Trybbles Blockchain-Enabled AR Pets

Trybbles: Blockchain-Enabled AR Pets

The title of this proposal only describes half our vision. Our plan is to build a traditional story-driven gaming experience, coupled with a companion blockchain-enabled AR virtual pet dapp.

The focus of the first stage of production, which is the scope of this proposal, is the world-building and prototyping stage and recruiting the right team of world-class talent to do so.

Ultimately out of this we envision 2 games being born, each one with a very distinct role and mechanics. Both drawing from, and building upon the same fictional universe but constructed in a way that enables them to enrich and complement each other.

Note: Throughout this proposal, and in general, we will avoid using the term "metaverse", as currently it's misunderstood & misused. Building the foundations of, and fighting for an open metaverse, accessible to all, is embedded in our mission, however in most cases today, the term is simply used as a hype inducer, not as an actual descriptive or useful word. The metaverse will be the totality of all digital experiences seamlessly integrated into one continuous flow and does not characterise a product, set of products or a company. To say something along the lines of "we are building our metaverse" is simply dumb and/or dishonest. (It would be like saying "I'm building my own universe" when starting the construction of a house - sure it's a nice metaphor, but it would be almost certainly interpreted as such, which is not the case here.)

Otherwise, we're just calling games & digital experiences "metaverse(s)" for the sole purpose of hyping them.

Why We See This as Being a Necessity:

The objective of this Catalyst challenge is to onboard mainstream gamers onto the blockchain and expose them to the advantages and the plethora of new things that DLT can enable in gaming.

However, there is a, relatively unaddressed, obstacle to achieving this goal, namely that, for a variety of reasons, a large percentage of mainstream gamers and game developers are reluctant or actively opposed to blockchain technology.

Most notable of these reasons are:

A belief that everything that is connected to blockchain, cryptocurrencies & NFTs are pyramid schemes or scams.

That the majority of art minted as NFTs is "stolen" and as a result, all NFTs and blockchain should be discounted (one of many examples: https://twitter.com/NFTtheft )

And/or that blockchain is doing irreversible damage to the environment. https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22328203/nft-cryptoart-ethereum-blockchain-climate-change

These are compounded by the fact that demand for GPUs by crypto mining operations has had a severe impact on the PC gaming hardware market over the last several years (during the latest two crypto market rallies), leaving many gamers feeling disgruntled because of the negative effects they personally experienced (ie being unable to engage in their favourite pastime or having to pay considerably more to do so).

Information and education are ineffective when those it is intended for are not willing to expose themselves to it and are unshakeable in their beliefs, however misinformed or under-informed they may be.

The thing to keep in mind is that for the most part, especially when it comes to game developers, they are all very educated & capable people, who believe they are correctly educated on this topic.

That's why we observe that this problem can not be tackled head-on - by simply building and shipping a blockchain game and trying to market it to a wide audience directly. If the game is really high quality that may work to some extent, but it will be far less effective due to the challenges we described above.

It's also worth looking into a recent decision of one of the biggest players in the industry, Steam (the world's largest digital gaming distribution platform for PCs, operated by the Valve Corporation) which seems to have cemented, at least for now, the anti-blockchain and anti-NFT stance.

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/steam-is-removing-nft-games-from-the-platform-3071694

The official reasoning given for this decision is that the platform doesn't allow things with "monetary value" in games, which NFTs were deemed to represent. This may have some validity to it, as a few years back, before NFTs, they got sued for enabling gambling on their platform and since then they haven't officially allowed outside trading of in-game items. Yet the market for in-game digital items is booming.

Even if this time it isn't a crusade against blockchain and NFTs, it's certainly a good PR move on their part given the general stance of their customer base.

The adage of "build it and they will come" will almost certainly not work in this context and we need to approach the challenge differently.

Our Solution:

What better incentive is there for the human mind to try out new things than wanting to experience a captivating world and an immersive story?

To achieve this, and bridge the divide between mainstream gaming audiences and blockchain-enabled, NFT incorporating or based games, we plan on producing and releasing two separate titles.

1. A story-based game for PC/console to introduce & establish the world, characters and lore.

2. A virtual pet AR experience that will be the main blockchain "event" and the primary way of interacting with the NFTs.

We plan to make the AR app a free download on all major platforms.

