ReWILD! : Bison Ranching in AR

Problem

Computer gaming can be a sedentary activity with potentially negative physiological and psychological consequences.

Solution

Encourage more active out-of-doors computer gameplay through on-chain tokenization of augmented reality game objects.

Total to date

This is the total amount allocated to ReWILD! : Bison Ranching in AR.

$65,000

Total funds requested

146

Total votes cast

₳27.3M

Votes yes

₳22.6M

Votes no

About this idea

The play-to-earn, 'on-chain' game is called ReWILD! The object is to capture, breed, and trade wild North American bison. Not flat, two-dimensional 'cryptobison,' but life-sized, fully animated, 3D versions of real, flesh and blood buffalo with temperaments and traits to match. Spawned from ReWILD!'s "Genesis" herd, these bison bulls, heifers, yearlings, and calves are also non-fungible tokens (NFTs) whose digital DNA is locked in a smart contract on the Cardano blockchain; and like real buffalo, they can grow, mature, breed and someday "die." In the process, ReWILD! gamers can help repopulate a virtual "Buffalo Grass Prairie" as it was before European explorers penetrated it, a 'sea' of grass and wildflowers stretching from Canada to Mexico, the Rockies to Appalachia.

ReWILD! is an Augmented Reality (AR) multiplayer game to be played, initially, out-of-doors on modern smart phones running iOS and Android operating systems. The eventual advent of affordable consumer-grade AR eyewear will make it possible to also play the game in an AR tabletop environment (see Simulated AR Tabletop Projection image attachment).

The unique aspect of ReWILD! is the proposed development and integration of "living," a.k.a. "dynamic," NFTs with addressable metadata that is modifiable without rewriting the smart contract. Each bison NFT consists of two primary components: the animated bison .GLB or similar file and its associated smart contract. The immutable portion of the contract specifies the name/ID of the asset and its IPFS location, its date of generation ("birth"), its genetic characteristics, gender, parentage, its most recent sales price and/or market value as measured by in-game currency called a "Nickel" (NCKL), and its custodianship (who is the current smart contract owner). Within the writable metadata segment is information about the health, sexual maturity, and the animal's geolocation. This metadata can be regularly overwritten by trusted Oracles sending climate and grazing conditions garnered from real world data (1). The intended effect is to emulate, as near as possible, the 15-20 year lifecycle of real bison.

ReWILD!'s attraction to the Cardano blockchain is the relative size of the contract block, especially the size of its metadata component: some 60,000 bytes. Equally attractive is Cardano's scalability and throughput, along with its modest and predictable transaction (gas) fees. ReWILD! foresees the eventual generation of millions of daily updates, not just in the trading of NFT's but also the regular and periodic modification of the data that represents each "animal's" physiological condition (including gravid) and it geographic location, which can be either on a projection of the real world (Google Earth) or in a specifically programmed meta-world.

While the ReWILD! development team standing by to begin work on the game have expertise in Augmented Reality game development and marketing (2), the relative newness of the Cardano blockchain and current paucity of programmers adept at writing Cardano smart contracts with an eye toward the periodic modification of each contract's metadata on a daily basis, especially, leaves an obvious gap in the scope of this proposal. In fact, one of the key reasons for submitting this proposal is to hopefully attract the attention of knowledgeable programmers interested in and willing to help pioneer this aspect of the game, potentially opening up other on-chain gaming applications for "living/dynamic" smart contracts.

The full development of ReWILD! is anticipated to be a multi-year endeavor, one that can begin with seed funding for the build of a minimally viable product (MVP) version of the game App (in iOS and Android for private alpha testing) and the creation of various prototype smart contracts, as well as the initial development of the programmatic overwriting of their metadata. Note, some early prototyping work already has been done on algorithmically changing, once-a-day, the "health" and virtual location (Lat/Lon) of a test "Alpha herd" of 36 virtual bison.(3)

Inclusion of the smart contract (BISONTOKEN™) aspect of the project is designed, as discussed above, to heighten and prolong engagement with the game through the "play-to-earn" (P2E) dynamic. Just as MAMA or AXS, the in-game currencies of Decentraland and Axie Infinity, are intended to foster greater game play, ReWILD!'s comparable in-game coinage called NCKL ('nickel'), is meant to do the same, generating a fun and vigorous meta-economy with the potential of enriching the lives its players: both emotionally and materially.

