The Indie Developer Starter Guide
Building a game/app is hard. Building something that is genuinely enhanced by the blockchain is even harder, this guide sets you off on the right path! ⚔️
At Ronin, we know this because we’ve lived it. We are battle-tested, resilient, and unapologetically an ally to anyone who understands the emotional connection players form with games.
The idea is simple to Ronin developers: Build an innovative, fun game/app that triggers genuine user emotion, and use blockchain technology to enhance that experience.
If you do that, our Proof of Distribution (PoD) system will automatically recognize your success, rewarding you with actual capital and unlocking scalable marketing coverage.
You build the game/app, and a meaningful economy, and real user demand.
We provide growth and support.
1. The North Stars of PoD: Designing Your Economy
To unlock the full power of Ronin’s support, your on-chain metrics act as your pitch deck.
Your Proof of Distribution Builder Score is calculated automatically based on five core on-chain metrics:
NFT Volume: 20.95% (paid fees to Ronin Treasury)
DEX Volume: 20.54% (paid fees to Ronin Treasury)
Gas Spend: 18.13%
Contract Volume: 16.37%
Paying Users: 12.89% (paid fees to Ronin Treasury)
New Paying Users: 11.12% (paid fees to Ronin Treasury)
Remember: POD is a live service model and is subject to be optimised as the system evolves. Please check the latest metrics here.
What does this mean for your game/app?
It means you need to think deeply about economic design as you’re building. Digital economies aren’t an add-on; they are a core part of the game loop and the player experience.
Here are the games whose shoulders you are standing on, and how they built games and economies that continue to innovate the meta:
Axie Infinity: The pioneer that created Web3 gaming, put it on the map, and proved the staggering demand for player-driven economies. Axie didn’t just build a game; they built a digital nation that surpassed $4 Billion in trading volume, fundamentally changed lives across the globe, and holds a Guinness World Record for its digital collectibles with multiple games created and still in development. They proved that when players truly own their digital assets, the emotional and economic investment scales to historic heights.
Pixels: What began as a single, cozy 2D farming simulator evolved into a massive, multi-game ecosystem. Pixels migrated to Ronin and scaled to over 1.5 million DAU. But they didn’t stop there. They scaled their infrastructure by building Stacked a revolutionary LiveOps reward engine powered by an AI game economist, and expanded their universe with Pixel Dungeons, a fast-paced, high-stakes crawler. They proved that you can turn a single game loop into an interconnected ecosystem.
Craft World: This game is a masterclass in building for the blockchain rather than just stapling tokens onto it. In this casual idle resource-management game, players guide elemental dinosaurs (Dynomites) to rebuild a shattered Earth. Instead of relying on expensive, high-friction NFT mints, they turned the entire core game loop of Collect, Craft, Trade, Build into a fully on-chain economy where over 25 unique resources act as ERC-20 tokens. Because these high-frequency crafting interactions feel like a natural, rewarding part of the gameplay, Craft World organically drives massive on-chain Gas Spend, Contract Interactions, and DEX Volume. This elegant, low-friction economy design allowed them to dominate the Ronin PoD leaderboards and recently won Best Use of Blockchain at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025. They proved that when you build an interconnected, player-owned economy that it can actually be fun to interact with.
2. Support, Coverage & Trust: The Indie Checklist
We want to provide builders with support and brand awareness while balancing community trust. The relationship between Ronin, the Ecosystem Team, and the Community must be earned and maintained.
We will support you as you hit milestones, but you must prove your game/app is safe, actively developed, and aligned to the ecosystem.
Disclaimer: Ronin reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, suspend, or terminate promotional support, visibility, or endorsement for any game, title, or developer that fails to uphold the community and professional standards of the Ronin network. This includes, but is not limited to, instances of public misconduct, unprofessional social media behavior, or actions that may negatively impact the reputation of Ronin and its ecosystem.
Phase 0: The Starting Line (Concepting to MVP)
Your Milestone: Create a Game Design Document (GDD/PDD), conduct market research, have a clear target audience persona set out, and actively build your prototype.
Onchain Action: Nothing onchain needed at this stage.
