A Cardano Fortnite Experience - Realm Striders

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Josh Roggero

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

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

Command Line - Bill Fishkin, Matt Shouse

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

500000

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

7

[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)

Produce high fidelity Fortnite experiences that bridge the gap between Web2 & Web3 users by meeting gamers where they are already at; prioritizing immersive experiences with Cardano IP at the heart.

[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.”

PlayerMint - PlayerMint is an established Cardano Project that was previously funded through Catalyst and is essential to our mission of onboarding Fortnite gamers to the Cardano Ecosystem. This will be accomplished by expanding their existing infrastructure that allows gamers to level up their gaming experience while playing Fortnite, earning tokens based on their performance, and trade them for on-chain prizes.

Command Line -Command Line is a Fortnite focused studio from Theia Interactive. Command Line works with entertainment based IP, celebrities, athletes, musicians, and influencers to bring unique and engaging experiences to Fortnite with an existing portfolio of web3 work. Their AAA experience with over 200 shipped Unreal Engine products and their extensive connections are important in building high quality experiences and meeting deadlines.

[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

Due to the nature of game development and security within Fortnite, along side proprietary game mechanics developed by BlueBox Gaming we will not be open sourcing our verse code.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Our proposal would solve for the demand of large scale marketing efforts for the Cardano ecosystem. We believe that providing meaningful experiences for Web2 and Web3 players is a better path than trying to market to other web3 ecosystems in a liquidity merry go round. Our solution will provide awareness and a low friction onramp to Cardano in a sustainable way.

In 2023, Epic Games, launched a new program called UEFN (Unreal Engine for Fortnite) that allows companies like BlueBox Gaming and Command Line to publish high quality Unreal Engine experiences into Fortnite for 600 Million users to experience.

Every month 29 Million users play UEFN creative maps and game modes.

Blue Box Gaming along with our partners PlayerMint and Command Line are proposing a design and development process that will result in the deployment of custom Fortnite Experiences based on goals outlined by us, the Blue Box Gaming team, and PlayerMint.

 Command Line has helped BlueBox Gaming outline a proposed development plan to create a bespoke Fortnite game titled Realm Striders.

Command Line's process will include the creation of a Cardano themed world that can be used for multiple game modes. A portion of the revenue from these game modes will go back into expansion of partnerships and fresh gaming content.

Each game mode will have unique features to drive player engagement and attract a wide range of player types that are introduced to the Cardano Ecosystem and established Cardano project IP.

We take this approach as veterans in gaming with the mission to meet web2 gamers and users where they are already at, amplifying the things that they already love.

Our team is proposing the creation of a unique world themed around the Cardano blockchain, Cardano Projects, and complimentary game sponsors. This world will feature unique points of interest on islands that look like the Cardano logo from above. Each island can house Easter eggs, mini games, and branding to keep players engaged.

We will activate 6 of the top Cardano NFT communities and their IP to establish a strong player base. Having an active map is of utmost importance. In order to grow the player base, we will do the following:

• Tournaments: Through BlueBox Gaming, PlayerMint and various Cardano Communities.
• Partnerships: Engage in strategic collaborations with web2 and cross chain web3 communities, live streamed across various socials with the map code easily accessible.
• Map & Game Updates: Ongoing updates to game modes to keep the content fresh.
• Dedicated Marketing Team: RareDrop's extensive experience in talent management and streamer marketing will bring our game modes to the masses with a goal of ranking as a top 100 Fortnite Map.

A smooth onboarding process will be facilitated by in game billboards and loadout instructions that lead people into the BlueBox Discord. This gaming community was established in 2019 for web2 gamers and onboarded those who wanted to collect web3 prizes. Our experience with this process will be used to assist gamers with their first Cardano wallet and linking it to Epic Games through PlayerMint's infrastructure.

Proposed Game Modes

Following the creation of the world we can build a variety of games to target player demographics. These demographics can most easily be broken down into the three following categories.

• Casual
• Typical
• Competitive

The chart below can help outline the types of games and experiences that best fit the player types and we will drive engagement between each of these.

