Back to collectionA Studio’s Year Ends with a Chain Question Unanswered
Background: On the last day of 2021, rain falls in San Francisco. Today: BTC closes near USD 46,000, up 60% for the year but down by a third from its November peak. Impact and next: The year has left more than games and funding: it has produced specific dissatisfaction with existing chains.
A creative chronicle combining project history with imagined scenes. Story events are not verification of network activity.
Background: On the last day of 2021, rain falls in San Francisco. The narrator looks back at a studio split between garage and office: game prototypes, a community, and an idea for a chain have taken shape, but whether to build one remains a question on the whiteboard.
Today: BTC closes near USD 46,000, up 60% for the year but down by a third from its November peak. Final Form has a working vertical slice; LAMOverse is in preproduction, imagined as a two-and-a-half-minute match; a framework agreement with Tyson’s side is waiting for public announcement next year. About USD 8.5 million in funding is budgeted for two bear-market years. Discord has 2,300 members and over a million posts; the @XAI_GAMES account, registered in January, still has fewer than a thousand followers. The whiteboard lists 17 “problems with chains,” from confirmations disrupting game flow in January to players not needing to know what gas is in September. Axie showed that games could bring millions on-chain, but first built Ronin. Ethereum burns, layer twos make promises, and sidechains run exposed. After trying the available answers, the studio keeps its own “ideal game chain” specification, version 1.0, with the note “Someday this will come in handy.” After the year-end party, the red-circled question remains: “Should we build one ourselves?”
Impact and next: The year has left more than games and funding: it has produced specific dissatisfaction with existing chains. The specification turns complaints into a starting point for discussion, but makes no decision for the team. The bull-market noise is receding from its peak, though most have not noticed. The studio crosses into the new year with drawings and a question; whether it will act remains unknown. The year’s record ends here, and the winter chapter begins.