Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager game

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Davide Lucchesi

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

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

6

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

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Rookiez is the first decentralized motorcycle racing platform where you can train your riders, mint new motorcycles based on your research, and scout new NFT riders who can become future champions.

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

Yes

[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.”

All the game assets (Riders, Staff members, Motorcycle prototypes, etc) are NFTs that can be minted directly from the game when the players decide to do so. There is no external dedicated marketplace.

For the minting procedures, the game relies on the NMKR API.

To facilitate the integration with the Unity game engine, I released an open-source component, which can be used by everybody who wants to create NFT games: https://github.com/Odiobill/Nmkr

Also, for reading the player's wallet, we are using the Blockfrost APIs.

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

No

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

While several parts of the code used for the game are or will be released as Open-Source software (like the NMKR component for Unity mentioned above, or the AdaHandle component for Unity), Rookiez is a management game, and publishing the complete source code means that all the formulas used for training, research, etc. will be made public, removing one of the most essential and compelling parts of any manager game: figuring out the best strategy by playing and experimenting, while adapting to changes.

[METADATA] SDG rating

Our project aligns with SDGs 8, 9, and 17, fostering sustainable economic growth through digital innovation, contributing to the development of sustainable blockchain infrastructure, and promoting partnerships within the Cardano community to achieve these goals.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Video gaming is a booming billion-dollar industry that is expected to grow 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.

Another great difference from most of the other available web3 games is that Rookiez aims to maximize inclusivity: in our opinion, asking hundreds of ADA for in-game assets can get some interest from speculators and "flippers", but doesn't make much sense for attracting regular gamers, who can enjoy AAA titles for a fraction of the cost.

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 this effort) decides to sell him/her 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.

Accessing the current pre-alpha version (Proof Of Concept)

Currently, the pre-alpha version of the game is available as a playable prototype that has been distributed first to a few selected testers from our Discord community and then made available to a broader audience, by publishing the download links directly on the official Rookiez website.

The game will soon be published using the KWIC Launcher (a content distribution platform specialized in Web3 games on Cardano), but for the time being, the latest builds are accessible for the following platforms:

• Windows - Executable, compressed (Zip) archive
• Linux - Executable, compressed (Zip) archive

This version gives access to all the main game mechanics, including the core management parts, the racing mechanics (both AI and player-driven, to provide a more arcade experience), and the NFT minting procedures. Please check the following alpha-version instruction video for more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic-_nWmtsHE

Tools for the Cardano game developers

Rookiez is a management game, and publishing the complete source code means that all the formulas used for training, research, etc. would be made public, removing one of the most essential and compelling parts of any manager game: figuring out the best strategy by playing and experimenting, while adapting to changes.

During the development of the game, however, we had the chance to build, and release on Github, a few different open-source components for the Unity game engine, hoping that those can benefit other game developers on Cardano:

• NMKR component for Unity
• AdaHandle component for Unity

We wish to continue on the same route and release other developer tools and components in the near future.

Partnerships

We think that it's very important to cooperate with other new and established entities in the Cardano ecosystem, helping each other reach our goals and improving the adoption of our blockchain technology.

We already mentioned the future availability of our game in the KWIC Launcher, and we are in contact with other companies to provide additional utility for their NFT projects.

The first announced partnership of that kind is with NMKR: owners of Seaplane NFTs will have an additional motorcycle in the game, for each of those assets in their wallet.

More partnerships of the same kind will be announced soon.

What we want to achieve

Until now, everything necessary for the functioning of the game has been developed by the main author of this proposal: from the design to the backend, the game development, the server, and everything in between. But it's a very big project, and with the requested amount of funding, we want to expand the team to include another senior game developer who will help with completing the development of the project, while providing new ideas, helping avoid design mistakes, and make sure that we can deliver the best product in the shortest time possible.

To complete the game, we need to:

• Correctly apply the results of training and research
• Add 15 to 20 different race tracks necessary for the correct execution of the competitions
• Implement the correct execution of the racing seasons, including promotions and demotions
• Allow players to promote their more experienced (and older) riders to specialist roles
• Add the rewards logic for race podiums, championship victories, and other achievements
• Add the logic necessary to mint new motorcycle prototypes based on the research that has been done in the previous racing season
• If possible, expand the arcade parts of the game with multi-player mechanics for extra-season races between friends

Also, it's necessary to take care of the other tasks that a game company needs to perform.

This includes:

• In-game visual improvements: adding and replacing 3d models, visual shaders, and special effects
• 2D / NFT art replacement: while we are committed to using the NFT technology for innovation and empowering the players, we want to make our game assets more attractive from an artistic point of view
• Translations: the game has been developed with a multi-language approach and it is implemented to make it pretty easy to add more supported languages. We want to offer support for at least five different languages
• Server infrastructure: migrate the backend to a more resilient infrastructure, running in a cluster with a true high availability setup
• Website replacement: it is of paramount importance to provide players with a clear website that will function as the main game manual
• Community engagement: we want to hire a professional community manager who will take care of managing the Discord server, and the X account, and filter any support request
• Marketing: we need to start an effective marketing campaign, to drive curiosity over the project and facilitate our inner goals for expanding the adoption of the Cardano blockchain outside the financial environment

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

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 to do 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 we are directly addressing this issue.

The success of this project will bring other Indie Game developers to the Cardano ecosystem, by showing them that different business models are possible, without scammy P2E mechanics, or having to pay a 30% Steam tax. Also, we aim to bring regular gamers to Cardano, who will have an enjoyable experience with a first-class management game.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

I'm an IT professional with more than 25 years of experience as a developer and systems engineer, and I started to focus on game development 5 years ago.

