NFT Gaming Model + Token economics

Cardano has a unique opportunity in the NFT space to extend the current primary use of ownership to utility or some function of repeatable use & transaction of NFT's due to the fixed fee + data transaction model. With this unique positioning it enables gaming in unique ways where transactions at scale can happen at low fees thus opening it up to more users and usage.

Why a game?
Creating a game with a tangible "cash out" option is our main focus. Can we show usage, create fun, and give players who want to recoup a portion of their investment, even if it's small, a way to do so. This will start by creating unique game play pieces as NFT's to be owned, then develop into usage within the game mechanics itself.

DUO (Images Attached)

The planned gameplay -
As with any game the first step is establishing fun, accessible, repeatable gameplay. I believe that the world needs more laughter, which is why the focus of this game is humor and word play. 

We will use a prompt card NFT to initiate each round of gameplay which can be paired with a punchline card NFT that creates a funny pairing between two unique NFT's. These are voted on by the players in the game to determine the winning combo. 

Part of the model exploration is defining how to use NFT's and Game Token(s) to create a balanced and sustainable game ecosystem. For example in this planned card gameplay each round will require a token from players to participate, mitigating abuse. Then each round will finish by distributing tokens to the winners. The questions we aim to answer with this proposal:
- What should the tokens accomplish in gameplay?
- Do you need multiple tokens?
- What seeding distribution ratio should be used for players:nfts when using these in game tokens?
- What are possible exploits?
- Where should game makers maintain centralized control?

Work completed to date

• - First round of NFT artwork and game mechanics complete.
• - Physical version of the core gameplay completed as a prototype for Alpha testers to provide feedback on. 
• - Database of NFT content seeded with content ready to mint
• - V 0.1 of Tokenomics to support gameplay drafted to supplement physical gameplay testing. 

Scope of Funding
As with any project, finding the minimal viable product is key at each stage of development. The focus of these funds if awarded will be community engagement & open source research. I intend on minting the initial gameplay pieces to fund ongoing development. NFT gameplay and balancing the game mechanics to create a fair and fun ecosystem needs development and testing. These time allocations are my limits to ensuring I can collaborate with others effectively to move the project forward and don't chase perfection.

1 Community

• - Finalize current Alpha gameplay ruleset and distribute to 50 Alpha community testers for feedback. (20 hours)
• - Tweak gameplay based on feedback (50 hours)
• - Community for project description, providing feedback, alpha testing updates. ( 40 hours)

2 Open Source Research for other developers

• - Research and document the tokenomics & NFT utility usage to model the foundation for a game economy blueprint that can scale globally. (100 hours) 
• - Publish a public whitepaper of our findings & provide community updates for other game designers. (80 hours)

Total hours - 290 main criteria for funding (including paying collaborators) 

Measurables
To define the success of our scope, the following will be the success baseline:

• - Onboarding 50 Alpha Testers.
• - Setting up the community tools with 60% engagement (feedback responses) over the Alpha testing window. 
• - Finalize Alpha rules & gameplay
• - Collaborate with at least 3 other experts on game tokenomics & NFT usage to model out a core game economy - co-authors on Whitepaper.
• - Publish resulting Whitepaper in Q4 2021
• - Town hall updates

EXCEEDING Expectations

• - Waitlist of more Alpha testers
• - Alpha community engagement above 60%
• - Publish Whitepaper in November 2021

Timeline
Total timeline for this to be completed is time boxed to Q4 of 2021 with all deliverables due before the new year. 

Phase 1 - Community site & Discord (~2 weeks)
Phase 2 - Alpha Tester signup and gameplay testing window. Concurrently doing research & documentation (~5 weeks) 
Phase 3 - Whitepaper & wrap up. (~2 weeks)

After 3 months I expect this to be fully delivered. After 6 months other developers using the blueprint in their own game economies. After 12 months active games improving on this model either open source or privately.

Expected Impact for the Challenge
I expect that this research will not only show the value of NFT's acting as a utility within a game, but establish a model (blueprint) for others to use in their own games with basic models for tokenomics + NFT usage. Further, I expect that this will also highlight the nuances of Cardano's eUTxO model and low network fee advantages to bring more game developers using NFT's into the Cardano ecosystem.