i have recently been playing defi kingdoms on the harmony blockchain; an on-chain medieval-themed game in your browser that features a gamified decentralized exchange (dex) for swapping token pairs.

dexs aren’t particularly novel (see uniswap, pancakeswap etc) — what’s novel, in this case, is the use of engaging lore (storytelling) to present existing financial concepts/tools that fit perfectly into an overarching theme/story.

liquidity pools are “gardens” in the defi kingdom universe; when liquidity is provided to a pool with a token pair, we get “seeds” representing your position in the pool i.e lp tokens.

on one hand, this could be a really elaborate ponzi wrapped with great storytelling; on another, it’s a perfect example of how mundane financial/defi primitives (liquidity pools, dexs, amms) could be made engaging, accessible, and interesting through literature and storytelling.

i’m super interested in seeing more examples of great lore + financial primitives built into the mechanics of (experimental) games in the future.