Cardano Racers - Driving Daily Engagement

In this post, we showcase Cardano Racers, one of the first games built on Cardano. Launched in March 2024, the game is set on a mission to boost engagement and encourage active participation in the Cardano ecosystem. The game can be played at https://www.cardanoracers.com/

What is the Game About?

As one can imagine by reading the name, it is all about racing. Car racing! Here is how it works:

Firstly, to participate in the game, players must purchase two NFTs, one representing a race car and the other representing a driver. Each NFT has four attributes on a scale of 1 to 10,000. For the race car, the attributes are acceleration, cornering, aerodynamics, and maximum speed. For the driver, the attributes are experience, aggressiveness, reflexes, and luck. When buying an NFT, a random combination of stats is assigned to the NFT during the minting process.

Make a purchase

The next step is to pick one of the scheduled races and get ready to compete. When entering a race, users pay an entry fee and select a combination of car and driver among their collection and register them on-chain to participate in the race. This selection can be informed by the configuration of the racetrack where the race will take place or the expected atmospheric conditions.

Choose a race

Upon successful registration, the player is ready to participate in the race and play the game. The current format of the game is a combination of a simulation and a video game consisting of a single lap of the racetrack. Once all players have completed their laps, it is time to reveal the champion! Both the lap time from the simulation and the videogame are combined and the table is formed. Of course, prizes are distributed to players with the fastest lap times!

Drive!

Win prizes

Accelerating Growth

As fun as the current iteration of the game is, it is time to put the pedal to the metal and take the game to the next level! Increased interaction drives engagement and increased engagement drives interaction, so leveraging a scaling technology like Hydra seems only natural. This has the potential to power a whole new multiplayer experience where thousands of players interact with the game in real-time.

Running the game on-chain, racing live against other players, live betting…, the possibilities are endless! As a first step, the game is looking to add support for NFT auctions that can leverage Hydra to increase the throughput of bids, allowing players to bid for limited edition or rare cars and drivers fairly. This can increase engagement not only while playing the game, but also open the door for an exciting fight for getting the best talent and the best machines, just as in the real racing world!

Previous work by MLabs and Ikigai on Hydra auctions (https://github.com/mlabs-haskell/hydra-auction and https://github.com/mlabs-haskell/hydra-auction-offchain ) looks promising for a smooth integration, providing a perfect example of how composability can have an exponential impact and allow projects to grow faster.

Building Together

Since early 2023, MLabs has helped the Cardano Racers team build the game by developing the on-chain scripts and all the machinery necessary to build the transactions needed to interact with the game. This allowed for a quick development cycle resulting in the first racing game being deployed on the Cardano blockchain! Following the launch, early gamers have engaged in weekly competitions, creating monthly leaderboards and providing valuable feedback.

To turbocharge the development efforts, the Cardano Racers and MLabs have put together a Catalyst Fund13 proposal to address the early pain points and pursue the Hydra endeavor. The proposal can be found at https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/cardano/idea/130299. While we would appreciate your support, we also invite you to become part of the Cardano Racers community and join the racing thrill. Let the fun continue!