The free version will feature a virtual pet with a few basic traits to choose from. All basic functionality will also be available at no cost.

However, connecting your Trybbles NFT holding Cardano wallet to it will grant the player with new functionality and cosmetic options (skins) for his pet bot, based on the traits of the NFT(s) he/she is holding.

We aim to move beyond breeding and fighting, which seem to be the current focus and limit of blockchain games. These were good starting points but there is a whole universe of other, yet unexplored, game mechanics that can be adapted and enriched by DLT.

We view the AR experience as seamlessly interwoven with our main storyline.

For example: In our main storyline Trybbles are robotic pets built as caretakers and companions to the one-man crew of deep space exploration vessels.

The AR experience would be presented as a virtual replica of the robotic pets, designed specifically to allow Earthborn children to experience their companionship and to gather data that would be fed in the neural networks of the bot.

To accomplish this, the AR Trybbles we are aiming to create will have to give the impression of a living being that has a will and life of its own, that goes on beyond the active interaction session. One way we are planning to achieve this is by constructing a set of refined, subtle and adaptable animations.

We plan on developing the games in Unreal Engine, as it's a game engine that we have experience with, produces incredibly high-quality results and has a vast ecosystem of resources and support material.

When it comes to the story-driven experience, a few games to serve as a reference for the general look, feel and gameplay of what we would be going for, are:

The Turing Test (2016) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turing_Test_(video_game)

The Talos Principle (2014) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Talos_Principle

Firewatch (2016) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewatch

Transference (2018) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transference_(video_game)

Our approach for the Series One of the NFT Collection has been to deliver meticulously crafted art regardless of any subsequent developments. We are very much aware of the fact that building & shipping a game is an enormous undertaking, and as such it wasn't a guarantee we could realistically make in relation to the NFT Collection. Something we have been very clear about since before launching our collection in June. https://www.trybbles.com/about 

We estimate the total time necessary for the completion of this vision with a small to medium size team (of around 10) would be around 3-4 years at a minimum cost of $4-5M (not adjusted for future inflation).

Scope:

Our aim with this Catalyst proposal is to build a solid foundation for our medium and long term vision for the project.

The most fundamental component of this is recruiting the right team for the job.

Once that is achieved our efforts will turn to world-building and game prototyping for the next few months, with a focus on three main pillars:

1. Completing and adapting the world-building and character development - writing & concept art

2. Game mechanics prototyping

3. Tokenomics & NFT distribution models

During the first 18 months, we had previously worked on the project (2009-2010) we have completed much of the backstory and have written an extensive script for what was to be a AAA quality adventure game. A wide range of concept art was also created to support the world (see the attached images for examples). In fact, the NFT series that we have released this year is based on that concept art.

However, the work needs to be adapted to fit the new direction in which we intend to take the project.

As part of this effort we are also looking at ways the player/user might generate new NFTs, for now, potential directions we are exploring are based on upgrading through gameplay and/or collecting.

The purpose of this Catalyst proposal is not only to hopefully secure the funds needed to lay the foundations of a potentially successful fictional universe, but also to serve as a way of introducing our project to a wider audience and to perhaps serve as a launchpad for further funding opportunities. All that while also being a great way of gathering constructive feedback.

We intend to use the Catalyst process and funds to validate the project and to build solid foundations that will allow us to freely experiment and iterate, and ultimately deliver the best results.

Although developing code is not planned for Phase 1 of the project, the scope of this proposal, we plan to open-source any blockchain-related technology we later develop - i.e. the smart contracts and other components our NFT based experience will rely on.

The Trybbles Journey so Far:

Trybbles Universe Timeline

I. September 2009 - December 2010: Initial concepts, world-building, character development, concept art, and a script for what would be a full-length adventure game (project gets shelved due to financial constraints).

II. April - May 2021: Starting from the initial concept art, the Cardano NFT project takes shape, work on the art and project structure begin. The project website is launched and social media presence is established.

III. The world gets a first glimpse of Trybbles in the Cardano Catalyst Town Hall of April 21, 2021, during the NFT-DAO presentation - https://youtu.be/0Dy9U09jA8A (hint: not Bulgaria). Due to complications, we ended the partnership with NFT-DAO a few weeks later.

