ years, DECA’s unique skill set is a boon for both developers and players.

Our five new partners join our previously announced ones, Disruptor Beam, Other Ocean, and Kongregate. Beyond the sheer privilege of working with some of the best game creators in the industry, we’re thrilled to see so much diversity among the partners in terms of game platform experience, company size, and player communities. Expect to see the same level of diversity in the games themselves. We’ll be sharing game titles and details, additional partners, and more in the coming months so stay tuned. 

Be sure to follow Hi-Rez Studios, Netmarble, Magmic, nWay, DECA Games, and Forte for news on upcoming game announcements, platform updates, and more.

If you’re a game developer interested in working on the Forte platform, get in touch!

Kongregate

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Earlier this year, we announced a $100M developer fund to help accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology in games. We believe blockchain will unlock new economic and creative opportunities for the games community at large, and have been building easy-to-use tools using open protocols like Interledger so developers can properly — and effectively — harness the potential that blockchain offers games.

But we haven’t been doing it alone. We’ve been working closely with a diverse and immensely talented group of developer partners to help ensure that our platform technologies meet their needs, while also leveraging our experience in economy and game design to help them build the best experiences for their respective player communities. Kongregate is one of those developers.

Games have an incredible ability to move us: we feel ecstatic when finally topping a long-standing high score; we feel triumphant when finally beating a boss battle that, until the very moment of victory, seemed insurmountable; and we feel a deep sense of loss when a character we’re emotionally invested in perishes in an engrossing narrative. 

Games can also move us in a more literal way: they bring us together as players. We used to see it in the massive crowds at local arcades, then later at home during the console revolution of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Today, games bring us together online. Sometimes this is playing cooperatively with each other, and other times playing competitively against each other, like when we’re vying for the top spot in an esports competition. 

Sometimes, though, games bring us together through online communities. Kongregate is one such community. In 2006, the long-running gaming portal set out to provide independent developers with an open platform to host their games and engage directly with their player communities—a refreshingly progressive and prescient move at the time given today’s gaming landscape. Over a decade later, the portal’s become a resounding success, and currently hosts over 125K games, all free for players around the world to enjoy. 

Kongregate has grown to be much more than its enormously popular web portal, though. Today, they are also a game developer, publisher, and PC games platform responsible for over 250M game downloads, multiple Editor’s Choice titles, and a combined community of over 8M players—each a remarkable achievement on its own, but extraordinary together. 

A few of Kongregate’s award-winning titles. Source: Kongregate

While Kongregate’s track record speaks for itself, where we really connected with them was in their mission: to nurture the growth and health of independent game developers and player communities. 

At Forte, the tools and services we’re building for developers directly support this mission. It also aligns with our games history as well, as our team members spent the last two decades helping game developers by creating industry-standard tools, and fostering thriving player communities through deep player engagement. 

We’re building the Forte platform to jumpstart a new generation of games where the player-developer relationship is both healthier and more sustainable. As such, we intimately understand, genuinely appreciate, and fully support Kongregate’s mission. And it’s why they’re one of our first developer partners in bringing blockchain technology to the masses. 

Kongregate will be using the Forte platform to create an engaging community program that lets players earn rewards by completing unique challenges, playing games on their portal, and more. These blockchain-based rewards will be fully controlled by the players, and will help strengthen Kongregate’s developer and players communities in ways not possible until now. Expect to hear more details in the coming months. 

We’re absolutely delighted to be partnering with Kongregate, and look forward to seeing how blockchain technology will help bring their developers and players closer together than ever before. 

Be sure to follow Kongregate and Forte for upcoming partner news, platform updates, and more.