Built on Aleo: Legend of Leo

Teaching complex technical concepts in an engaging way is a significant challenge when it comes to onboarding developers to new languages and platforms. This is especially true for web3, where educational material often needs to meet the needs of seasoned web2 developers and new programming students alike. Traditional approaches rely on dense documentation, technical tutorials, and lecture-style content, which can overwhelm newcomers.

Designer and UX specialist Jonathan Cruz recognized this problem and saw an opportunity to solve it with a game. Drawing from the success of other educational gameplay, he developed Legend of Leo, a pixel-art adventure game that transforms abstract cryptographic principles into hands-on experiences. 

We sat down with Jonathan to discuss his approach to game design and the technical hurdles he overcame while building an educational game that makes zero-knowledge technology approachable for newcomers.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What led you to build on Aleo?

I'm Jonathan, a designer and builder who focuses on UX. I’ve been in the Aleo ecosystem for quite some time now and what drew me in was the potential of zk. I believe it’s going to reshape how we think about privacy moving forward in the crypto space. 

What inspired you to create Legend of Leo? Was there a particular moment that made you realize traditional learning methods didn't work?

I remember trying to learn Solidity years ago and how much CryptoZombies helped me. Later, I saw a project called Future of France that introduced blockchain through gamified storytelling, and it clicked — why not do something like that for Aleo? Legend of Leo was born out of wanting to make Aleo’s advanced cryptographic concepts accessible through gameplay, not lectures.

How did you approach breaking down technical concepts into digestible, game-friendly experiences without oversimplifying them?

My focus was on teaching and trying to create an easy way for people who are new to the ecosystem to gradually understand the concepts. The approach I took was to design each level of the game around a key blockchain concept and easily guide the user through the journey. The player starts with the basics (a wallet) that leads into the player later on having to use a faucet in order to mint an ARC NFT - each interaction was built to teach 1 concept at a time.  

Players uncover the meaning of each step through interaction. I do feel like there’s still a ways to go in terms of depth and polish, but it’s a strong foundation for building out more advanced lessons.

What are the biggest technical challenges you faced building the game and how did you address them?

The toughest part was integrating Aleo functionality into a pixel-art Phaser game without breaking it. Then making sure wallet connections, transaction signing, and contract calls could run in the game while keeping the narrative flow smooth was a bit tricky. Also learning how to use phaser and aseprites were pretty challenging themselves. I had to design a lot of the pixel assets, characters, and animations on a short timeline, which was a lot. Originally I planned GPT-powered NPCs, but had to cut that for now due to time constraints.

What advice would you give to a developer getting started building on Aleo?

Don’t be afraid to start small. Leo language can seem intimidating if you don't know it or know rust but if you leverage AI you can manage getting things done! The tools are getting better every day. Start with the simple things - properly index documentation to make it easier for you. Then start building. Also, use the community - the support and collaboration in the discord channels and telegram channels are a great place to seek help and connect other Aleo developers who range in skills. The only thing stopping you is yourself. 

What’s next for Legend of Leo?

I’d love to expand it into a meta-game for Aleo where every corner of the city represents a piece of the ecosystem: DeFi, identity, Leo playground, and more. I want players to build and learn as they explore teach the powers of zk.

My goal is to turn Legend of Leo into a long-term onboarding platform that grows with the ecosystem. 

→ Play Legend of Leo now  (use arrow keys to move and spacebar to interact)

→ Build on Aleo