Suggested Game Modes by Player Type

Proposed Games

Below, Command Line has outlined three games to cover the various player types. This is not an exhaustive list and additional or varied games can be created based on community feedback and partner preferences: Blue Box Gaming has created new game mechanics that are not utilized in current game modes that can be developed and iterated on to differentiate our offerings.

Realm Striders Tycoon: (Player vs Environment)

This game is designed for 1-4 players to explore and conquer the Cardano World. This experience will start players on a small island on the outskirts of the map and challenge them to defeat the six bosses and take control of all of the resources. This will combine tycoon, role playing game, and boss battle elements. Various Easter eggs and mini-games will be scattered throughout the world for players to find and unlock.

Realm Striders Battle Royale: (Player vs Player)

Players will drop into the map and be challenged to be the last one standing. This can be a

singles, duos, or squad battle game mode and loot and resources around the map will be

leveled accordingly. In addition to players, NPC enemies (zombies and guards) will protect

high level loot boxes forcing players to strategize over their next move.

One unique mechanic BlueBox Gaming pioneered is implementation of a skydiving bonus. At the game start, players will skydive from above, giving players a full view of the Cardano Islands below. By flying through a series of rings on your way down to the map you can receive a speed and health bonus for a limited time allowing you to get to better loot before you competition. These rings will range in size with larger rings being easier to fly through but granting low level boosts. Smaller, more difficult rings will give players higher level boosts.

Alternatively, special rings could provide weapons or gear so that players don’t land empty

handed and can start to fight immediately upon landing in the map.

Realm Striders 1v1 Tournament: (Player vs Player)

This is a highly competitive game mode that would feature tournament style competition.

Players would be dropped into a bracket and battle one on one for a best of 7 to see who advances to the next round. We can have winners and loser brackets and a free for all for those who lose out of the tournament to keep players engaged and practicing.

Each battle will move to a new point of interest (POI) around the map giving players an opportunity to see the wide variety of locations available while they battle for the top tournament spot.

Landing Page and Release Date(s)

Command Line will support the creation of a landing page that can be used to drive web traffic and social media traffic to share the experience and concept outside of Fortnite. Additionally, this landing page can be used to tease the release date(s) of the games. It can also feature a leaderboard and in-game stats such as the total number of player kills across all of the competitive games or total minutes played.

BlueBox Gaming will also create landing pages as part of internal marketing efforts across various social media platforms to offer tournaments to players.

Playermint will be included in these marketing funnels created by Blue Box Gaming to onboard users to signup and connect their Epic Games account to their platform.

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

Reinforcement of iconography is important when marketing an organization. If we reach our goal of being a top 100 map, it would bring millions of impressions of the Cardano logo through gamers and streamers, as players soar through the skies and look down at the terrain. It will also bring millions of impressions of popular Cardano NFT IP and projects through billboards, signage, terrain and custom map assets.

A secondary goal is capturing a percentage of players into our Discord, onboarding web2 users to Cardano in a meaningful way. BlueBox has previously advertised tournaments which have been a highly effective onboarding mechanism for players want to claim their prizes. This involves providing education through the process. From the basics of what is blockchain and why it may be important to them. Our experience cultivating a web2 community of like minded people provides a space that is less intimidating than a pure web3 Discord with many degens and/or developers. This has created a surprisingly low friction framework for onboarding users over the years at BlueBox Gaming.

In addition the development of the game modes, there are backend game concepts that will help drive engagement and ensure we are building successfully:

Analytics

On top of the basic number of players and time played we will include detailed analytics around each game. With this data we are able to understand gamer behavior and measure success based on data and in-game interactions within the world.

Fortnite Battle Pass XP

A major driver for popular UEFN maps is their ability to grant Battle Pass XP. Players will endlessly play games with good “XP Grind Ratios” each season to get their Battle Pass ranking up. We will ensure that XP is setup correctly and work with streamers / gamers to determine the best methods for creating a good XP Ratio. This has a direct impact on players seeing and interacting with Cardano IP through grinding for Battle Pass XP.

[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?

Founder experience

Josh Roggero (Doc) - Prior to joining the crypto space in 2016 I served in the United States Military for 7 years as a Corpsman with extensive training in military operations and leadership.

