While many deal in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies because it is requires no third parties, its value is rising, and it’s 100% secure, some people just use it to buy cats. These cats aren’t mammals; they’re digital, made up of unique blockchain code. Cryptokitties have different breeds and distinct features based on their resulting Ethereum blockchain segment. For a price, owners can breed their cryptocats with others and pass down desirable ‘cattributes.’ This is no web app or downloadable sim. All of the CryptoKitties husbandry practices occur via Ethereum blockchain logic. The website serves as the interface.

If any of this sounds confusing, or you want to start your own blockchain-based game, we will refer you to CryptoZombies. It was developed by a team at Loom Network in order to teach would-be cryptogamers exactly how the sausage gets made.

How It Works

You do not need an advanced knowledge of programming to realize your cryptogaming fantasy. The developers say that a knowledge of Solidity (the programming language used), programming and blockchain technology always helps, but there is no prerequisite for this online educational tool.

The learning material is pretty much half coding, half crypto-collectible strategy game. In the first lesson, learners build their zombie factory which will later produce their zombie army. Each zombie has an automatically-assigned unique DNA which translates into a different physical appearance. Loom is still in the building phase and one new lesson will be released every week.

Each lesson focuses on a specific area and takes you through the basics of Solidity and how to apply it to gaming on the Ethereum network. All lesson modules and coding in Solidity occurs right in the learner’s browser window. What’s more, CryptoZombies is 100% free.

As learners progress, they will be rewarded with unlockable achievements and stickers. Lesson 1 can be completed in one sitting and, by the end, the developers promise, “you’ll know enough to officially call yourself a Solidity developer!”

According to the developers at Loom, this is just the tip of the iceberg. They plan to build a platform dedicated entirely to running decentralized applications (dApps as they are known) of any kind on Ethereum side-chains. These will undoubtedly include more than a couple cryptogames. Because of the decentralized nature of these apps, which are built with segments of blockchain owned by different users, the scale they can achieve is kind of mind bottling. The folks at Loom hope to exceed the scope of StarCraft with their future games.

“Games are one of the areas where we think blockchain will really revolutionize things,” the company writes.

“So we built CryptoZombies to help educate and inspire the next generation of blockchain game devs.”

The Wide World of the Ethereum Blockchain and Decentralized Apps

Blockchain-based gaming has already been around for years. One of the most popular is called Etheria, a minecraft-like game in which players can pay one ether for one block, mine it, and build. Because it is owned by its users, it can never be taken down or altered.

Numerous other dApps exist. Many, such as TenX and Raiden Network, seek to facilitate the transfer of cryptocurrency. Others, however, bear little relation to cryptocurrency. Gnosis, for example, is an unofficial polling platform where users can ask any question they like. EtherTweet is a communication dApp.

Wow. This is a lot. It’s time to take a step back and get a drink of water. When you’re ready to jump back in to the world of the blockchain and cryptogaming, CryptoZombies is by no means a bad place to start.