The use of this site and the content contained therein is governed by the Terms of Use. When you use this site you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and that you accept and will be bound by the terms hereof and such terms as may be modified from time to time.
All text, graphics, audio, design and other works on the site are the copyrighted works of nasscom unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content on the site is for personal use only and may be downloaded provided the material is kept intact and there is no violation of the copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights. Any alteration of the material or use of the material contained in the site for any other purpose is a violation of the copyright of nasscom and / or its affiliates or associates or of its third-party information providers. This material cannot be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for non-personal use without obtaining the prior permission from nasscom.
The nasscom Members login is for the reference of only registered nasscom Member Companies.
nasscom reserves the right to modify the terms of use of any service without any liability. nasscom reserves the right to take all measures necessary to prevent access to any service or termination of service if the terms of use are not complied with or are contravened or there is any violation of copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
From time to time nasscom may supplement these terms of use with additional terms pertaining to specific content (additional terms). Such additional terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.
Disclaimer
The Company information provided on the nasscom web site is as per data collected by companies. nasscom is not liable on the authenticity of such data.
nasscom has exercised due diligence in checking the correctness and authenticity of the information contained in the site, but nasscom or any of its affiliates or associates or employees shall not be in any way responsible for any loss or damage that may arise to any person from any inadvertent error in the information contained in this site. The information from or through this site is provided "as is" and all warranties express or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any service or channel, including without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are disclaimed. nasscom and its affiliates and associates shall not be liable, at any time, for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the site. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation.
nasscom or its affiliates or associates or its employees do not provide any judgments or warranty in respect of the authenticity or correctness of the content of other services or sites to which links are provided. A link to another service or site is not an endorsement of any products or services on such site or the site.
The content provided is for information purposes alone and does not substitute for specific advice whether investment, legal, taxation or otherwise. nasscom disclaims all liability for damages caused by use of content on the site.
All responsibility and liability for any damages caused by downloading of any data is disclaimed.
nasscom reserves the right to modify, suspend / cancel, or discontinue any or all sections, or service at any time without notice.
For any grievances under the Information Technology Act 2000, please get in touch with Grievance Officer, Mr. Anirban Mandal at data-query@nasscom.in.
Having access to specific and adequate amounts of data is vital for game application development. Data makes a game more functional, improves its design, identifies difficulties, and ultimately increases the user base. Subgraphs, powered by the Graph Protocol, are an excellent solution for indexing bulks of blockchain data and enabling smooth querying, allowing the creation of a robust, highly engaging, and feature-rich game.
If you are an enterprise or individual project building a game application, this guide provides a detailed overview of using Subgraphs for gaming apps development. We will explore Subgraphs, type of data it indexes for games, how to use it, use cases, and more.
What type of data gaming applications need to index using Subgraphs?
Below are the main types of blockchain data that gaming applications index from Subgraphs to create the best player experience:
Characters and art details: Gaming applications use Subgraph to process unfiltered blockchain data and retrieve specific characters and art details, such as their unique characteristics, rewards, possession of assets, level unlocked, and activities.
Digital asset ownership and transferability: With smart contract reads, you can extract basic information from blockchain, such as the age of certain characters or getting their content URI through ID. Whereas, you cannot query specific data, total assets and ownership type by characteristics. Subgraph indexes of all kinds of data– trivial or non-trivial– allowing gaming applications to query the indexed data via GraphQL calls.
Historical and real-time transaction data: Subgraph indexes bulk historical and real-time transaction data while allowing gaming applications to extract the necessary data for displaying on their game’s interface.
Fetching token balances: Using Subgraphs, your gaming application can aggregate all types of tokens, be it ERC-20 (fungible token), ERC-721 (NFT or non-fungible token), ERC-1155 (semi-fungible tokes), or any other nature of token from player’s accounts and show the aggregated data on the interface.
Community and governance-related data: By querying data related to on-chain governance, such as members’ votes on a specific proposal or changes to the platform’s rules, gaming applications can make informed decisions and improve their governance to make it more player-centric.
Challenges of data indexing in game development
Following are the blockchain data indexing challenges that game application developers may come across:
1. Data extraction complexity:
For Gaming applications, extracting data from blockchain’s large and unorganized databases is very hard. Let’s say you want to query data from Axie Infinity, which game has 2.8 million daily active players- you first need to pull raw data via RPCs and filter it based on your project’s needs. This process is time, resource, and engineering-intensive s at the same time.
2. Complexity of Setting up infrastructure:
The traditional means of extracting blockchain data– whether RPCs or APIs– require you to set up heavy data servers, self-hosting of RPC node, APIs, clients, and specialized hardware and software resources to maintain the whole infrastructure. Setting up all such infrastructure for data extraction is definitely a complex task.
3. Inaqueduate data flow:
Gaming applications are committed to maintaining data flow, ensuring a great player experience despite their huge and constant userbase. However, data retrieval blockchain data through RPC and APIs cannot ensure 100% adequate data flow and standard query speed. This causes interruption to the players and, meanwhile, limits the game’s features and capabilities.
4. Data supply outage:
The server-based data indexing requires constant maintenance and updates. For example, if a game application has to do any modification its data indexing servers, the data supply can be down, ranging from few minutes to hours, which will obviously impact the game and its players’ experience.