After the Military I worked as a financial advisor with Ed Mylett's company, World Financial Group. I then transitioned to marketing for Fortune 500 brands while working for Gary Vee at Vayner Media and helped DraftKings stand up their web3 offerings.

In 2019 I launched a discord community with a focus on web2 gamers and ran many alpha and beta tests to find what works and what doesn't on the road to onboarding gamers in a meaningful way.

In 2022 I joined Non-Fungible Films as their CTO at the cross roads of Hollywood and Web3 helping onboard National Lampoon and other significant IP.

Partnership Experience

Aidan Rankin - Aidan is a trusted member of the Cardano Ecosystem and has a proven track record of delivering for Project Catalyst winning multiple funding rounds and exceeding his stated deliverables with PlayerMint. Aidan previously worked at Nike's innovation lab, and Emurgo. He entered the web3 industry in 2017 and hasn't stopped building and creating since.

Command Line - Command Line’s team comes from a diverse background that spans comic book publishing to music industry marketing to game development. With many connections directly to Epic Games and a proven track record, command line has built UEFN maps for popular blockchain projects.

St. Jude: Play Live

Command Line teamed up with GCX to build a game that supports the St. Jude Play Live fundraising campaign to fund childhood cancer research.

This experience helped them achieve their fundraising goal on their first livestream in 2024!

https://youtu.be/JhEVmh7uyzk

Team Diverge

JuJu Smith-Schuster’s (Super Bowl winning Wide Receiver) professional gaming team worked with Command Line to develop a hub island to engage with fans and multiple games for their team to stream and practice.

https://youtu.be/laLLotQumtA

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

Phase 1: Onboarding of Cardano IP, Map Creative, and Game Design

A: Milestone outputs - Participating Cardano IP, design documents, mood boards, technical development plans, full marketing scope.

1. Immediately following funding approval BlueBox Gaming will facilitate the onboarding of existing established web3 Cardano projects and IP for 6 map zones.
2. Following the acceptance of this proposal the first week of the project will be centered around Command Line and BlueBox Gaming defining the goals and objectives of the experience. From there we will create design documents, mood boards, and technical development plans.
3. BlueBox Gaming has already come up with the overall map structure in the shape of the Cardano Logo and designed mechanics that are new and different than the existing UEFN experiences.
4. BlueBox Gaming will have extensive meetings with RareDrop to iron out full marketing scope.

B: Acceptance and Evidence criteria - Completed design documents, mood boards, and technical development plans

1. 6 collaborations with Cardano Projects
2. Following the completing of the design documents, mood boards, and technical development plans BlueBox Gaming will sign off on deliverables.
3. BlueBox Gaming will sign off on full marketing scope.

Phase 2: Development

A: Milestone outputs - world building and development

1. The Command Line team will take the documents created in Phase 1 and use those to develop the experience. During this Phase we will have weekly update meetings to share progress.
2. PlayerMint will develop the additional infrastructure to allow for integration of their system in order to pull API data from custom maps.

B: Acceptance and Evidence criteria - Development of gaming experiences and world

1. A fully developed world based on parts of the Cardano Ecosystem.
2. Up to three custom games built and ready for extensive testing.
3. BlueBox Gaming will sign off on deliverables.

Phase 3: Launch!

A: Milestone outputs - playtesting, bug fixing, and general quality assurance

1. Following the core development phase, we will move into the Launch phase. This phase features playtesting, bug fixing, and general quality assurance. At the same time we will be working closely to align on all of the necessary launch materials and creating marketing collateral to promote the launch of the game.
2. BlueBox Gaming will develop the additional landing pages and internal marketing materials for our Fortnite tournaments.

B: Acceptance and Evidence criteria - playtesting, bug fixing, and general quality assurance done

1. A fully developed world based on parts of the Cardano Ecosystem.
2. Up to three custom games built and ready for extensive testing.
3. BlueBox Gaming will sign off on deliverables.

Phase 4: Post Launch!