The Unlock
Access to the Ronin Builders Discord for direct technical support from our engineers and a touchpoint with our growth team
Access to public Ronin developer documentation & growth guides
Phase 1: The First Milestone (Vertical Slice)
Your Milestone: You have a playable demo or vertical slice of product. You are setting up your early community channels and have a landing page with a means to capture interest. You’ve filled out the New Ronin Game Form.
Onchain Action: Provide a detailed document for how you intended to utilise the blockchain in your game.
The Unlock
Official listing on Roninchain.com/games and access to the Monthly Game Update Form (new monthly forms posted in Builders Discord) after Ronin Team approval.
Introductory posts across X, Facebook, and Discord
Phase 2: Building the Foundation (Alpha & Early Community)
Your Milestone: Alpha launch. You are bringing in your first real cohorts of players, posting regular transparent development updates, and we can clearly see you growing the game’s demand from your own marketing efforts.
On-Chain Action: Your onchain mechanics are generating initial contract interactions and you begin scoring on the PoD leaderboard.
The Unlock
Your Builder Score begins yielding projected initial monthly RON distributions
Trailer hosting across Ronin’s YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X
Ronin Discovery Highlights
Eligibility for our Monthly Indie Spotlights across our social channels
Amplification per major release
Features in Ronin Recaps and Newsletter coverage (Indie Spotlight)
Phase 3: Proving Demand (Soft Launch)
Your Milestone: Beta or Soft Launch. Your User Acquisition (UA) funnel is working, and you are actively marketing the game outside of the Ronin network to bring new users in.
On-Chain Action: You are scaling your active player base and proving demand via your Proof of Distribution Builder Score.
The Unlock (extras)
Ronin Marketplace Hero Carousel feature (if applicable)
Push notifications to Ronin Wallet users (if applicable)
Game/release overview videos
Vertical video creation to reach traditional players
Social posts per major release
Social highlights (dedicated content on Instagram/YouTube/TikTok)
Key spotlight newsletter coverage
Creator amplification
Creator bounty campaigns
Ronin U content campaigns
As you establish a proven PoD rank of 15 or above (and maintained for a minimum of one month), you can book a direct call with the Ronin Growth Games Team to analyze metrics and discuss tailored strategies
Phase 4: Full Ecosystem Power (Global Launch)
Your Milestone: A live, thriving game with active LiveOps and a self-sustaining marketing engine.
On-Chain Action: Consistently ranking in the top tiers of the PoD system.
The Unlock: Access to the Full Ronin Publishing Menu, a personal ecosystem representative, and bespoke growth opportunities.
3. Let’s Get Started! The Game Update Form: Establishing Trust
To ensure every indie developer has a fair shot at visibility, we are formalizing our early-stage publishing coverage.
Starting in July, all registered developers will have access to the Monthly Game Update Form.
Each month, we will select games from these submissions to feature in dedicated Indie Game Spotlight Articles and platform activations.
The Rules of Selection
We balance our coverage based on a holistic view of your project, looking specifically at:
Team Performance & Development Progress: Are you hitting your roadmap milestones and actively progressing?
Ecosystem Contribution: Are you generating PoD metrics and adding value to the Ronin network? How are you contributing to the ecosystem and establishing trust with players?
External Reach: Are you actively building your reach and marketing your game inside and outside of the network?
Important Note: Regardless of whether your game is selected for a specific spotlight in a given month, we expect all indie devs to submit this form monthly. This is how we track your progress and build long-term trust. If you don’t fill out this form (which your team can easily repurpose into your own content), you are less likely to receive publishing support from Ronin during early development.
Your job is to build a game that triggers player emotion, and an economy that drives that emotion on-chain. Our job is to support you, acting as a launchpad for early game visibility and a partner for scalable ecosystem support.
If you have any questions about this model or want to reach out to the team directly, here are the main POCs:
Ronin Growth Lead: 0xRoosta
Ronin Partner Growth Manager: Edu
Social Growth Strategist: JaseTheWizard
Useful resources to help you GROW!
Monthly Game Update Form (July 2026 - new months posted directly in builders’ Discord)