IV. May 23, 2021: Minting of the first Trybbles NFT collectables, exclusively on Cardano.

V. Early June 2021: The Trybbles Discord server is launched in full & a community starts to form around the project.

VI. June 15, 2021: Announcement of our partnership with well known and trusted Cardano community members Cardano Dan and Chris of Reliable Staking [RELY]. Together they are covering marketing & technical aspects of the project.

VII. June 20, 2021: Minting of the community half of the Trybbles Special Reveal Edition (SRE) which was/is/ and will be distributed to the Trybbles community through giveaways, contests & other special events. A record of their distribution, including links to Cardano transactions is kept here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TtKPijV4dfCZxsR7heDYYWK85Wlzjmg76mNPCPdgYlA

VIII. June 29, 2021: Launch of the public minting event for the Trybbles Special Reveal Edition (SRE) collection - a series of introductory pieces that reveal Trybbles to the world. https://youtu.be/X8DmEBgxL4s

IX. July 2021: Series One Launch - Series One consists of 250 distinct artworks, spread across 5 rarity tiers.

X. August 3, 2021: The first, and to date only, animated Trybbles NFTs are airdropped to wallets of qualifying Trybbles SRE holders. The collection features two tiers and versions of the animation - Trybbles All Revealed

https://pool.pm/d05271dc4748d2a2c69ddf91135d1a712b034f1c1b375d623a12a7d8.TrybblesSREAllRevealed30 

and the Trybbles All Revealed Spectacular

https://pool.pm/d05271dc4748d2a2c69ddf91135d1a712b034f1c1b375d623a12a7d8.TrybblesSREAllRevealedSuper20

XI. July - September 2021: Minting of the first half of Series One in 5 drops. Met with enthusiasm by the community, each drop successfully sells out shortly after release.

XII. Releasing short fragments of the Trybbles backstory & lore to match each successfully minted part (drop). Delivering on the initial promise that Trybbles will be a world that the community will discover along with the NFT collection - https://www.trybbles.com/world

XIII. September 21, 2021: Introduction of the Trybbles Club - a place where owners of Trybbles NFTs can discuss, and share opinions on the project, gain access to exclusive insights, early news, exclusive giveaways and participate in & vote on decisions that shape the future of Trybbles. The Trybbles Club is powered by NFT Key, a Catalyst Fund5 funded proposal, an NFT authenticator service that checks the contents of your Cardano wallet and grants access based on the NFTs it holds. [https://www.trybbles.com/trybbles-club]

XIV. October 5, 2021: Introduction of the Trybbles Rewards Collection, a series of very distinct Trybbles NFTs, airdropped directly to the wallets of Trybbles holders each week, for 12 weeks.

XV. October - November 2021: Work on a Cardano Catalyst proposal in the Gamers On-Chained category meant to enable & secure funds for the recruitment of the right team & the initial stage of development. This included setting the stage by contacting professionals from the animation & game development industries, obtaining up-to-date costs info, consultation sessions with NFT industry insiders, preparing an accounting model with our company's accountant for dealing with crypto assets and potentially paying salaries in crypto in the future, drafting & refining the proposal, etc.

XVI. Late November 2021: Launch of the second half of the Trybbles Series One NFT collection on the Cardano blockchain.

Budget

Personnel:

Project Manager / Game Director / Writer / Recruitment / Market Research - $0

Art Director / Game Director / Writer / Recruitment / Market Research - $0

Writer - $60/h - 8 weeks - $19200

Character Concept Artist - $60/h - 8 weeks - $19200

Environments Concept Artist - $60/h - 8 weeks - $19200

Game Designer - $65/h - 8 weeks - $20800

3D Generalist/Animator - $65/h - 8 weeks - $20800

Community Manager - $45/h - 8 weeks - $14400

Tokenomics Consultant - $500/weekly session - 8 weeks - $4000

NFT Consultant - $500/weekly session - 8 weeks - $4000

Smart Contracts Consultant - $500/weekly session - 8 weeks - $4000

Other Expenses:

Miscellaneous Hardware* - $10000

Software & Cloud Services Licenses & Subscriptions - $3500

Office Space** - $1500/month*5 months

Accounting - $750/month*5 months

Legal - $750/month*5month

Recruitment Costs - $1000/month*5 months

TOTAL: $159100

*As we envision most of the work being done remotely at this stage, the hardware budget we've included is only for minor investments that may be required, such as professional graphics tablets, storage & networking devices, etc.

