Built with Unity & Atavism

Challenge

At the start of development, the team faced an important decision: which tools and technologies to use. With only a few programmers on board and the goal of scaling the project quickly, we needed a solution that could also be used by non-programmers, such as game designers and content creators. We needed something robust enough for MMO functionality but accessible for a mixed-skill team.

Solution

We chose to build the game on Unity, using Atavism—a multiplayer engine written in Java that supports Unity integration. Atavism provided a ready-to-use backend for essential MMO features like player accounts, networking, combat systems, inventory, and persistence, which allowed the team to focus on building out unique game mechanics and content, rather than reinventing core systems from scratch.

Result

This decision allowed for faster development, cross-functional collaboration, and an efficient content pipeline. Designers could work with in-engine tools to create quests, enemies, and environments without writing code, while developers focused on custom systems for the play-and-earn mechanics. The tech stack enabled the small team to deliver a fully functional MMO framework with scalable features.

Powered by UMA (Unity Multipurpose Avatar)

Challenge

One of the key features during development was implementing a fully customizable character system. The game needed to support morphable characters, equipment changes, and visual variety—all while being compatible with Atavism’s multiplayer backend. The main challenges included:

Finding a character system that worked with Atavism
Understanding and implementing rigging and morph targets for custom characters
Learning how to set up clothing and armor pieces to dynamically work with the character’s body
Breaking models into slots for modular equipment (e.g., head, torso, legs) At the time, I had no prior experience with rigging or morph systems, and UMA's rigging requirements were unique to its framework.

Solution

I selected UMA (Unity Multipurpose Avatar) due to its built-in integration with Atavism and support for modular character systems. To meet UMA’s requirements, I:

Learned character rigging from scratch using Blender, focusing on UMA’s specific skeleton and bone structure
Created and applied morphs (shape keys) to allow users to modify body features (e.g., height, weight, facial structure)
Split the base model into UMA slots, enabling support for equippable items and cosmetic changes
Rigged each clothing and armor item to match the UMA skeleton, and distributed them to the correct slot categories, ensuring seamless attachment and morph compatibility in-game

Result

The result was a fully functional character customization system where players could personalize their avatars with morphs and equipment, all synced over multiplayer. Learning rigging and integrating UMA from the ground up added flexibility and depth to the game’s visual customization without compromising performance or multiplayer compatibility.

Custom UI Integrated with Atavism Engine

Challenge

As with most MMORPGs, the game required a wide range of user interface (UI) elements—including inventory, character stats, equipment, chat, quest tracking, and more. Designing and building a cohesive UI for such a feature-rich game was a major undertaking.

The biggest challenge was connecting all UI elements with Atavism’s backend systems. While Atavism provided MMO functionality (like inventory and stats), its documentation was limited, making it difficult to understand how to properly access and display this data within Unity’s UI system.

Solution

The UI development was approached in two phases:

UI Design Phase

Created wireframes and layout plans for all core windows, such as inventory, character screen, hotbars, tooltips, and quest logs
Focused on ensuring the interface was clean, user-friendly, and responsive across different screen sizes

UI Implementation Phase

Built all UI components using Unity’s UI Toolkit and UGUI systems
Spent time learning and reverse-engineering how to hook into Atavism’s APIs and events, allowing UI elements to pull real-time game data (e.g., showing live inventory changes or stat updates)
Created custom scripts to handle interactions between UI and gameplay logic, including drag-and-drop systems, tooltips, button callbacks, and pop-ups
Developed a flexible UI manager to help organize and toggle different UI windows efficiently

Result

Despite limited documentation, the end result was a fully integrated and responsive UI that supported all core MMO features. The system provided players with a clean and functional interface that made the game intuitive and enjoyable to navigate, while remaining extensible for future features and content updates.

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Wallet-Based Authentication via MyMeta API

Challenge

To support the play-and-earn mechanics and integrate web3 functionality, we needed to implement a custom login system that connected players' in-game accounts to their crypto wallets using the MyMeta API. The system had to securely retrieve player-owned NFTs and use them to unlock in-game features.