5. Parallel data querying:
To build a competitive, new-age game application, you need to extract and utilize data from more than one blockchain. For example, you can host a game tournament or virtual events that need to track data on multiple networks. Doing this is easier through ‘parallel’ data indexing, which requires you to set up multiple servers and infrastructures to manage them, along with hardware and technical resources.
Subgraph’s solution to bypass the above challenges
Faster data indexing and filtering:
Despite the growing user base and frequent fluctuation in data, Subgraphs for gaming apps ensures fast indexing of all types of data with the highest volume of up to 30,000,000+ monthly queries. This is done through hundreds of indexers parsing the unprocessed blockchain data and modifying it in a readable format.
Option to choose managed service:
The Graph offers Hosted Services, which is an alternative to the hassle of setting up infrastructure or getting the hardware requirements. It’s a low-cost, production-ready infrastructure where you can deploy gaming Subgraph and only pay for queries. However, this service will shut down by 2023.
Consistent, 24/7 data flow:
Subgraphs on the Graphs network are optimized to keep data on your gaming applications flowing 24/7 without needing any backup servers or extensive resources.
Superior uptime and performance:
The Graph network ensures 99.99% uptime for your gaming application, eliminating any chances of downtime or interruption in data supply. All your queries will be served reliably and instantly.
Seamless management of multiple Subgraphs:
Whether you opt for The Graph’s decentralized network or the hosted service, you can create and manage a range of Subgraphs to serve the need for unique data indexing. Plus, all your Subgraphs will equally offer fast data indexing and retrieval.
How game applications can query data from Subgraphs?
Game applications can index and query data using Subgraph in the following three main ways:
The Graph’s Subgraphs for gaming apps allows for creation of custom Subgraphs and their deployment to Graph’s decentralized network. To do this, you need to build a smart contract, get GRT tokens, a crypto wallet, and hardware/software resources.
The Graph’s Explorer offers a range of gaming Subgraphs built and published by Subgraph developers. If your game’s data aligns with any of these subgraphs, you can query the indexed data and use it for your game development.
Hosted Service Subgraph is a Graph-managed service that allows web3 applications to deploy and use Subgraphs without needing GRT tokens, run nodes yourself, or get curators and indexers. However, this service will be shutting down completely in 2023. Knowing this, web3 projects are migrating their Subgraphs to the Graph’s decentralized network or opting for third-party Hosted Subgraph services.
Want to learn more about how web3 applications can query data using Subgraph? Refer to our in-depth guide linked below:
Popular Gaming Subgraphs deployed on the Graph protocol
Knowing that subgraphs are the greatest and most feasible way to index and query web3 data, various gaming subgraphs have been deployed on The Graph network. Decentraland marketplace subgraph, Reboot gaming, Aavegotchi Subgraph, Decentral Games DG, Axolittles, and Nifty league are some of the popular names that are querying a range of blockchain data such as asset ownership records, token balances, and rewards.
About The Author
Dr. Ravi Chamria is co-founder CEO of Zeeve Inc, an Enterprise Blockchain company. He has an experience of 18+ years in IT consulting spanning across Fintech, InsureTech, Supply Chain and eCommerce. He is an executive MBA from IIM, Lucknow and a prolific speaker on emerging technologies like Blockchain, IoT and AI/ML.
Passionate About: Blockchain, Supply Chain Management, Digital Lending, Digital Payments, AI/ML, IoT
That the contents of third-party articles/blogs published here on the website, and the interpretation of all information in the article/blogs such as data, maps, numbers, opinions etc. displayed in the article/blogs and views or the opinions expressed within the content are solely of the author's; and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of NASSCOM or its affiliates in any manner. NASSCOM does not take any liability w.r.t. content in any manner and will not be liable in any manner whatsoever for any kind of liability arising out of any act, error or omission. The contents of third-party article/blogs published, are provided solely as convenience; and the presence of these articles/blogs should not, under any circumstances, be considered as an endorsement of the contents by NASSCOM in any manner; and if you chose to access these articles/blogs , you do so at your own risk.
Zeeve is an enterprise-grade Blockchain Infrastructure Automation Platform. Join the growing list of clients that trust us with their Blockchain initiatives
Personal chats, pictures and videos data are stored on centralized servers. As a result, central servers could see what has been contained in the message. But end-to-end encryption safeguards against such odds by giving complete privacy while using…
Blockchain technology has undoubtedly revolutionized various industries, promising enhanced security, transparency, and decentralization. In the rapidly evolving landscape of blockchain technology, one of the most pressing challenges faced by…
The concept of metaverse development has been gaining significant attention in recent years. It represents a virtual world where users can interact with a computer-based environment and other users in real time. With the rise of blockchain…
The rapid emergence of blockchain has favored many industries. The disrupting technology allows you to build in public and makes your work trustless and secure. It makes the connection between companies and their users better.
Among many of the…
NFT technology is currently transforming digital ownership across various industries, including the art world, gaming, fashion, major businesses, and high-profile celebrity merchandise. However, the impact of NFTs goes far beyond owning digital…
There is an ongoing effort to improve the core technologies of organizations around the world. In recent years, more and more companies are switching to decentralized networks. To let the enterprises, individuals, and investors move one step…