On-chain game · Bitcoin · 2024–25
Pizza Pets
I helped build a fully on-chain Bitcoin game where more than 58,000 pets can be fed, evolve through six stages, or die permanently without an off-chain game server.
- Product
- A fully on-chain Bitcoin pet game with eleven types, six stages, boosts, evolution, and permanent death.
- Delivery scope
- Lifecycle modelling, recursive assets, wallet and confirmation states, monitoring, and recovery.
- Public evidence
- 3public sources1live inscription
Project constraints
- 01No central server for core game state
- 02Bitcoin latency and irreversible actions
- 03Thousands of visual states without full duplication
Portfolio context
The technology and delivery problem behind this work.
Use these signals to compare this case study with the closest relevant work.
The challenge
Turn Bitcoin inscriptions into a persistent game loop that could survive more than one million on-chain interactions.
A digital pet is simple when a central database can rewrite it. Pizza Pets had no such shortcut. Feeding, boosts, evolution, and permanent death had to stay understandable while actions moved through Bitcoin. Shared artwork also had to support thousands of pet states without paying to inscribe every combination separately.
Architecture and decisions
Permanent lifecycle model
Eleven pet types move through six evolution stages, with feeding windows, risky boosts, and death as a permanent outcome. The rules had to stay legible because the chain—not an administrator—settles the result.
Recursive composition
Each pet is a browser-rendered HTML and JavaScript inscription rather than a static image. It resolves shared artwork and code through recursive `/content` endpoints, so it can render dynamic pet states and support direct interaction without publishing every combination as a full duplicate.
Transaction-aware UX
The interface had to distinguish intent, wallet submission, mempool visibility, and confirmation so players could understand what had happened without double-submitting an irreversible action.
Long-running operations
Monitoring and recovery mattered after launch day. Players needed to see each pet’s current state reliably, long after the first mint finished.
On Bitcoin
A real inscription
Inspect the on-chain work, not only a screenshot.
Pizza Pet #8872 is marked Alive and has reached the Immortal stage. It is a browser-rendered HTML and JavaScript inscription that resolves shared recursive on-chain assets, reflects dynamic pet state, and can be interacted with directly once loaded.
My role
-
01
Helped turn the recursive foundation behind Pizza Ninjas into an interaction model with feeding, boosts, evolution, and permanent outcomes.
-
02
Worked on the product states around wallet actions and confirmations so Bitcoin’s latency stayed visible without becoming confusing.
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03
Reused shared on-chain assets and endpoints instead of treating every pet state as an isolated payload.
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04
Carried the operational discipline of the inscription pipeline into a product expected to keep working through ongoing play.
What changed
More than 58,000 pets and one million on-chain interactions turned recursive inscriptions into a living Bitcoin product.
Pizza Pets proved that the recursive system could support a durable consumer product rather than a static collection. The official project records more than 58,000 pets across eleven types and six stages, while the product passed one million on-chain interactions without depending on a central game server to own the underlying experience.
- The product passed one million on-chain interactions and grew beyond 58,000 pets.
- Eleven pet types, six evolution stages, risky boosts, and permanent death created a real lifecycle rather than a cosmetic collectible.
- Recursive assets supported an ongoing Bitcoin-native game without an off-chain game server controlling the core experience.
Tools and technologies
Sources
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