The main challenge was on the server side, which was written in Java as part of the Atavism engine. We needed to override Atavism’s default login flow, which was not built for external authentication methods or blockchain integration. Additionally, the server-side documentation was limited, and understanding how to inject and override the login behavior required a deep dive into its internal structure

The biggest challenge was connecting all UI elements with Atavism’s backend systems. While Atavism provided MMO functionality (like inventory and stats), its documentation was limited, making it difficult to understand how to properly access and display this data within Unity’s UI system.

Solution

I implemented a custom login override on the Java server by:

Analyzing Atavism's existing login handling to identify extension points and override mechanisms
Creating a custom login handler that redirected players to an external MyMeta web page, where they logged in and generated a secure access token
Once the token was returned to the server, the system validated it and used it to pull wallet and NFT data from the MyMeta API
The player’s NFT holdings were then parsed and stored on the server, allowing the game to unlock specific gameplay utilities, rewards, or cosmetics based on ownership

Result

The final system allowed players to log in using their crypto wallets securely and seamlessly. It enabled us to tie NFT ownership directly to in-game progression and rewards, opening the door for personalized content, exclusive features, and a true play-and-earn loop. The successful server integration laid the groundwork for further blockchain-based features within the game.

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Wallet-Based Authentication via MyMeta API

Challenge

One of the core features of the game was the Build Claims system, which allowed players who owned certain NFTs to construct businesses, houses, and utility buildings. These structures enabled gameplay elements like storing, growing, or selling resources to other players, forming a foundation for in-game economy and social interaction. However, loading these structures posed a major performance challenge.

Claims could contain hundreds of modular building pieces, and spawning each one individually caused long load times and frame drops.
With multiple player-owned claims in a scene, performance could degrade rapidly.
We needed a system that allowed for bulk loading, mesh optimization, and distance-based visibility, especially for large multiplayer areas.

Solution

To address performance and scalability concerns, I developed a multi-step optimization pipeline:

Bulk Loading System

Implemented a system to initialize multiple building pieces at once, rather than spreading them over several frames.
This reduced load time spikes and allowed for faster scene setup when entering a new area or viewing claims.

Mesh Combining for Optimization

Used Unity’s Combine Meshes feature to merge individual building pieces into larger, single mesh objects.
This significantly reduced draw calls and improved rendering performance for claims that had already loaded.
Ensured that only static, non-interactive pieces were combined to preserve interaction logic.

Distance-Based Loading

After mesh combining was in place, I added distance-based visibility checks, so only nearby claims were loaded and rendered.
A simple player-to-claim distance check was used to load/unload buildings dynamically, keeping performance stable as players moved through the world.

Result

These optimizations allowed the Build Claims system to scale effectively, supporting a large number of player-created structures in real time without sacrificing performance. Players could build and manage their virtual spaces, while the game dynamically handled rendering and loading in a way that felt smooth, responsive, and immersive.

Case study

Infinity Realms

The infinity realms is a MMO plan and earn RPG with NFT integration the main features of the game

Unity
URP
C#
Java
Atavism
UMA

Infinity Realms

Start of development: 2021
I am in project: 2021-2023

Contribution to project

Creation of character customization
Creator of unique character based on 2 characters

Case impression

The project had innovative idea, by giving people a real life value, meta value, by playing game. You play, you earn

It all started with planning

At the beginning of development, we were faced with a question of what tools and technologies to use. The team at the time consisted of few programmers, so the decision was made to select tools for people with no programming experience and build off of that.

A best tools for a jobDue to selection a proper plugins and toolsRead more

Each character is uniqueDue to morphing featuresRead more

New UI new lifeDue to changing whole UIRead more

Rewards for gaming hardDue to integration blockchainRead more

Claim you own plotDue to implementing plot mechanicsRead more

And my contribution to project ended

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