A: Milestone outputs - track analytics, measure success, and maintain the experience

1. Command Line will coordinate following the launch of the game to track analytics, measure success, and maintain the experience. The goal of this phase is to drive continued engagement in the experience.
2. BlueBox Gaming, based on analytics will shift tournament structures and reward mechanisms and continue to run and add to the experience.

B: Acceptance and Evidence criteria - analytics, measured success, and ever evolving experience.

1. A fully developed world based on parts of the Cardano Ecosystem.
2. Up to three custom games built that are running and gaining users.
3. BlueBox Gaming will sign off on all metrics and continue to build upon the deliverables.

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

Our Team & Partners

BlueBox Gaming

Doc - Josh Roggero

Founder / CEO

https://twitter.com/curator_doc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/curatordoc/

GQ - Rodolfo Espino

Director of Operations - COO

https://twitter.com/GQnft

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodolfoespino/

Drakemier - Vincent Wriston

Gaming analytics - CGO

PlayerMint

Aiden Rankin-Williams

Co-Founder & CXO

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidanrw/

Command Line

Bill Fishkin

Co-Founder & CEO

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billfishkin/

Matthew Shouse

COO, Co-Founder

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattshouse/

Development Team Leads

The following team members will be on weekly meetings and help to relay information to the broader Command Line development team.

Jordan - Art Director

Jordan leads Command Line's 3D Art team and has a background in game design. He will ensure the environments look great and run smoothly.

Ricardo - UEFN Technical Lead

Ricardo leads Command Line's gameplay development team and is responsible for creating fun and engaging gameplay. He is also the best Fortnite player on their team!

Kevin - Producer / Project Manager

Kevin will work closely with the team to manage timelines and task tracking.

RareDrop*

*Upon approval of proposal BlueBox Gaming will also be working with Command Lines Partner RareDrop to develop a robust marketing strategy including streaming of game play and other activations. Per our discussions with Command Line, RareDrop is willing and has the capacity to support the project.

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

Pricing and Timeline

Below please find a high level pricing estimate for the creation of the Realm Striders Cardano world and up to three game experiences. Command Line has also included a rough scope for influencer marketing through their partners at Rare Drop. All values are based on the price of ADA at $.44 USD.

Fortnite Development: Command Line Scope

This includes the development of a large custom Cardano themed game world and up to three game experiences.

Development Budget: 300,000 ADA at time of proposal

Development Timeline: 16 - 20 weeks*

Pre and Post Launch Marketing: Rare Drop Estimate

This is a rough estimate for budgeting purposes. We will work with Rare Drop to develop a marketing plan and upon proposal approval will create an exact budget and scope of work.

Marketing Budget: 169,000 ADA

This includes a heavy hitting web2 streamer, mid to low level CCV (concurrent view count) content creators, and Tik Tok UGC. Due to the nature of the marketing push RareDrop has advised that we stick with the Kick platform and not Twitch.

* These are estimates based on the concept outlined by Command Line. During the initial 

 consultation. Command Line may present alternative solutions if requested. This budget can be scaled up or down and the game scope scaled accordingly to ensure delivery.

Legal & Accounting services

31,000 ADA

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

Our Realm Striders Cardano World project expenses have been carefully calculated with industry experts that have build over 200 projects in Unreal Engine. We ensure that that each cost aligns with our mission and principles to bring a robust gaming experience to web2 users and increase the visibility of the Cardano Ecosystem.

Along side our partners this is not our first rodeo and the proposed budget shows an understanding of the market and Cardano's ecosystem needs.

The proposed budget meets market standards in high quality UEFN game dev.

Due to our revenue model our goal is to ensure every ADA spent is tied to raising the bar of our team with direct benefits to the Cardano ecosystem in the form of eye balls on Cardano IP and the rich ecosystem of projects that build here.

Benefits to the Ecosystem

We don't believe in a Build it and they will come mentality. Instead of building a web3 game we build with the distinct understanding that you need to meet users where they are already at, doing the things that they already love.

By building a map intentionally with our chosen partners and the inclusion of Cardano Projects and IP we uplift the ecosystem as a whole and are not focused only on self.

We are all about Collaborative Competition and building synergistic relationships that span many years into the future.