by 0xd5e9ef1cedad0d135d543d286a2c190b16cbb89e (DougNFTWorld)
Should the following Tier 5: up to $120,000 USD, 6 months vesting (1 month cliff) grant in the Content Creator category be approved?
Abstract
The purpose of this proposal is to secure funding that will allow us to further the development of NFT World City. This includes the completion of racing and chess games that have already been started, as well as the addition of a comedy club venue and escape room. We encourage you to visit the city if you are not already familiar with it: Decentraland
As NFT World projects have all been self funded up to this point, the company is reaching a limit on what we are able to produce. So today we’re turning to the community to ask for funds that will help us capitalize on the momentum that we’ve created from all that has been built so far in order to reach the true potential of this city concept.
Grant size
120,000 USD
Beneficiary address
0x79fF1B31D61c73f993e0743897eA4B51E53C4e1b
Email address
Description
NFT World City is hosted in Aetheria District at 150,65 - a huge 11x11 (121 parcels) two-level city that is the single largest scene hosted in Decentraland to date. The city was designed to serve as a spot where visitors are incentived to attend events in order to generate traffic. Sponsors pay to host events, attendees earn a reward for attending them which generates traffic, and this traffic then draws interest from other brands looking for exposure. Brands can also establish a more permanent residence by leasing space within the city. Spaces include art galleries, NFT storefronts, brand headquarters, games, and more.
With this grant, we are proposing:
-
Completion of a racing game where players race each other around a track. We have already built a track that runs around the perimeter of the Chicago area in the city, and we already have the ability to change avatars into Battle Racers vehicles. Next steps that this grant will help us achieve is turning all of this into a game with free/paid races, prize distribution, leaderboard, additional vehicle choices, and choice of environment. Vehicle choices will include DCL skins as well as integration of external NFT projects (such as we have already done with the TKING Bugatti). Environment choices could include ideas like UFO crash site, apocalypse, or seasonal decor.
-
Turning the Mehak Jain Gallery chessboard collaboration into a playable game. Users will have the choice to play for free, or to compete for prizes in exchange for a gameplay fee. A leaderboard will keep track of player’s win/loss ratio. Players enjoy a more immersive Alice in Wonderland kind of experience from controlling their pieces from inside the game rather than looking top down at the board.
-
Comedy club venue which will host playlists of pre-recorded sets as well as live-streamed shows. We are hosting playlist content already for our partners at Comedy Hub, but it is located in the stadium alongside music playlists. The grant money will go toward a dedicated space for comedy shared by multiple partners - bringing the best all in one place. Content will be updated regularly so that audiences have fresh selection to choose from in order to encourage repeat visits. The club will be decorated with humorous atmosphere and a classy vibe that is friendly for all ages. Comedy sets will be clearly marked and categorized by level of vulgarity/maturity so that users can filter for the type of comedy that suits their personal preference.
-
Escape room where players must work together to solve a mystery in order to find their way out of a precarious situation. The theme of this build will be a Cursed Egyptian Tomb. But it’ll be built in such a way that we will be able to replicate important parts of it for other themes as well in the future. Abandoned Spaceship Mission? Murder Mystery Mansion? Jungle Temple? The possibilities are endless.
Each of these will be built on 2x2 estates already available within the city.
Specification
Racing game - 2x2 multilevel racetrack. Up to 4 racers per track. Racers choose between different environments to race around. The track remains the same for each environment. Users can also choose their vehicle. There will be 5-10 Battle Racers vehicles to choose from by default. We will also integrate DCL avatar skins to increase vehicle selection even further which can include animals, mythical creatures, planes, spaceships, or anything else that the community comes up with. Vehicle speed will remain the same regardless of the type. A leaderboard will record fastest race times. All races must finish by a certain time (5 minutes?). Users cannot go backward, only forward, in order to prevent shortcuts to the finish line. Falling off the track results in starting at the beginning again. Racers will need to balance risk of falling off while going too fast, versus going slow and staying on the track but then risk getting passed up by other racers. Gameplays will be free and paid. Winners of free gameplays receive no prize. Winners of paid gameplays receive a large share of the gameplay fees, and second place earns their gameplay fee back.
