Junction
The Web3 gaming platform that put NFT and token mechanics inside real games
Junction was Dark Oak Studios' first product: a Web3 gaming platform funded by a $100K Ripple Foundation grant, built when NFTs barely existed on the XRP Ledger. It connected traditional game mechanics like loot crates and achievements to real on-chain asset distribution.
Role
Founder & developer (~25% of shipped code)
Timeline
2021 – 2023 · Dark Oak Studios
The problem
In 2021 the XRP Ledger had fast, cheap transactions and almost no gaming ecosystem. The XLS-20 NFT standard was brand new, wallet UX inside game engines didn't exist, and there was no infrastructure for a game to hand a player an on-chain asset.
Junction set out to be that bridge: a platform where games plug in and players earn, open, and trade on-chain rewards without needing to understand the ledger.
What we built
A React and Node.js platform with Unity integration, connecting game events to NFT and token distribution. Loot-crate mechanics, holder verification, and a player-facing web app for managing earned assets.
Two XRPL firsts came out of this build: Junction was the third project on the entire ledger to mint XLS-20 NFTs, and it shipped the ecosystem's first Xaman/XUMM wallet integration inside Unity. That wallet work is public: the Junction-Xumm repo is MIT-licensed on GitHub with my commits in it.
System shape
Unity game clients
first XUMM wallet integration in Unity
React web app
player asset management
Junction platform
Node.js back end: loot crates, holder verification, distribution
React front end
XRP Ledger
3rd project ever to mint XLS-20 NFTs
Unity games talk to the platform through the XUMM integration layer; the Node back end handles minting, distribution, and holder verification against the ledger.
My role, honestly
I founded the company, won the grant, and wrote roughly 25% of Junction's shipped code: the early React/JavaScript and Node.js build, then substantial rescue work after our original hired developer left mid-project.
The rest of my time went where a two-person company needs it: hiring the team, managing the funder relationship, running QA, and doing the conference circuit that later won grant two.
Outcome
$100K
Ripple Foundation grant
delivered on committed scope
$6M+
on-chain trading volume
on the platform token, within 18 months, organic
18K / 5K
Twitter / Discord at peak
2,000+ holders through the bear market
3rd
XLS-20 project on the ledger
plus first XUMM-in-Unity
Where it went
Junction launched two days after the FTX collapse and still reached break-even. More importantly, building it exposed every gap in the ecosystem's infrastructure. That insight became the pitch for Nexus, our second and larger grant.