Grant Proposal: Dark Forest on Aztec, DFArchon team

General
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DFArchon Hightlight Project & Detailed introduction of the core developers

DFArchon is a research & develop community dedicated to building large-scale decentralized applications, with many developers who have extensive experience in fully onchain games.

Below are the developers who are currently confirmed to participate in this project. At present, there are 2 full-time developers and 3 part-time developers. We will dynamically adjust team allocation based on project progress to ensure smooth and timely delivery.

Hightlight Project - Dark Forest Punk

For our team, development has primarily revolved around Dark Forest, including the implementation of innovative gameplay features, plugins, and related projects such as the planet bounty system and artifact trading system.

:link: 10 Community Versions & Experimental Features
:link: DF-ARTEMIS - planet bounty system
:link: Plugins maintained by community

One particularly representative experience was our work in summer 2024, when we re-architected Dark Forest on top of the MUD engine. Without modifying the presentation layer, we refactored the frontend–contract integration logic as well as the smart contract layer itself, and completed an initial functional port within two months.

This experience is highly analogous to the task of porting Dark Forest to Aztec. Although the MUD engine is Solidity-compatible, it introduces many new development interfaces and architectural conventions. Successfully navigating this transition has given us strong confidence in our ability to deliver a Dark Forest port on Aztec within the required timeline.

:link: Dark Forest Punk Github Repo

Core Developers

1. ddy — Full-Stack Developer

Deep, hands-on experience across the full Dark Forest stack, including Circom, Solidity, TypeScript, React, Ethers, and WebGL.
5 years of full-stack blockchain development experience

github: fromddy (byeddy) · GitHub

twitter: https://twitter.com/ddy_mainland

blog: https://paragraph.com/@ddy

2. 9stx6 — Full-Stack Developer

Highly experienced in Dark Forest smart contracts, frontend, and plugin development.
Active contributor for Dark Forest Community since 2021.

github: Stx69 · GitHub
twitter: https://x.com/PavelRudolf3

  • Top player across lots of fully onchain games
    e.g. Dark Forest, Sky Strife, Loot Survivor, etc.

  • Core Developer of Dark Forest Ares & Dark Forest Punk

For detailed information about Dark Forest Punk and Dark Forest Ares, please refer to the previous content.

3. 3b — SC developer

Core smart contract contributor of Dark Forest Punk.
Graduated from Beihang university.
Have been working at Celer network, Arpa network and Mantle network.
4 years of web3 experience in smart contract and backend dev.
Familiar with golang, solidity and circom.

github: ClaudeZsb (Sanbao Zheng) · GitHub
twitter: https://x.com/Claude_Zheng

Dark Forest Punk is a community-driven effort to port the classic Dark Forest to the MUD engine.
3b is the architect of the smart contract layer for Dark Forest Punk.
Dark Forest Punk Github Repo

4. SansX — Full-Stack & Systems Developer

Full-stack engineer with a focus on backend systems and decentralized game infrastructure. Experienced in Go, Rust, Python, and TypeScript.

GitHub: sansx · GitHub
X (Twitter): https://x.com/SansXth

  • Developer of the Dark Forest Replay System
    Built a dedicated replay engine that captures and synchronizes all player actions within specific timeframes of Dark Forest game rounds.

    • Full-action playback: Reconstructs and visualizes every move made by all players during a specified game period
    • Time manipulation: Custom controls to adjust playback speed and direction, enabling forward/backward state inspection for tactical analysis
      :link: Live Demo: https://dark-forest-replay.netlify.app/

  • Dark Forest Technical Testing & Quality Assurance
    Participated in technical testing across multiple competitive rounds, with a focus on client-side stability and correctness.

    • State synchronization: Identified and debugged synchronization issues between client state and on-chain events
    • Bug identification: Tracked edge-case behaviors under high-concurrency conditions to improve overall system reliability

5. zkyu — Blockchain & Cryptography Engineer

Experience: 7 Years

Contact:

Specialized in Cryptography , Layer 2 , zkRollup , and Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) circuit & systems engineering. Proficient in Rust , Go , C , Python , and Lua .

I have extensive experience in Layer 1 public chain development and have delivered end-to-end solutions ranging from cryptographic primitives and ZKP circuits to backend systems and on-chain/off-chain communication.

Key Projects & Experience

  • Multi-chain zkRollup / Layer 2 Implementation
    • Led the full lifecycle from architecture design to circuit and backend implementation.
    • Features include multi-chain communication, on-chain data availability (DA), and non-EVM integration.
  • DEX / DeFi Circuit Development
    • Implemented ZK circuits for key DeFi protocols including Uniswap V2 , Curve V1 , and Perpetual DEX logic.
  • Folding Scheme ZKP Implementation
  • Substrate Ecosystem ZKP Toolchain
    • Integrated essential ZKP cryptographic primitive precompiles for Substrate runtime and non-runtime environments.
    • :link: Repository: zkmega
  • FHE + ZKP Applied Research
    • Conducted research on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (BGV scheme) combined with various ZKP protocols.
    • Implemented a patented “ZKP + FHE Anonymous Voting System.”
  • Layer 1
    • Contributed to the complete implementation of a DPoS public chain (based on a Geth fork).
Request for Grant Proposals: Dark Forest on Aztec | Up to $75,000