Chess game - 2x2 chessboard. Players control their pieces from inside the game. Hovering over a piece highlights the squares that the piece is able to be moved to, and then the destination square becomes clickable. Upon choosing the destination square, the piece then follows a path to it. If an enemy piece is already present on the same square, it is removed from the game. Captured enemy pieces from each team are tracked in the UI. Players may compete for free, or pay a gameplay fee. Winners of paid games will receive their gameplay fee back as well as a portion of the other player’s gameplay fee. Top ranked players will be shown on a leaderboard.
Comedy club - 2x2 venue. A shared club for multiple comedians and comedy groups. Each will have their own playlist for videos that will be shown on a screen (similar to the music playlists in the stadium). The club will have dedicated space for different comedic content. For example, family-friendly content will be separate from adult content. We will live stream sets as well to bring audiences together in a more social format for enjoying comedy. Amateur nights will give lesser known comedians some spotlight. Comedians that contribute content will be allowed to advertise their upcoming events and link out to their social media accounts.
Escape room - 2x2 environment. A collaborative experience where players work together to solve a mystery in order to escape the scene alive within a certain timeframe (30 minutes?). An archaeologist has gone missing and the team needs to figure out what happened, and then escape before suffering the same ill fate. A journal is found with some clues. It contains deciphered hieroglyphics with captions like “curse”, “sickness”, “death” which look similar to some of those inscribed on the tomb walls. Some of the pages also contain rough sketches of artifacts and a partial map. A raspy voice on a recording seem to indicate some instructions on what to do with these materials. There will be a gameplay fee but no rewards for successful escapes. Parts of the game may be randomized in order to curb cheating, but unlike a P2E game, the goal for this one is to create a fun experience that encourages players to bring back more family/friends to share it with regardless of the outcome of their game.
Personnel
Doug (Doug | NFTWorld.io#0519 on Discord) has been an OG contributor within Decentraland since the beginning. In 2019 he founded NFT World (https://nftworld.io/) to promote brands in the Metaverse. Since then, Doug and team have created various DCL scenes that now comprise NFT World City and have also built:
Metaverse Chat (https://metaversechat.io/) - Incorporates Decentraland avatar profiles into a blockchain-based chat app.
Metaverse Browser Extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/metaverse/nghkdhckeabmkjbklgocfoojnpchhlgc) - Makes it easier to navigate resources for Decentraland and other virtual worlds in the Metaverse.
Metaverse Coin (https://mtvrs.com/) - Handed out at NFT World City events to incentive attendance.
MTVRS Market (https://market.mtvrs.com/) - Offers utility for Metaverse Coin by allowing holders to exchange the coin for NFT World avatar wearables which can then be sold for other currency on the Decentraland Marketplace or OpenSea.
The team consists of freelancers sourced from platforms like Upwork as well as some of the best known experts from within the Decentraland community. We have talent that covers all of the required key skill areas for building within Decentraland - developers, 3D modelers, graphic designers, etc. Which specific individuals will assist with each project associated with this proposal will be determined once it passes, but the core team will include trusted partners that we have already worked with in the past.
Roadmap and milestones
The order of priority is:
- Racing game (1 month)
- Chess game (1 month)
- Comedy Club (1 month)
- Escape room (3 months)
The racing game will be top priority out of the gate. Since we already have a head start on it, as well as the chess game, the team may at times work on different projects simultaneously in order to avoid bottlenecks. For example, 3D modelers might begin building out the comedy club venue and escape room environment while devs code the nuts and bolts of the racing and chess games that already have some of the visual foundation built. We will converge when possible in order to focus all efforts on completing one deliverable from the list at a time in a top-down manner.
In terms of ETA’s, we will deliver all projects within a 6 month timeframe. We expect the escape room to take the longest since it is the most complex build, and will be built from scratch, so we estimate 3 months for it. The racing and chess games have a head start so we estimate 1 month each for those, as well as for the comedy club which hasn’t been started yet but isn’t as complex of a build.
The NFT World team has a proven reputation within the space and the community. We appreciate your consideration and hope that you’ll support us in embarking on this next leg of our journey. Thank you!