The roadmap to developing ReWILD! will, in all likelihood, require some form of ICO/ITO/IDO to generate sufficient investment capital to successfully produce and market the game, either independently or in collaboration/partnership with established game developers, several of whom we have already reached out to in both North America and Europe. Showing the blockchain/cryptocurrency community a viable MVP, as well as professionally structured white paper(4), would help immeasurably in this aspect of the effort. Being funded by the Cardano Foundation would inevitably help secure additional project funding from outside sources.

Of the requested $65,000, we anticipate it being allocated as follows:

$10,000 for 3D model development, rigging, animation

$25,000 for AR App development in Unity and 3D model integration with C# programming

$15,000 for initial smart contract programming and testing

$5,000 for initial testing of NFT deployment to IPFS

$10,000 for legal, financial/accounting, and administrative expenses

We recognized project funding and development accountability is crucial, therefore we propose to prepare and submit a monthly progress report to the Gamers On-Chain campaign team with a final report at the completion of a six-month funding window from the time funding is received. This Fund 7 accountability report will include a demonstration of the ReWILD! MVP App in both iOS and Android formats, to be available for private alpha testing. The report shall also include a 'white paper' on the feasibility of generating smart contracts with "living" NFT metadata. In addition, several test animations of 3D bison in .GLB or similar file format will be "minted" on the Cardano blockchain. Finally, the team shall report on progress to attract additional project funding, in particular through a ITO (initial token offering) or similar crypto crowdfunding mechanism.

The minimally viable product AR app shall demonstrate player interaction with several 3D bison, including a bull, a heifer, and her calf. These actions might include standing from lying position, grazing walk, hurried walk away, mock charge. They can be viewed through the player's smartphone and react to player movement. Geolocation functionality may not be integrated at this point, relying instead of SLAM technology. The basic user interface (UI) shall be playable as depicted in the ReWILD! Smartphone interface illustration.

A game play "Lite Paper" is available upon request, as are several additional explanatory resources in PDF format, including a 12-slide pitch deck.

SUMMATION:

The ultimate goal of ReWILD! is to stimulate a greater appreciation of and empathy for America's rich wildlife heritage and native cultures, especially the resourceful and resilient Plains tribes. Capturing live bison is no mean feat: neither will capturing them "virtually;" and successfully raising them and breeding them will be equally challenging. But putting them on-chain can also yield hours of delight, exercise, and comradery; and maybe even the possibility of financial gain as your herd grows and demand soars. The Cardano blockchain's transaction capacity, speed, block size, fee structure, and security is what can make ReWILD! an exciting and rewarding on-chain game to play out-of-doors and indoors alike. It just needs the Cardano community to help give it life.

(1) e.g. National Drought Monitoring Center, UNL

(2) One team member has PhD in immersive media. Two team members worked together on AR game apps for several AAA minor league baseball teams. Project leader is long-time Internet publisher and AR experimenter, who also has won two previous grants: one from the Energy Foundation (2000), and the other from the State of Nebraska (2015). Additionally, of the team, he is most knowledgeable of the history and lifecycle of the North American bison through his extensive research on the Camp 1872 project (https://camp1872.toonstech.com).

LinkedIn profiles:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-a-fisher-13945116/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-drake-12681912/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-william-moore-93a8811/

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

(3) https://camp1872.toonstech.com/alphaherd.php

(4) An informative, but as yet unfinished "Lite Paper" is available here: https://rewildgame.toonstech.com/pdf/Rewild!_v1.2.pdf

RESOURCES:

The health effects of too much gaming

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming-2020122221645

Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Playing Video Games

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Short-Term-and-Long-Term-Effects-of-Playing-Video-Games.aspx