Paima Studios is a Web3 gaming company focused on creating blockchain-based games and applications. The Paima Engine, their primary product, facilitates Web3 game development by simplifying blockchain complexities. Paima Studios aims to increase accessibility to Web3 gaming, introducing stateful NFTs that improve player ownership and in-game experiences. ^[1]

Overview

Paima is a Web3 Engine optimized for games, gamification, and autonomous worlds, allowing rapid development of Web3 applications. It enables building onchain games with web2 skills and protects users in case of hacks, facilitating worry-free development for brands. Paima also supports cross-wallet gameplay, deploying games on one chain for playability across multiple blockchains. It accelerates development timelines for weekly releases and supports any EVM chain, offering a wide feature set for multichain support. ^[2]

Paima Engine

Paima Engine enables developers to apply their Web2 programming skills to build trustless Web3 games or apps. Developers can use their knowledge in JavaScript, relational databases, and other components of the Web2 stack while leveraging Layer-2 blockchain technology with Paima Engine. ^[3]

Paima is a framework for creating app-specific Layer 2s (L2s) as sovereign rollups. Apps publish transactions to a blockchain for ordering and data availability but use their own code to determine the correct app state. Inputs are stored on-chain for determinism, the function definition is packaged as an executable for running the app, and the resulting state machine is obtained after applying the state transition. The outcome is queryable through an indexer integrated within the game node. ^[2]

Features

Templates

Templates in game development streamline the process by providing pre-built foundational logic and structure for various game categories. Traditional blockchain game development is laborious, often taking months or even years to produce a basic MVP. Paima Studios aims to address this issue by offering Paima Game Templates, which enable experienced developers to create complex game frameworks that can be reused and built upon quickly. By leveraging these templates, developers can significantly reduce the time and effort required to bootstrap new projects, allowing them to ship MVPs in days rather than months or years. This approach not only accelerates the development process but also grants developers the flexibility to customize and expand upon the templates to meet their project's specific requirements. ^[3]

Stateful NFTs

Stateful NFTs, introduced by Paima Engine, enhance the functionality of NFTs in gaming. Unlike traditional NFTs, which lack dynamic features, Stateful NFTs allow digital assets to evolve alongside players, offering a more immersive gaming experience. By attaching an in-game state to a user's NFT, Paima Engine enables the development of sophisticated Web3 games previously unattainable. This innovation merges the depth of MMOs with blockchain security, paving the way for a new class of games. ^[3]

Stateful NFTs are NFTs with evolving states attached. This allows them to upgrade, level up, gain equipment, and more over time, creating unique gameplay experiences for users. The game's items and equipment can also be represented and contained within Stateful NFTs, offering new possibilities for how players experience the games they invest significant time in. ^[4]

Paima Whirpool: Cross-Chain Play

Paima Whirlpool facilitates Cross-Chain Play, allowing games to reach users across various blockchain ecosystems. This feature eliminates the need for complex smart contracts tied to a single blockchain, enabling developers to target multiple ecosystems like Ethereum, Solana, Algorand, and Cardano. ^[3]

Decentralized Layer-2 Technology

Paima Engine integrates games as decentralized Layer-2s, enabling developers to transition into rollups/L2 technology without delving into underlying mechanics. This approach offers benefits such as reduced transaction fees or concealed fees from users, cross-chain play, features like Stateful NFTs and passive on-chain time, and compatibility with classical databases and the Web2 stack. ^[3]

Through research and development, Paima Studios has simplified the development process for game developers while retaining Web3 benefits. Paima Engine-based Layer-2s inherit the security of the underlying blockchain they are deployed on and eliminate bridging/custodial risks typically associated with other rollup Layer-2 solutions. Paima Studios handles Web3 complexities, allowing developers to focus on creating engaging games. ^[3]

Data Projections

Paima enables the evolution of state machines based on updates from Layer 1 (L1), including new blocks or transactions, updates to contracts on L1, historical on-chain state access, updates from other Layer 2s or rollups on the blockchain, passive time and timers (game ticks), and complex transition rules, allowing for event-driven or loop-driven architectures. For instance, utilizing the L1 blockchain as a source of randomness eliminates the need for each game to independently implement a randomness oracle. Paima Engine enables access to more data through projections than can typically be accessed natively by a smart contract, as smart contract platforms often impose strict limitations on data access. Sovereign rollups enable the projection of L1 state to L2, facilitating this capability. ^[2]

Sharded Rollups

Paima enables computation within a state machine across multiple chains, distributing an application's state across various locations. Developers can deploy their game to a cost-effective chain while accessing NFT marketplaces and DeFi liquidity from larger networks without a bridge, as they can natively monitor both chains. Importantly, this maintains the sovereignty of the game logic. This is achieved by aggregating data projections from different networks into the same state machine, allowing games to scale similarly to DEX aggregators by combining features from multiple ecosystems to enhance the user experience. ^[2]

Parallelization

Paima's state machine L2s support running updates in parallel, a feature not available in the EVM. This enables games and apps to scale massively, such as having simultaneous PVP matches or multiple maps in an MMO. ^[2]

Non-custodial L2s

Through its projective rollup support, Paima allows users to retain custody of their assets while using games and apps built with Paima. This ensures that user assets on Layer 1 (L1) remain secure, even in the event of a hack or if all batchers for a game go offline. Consequently, Paima provides a secure option for brands deploying on-chain applications with minimal reputation risk in case of a security breach. Technically, this is achieved through self-sequencing to ensure liveness and the absence of proposer failures. Additionally, this feature aids in user acquisition, as many users are hesitant to bridge their NFTs from L1 to L2 due to security concerns associated with bridges. Lastly, it enhances liquidity and composability by avoiding the need to split assets between L1 and L2. ^[2]

Financing of Decentralized Games

Paima allows games to subsidize gameplay, but they can also opt for users to pay a fee to submit moves, the standard model for L2s. This enables DAOs to gain funding for game or app development. ^[2]

Games

Wrath of The Jungle: Tower Defense

Wrath of the Jungle is a strategic PvP Tower Defense game game. Users have the option to defend the jungle alongside its animal inhabitants or to align with the undead, summoning crypts for domination. This classic game genre expands into the realm of Web3 gaming through Paima Engine. ^[5]

Jungle Wars: NFT Rumble

"NFT Rumble: Jungle Wars" is a casual PvP game demonstrating Paima Engine's technology. Players can test their strategic skills, experiencing a new model of Web3 gaming. ^[6]

Tic Tac Toe

Classic games like Tic Tac Toe are useful starting points for developers to learn Paima Engine basics. It's one of the first games they can test upon accessing Paima Engine. ^[3]

Chess

Chess allows developers to explore complex game logic with Paima Engine. ^[3]

Stateful NFT Auto Battler

In the upcoming Paima Studio game, Stateful NFTs will be central to providing players with MMO-style mechanics and autobattler gameplay. ^[3]