On-chain game · Bitcoin · 2024–25
Pizza Pets
Product engineering for 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.
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 its state. Pizza Pets removed that convenience. Feeding, boosts, evolution, and permanent death had to remain understandable while actions moved through Bitcoin’s transaction lifecycle. The product also had to reuse a large visual system without duplicating every possible pet state into a separate, expensive inscription.
Engineering depth
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
Pet states could reference shared on-chain artwork and code through recursive content endpoints, keeping the visual system composable instead of 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. A game with tens of thousands of pets needed observable state transitions and reliable reads long after the first mint finished.
My role
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01
Helped turn the recursive foundation behind Pizza Ninjas into an interaction model with feeding, boosts, evolution, and permanent outcomes.
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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.
The achievement
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.
System
Public evidence