Xander Solana

Right. I went quiet for a bit. Here's what happened. 🧵 Six weeks ago I didn't know what a PATH variable was. I just submitted a fully playable, on-chain, deterministic Solana game demo to the @Colosseum Frontier Hackathon. Here's what happened in between.

Just set up my new @solanamobile Seeker, I hold in my hand the device which will one day house Mercs & Mines! The game I submitted to the Colosseum Hackathon. Development continues! 😁🚀 #Solana #GameDev #SoloDev

Misspelled bureaucrat as bearocrat, dyslexia strikes again! Thought it was funny, added it to the Gunmetal lore. Now the bribable bear bureaucrat bearocrat is real and documented in the extensive game wiki. LOL. 🚀🐻🫰💰 #GameDev #Solana #SoloDev

@solana_sailor @solana @colosseum @superteam @toly RACCOOOOOOOOOOOON! 😁🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

@solana_sailor @solana @colosseum @superteam @toly Hell yeah, my 148 gaming bros! Keep making games! I certainly intend to 😁

Solana hosted the largest crypto hackathon ever Colosseum Frontier, broken down 👇 📊 Relevant data: • 2,857 submissions • 19,040 registered participants • 165 countries • 45 judges • +81% vs the previous Colosseum hackathon • +166% vs the first Colosseum hackathon 🌍 Top 5 countries by registrations: • India: 6,656 • Indonesia: 1,467 • Nigeria: 1,410 • Brazil: 1,088 • US: 962 👥 Participants breakdown: • New users: 16,034 • Returning users: 3,006 - Students: 1,563 - Non-students: 17,477 After mapping every project logo, I wanted to look at where builders are actually spending their time 👇 🧩 Category breakdown: • Consumer/Social: 607 • AI: 540 • DeFi: 515 • Infra: 279 • Payments/Fintech: 255 • Gaming: 148 • Security/Privacy: 147 • Verticals: 137 • RWA: 98 • Data/Governance: 83 • Wallets: 48 Consumer/Social, AI and DeFi alone account for 1,662 projects That is more than 58% of all Frontier submissions The top categories are all very close to users, user behavior and actual product usage 🏆 Winners will be announced around June 23, but the full project list already says a lot With this many projects across so many verticals, there is a real chance that more than one of them will matter in the next phase of Solana Good luck to all the builders. The judges have a very hard job ahead.

@ChuchuGamesDev I always have found apple to be unintuitive and frustrating, despite the whole point of it supposedly being the opposite. Also overpriced. Also tried apple tv once and discovered I couldn't cancel my subscription without using an apple device. Boo apple! Boo!!!

Today I bought a MacBook to finally start working on iPhone builds for the game. Spent most of the day setting up the development environment and getting familiar with the Apple side of things. So far… the iPhone build process has not been very smooth. #SoloDev #IndieDev #GameDev #PixelArt #IndieGame #Roguelike

T1: black smoke T2: white steam T3 "Plasma-Core Reactor": nothing No exhaust. No sound. Cold blue plasma. The quiet confidence of a corporation that stopped explaining itself. The engineers are not asking questions. There are no engineers left to ask. #SoloDev #Solana #GameDev

Introducing Forma Bristol Our first ever popup village in the UK And the permanent home for our new campus

T2 "Geothermal Tap" power generator. There's a magma wellhead bored into the pad and your engineers have stopped asking questions about what happens if the bore-cap fails. Planet Gunmetal. Powering your corporation, whether it likes it or not. #SoloDev #Solana #GameDev

@solana_sailor @colosseum @solana @solanamobile @superteam @toly @crabbylions Found me! 😁 mercsandmines.com babyyyyy! 😆 all hail the raccoon God! 🦝🏍️

2,857 projects entered Colosseum Frontier I put them all in one image Looks like an entire ecosystem But it’s a single hackathon Build on Solana.

@wavedash Sounds super satisfying! Like an ASMR video game! 😄

The sound design in Carillion is so pleasant that you're at peace even when you're failing. wavedash.com/games/carillio…

@ChuchuGamesDev Looks great! Also I feel your pain lol, most of the solo dev journey is learning each stage is more difficult than you were anticipating, and usually in unexpected ways lol 😆

Started working on the tree objects for the environment. At this point, I’ve probably redrawn the trees more times than I can count. Creating a background style that feels consistent and natural has been much harder than I expected. #SoloDev #IndieDev #GameDev #PixelArt #IndieGame #Roguelike

@solana_sailor @colosseum Thanks, appreciated! 😁

@SoloXanderSOL @colosseum I’ll check it!

Share your Frontier project 👇 2,857 projects entered. Standing out won’t be easy What makes yours special? Why should people notice it? I’ll pick 4 and highlight them.

On Planet Gunmetal, power is survival. Here's how your journey into generating power begins for YOUR mercenary corporation! T1 "Diesel-Burner" → rust, black smoke, probable lung cancer for everyone in the vicinity. But your mercs have more immediate concerns. #SoloDev #Solana

@yo_itsmatt @colosseum it was a great experience submitting for the hackathon, I learned a lot! Proud of what I achieved, though there's still lots more to do. The work continues! 🚀🦝 Here's my project 😁 arena.colosseum.org/projects/explo…

I’m currently going through all 2,500+ @colosseum submissions The amount of high quality projects that have applied is impressive New developer activity is growing exponentially especially in AI and trading When someone wants to start building in crypto - they choose Solana

@JacobSobolev @solanamobile Thanks Jacob! I have got the core mechanics scoped out in an obsidian wiki that helps me keep track of how it all works and fit together. There's been a lot of world building, but lots of thought put into the gameplay as well. Still lots to do though, the work is ongoing 🙂🚀

@SoloXanderSOL @solanamobile Volcanic strategy sounds intense. Hope you’re focusing on the core mechanics rather than the scope of the world-building. Good luck with the solo dev grind.

Mercs & Mines is an In-Development sci-fi strategy game which will be exclusively for the @solanamobile; where corporations fight each other to occupy and strip-mine a hostile volcanic world - Planet Gunmetal. #BuildInPublic #SoloDev #IndieDev #GameDev #Solana

@CryoPalmar @colosseum arena.colosseum.org/projects/explo… Check it out, Mercs & Mines! Help bring the raccoon God into our world!

The @colosseum directory has opened! Shill me your project directory link, I wanna see a few cool projects 🫶

There are many more depths of magma ore to mine yet. Back to work. 🦝⛏️ Follow me @SoloXanderSOL for the full journey, more regular posts coming! #BuildInPublic #SoloDev #Solana #GameDev

mercsandmines.com is live. The raccoon biker gang horde of the Trash Khan is amassing. The magma is flowing. And this is still just the beginning. Phase 0 shipped. Phase 1 is next: 90-day campaign servers, persistent commanders, the full hex map, the Badlands.

Right. I went quiet for a bit. Here's what happened. 🧵 Six weeks ago I didn't know what a PATH variable was. I just submitted a fully playable, on-chain, deterministic Solana game demo to the @Colosseum Frontier Hackathon. Here's what happened in between.