Dark Forest Community Rounds
Until recently, the Dark Forest Core Team has been the only group to deploy and facilitate instances of the Dark Forest Game. Now, we support and encourage our community members to run their own instances of the Dark Forest game via a new thing we are calling ‘Community Rounds’.
A Community Round is exactly what it sounds like - a round of Dark Forest run entirely by the community.
The first few Community Rounds of Dark Forest were run with the guidance of the Dark Forest Core Team. For example, in January 2022, dfdao ran A Dark Forest New Year’s Community Round. The round was developed with the assistance of Dark Forest Core Team members, and also resulted in the development of a Dark Forest Builder’s Guide, which is a step-by-step guide for deploying a brand new Dark Forest universe to a brand new website.
How to Host a Community Round
As mentioned above, hosting a community round is possible by deploying your own universe to your own website. However, we recognize that hosting your own Dark Forest client can be a heavy hurdle.
Now, we’re proud to say that you can host a community round by either:
- Deploying your own universe/client/website (with help from Dark Forest Builder’s Guide)
- Deploying your own universe directly on zkga.me via the lobbies system
Thanks to these options, community rounds are now occurring largely without the direct involvement of the core team. For example, A group called 277Dao has been hosting community rounds via the lobbies system, which allows new instances of the game to be deployed with one click from our website.
Another example is renowned DF player Ner0nzz’ Saturday Team Battles, in which he sets up small team battles composed of himself and other members of Dark Forest Valhalla, also via lobbies.
We hope that other Dark Forest community members can become inspired by these examples, and run their own events, tournaments, build new game mechanics, and have fun with the game as the Core Team develops new features for further versions of Dark Forest.
Listing Your Community Round
Have a community round coming up that you want to get sign-ups for? Let us know by filling out this form to get your own community round channel within the Dark Forest Discord (and maybe even get it added to the official Events calendar)!
However, when considering launching your very own community round, we ask you to follow a few simple guidelines.
Community Round Guidelines
As interest in these types of rounds has picked up, we wanted to share our thoughts on how we think community rounds will be best run.
Using the Dark Forest name / framing
Using the Dark Forest name is acceptable in all Dark Forest rounds, whether that round is endorsed by the core team or not.
✅ YES: Saying your round is a “
❌ NO: Saying your round is an official Dark Forest round
Modifying the client
✅ You can modify our client as you wish.
📝 One exception: please do not remove references to our Github and Twitter from the codebase.
Using the Dark Forest logos/branding
✅ Using the Dark Forest logos and branding is acceptable in all Dark Forest rounds, whether that round is endorsed by the core team or not.
❌ However, you are NOT allowed to modify the logos or branding without explicit permission from the core team.
Using the Dark Forest codebase
✅ You may use our codebase, which is available at https://github.com/darkforest-eth/, in whatever manner you wish.
📝 One exception: it is required that you conform to the software licenses of each of the component parts of the codebase.
Using the Dark Forest Discord
The Dark Forest Discord is the primary place for discussion about everything Dark Forest, including official Dark Forest rounds.
If you are hosting a community round, we ask that you conduct community round business (including key giveaways, general discussion, and support for your Community Round) only in the appropriate channels.
Other
If you are considering hosting a Dark Forest Community Round, we recommend reaching out to the core team via Discord, Email, or Twitter, even if you don’t desire for your round to be officially endorsed!
We’re curious to learn about why you’re interested in running a round, what your goals are, and how we can assist.
This is important to help us keep in touch with round organizers for various Dark Forest updates and also to flag if a round is suspicious or has malicious intent.
Final Thoughts
These guidelines are subject to change, as community rounds are still new, and we are still figuring out the best way to tie them together with the core Dark Forest experience.