2dcl: Opening the Decentraland Multiverse with a 2D, Pixel Art Client
By Decentraland DAO, , in Community Highlights
Have you ever wondered what Decentraland scenes would look like in the 2D, pixel art style of retro video games? Well now, thanks to 2dcl, a DAO grant-funded project from community member frantufro, it’s possible to find out! Also known as the Retro 2D Client, 2dcl was built by utilizing Decentraland’s open-source design, incorporating DCL code to create something like an alternate Decentraland dimension.
The project is still in development, so while 2dcl is not an exact replica of Decentrland nor does it have all the features of the platform at this time, static Decentraland scenes can be deployed to the alternate world and will appear in a video game pixel art style. After downloading the 2dcl client itself, anyone who owns LAND in Decentraland would be able to upload a scene to the 2dcl version of their parcels. By adding your eth address, you can upload a 2D version of your Decentraland avatar to 2dcl and personally examine your build in pixel style. 2dcl is an inspirational project with great aspirations and it will be exciting to see how it evolves. For now, it serves as a creative example of what’s possible with Decentraland’s open protocol.
Decentraland was conceived as an open-source, open-platform virtual world where anyone could create and share their content. This value is at the core of the 2dcl project: by further honing, in frantufro’s words, “an ecosystem of tools that support” game creators, 2dcl could enable the creation of further projects or games that could thrive in the 2dcl realm. The code of the project is open source, so anyone could use it to develop more features for the alternate DCL dimension, or build on top of it. Decentraland’s open protocol and the open source projects created using that protocol result in a cycle of unleashed creativity where each new development has the potential to inspire a new project.
How 2dcl came to be
2dcl was conceived by frantufro as a way to take advantage of Decentraland’s open-protocol system while creating a universe for creators to explore further and more profoundly. In the beginning, it was unclear how 2D games could exist within the complex layers of Decentraland’s protocol, but figuring that out was a challenge that the team behind 2dcl decided to take on.
To the best of their knowledge, Decentraland’s protocol allowed players with the official Decentraland client to explore scenes that LAND owners created, but there were no specifics given on the nature of the scenes or their presentation. However, several alternative clients to the official one were under development and available to test out, such as a virtual reality client funded by a DAO grant, and an isometric 3D client prototype developed by maraoz. These other projects provided good prospects that a client that displayed Decentraland in 2D could be pulled off. Besides getting nostalgic kicks, the project's goal was to lay a cornerstone for creating 2D media in Decentraland, which was open for anyone to use.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CVlTydOSZZk
The grant was put forward in June 2022 and garnered positive community feedback, being enacted in July. frantufro recruited colleagues loomstyla, a developer and Julián Cristiano, an artist to bring the 2D world to decentralized life. The team chose to use the Bevy game engine as a starting point and got into trying to create the “first client solely using Decentraland's APIs and protocols” outside the Foundation client. Bevy, as expected from the project’s focus, is a free and open-source game engine in Rust.
Even though the Retro 2D Client was framed as a way to explore new terrain, the boons from its progressive unraveling were unexpectedly positive. For example, the team discovered and reported different issues in the Catalyst API and contributed to fixing existing documentation. Barely one month into the project, another community member, AwedJob used 2dcl’s open source code and Rust to create this mock up image of a hypothetical 2dcl feature, showing different versions of Decentraland avatars in 2D.
https://twitter.com/AwedJob/status/1554870109809811457?s=20
With the project’s code being open-source, with the same license as the code from the Decentraland Foundation, other developers can create clients using Rust (or other languages, provided they created the interfaces to frantufro's libraries). In ideal circumstances, a 2D client made under these bases would create “a Decentraland multiverse,” where users could experience different versions of the same scenes depending on which client they used.
After sorting out the unexpected issues and documenting best practices, the project’s initial version dropped in May 2023. You can download it from the project’s official page.
What’s next and how to contribute to the 2D dream
Even though 2dcl is already live, it’s still in development. Frantufro envisioned a future where developers could create 2D versions of their 3D experiences, use the 2D parcels for fundamentally different purposes, or build mixed experiences, where 3D actions affect the 2D world or vice versa. In frantufro’s words, they fulfilled the goal of “assessing the feasibility” of creating projects horizontally in Decentraland without using much code from the Foundation.
Frantufro and the team constantly seek feedback and suggestions from the community. To that end, they recently launched a community poll to determine the best way forward for the project. The team is also continually tracking down help with bug fixing and development. If you are interested in contributing to the project or sharing your thoughts, please join the Discord server. You can also report any bugs or issues on their GitHub page.
And above everything else, to push Decentraland’s vision for an open-source open platform virtual world, you can share your 2D creations yourself. Thanks to the weight pulled by these DAO grantees, you don’t need to be a retro video game master to wander around in pixel art style. #2dcl is a testament to how the proper funding of community initiatives coupled with an open, transparent platform can yield results in which creators’ imagination and genuine fun are pushed to their limits.
The metaverse is full of yet unrecognized potential and opportunities. Do you have an idea that could benefit the Decentraland community? Learn more about the DAO’s grants here.
Do you know of a cool Decentraland community project that you think should be next in the Community Highlights series? Contact the Decentraland Foundation team @decentraland on Twitter.
Disclaimer: The service described in this article was not developed or audited by the Decentraland Foundation. Always be careful when engaging in any kind of transaction. Decentraland is not responsible for any loss of funds/assets.