Starc₳da: Cardano, IAGON, Midnight, Anti-cheat, Player Reward Indie Game Publishing Platform

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Jonathan Fishbein

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

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

Morgen Victoria

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

150000

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

8

[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)

Starcada offers Plutus leaderboards and rewards smart contracts, IAGON web hosting and an anti-cheat online score system enabled by zero-knowledge smart contracts

[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.”

• Lucid-Evolution for off-chain transaction construction
• PlutusTx for on chain validation
• IAGON for static web site hosting and storage
• Orcfax for cardano native token price feeds
• Midnight or zkFold Symbolic for gameplay proof
• Babel fees

[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

In the future, there are plans to open source parts of the project after the Starcada platform is further developed and adopted by more players and game developers.

[METADATA] Horizons

Gaming

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Starcada.io will be a platform where game developers can publish their games. Each game will be outfitted a PlutusTx smart contract serving as an on-chain leaderboard that facilitates prizes

Additionally all games will be hosted using IAGON's storage and static web site hosting capabilities.

Gameplay will be proven using Midnight or zkFold contract to mirror game actions as on-chain transactions. This is a novel feature specific for Web 3 gaming. A prototype of the functionality was developed for the Rare Evo Midnight Hackathon. The token $QTRS will serve as the gas token to process gameplay verification transaction using Babel fees

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

I want to attract game developers to Cardano with novel Web 3 technology specific for gaming

From Godot, Gdevelop, Phaser, Unity to name just a few game engines, this will help connect Cardano to any game engine that creates web-based games. This means that this project can help on board independent game developers or businesses that could market their games to players and help create game experiences that use Cardano.

Additionally, IAGON would greatly benefit from additional storage fees.

The novel functionality of on-chain gameplay verification would enhance Cardano's reputation for gaming

[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?

As project lead and founder of Starcada, I have been tinkering with different variations of this idea for a bit. I've worked with Cardania, Smoke and Cataldi Guild to build Cardano smart contract integrated games.

Additionally, I was selected as a finalist in the Rare Evo IAGON track hackathon for a decentralized version control system and won an award in the Midnight track for a mechanism to verify gameplay.

For marketing and community outreach, For more than 2 years, Title Pending produces an X-space and has helped connect various Cardano projects and people. Also, he is a game developer and can help with game developer on-boarding.

Morgen Victoria has successfully marketed Tech In Schools Initiative (TISI) non-profit that helps students in New York and adults learn about new and existing AI technologies. Given her involvement with SNEK and other crypto non-cardano block chains, she will help with cross chain out reach to attract users to Starcada and Cardano.

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

Milestone outputs:

(1) Mainnet plutus smart contract support for a few games but with close coordination with game developers to assist with uploading and smart contract integration (Developer)

(2) Multi-sig wallet to accept catalyst or other sources of funding in Ada. (Business)

Acceptance criteria:

(1) Game integration with on-chain rewards dispensing via leader-board smart contracts

(2) A Multi-sig wallet where all team members must sign.

Evidence of milestone completion:

(1) A playable game instance that shows a leader-board using smart contracts to dispense rewards.

(2) A Multi-sig wallet address submitted to Project Catalyst to receive initial funds.

Milestone outputs:

(1) IAGON storage integration (Developer)

(2) LLC formation with operating agreement (Business)

(3) Written Tutorials (Knowledge Base Content Creation)

(4) Player feedback related to games published on Starcada. (Community Engagement)

Acceptance criteria:

(1) Game developers can independently upload games

(2) An LLC formed with operating agreement that lays out an overall business plan, defined legal roles, how the money is used, % ownership and revenue distributions, etc.

(3) Written Tutorials that are clear step by step guides that contain screen shots (Knowledge Base Content Creation)

(4) Select player feedback from games available on Starcada that may not be fully integrated with features that are being developed included in the proposal. (Community Engagement)

Evidence of milestone completion:

(1) UI for games developers to upload their games directly to starcada.io

(2) LLC Articles of Formation with attached operating agreement.

(3) Written tutorials will be published on X, discord, and starcada.io .