**We estimate that most of the work will be done remotely, and indeed we plan on scouting a diverse global team. But, some activities produce far better results when done while sharing a physical location, an example of this is conducting recruitment interviews (if possible), writing and brainstorming game mechanics. For this reason, we plan to keep a small office.

As we've mentioned we want to be able to recruit highly skilled individuals to our team regardless of their physical location or country of origin, thus the hourly rate represents an average of what would allow us to do so regardless of background.

We plan to conduct most of the scouting and interviews ourselves and reach out to qualified people through our network of contacts, however, we have budgeted a relatively small amount in case we need to make use of the services of a recruitment agency.

Thoughts on Budget

We are perfectly aware that the amount that our project would require to get started is more than half of the total Gamers On-Chained challenge budget, however, we think this is more a reflection on the budget allocated, rather than our proposal. We have spent a great deal of time going over every staffing and budgeting possibility and the final sum is a result of what would be a very realistic estimate for building a foundation that would set up the project for long-term success. Sure, we could ask for a lower budget and make our main focus getting the proposal funded and hoping for the best afterwards, but restarting the project without being able to build it on a solid foundation is not something that we're prepared to do.

We're not comparing the two projects, but for reference, The Sandbox, an in-development blockchain game, has an ecosystem currently valued at $5.04 billion, with a fully diluted market cap of $16.62 billion at the time of writing https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/the-sandbox/ . Of course, that's not all production budget, but it's meant to give an idea of the value blockchain gaming can bring, especially since The Sandbox is just one of many titles being built on other blockchains. 

Skills Required

A complete list of the skills required to successfully implement the project:

Production, project planning, scouting & recruitment, game direction, art direction, creative writing, world-building, game design, 3D modelling & rigging, level design, animation, art, market research, community management & social media.

Risk Assessment

The biggest risks we identify at this stage are difficulties in finding and recruiting the right people for the team.

Given that recruitment of highly skilled individuals is a fluid, dynamic process, based on circumstance, chance, and a large number of unquantifiable variables it is nearly impossible to make an exact, honest estimate.

The worst-case scenario that could come about as a result of this risk is a delay in the project timeline, but we don't see that as ultimately jeopardising the project success. In short, our approach to this will be to take our time if needed and completely eliminate the risk of the emergence of the "bozo effect" later on.

The time we allocated for this process is 3 months. We feel that, currently, it represents a good average between the shortest and the longest timeframe required to complete this step.

Project Timeline, KPIs & Definitions of Success

This initial stage of the project will itself be broken up into 2 effective parts, totalling approximately 5 - 6 months. The first stage will be dedicated to recruitment. Optimistically we estimate this could be done in the first 3 - 4 months. While the second part will represent the first phase of actual production - we have budgeted for 2 months.

What does success look like?

3 months - The first part of the team is assembled. In this first stage of hiring, we will be looking at recruiting highly skilled individuals for art & community development.

6 months - World-building and a game mechanics prototype are finalised. A production draft of the script for the adventure game is written. Plans for a fair and attractive tokenomics model are completed.

Additional funding is secured & the recruitment process for the second part of the team can begin.

9 months - The second part of the team (technical) is assembled & work can begin on all aspects of the project.

12 months - An MVP is built for the AR app and work is well underway on the adventure game.

Expected Launch Date

With the start of the project scheduled for April 2022, we expect that an MVP of the AR experience, as well as a complete vertical slice of the adventure game, should be ready by Q2-Q3 2023.

Approach

On the blockchain infrastructure, we have the ability to create a new paradigm of digital interactions, one based on provable, trackable ownership & contributions and start laying a small part of the foundations of what can become a future open and inclusive metaverse.

But while doing so we also have the opportunity to reevaluate and rebuild how our legacy social constructs function, particularly those related to corporate governance, equitable compensation and the relationships between the entities in an organisation.

We plan to experiment with new approaches, both in our relationship with our community and our potential future team.

For our community, we have already introduced the Trybbles Club based on NFT Key, a Cardano NFT authenticator service that grants special access to holders of Trybbles NFTs, and we see multiple ways in which this could evolve in the future.

