Protocol and Economy
Protocol and Economy
How Forest Playkit Works
Wallets, trading, hosted game logic, and persistent data for Forest games.
What is Playkit?
Forest Playkit connects a game to the Forest economy. It handles wallet actions, trading, game balances, and verified settlements so creators can focus on the game.
For games made in Forest Harness, Forest also hosts the game logic and database. The creator's assistant can build persistent inventory, progress, and rankings without asking the creator to operate a server.
What players can do
- Connect a wallet: visitors can open the game before signing in. Forest asks them to sign in when they use a protected feature.
- Trade tokens: quote, buy, and sell through the game's Forest wallet controls.
- Use Game Balance: deposit tokens, play authorized game actions, and withdraw available funds through their wallet.
- Approve automatic trading: set a budget and expiry for a swap session, then revoke it when needed.
- Use token sinks: confirm wallet burns for game mechanics whose amount and purpose are defined by the backend.
How a game action works
The player authorizes the maximum amount the action can charge.
The hosted backend validates the gameplay and determines the outcome.
Forest checks the authorization, balance, payout limits, and vault capacity.
Forest records the settlement and updates Game Balance.
The browser cannot choose a payout. The game's backend owns its rules; Forest enforces the economic checks.
Three separate balances
Wallet tokens belong to the player's wallet. Game Balance is what the player has deposited to play. The Game Vault provides the game's capacity to pay rewards.
A positive reward-pool allocation funds the Game Vault during launch. The creator can add funding later. Player deposits do not fund that reward capacity, and vault funding does not credit a player. A payout can fail if there is not enough capacity.
Build and test in Harness
Harness Preview uses a simulated Test wallet and game economy. Creators can test the experience before real wallet transactions are involved. They then review their token and game in Harness and finish launch on the Forest website with their wallet.
Published games are immutable, with one playable per token.
Existing HTML games
Legacy HTML uploads continue to work with their own external backend and database. Their backend keeps a Settlement Signing Secret and submits signed requests to Forest.
The Playkit developer guides cover both hosted games and legacy HTML integrations.