CASE STUDY · Educational Web3 Game
Blockchain Botany
A casual gardening game that teaches blockchain concepts to students and crypto newcomers — a playable MVP for web, iOS and Android built by BloodNexus in Unity.
- Client
- EdTech founder, USA
- Platforms
- Web · iOS · Android
- Engine
- Unity (single codebase)
- Backend
- Custom player state, inventory & ledger
- Our role
- Game design, development, art pipeline
The brief
The founder needed a game that could explain wallets, transactions and proof-of-stake to anyone from middle-schoolers to adult crypto beginners — and a working demo to show investors, fast.
We designed the gardening loop first, then mapped each blockchain idea onto something the player already does: the seed bank is a wallet, a harvest is a transaction, and staking a plant locks it for a bigger reward.
Challenges we solved
Teach without lecturing
Concepts are introduced only after the player has already done them, through nine contextual tips and an in-game guidebook of 18+ terms.
App store crypto rules
Web3 mechanics are simulated on our own backend for phase one, so the game passes Apple and Google review — and the ledger can be swapped for a real chain later.
Two business models, one codebase
Separate consumer (free-to-play with purchases) and classroom (closed-loop) builds come from the same Unity project.
Investor deadline
We cut scope hard — chat, voting, leaderboards and on-chain features moved to phase two — to ship a real playable build, not a mockup.
What we built
- Plant → grow → harvest loop with rarity timers
- Five rarity tiers and seed-combination unlocks
- Staking that locks plants for 12–72 hours
- Community gardens and referrals
- Martian Diamonds in-game currency
- 15+ plants across three growth stages
Results
- Playable MVP delivered on schedule with all core systems live
- Five Web3 concepts turned into gameplay
- Live demo used in the client's funding round; classroom pilots underway
Developed by BloodNexus Studio as development partner to NipsApp Game Studios.
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