dark forest aztec - a sovereign port from the community
contact details:
web3hendrix@gmail.com/web3hendrix (discord username)
im proposing 1:1 port of dark forest v0.6 to the aztec. honestly i started building this as a side project just for myself to experiment how noir could actually handle this game which was complex. the heavy lifting is actually already done i have the core circuits written in noir and a working bridge that connects the original webgl frontend to the pxe. when i was testing, i built a system where the logic is already verified with over ~280 tests during compilation if im not wrong with the numbers and they were to test the physics match the original game and happy and non happy paths.
start and end date:
start: immediately.
end: march 10, 2026.
i can have a verified playable demo ready for u to test on devnet which i can do it after package updated and to check if anything missing which u guys can play it within 2-3 days and the full game will be production ready in about a month like 15-20 feb i would say
about me:
my journey started back in 2016 in the ml/ai space. i’ve always been a technical person who likes to see how things work under the hood, so i got deep into bug bounty, reverse engineering apps, mostly the rmp type game like mpl ( which i do mostly for my own learning and fooling around with dnsy stuff lol). ive built complex discord bots and automation scripts for both discord bot and web3 nodes for years. since 2023 i’ve had tested lots of nodes such as arbitrum i run those in the past cus i wanted to learn the infrastructure side of the blockchain. i’ve also been a mod in project and i also a mod on your discord cus of this and also it was good way help ppl on node related topics so i’ve spent a lot of time learning noir and aztec alongside . i heard about zk a long time ago but always thought the computation cost was too high for a solo dev. when aztec came along it changed things, i build many side project one i also working on and would share it
technical approach:
i used the original v0.6 code as the base and ported the circom circuits directly to noir.
- i had implemented 281 tests that run during compilation to verify the noir circuits for planet discovery, movement physics and artifact discovery.
- for the movement logic, i built the energy decay math using noir fixed point libraries, including taylor series approximations to handle the its 50% rule of travel ship
- the state is managed via private notes. im was using bit packing to fit those complex planet metadata (level, type, space type) into the 10 field limit which was a little challenge
- the proving model: right now the proving running through a bridge server/sdk setup because it’s easier for me to check the logic and performance during testing, but the architecture is built so proving can be adapted to the browser easily once the pxe is ready for it.
- i implemented a truth type of engine in the bridge that extracts real planet ids directly from pxe notes so the ui is always in sync with the blockchain state.
grant milestones and roadmap:
milestone 1: verified end to end demo on devnet (join/move/capture) with real pxe note discovery. (ready in 3 days if u guys agree).
milestone 2: multi-player stress testing and optimization of the note syncing logic so the galaxy feels real time.
milestone 3: artifact management and native aztec nft minting through spacetime rips
milestone 4: final polish, documentation and open sourcing the full repo
grant amount requested: $75,000
grant budget rationale:
tbh i built this project because i love the crypto tech and i wanted to learn aztec, so the 75k isn’t the reason im here. i would have built it anyway just for myself. but i’ll accept the grant to cover the node infrastructure costs and to focus most of my time for the next month on making this production ready. im a solo dev but i work fast because the core logic is already passing its 281 compiler tests)
questions:
is there a specific fpc address or fee payment strategy u want us to highlight for the showcase to keep the onboarding 100% gasless for new players?