Ryu Games builds Web3 video game marketplace on AWS

Today, more players are accessing the latest video game releases online as digital downloads, instead of heading into a brick-and-mortar store. This shift has reduced steps between game developers and end users, enabling players to access the latest titles and downloadable game updates from the comfort of their homes. Now, Ryu Games is taking the digital distribution model a step further, bringing it to Web3 experiences with their new offering called Flame, which launched earlier this year.

Flame is a non-custodial, multi-chain wallet and game launcher, designed for games that use blockchain technology, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or cryptocurrency. It leverages a robust tech stack with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and blockchain infrastructure provider, thirdweb, at its core, making it easy for game developers of all levels to launch, manage, and monetize Web3 experiences across gaming ecosystems.

“Gamers around the world are spending billions of dollars on video game currency and items they don’t actually own. Blockchain games offer a way to take true ownership of your game and create real-world economic value and opportunity for anyone with an internet connection. Flame streamlines the launch of blockchain games, making it easier for developers to release their games and have them be discoverable, while providing a great user experience that also inspires trust,” said Ryu Games Chief Product Officer Rick Ellis, who invented PC gaming store Steam for Valve.

Launched in beta in early 2023, Flame is a connected ecosystem of multiple video game launchers, rather than a single digital storefront, which limits features to one, specific gaming ecosystem. Effectively, Ryu Games is trying to build a network of launchers that work together and support player-owned assets, games, and communities. As the blockchain gaming industry is still taking shape, the team is broadly focused on supporting Web3-native games with interesting mechanics and a cryptocurrency component, with a goal of enabling players to buy, trade, and sell in-game items and currencies outside of those games. Since cryptocurrency banking is done on an open network, it simplifies how platforms like Flame build and connect with games. Presently, the solution is solving for Web3 distribution challenges and providing SDKs for integration to make it easier for developers to onboard gamers; however, the team recognizes there are many other new technologies reshaping the gaming industry beyond blockchain and cryptocurrency.

“We knew that we wanted to use AWS for our traditional tech stack, like our servers and databases, especially when we started focusing on the Web3 space. It gives us infinite scaling, and peace of mind. We can focus on serving our customers and navigating this new tech space, instead of building basic infrastructure,” noted Ryu Games CTO and co-founder Wyatt Mufson. “As a startup, time and focus are our most important assets so anything that supports us in those areas is extremely critical. We will almost always use AWS services over building in house.”

Flame’s current tech stack includes Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) for running Kubernetes on AWS, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances for computing, Amazon DynamoDB NoSQL database, and Amazon CloudWatch for infrastructure monitoring. Ryu Games also leverages products from Web3 tool developer, thirdweb, to integrate smart contracts and seamless blockchain infrastructure into Flame. An AWS partner, thirdweb offers an all-in-one Web3 development stack with customizable audited smart contracts, blockchain SDKs in every language, and infrastructure for Web3 applications.

Flame lets game developers create decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) which can be used to distribute ownership of the game amongst its players—empowering them to participate in its core decision-making and development. Ryu Games used the thirdweb SDK and its pre-built SignatureDrop smart contract to integrate this into Flame’s UI—enabling game developers to create DAOs with fully-customizable NFTs that can represent different member roles, voting power, and tiers of ownership. Players can then claim or purchase the NFTs with just an email and a credit card, automatically generating a wallet for them after purchase for a seamless user experience. Using the thirdweb SDK’s native Paper Wallet integration, this means that any user can interact with the game even if they don’t already have a Web3 wallet or have never purchased cryptocurrency before.

Ryu Games anticipates around 60 games will be live on Flame by the end of the year, including recognizable IP as well as indie titles. By building Flame on AWS, these games will be ready to scale to global audiences from day one.

“We don’t want to solve for the millionth customer out of the gate, but at the same time, we want to be sure that if a game takes off, the backend will scale and nothing will break,” concluded Ross Krasner, Ryu Games’ CEO and co-founder. “We’re committed to the ethos of Web3 and decentralization, and are happy to see AWS support in this area as well. Using AWS services has streamlined our development experience in a way that allows us to focus on our core product and customers.”

To learn more about game development solutions on AWS, visit: https://aws.amazon.com/games