Milestone outputs:

(1) Competitive prize pool smart contract (Developer)

(2) Creation of Youtube Starcada Channel (Marketing)

(3) Video Tutorials (Knowledge Base Content Creation)

Acceptance criteria:

(1) Game developers can initiate weekly prize pool contests tied to their games (Developer)

(2) Starcada Channel will post weekly videos about game development (Marketing)

(3) Video tutorials will show examples of how to get games published and integrated with Cardano/Web3 solutions.

Evidence of milestone:

(1) Starcada.io UI for game developers to initiate prize pool contests and gamers to participate (Developer)

(2) Starcada Youtube channel will have 50 plus subscribers (Marketing)

(3) Video Tutorials publisehd on Youtube, X, Rumble, and LBRY/Odysee (Knowledge Base Content Creation)

(4) Feedback for Starcada.IO from players will be recorded via discord conversations. (Community Engagement)

Milestone outputs:

(1) Integration with Midnight or zkFold for gamplay verification (Developer)

(2) Marketing Outreach to Cardano Community and Other Blockchains (Marketing)

(3) Game Developer outreach (Marketing)

(4) Starcada.IO closed pre-alpha testing with on-boarded game developers. (Community Engagement)

Acceptance criteria:

(1) Gamestate is mirrored on Midnight of zkFold on-chain contracts (Developer)

(2) Starcada featured as a guest or speaker on different X spaces. (Marketing)

(3) Game Developers will now have written and video tutorials to consider using Starcada.IO for their game projects. (Marketing)

(4) On Iagon a pre-alpha portal for developers to try and use will be available to select game projects. (Community Engagement)

Evidence of milestone completion:

(1) Playable games where gameplay is verified on-chain (Developer)

(2) Increased follower on related X account and increased discord members. (Marketing)

(3) On-boarding of new game projects.

(4) Feedback for Starcada.IO from game developers will be recorded via discord conversations. (Community Engagement)

Start of Next Project Goals:

Improving game-developer and player experiences via feedback

Hydra research for multiplayer, report, service / library

Legal expert outreach, best practices, discussions, guidance, networking

Seek partner platform(s), outreach and assistance, e.g. wallet connectors

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

Jonathan Fishbein - Plutus Developer and Backend Developer.

For the Rare Evo Midnight Hackathon, He created a prototype that showed the functionality for a decentralized version control system and won an award in the Midnight track for a mechanism to verify gameplay. He is the lead Dapp developer for Starcada.

He has worked with projects such as Cardania and Smoke.

Title Pending - Game Developer Experience and Business Developer

He will work on Starcada's on boarding experience for game developers who want to offer games on Starcada's game platform. He will also create the operating agreement for Starcada's LLC. Although he has a business masters, he is getting related legal council.

He has worked on an example game that integrates Starcada solutions. He is a member of the Cardano Gaming Guild and worked with Thiago of the Cardano Warriors related to Catalyst Proposals and related budgeting.

Morgen Victoria - Cross chain outreach and social media marketing.

She will be working with and doing outreach with social media apps X-spaces, discord,and telegram . She helped market Tech In Schools Initiative and other web3 and AI projects.

She is also a front-end web designer and AI chat bot developer.

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

Development: 100,000 Ada

• Development of Plutus V3 smart contracts
• Lucid-Evolution off-chain integration
• Orcfax Cardano Native Token Price Feeds integration
• IAGON storage upload capability
• Midnight or zkFold gameplay verification

Knowledge Base Content Creation: 25,000 A

• Written tutorials on X and discord demonstrating how to upload and integrate games with Starcada
• Video tutorials on Youtube, X, Rumble, LBRY/Odysee, demonstrating how to upload and integrate games Starcada

Marketing, Community Engagement & Business Development : 25,000A

• Outreach to Web 2.0 indie game developers
• On-boarding Process for game developers
• Outreach to Cardano and other block chain communities
• On-boarding process for players
• LLC Formations and other legal fees
• New starcada youtube channel for related game news

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

The budget defined above is within bounds of PlutusTX development cost