by 0xa7f8a55dbec4a7060631a9d571b4ea0edc14ca3c (8MetaBalls#ca3c)
Should the following Tier 5: up to $120,000 USD, 6 months vesting (1 month cliff) grant in the Gaming category be approved?
Abstract
8MetaBalls - is a Billiard Game located at 117, -27 on 3*5 Estate. Users can play a few types of Arcade mode, PVC, and PvP modes, earn in-game currency like balls, chips, and change it for NFTs. Ball Cards & Wearables grants access to different game mechanics. Cues NFT have an in-game utility like hit power, angle of fine-tuning, etc.
Links
Grant size
120,000 USD
Beneficiary address
0xb12ba0b2dc9d9811a7e3b1f76b3f8318bcb58f20
Description
It is a resubmission of our previous grant proposal.
We didn’t reach a threshold last time but collected a lot of support from the community. One month has passed and we want to share the progress we made during that time:
From the roadmap we have posted in the last proposal:
- MultiPlayer: The first version of multiplayer is ready and deployed. Players can play against each other. We implemented more rules for more realistic gameplay.
- The first iteration of the new UI in union style (instead of the free stock version) is ready. You can see it here. We are turning the design into the code, and it will be on the scene within a week.
- Events with the daily prizes: Started $ prizes event “Leader of the day” - the leader of the day counts by total internal currency earned getting $ reward + internal stuff reward.
- PvP tournament prepared and made by community members will start on 15 May.
- One SDK dev joined the team full-time.
- The graphic designer joined the team for half-day for UI building and marketing stuff.
- Analytics. We deployed the second iteration of analytics a couple of weeks ago. Now we can see all things players interact with on the scene and in-game.
- A few interesting numbers from it:
- Players spend about 100 hours daily playing pool - total time played in-game (counts by seconds of the game, excluding time when players just stay on the scene and don’t play). It’s more than four days on average of raw gameplay in a day.
- Some quick conclusions from the first look at analytics allowed us to make immediate changes in the game and make players happier.
Sure the example on the link is pretty simple, but it’s huge for daily players. We’ve gone further and now we are making more changes based on analytics.
- We are one of the most popular scenes by CCU in DCL.
Sharing 4th place with Genesis Plaza from time to time.
Invisible things under the hood are already done and in progress:
- Significant physics improvement. It’s become more realistic. And we are continuously working on it.
- All physics and gameplay logic for PvP mode moved from the scene to a server for more robust work and prevented bots from cheating.
- Separate server to serve PvP mode since all calculations are in the server.
- Since the new dev joined the team, a ton of code was refactored to work together and onboard new devs in the future much more smoothly.
- Many reusable modules/components for further development like permission module (to get access for different mechanics and features), level builder, network debugger, etc
- PvC mode improvements.
- New classic levels to arcade mode & new Arcade mode with obstacle
- We are also preparing a new arcade “crazy mode” - with unusual table shapes and unusual physics.
- Cue-sticks - visual improvements, animation of hit, different guidelines based on cue level, gameplay improvement, more accurate aiming with a red-dotted ball, ability to make complex hits, cue wear and repair, etc.
Specification
Six months of development have passed in one day. The game has started from “let’s try what SDK can do now” (I haven’t touched it since it was on babylon.js in 2018) to the team with four members working full time on the project, a few people working part-time, thousands of players, and great feedback from the community.
We are still committed to the roadmap from the last proposal, but I want to explain my vision to high-level points we want to work on.
-
Numbers of players - obviously, the more players play the game, the more successful it is. The number one goal is to grow DAU, WAU, MAU, and CCU metrics.
We plan to achieve it through different game modes, such as PvP, PvC, Tournaments, Pools Clubs, and a few types of Arcade modes. Marketing activity and Events. Adding more game mechanics and social interactions. Bring more utility-based NFT and wearables. -
Developing the codebase. Two devs are working on the project so far. I and a new TypeScript SDK Dev who joined our team full-time this month. We need one more dev for a backend, DevOps, CI/CD, server stuff, and one more SDK dev for scene development.
-
Visual part. Improving the visible part of the scene and game. New 3D buildings, tables, chests, boards, cues, interior & exterior design. 2D UI development. Sound improvement.
-
Internal economics/game balance & monetization. The most exciting part. We already have a dual currency economy with stimulus to achieve rewards and possibilities to spend it in exchange for different game items. But it’s still in the early stage. Here we plan to add significantly more ways to achieve rewards, a bunch of ways to spend them. Add user retention mechanics like game chests, daily super-games, loot boxes, and collection items. Add more NFT with in-game utility, such as cue chalk(which prevents bad hits), gloves (makes hits more accurate), etc.
-
Continue to develop analytics. The most important part. To achieve the goals, we have to understand what’s going on. Which mechanics increase our metrics, and how do different changes affect them. Eventually, build “adult metrics” of acquisition, engagement, and monetization such as stickiness rate, churn rate, retention rate, ARPU, ARPPU, LTV, ATV, etc.
-
Game Center. The long-term goal is to transform a single-game scene (8MetaBalls) into a Game center with multiple games covering different interests and audiences.
And combine these games into one unified economy.
I am already creating PoC for several games in my spare time. But our primary efforts are the development of 8MetaBalls so far. When we achieve all the things I’ve mentioned above, it will be much easier and faster to deliver additional games and embed them into the scene and economics.
Personnel
- Tony - core dev: Former marketing lead in retail & e-commerce(long ago). TS/Phyton/C#/Solidity developer. Former core dev in a private quantitative crypto fund. From 2021 went deeper into DeFi, DAO, chains stuff. The finalist of Binance DeFi CIS Hackaton in April 2021. From the end of 2021 whole day in Decentraland development. One of the first members and admin of the CIS DCL Community since 2018. Early investor to DCL. We participated in the first (and the second tbh) auction and districts terraforming. (working on the project full time since December 2021)
- Vitaly - operation, game design, economics. The finalist of Binance DeFi CIS Hackaton in April 2021. Early investor to DCL. We participated in the first (and the second) auction and district terraforming. (working on the project full time since December 2021)
- Alex - 3D modeler (worked part-time, joined for full-time last month)
- Vite - TS SDK Developer (worked part-time, joined for full-time this month)
- Helen - 2D designer (worked as a freelancer, joined for a half-day job)
- We plan to onboard one marketing person & two more devs(one for backend stuff, one for SDK). We already have candidates ready to join immediately.
Roadmap and milestones
Milestones (briefly)
- Q2 2022 - multiplayer(almost done, deployed, testing by players), pool clubs, tournaments, betting, new game mechanics, new game types, player base growth
- Q3 2022 - Game Center with the additional game(s), franchise
I’ll appreciate any feedback or questions.