While assembling the team to work on this project we will look for teammates, not employees and seek to compensate them fairly and equitably according to their realistic desires, not their needs. Humans should be treated as more than self-replicating workers. Humans are not a resource to be extracted. (HR)

We will do so not only for efficiency's sake, as we have discovered through experience that a hierarchically flat and an equitable setting leads to increased productivity and overall better outcomes in a creative setting (where the production of a creative product is the end-goal), but hopefully also to set an example to be followed in the transition to a new social and digital paradigm.

We are not asking for any compensation for us during this Phase 1 of the project, we would be investing part of the revenue from the already released NFTs to enable us to continue working on the project for now. We have worked tirelessly on the project since April, far more than normal working hours and if an expansion of the project is enabled by Catalyst funding we will continue to do so. The entire budget of the proposal is allocated to growing the team and fairly and equitably compensating everyone involved. We think that an integral part of the blockchain economic revolution needs to be fair and transparent compensation.

What's the importance of DLTs if we use them just to replicate current economic models? Should we just adapt the practices of the status-quo, where creatives are paid exploitative rates by studios with a model where creatives are paid exploitative rates by blockchain communities while others profit?

Why are we dedicating ourselves to Catalyst, is it simply for technological reasons?

It is likely that we will continue to develop the Trybbles universe for the foreseeable future in some form with or without Catalyst funding, however being funded would enable us to dramatically scale up our efforts, at a much faster pace and move the project into the development of interactive entertainment products built on top of the Cardano blockchain.

In Closing:

The aim of this proposal is two-fold:

1. To lay the foundations for developing a rich interactive world, part of which will be an engaging NFT based, blockchain experience.

2. To experiment with creating new ways of community interaction and an equitable working environment with a flat hierarchy in which each member of the team feels valued and fairly compensated.

What better place would there be to start our experiment than through the larger experiment that is Catalyst.

Trybbles already has a proven track record of popularity, with over 4000 NFTs minted by the community since the launch of the project this summer. We have a relatively large organic following on Twitter & a Discord community of members actively invested in the project.

Conclusion

The incredibly positive impacts of gaming on blockchain adoption and usage are well documented. Without going into a very detailed analysis of the subject, we would like to point out that Axie Infinity, currently the most popular blockchain game in the world, has been responsible several times for the highest volume of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

We will add that we view Axie Infinity as a great showcase of what is technically possible when combining blockchain and gaming, but not so much as a truly fleshed-out game in itself. It's not a product that would attract an audience in the mainstream gaming community, simply based on its merits as a game, without the promise of large amounts of money that can be earned playing it.

We have also written a Twitter thread on this subject some weeks ago, please refer to it for reference.

https://twitter.com/newmindflow/status/1454376147203002369

A game that features NFTs needs to be, first and foremost a fun and engaging experience. NFTs should be treated as "infrastructure" elements, that enable new game mechanics and not be treated as the main focus of the game. That's why what's currently on the market, even the most popular titles, feel more like showcases for NFTs, rather than actual games.

Proposers:

Award-winning filmmakers, film and animation directors, app and game developers. In 2021 they moved into the web3 economy granting new life to one of their projects in the form of an NFT collection on Cardano.

Anamaria Kövesdi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anamaria-k%C3%B6vesdi-354649106/

Rares Kövesdi

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rares-k%C3%B6vesdi-551260106/

Authors of the first NFT launch on Cardano with a functional, compilable, smart contract in the metadata of the token, completely on-chain in collaboration with @AncientKraken.

An NFT from the collection was the first one to be sold through a smart contract, minutes after the Alonzo HFC. It also was the first sale through a smart contract on Cardano (to our knowledge it still is the only one) to pay residuals (i.e. royalties) to artists on resales of their works.

https://cardanoscan.io/transaction/34dd0b7ae56b65f4cda029d99cda8322684ec6339ac1c195c16458c1e5e94b96?tab=contracts 

In February 2021, we were drawn out of an early retirement by the discovery of Cardano & Project Catalyst and the communities around them.

In this proposal, the project as a whole, as well as generally in all our endeavours we observe an alignment with the founding principle of Cardano that worthwhile things can only be built on solid foundations.