Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Graphics and Infrastructure updates

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Davide Lucchesi

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

davide@lucchesi.eu

Additional applicants

I'm the only applicant for this proposal

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Gaming

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Video gaming is a booming billion-dollar industry that is expected to rise enormously in the following decade. The boundaries between gaming as leisure and profit-making activity have already become blurred, but we are not happy with the results so far.

Rookiez is the first decentralized blockchain-based motorcycle racing platform that joins racing enthusiasts in a community where you train your NFT riders, mint new NFT motorcycles based on your research, and scout new NFT riders who can become future champions. However, Rookiez is not meant to be a play-to-earn game. We don’t like the direction that many self-proclaimed “play-to-earn” games are going, simply because the first goal for any game should be for the players to have fun.

In our vision players own their assets, and they can decide what to do with them. If a player trains a brilliant rider for years and (after all of this effort) decides to sell them for profit, it’s not our business. We just want to make sure that players have an enjoyable experience with a first-class management game.

Currently, the game is in the advanced prototype stage and there is another proposal I wrote to facilitate its completion in a very short time: Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Completion and release of a playable prototype. However, this is using temporary assets, both for the 3D models and the 2D graphics that the NFTs are using. While this is totally acceptable for a prototype, it is necessary to replace those with more professional and better-looking assets.

Also, the game backend is running on a single virtual machine hosted in a cloud provider, therefore there is not high availability, and any issue will result in the game not being accessible. My plan is to migrate the backend to a more resilient infrastructure, running in a cluster with a true high availability setup.

Last but not least, we also need to acquire and customize several different race tracks for the start of the official championship, which should happen shortly before the deployment of the new backend server, allowing us to release a more complete beta version of the game a few months after this deployment. The same artist who made the training track (which will be included in the playable prototype linked above) already has the tracks for sale and will apply the necessary customizations required for Rookiez.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

While there are plenty of NFT projects that allow the owners to use those assets in some kinds of games, Rookiez takes a totally different approach: It's a game that uses NFTs for assets.

This sounds tautological but there's a big difference: there are no tokens, no NFT marketplace, and no pre-sale because all the NFTs are minted directly from the game when the players decide so. The mint price of those assets will be particularly low because the real value of these assets depends on the player, the strategy he/she applied, and the improvements that this strategy will bring in the long term, making them more competitive.

In the "traditional" game-dev community there are still many doubts (and, often, prejudices) about NFT technology. Being an indie game developer myself, I think that most of this negativity is difficult to dissipate mostly because of the lack of inclusivity that practically every project seems to show, from the traditional video-gamer player point of view: usually, the first thing that happens is the sale of NFTs, which are supposed to become in-game assets for that specific project, often for an incredible floor-price. With Rookiez I'm directly addressing this issue.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

I want to show the gaming industry, with a specific focus on indie game developers, that thanks to Cardano it is possible, and somewhat easy, to deploy a different kind of business model, therefore driving more adoption for the Cardano ecosystem. I think that releasing a working prototype with great visuals and beautiful NFT art will encourage other developers into following a similar path and drive more adoption by onboarding gamers.

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The progress will be documented using the social media platforms of choice (Twitter and Discord) with regular updates (not less than once per week). Feedback from the community will be extremely helpful and being active on those platforms is a real priority.

Communication and engagement with the community are very important for the success of any game, and for this reason, I decided to submit a dedicated proposal: Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Website and Community engagement

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

I'm an IT professional with more than 25 years of experience as a developer, systems engineer, and IT project manager. I started to focus on game development 5 years ago. In late 2019, I released my first commercial game, Wood 'n Stones, now available for free on Steam.

My experience allowed me to set up a working backend/server environment and create the client application (the "seed" of the game itself, the object of this proposal) in a very decent time, even if it was not my main job, which I recently left to concentrate 100% on Rookiez.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal of this proposal is to improve the visuals and stability for the playable prototype of the game, which is in the advanced development stage and will be completed also with the help of Catalyst, as described in this proposal: Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Completion and release of a playable prototype.

• NFT art replacement for all the "people" (riders and staff members)
• NFT art improvement for the motorcycles
• NFT art generation for teams
• NFT art generation for cups and prizes (sent to the players in case of victories or podiums)
• New 2D Texture art for the racing circuits
• 3D models replacement for the "office" (main management scene)
• Adding all the necessary circuits (16 to 18) for the game: currently, the prototype allows access to a training track, but once the real championships will start, there will be many different racing tracks
• Replacing the backend infrastructure, migrating it to a high-availability setup

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

All the 2D art and 3D modeling activities will be outsourced to external professionals which I'll hire specifically for those tasks. I expect that they will need up to two months to complete their tasks.

During this time, I will take care of the backend migration to the high-availability setup that is described above.

Also, during the first three months, I'll be busy completing the playable prototype, which is the main goal of this other proposal: Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Completion and release of a playable prototype.

Replacing the temporary assets of the prototype with the new ones will require quite a lot of work, and the same is true for adding the additional racetracks. I expect to have this completed during the fourth month.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

The goal is to provide the users with an improved version of the playable prototype, replacing the temporary graphics and 3D models, and all the main mechanics will be available. This will also include many different racetracks that will be available in the game as soon as the official championships start, running on the new backend server.

The result of my work will be the availability of a new version of the downloadable game, and the number of downloads will provide an important metric.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

High-Quality 2D art for NFTs and in-game assets, like circuits, banners, etc. (~100 graphic assets):

• ~45 hours * 50$ / hour = ~7500 ADA (assuming 0.30$ per ADA)

Replacing the temporary 3D models for the management scene:

• ~30 hours * 35$ / hours = ~3500 ADA

Acquiring the additional racetracks (sold by an artist who already made them) and adding the specific customization for Rookiez:

• ~25 $ / racetrack * 18 tracks = ~1500 ADA

Importing the racetracks into the game and adding the necessary code:

• ~30 $ / hour * 20 hours = ~ 2000 ADA

Installation of a Kubernetes Cluster for providing scalability and high availability to the backend server and deployment of the new backend:

• ~40 hours * 40$ / hour = ~5500 ADA

Cloud Service Provider for running the new backend server:

• 8 mid-size VMs (6 K8S, 2 load-balancer) 15$ / month * 6 months = ~2500 ADA

We are adding ~2500 ADA for unforeseen expenses and extra costs.

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The stated costs for the 2D art, 3D models, and system engineering tasks needed for the backend replacement have been chosen considering the medium costs in the EU zone, after having spoken with a few different professionals for the roles described.

The infrastructure costs have been evaluated after checking a few different cloud providers, like AWS, Google Cloud, Linode, and Contabo, to name just a few.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept