We’ve witnessed a couple of games using blockchain technology as their backbone. There’s Skyweaver, the Hearthstone-competing card game that utilizes the blockchain to offer players with actual ownership of the digital cards that they draw. And then there’s The Sandbox, the far more ambitious digital platform that utilizes the blockchain to offer game designers exclusive ownership rights to whatever they produce for The Sandbox, whether it be game assets or new games. Now Polyient Games has joined the bandwagon.

There’s a real drive to get blockchain within gaming these days, and Polyient needs to be on the ground floor. Polyient Games is not a new studio that’s building a blockchain-based video game. It’s an investment firm that’s watching to help other technology companies develop into the blockchain space. They’re already funding in Curb, a San Francisco-based digital warehouse specializing in the storage of NFTs–Non-Fungible Tokens, or “nifties.”

NFT-focused @PolyientGames is integrating #ChainlinkVRF to assure transparency for the minting and random distribution of PGFK rewards—a membership #NFT that provides lifetime rewards & perks to holders within the Polyient Games Ecosystem. https://t.co/6LuiTyvuYV

— Chainlink (@chainlink) June 29, 2020

NFTs are the critical ingredient to blockchain gaming. Blockchain itself can be summarized as just a ledger that retains track of who owns what. This enables gamers to own their digital loot, whether it’s an exclusive skin for their digital avatar or a card from an online card game.

But NFTs are the digital things themselves–they’re the different bits of code that provide these digital items to survive and trade on a blockchain without getting lost or corrupted. NFTs commenced with the Ethereum collectibles game CryptoKitties back in 2017, and since then, the technology has only grown in popularity.

“These blockchain games, driven by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles, are unlocking an entirely new economic system that enables gamers to earn real money while they play,” says Polyient founder Bob Robertson in a statement. “This is unprecedented, and Polyient Games’ mission is to help bring this technology into mainstream gaming.”

Who expected this 4 years ago when we minted some @CryptoKitties? #NFTs @BoredApeYC @ParisHilton @jimmyfallon @FallonTonight https://t.co/Kgll94AGIX

— Pranksy 📦 (@pranksy) January 25, 2022

This is all well and good, but the drive to build a successful blockchain-based game is forgetting an essential part of game development: it has to be a good game. All the blockchains and NFTs in the world won’t amount to anything if developers lose focus on what constitutes a good game–namely if it’s fun.