Last updated a year ago
Traditional rhythm games don’t have a very good ownership model for the music they feature. There are very few web3 rhythm games and even fewer (if any?) are web-based.
This is the total amount allocated to Start Building a Browser-based Web3 Rhythm Game.
Build an app that combines music creation with chart creation in an accessible way. Mint NFTs and let players compete for partial ownership of them. Invite contributors and the community to take part.
No dependencies
The code will be closed source except for that which needs to be open for verification and trust reasons.
The music and charts created in app will belong to the artists and players. They will give the game a non-exclusive right to use them.
Premise
A web-based 7-key vertical scrolling rhythm game where makers make music, players play and compete, and they both work together to create an NFT marketplace.
MVP User Experience
You have 30 seconds to make a song. You have seven keys to press. They each make a different tone. You have to play it live. You do that until you're happy with the take. But you're not done yet. Now you have to play the song you just created and get a good enough score on it to "pass". This is to ensure that people don't create impossible songs - it will still be possible to create bad songs, of course. You hit the publish button. You now have an NFT of your song, congrats. You’re guaranteed 51% ownership. And the score you just got when you passed the song is now the top score on the leaderboard. People try to beat your score. Position on the leaderboard gives you a percentage stake.
Commentary
For the given timeline and small team size I believe this is a reasonable scope. The music creation experience given above is very basic. If there were a phase two to this project, that would be the focus. I think I’d borrow ideas from apps like Incredibox, and let the musicians build charts from combining templates, like they do with the music. Personally, this project would be an amazing opportunity for me as someone who has been working on rhythm games in his spare time for over 8 years.
Technical
The goal is to make a gamified Web3 experience that is accessible and fun. It could also be an avenue for musicians to make their first steps into Web3. Some of the technical problems and game design problems that come out of this could be interesting to document and discuss.
In the past I made two rhythm game engines that I decided not to continue developing. They're open source.
https://github.com/Trumpet63/Rhythm-Project
https://github.com/Trumpet63/Rhythm-Project-2
Those are both just prototypes. In the years since I’ve been working on a more ambitious rhythm game, which is not open source, and much of it I can’t showcase, but a functioning early alpha demo can be seen here: https://tempotonic.rocks/edmspack/
So I’m already certain that much of the project is feasible, since I’d just be writing logic very similar to what I’ve done before. I will need to work with the community to figure out the NFT aspects of it. I’m more than happy to give status updates and document my work hours. Including the community and getting feedback is going to be an important part of the process.
As far as whether the game will be fun - I think what I’ve outlined in the MVP is at least a little fun. Like a novelty or a toy you could spend a few hours with. It’ll be good enough if I can hand it to a stranger and they figure it out, make a song, and play a chart.
The point is to get the pipeline solved and give me some hands-on experience with Cardano, after which more game design possibilities will become clear.
Start with the hardest thing first. Write the code that mints an NFT. Figure out what the content of it will be - raw audio samples, the chart, etc. Figure out how to manage fractional ownership.
Write out the design doc. Specify the client-server interactions. Build some parts of the app as necessary to answer uncertainties.
Build music creation experience. The first musician creates their first song.
The first musician mints their first NFT. The first player earns their first fractional ownership. At this point the app’s skeleton should be complete. I’m integrating feedback as well.
Publish it somewhere if it’s not terrible, probably on itch.io. Continue integrating feedback while polishing the thing up and checking for bugs.
Jeffrey Spreng - Lead dev
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-spreng-698236114/
1 dev part time for 6 months
20hrs per week x 6 months = 480 hours
480 hours @~$80/hr = $38,000
$0.38 USD/1 ADA = 100,000 ADA
You’ll get someone with deep interest in rhythm games who likes to build things from scratch to start integrating with the Cardano stack and researching the potential that web3 can bring.