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Golem Overlord
20,000 daily players. Built on Hive. Two years of barely sleeping. This project nearly killed me but I'd probably do it again.
Visit Golem Overlord
April 2022 - Present
Daily Players
20k
Peak concurrent players across web and mobile
Migrations
438
Database migrations. The schema evolved constantly.
Running a 24/7 Blockchain Game Solo
How do you build a live game with real money at stake, run it around the clock, and do everything yourself? Traditional games can have bugs. Blockchain games can't afford them. When players own tokens and NFTs, every bug is a potential exploit. Every exploit means real money lost. There's no 'we'll patch it Monday' when the blockchain never stops.
"Hive offered zero transaction fees and 3-second block times. Perfect for a game that needs constant interactions. But it also meant building from scratch. No frameworks. No tutorials. Just documentation and a lot of trial and error."
Updates
100+
Features, fixes, and improvements over 3+ years
Estimated Value
~€300k
What an agency would probably charge for this
Ruby on Rails
Hive Blockchain
Hive Keychain
MySQL
Redis
Sidekiq
Clockwork
ActionCable
Capacitor
Golem Overlord is a blockchain idle/strategy game on Hive. Players build bases, train armies, and compete for resources in a world where every action lives on-chain. At peak we hit 20,000 daily active players and 4,000+ Discord members. Got listed on DappRadar too. I built everything myself: backend, frontend, tokenomics, community management, Android app, every development blog post. 3+ years of development, 438 database migrations, 311 models.
Scavenging System
The core gameplay loop. Send your golems out to gather PART and SHARD tokens. Manage energy, assign golems smartly, time your claims right. Simple concept but players spent hours optimizing it.
- * Energy management with upgradeable capacity
- * Claim timing matters more than you'd think
Prestige System
20 prestige tiers. Each one unlocks new mechanics, bumps up power multipliers, and adds visual upgrades to your base. Took me a while to balance. The goal was keeping veterans engaged while giving newcomers something to chase.
- * 20 levels with exponential power scaling
- * Visual base upgrades that show player status
Conquest Mode
Ranked PvP with seasonal leagues. Players attack other bases, steal resources, and climb leaderboards. ELO matchmaking keeps fights fair. Seasonal resets with exclusive rewards kept people coming back.
- * ELO-based matchmaking algorithm
- * Seasonal leagues with exclusive NFT rewards
Guild System
Guild management with ranks, permissions, shared research. Guilds compete in seasonal events and share bonuses. This was the social layer that turned solo players into an actual community.
- * Rank-based permissions system
- * Shared guild research tree
Leaderboards
Rankings for everything: overall trophies, weekly performance, guild standings, NFT collection completeness. Seasonal resets with exclusive rewards keep the competition interesting.
- * Overall, weekly, guild, collection rankings
- * Seasonal resets with exclusive rewards
Quest System
Daily objectives with tiered rewards. Weekly challenges. Seasonal events. The quest system kept daily engagement high and gave casual players something concrete to work toward.
- * Daily, weekly, and seasonal objectives
- * Tiered reward system scaling with difficulty
NFT Equipment
7 rarity tiers from Common to Mythic. Equipment drops from battles and quests, then trades on Hive-Engine markets. Real on-chain ownership. If the game shuts down, you still own your gear.
- * 7 rarity tiers with distinct visual styles
- * Tradeable on Hive-Engine marketplace
NFT Marketplace
Peer-to-peer trading with listings, bidding, and price history. Had to add caching to make browsing fast. Every trade happens on-chain with ownership verified on the Hive blockchain.
- * Bidding system with price history tracking
- * On-chain verification of all trades
Dual Token Economy
PART as the primary currency, SHARD for NFT activities. Both tokens have burn mechanisms to maintain value. Honestly the economy was the hardest part. Get it wrong and your game dies no matter how fun it is.
- * PART + SHARD dual token system
- * Built-in burn mechanisms for sustainability
Research Trees
4 research paths with thousands of hours of upgrades. Tech tree decisions actually matter because you can't max everything. Your choices define how you play.
- * 4 distinct research paths
- * Strategic trade-offs between paths
Expedition System
Roguelike tile-based exploration. Procedurally generated maps so each run is different. Advisors provide bonuses, items give you tactical options, boss battles at the end. Probably the most fun feature to build.
- * Procedurally generated unique maps
- * Advisor bonuses and expedition items
Achievement System
258+ achievements across progression, collection, combat, and social play. Tiered system with bronze, silver, gold. Plus hidden achievements for surprise unlocks. Players love hunting these.
- * 258+ achievements with progress tracking
- * Hidden achievements and surprise unlocks
Advisor System
Collectible characters from Common to Artifact rarity. Advisors give buffs in Conquest battles and you can level them up by recycling duplicates. Players got really into collecting these.
- * 6 rarity tiers with different drop rates
- * Unique effects for each advisor type
Content Bounty Program
Rewards for creating guides, fan art, gameplay videos, translations. This turned players into contributors. They built a content library that helped new players learn the game better than I ever could.
- * Rewards for guides, art, and videos
- * Community-built content library
Mobile App
Android app on Google Play Store with all the same features as web. Push notifications for attacks. Offline progress sync. Building this opened the game to a completely different audience.
- * Google Play Store listing
- * Feature parity with web version
What Happened
20,000
20,000 daily active players at peak. Went from zero to one of the top games on Hive.
4,193
4,193 Discord members who shaped the game through feedback, bug reports, and feature requests.
2+
Got listed on DappRadar as a verified blockchain game. 3+ years of continuous development and counting.
What I Learned
Blockchain games are 24/7 operations. There's no 'fix it Monday' when real money is on the line. A bug can become an exploit. An exploit destroys trust.
Community is everything. Discord wasn't just support. It was product development. The players who complained the loudest often had the best ideas.
Tokenomics IS game design. Every reward, every sink, every emission rate changes how players feel. Mess up the economy and even great gameplay won't save you.
Need blockchain game development?
I've built and operated a blockchain game with 20k daily players. I know the pitfalls, the token design headaches, and what it takes to keep a live game running. Let's talk.
Get in touch