Cheat-Proof Gaming: The Promise of New P2P Technology*

Removing servers from games sounds like a fool’s errand.

Users don’t want to run their own infrastructure, and there are serious fairness and scalability concerns that come from the removal of trusted central parties. It turns out there are encryption techniques to solve these problems. Here’s an introduction to how peer-to-peer gaming might actually work.

The main approach, which could be called “Generalized Mental Poker”, developed by a project called Saito, aims to create a gaming experience that can handle global traffic without relying on heavy infrastructure or centralized servers.

'Mental Poker' is a protocol for a fair game of cards over the phone, but on Saito it is generalized to enable gameplay for *any* turn-based game. Here's roughly how it works:

1. It uses encryption to shuffle and distribute game elements (like cards or resources) among players.
2. Each player's actions can be verified by each other without revealing hidden information or relying on a central server.
3. The game progresses through a series of steps where players reveal encrypted commitments to use hidden resources like cards, ensuring they can’t cheat and other players can verify moves.

Benefits for Gamers

This approach offers several potential advantages:

• No central server: Games run directly between players, potentially reducing lag and eliminating single points of failure.
• Increased privacy: No personal data is collected or stored on any servers.
• Cheat-proof: The system mathematically ensures fair play without needing a trusted third party.
• Flexible: Any turn-based game can be adapted to use this technology.
• Open Source: Games are easily moddable and auditable.
• No accounts: Players can use the system without logging in or making accounts.

Games in Action

While the technology is still new, there are already some impressive demonstrations:

• Twilight Struggle: A digital adaptation of the popular Cold War strategy board game.
• Settlers of Saitoa: A version of the classic resource management and trading game.

These games show that complex, multiplayer experiences are possible using this peer-to-peer approach.

The big UX benefit of P2P is that you can play these games without an account and without giving your data to servers. I’m usually on the Arcade offering open invites for games if anyone wants to try or chat about it.

https://saito.io/arcade/

Looking Ahead

As this technology matures, we might see more developers experimenting with decentralized game design. This could lead to new types of multiplayer experiences and potentially give players more control over their gaming environments.

While it's still early days, this innovative approach to P2P gaming is worth keeping an eye on for anyone interested in the future of multiplayer games, or for devs who want to avoid greedy publishers.