I fell in love with the Cardano technology about 3 years ago. During the spring of 2022, I started the European Cardano Community together with my teammates: Marcus, Mauro, and Ricardo. We host regular town halls/fireside chats to present the latest projects building on Cardano, and we host X spaces in several different languages spoken in Europe.

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 in a very decent time, without any funds, even if it was not my main job, which I recently left to concentrate 100% on Rookiez. I'm completely confident that with the necessary help from the Cardano community thanks to Project Catalyst, I can acquire the resources to deliver an outstanding result in the projected time.

I'm already in talks with several different parties that are interested in collaborating with the project, including marketing and product distribution. Also, the feedback from the community seems to be very positive. All of this is giving me the necessary confidence to keep working on Rookiez. The number of downloads of the game and the community engagement will provide the metrics to understand if my feelings are right and if the approach is feasible.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

~8 weeks

Complete most of the remaining parts of the game prototype, as reported in the project description:

• Correctly apply the results of training and research
• Allow players to promote their more experienced (and older) riders to specialist roles
• Add the rewards logic for race podiums, championship victories, and other achievements
• Add the logic necessary to mint new motorcycle prototypes based on the research that has been done by the player

Acceptance criteria

At this stage, all the necessary logic for correctly executing the championship in the various leagues has been achieved.

~4 weeks

Launch of the racing "Season Zero". For the first, test racing season (Season Zero), we need to have achieved the following results (Acceptance criteria):

• Add 15 to 20 different race tracks necessary for the correct execution of the competitions
• Onboarding of the first 24 early-adopter players. There are 8 teams per league, so with 24 teams, we'll cover 2 different league levels: 1 top league, and 2 level-2 leagues
• Implement the correct execution of the racing seasons, including promotions and demotions
• New backend server software and infrastructure deployed

~4 weeks

For the third milestone, we'll focus mostly on two main topics:

• Marketing and community engagement: the goal is to onboard many more players, to cover at least 4 or 5 league levels in the following racing seasons. The new website needs to be deployed and our players should find all the support they need in our community, both on Discord and other social media channels.
• Code cleanup. This will include both bug-fixing and game-balancing. There are concrete chances that another testing season is required before the official release of the game.

Acceptance criteria

The new website deployed, and game builds run smoothly

~4 weeks

Milestone 4 is mostly about making the game beautiful and more enjoyable for the players. To achieve this, we have to complete the following tasks (Acceptance criteria):

• In-game visual improvements: adding and replacing 3d models, visual shaders, and special effects
• 2D / NFT art replacement: while we are committed to using the NFT technology for innovation and empowering the players, we want to make our game assets more attractive from an artistic point of view
• Translations: the game has been developed with a multi-language approach and it is implemented to make it pretty easy to add more supported languages. We want to offer support for at least five different languages

We plan to spend the last weeks on fixing the small issues we may still have in our builds, and polishing the game. As a result, Rookiez goes Gold:

• The official racing seasons will start
• All the races for any league are watchable from the game
• Drafting the required project completion report and promotional video

We aim for a positive reception from the community, as evidenced by initial download numbers and user feedback.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Davide Lucchesi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/odiobill/

Project leader and main proposer. Passionate game developer and proud team member of the European Cardano Community

Hara Iliopoulou - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hara-iliopoulou-7b938436/

An expert multi-lingual translator, who can guarantee that communication will be clear, concise, and free of the usual bumpf

Marco Montabone - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-montabone-938b5bb1/

A relentless, versatile, and cross-platform System Engineer with a serious love for technology and Cardano

Anastasiia Polozova - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasia-polozova-021686136/

A very expert and knowledgeable front-end developer, who will take care of deploying a much better website (which is also functioning as the main game manual)

Lorenzo Martani - https://twitter.com/lorenzomartani

A very experienced marketing manager who has already provided his skills to several well-known names in the Cardano ecosystem

MadTrade - (not disclosed)

Our tireless community manager

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Game development / Programming

2 x senior developers, $50 / hour

• ~4 hours/day, ~5 days/week, ~6 months: ~48,000$

1 x Tech Artist, $50 / hour

• ~3 hours/day, ~5 days/week, ~2 months: ~6,000$

Visual Improvements

1 x 3D modeler / Unity asset creator, $40 / hour

• ~60 hours in total: ~2,400$

1 x 2D artist (~100 graphics assets), $50 / hour

• ~50 hours in total: ~2,500$

Translations

1 x Professional Translator (add 3 more languages), $40 / hour

• ~20 hours in total: ~800$

Server Infrastructure

1 x Senior Systems Engineer (installation of the cluster for providing scalability and high availability to the backend server and deployment of the new backend), $40 / hour:

• ~25 hours in total: ~1,000$

Cloud Service Provider costs:

• Running the new server infrastructure for 6 months: ~750$

Community Engagement

1 x Web Designer, 30$ / hour

• ~60 hours in total: ~1,800$

1 x Web Developer, 40$ / hour

• ~120 hours in total: ~4,800$

1 x Community Manager, 400$ / month

• 6 months: 2,400$

Marketing Strategy

1 x Marketing Professional, 1,500$ / month

• 6 months: 9,000$ in total

Unforeseen expenses

• ~1,500$

Total amount in dollars: ~81,000. Assuming 0.36$/ADA: 225,000 ADA

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

After checking with several professionals from personal acquaintances and consulting different marketplaces, we selected the people who could offer the best service at the most competitive price for our needs. Some of them are members of the Cardano community and are happy to accept payment in ADA.

The reported prices are slightly lower than the European market average.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund 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