AdaQuest ENHANCED ARENA Visual Mode

[IMPACT]

Intro:

AdaQuest is a game project combining three different game phases into one whole Fantasy World Game Experience.

Our first game mode is called ARENA. This is also the first use case for our NFT hero cards. At the moment, this mode is in Alpha state (see screenshot overview).

Arena game mode features in a nutshell:

• Fast-paced duel mode(timer, round-based)
• Player vs. Player (Quest mode will deliver PVE)
• Matchmaking (different approaches will be tested, depending on player base)
• Web & mobile based (no native, because of NFT Appstore restrictions)
• Focused on Hero, skill, and level
• Allows a first use case & foundation for the NFT Cards, items, and play mechanics.

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To create a more AAA look of our game we would love to enhance the visual presentation of the ARENA & QUEST fighting and character screen. We will do this by offering a horizontal view and adding more detailed and enhanced visual effects to it.

This challenge is about bringing Cardano to a bigger gaming audience(Challenge KPI). We have started this project in 2021 to exactly do this. How we will do it? By focusing on these points:

Game experience FIRST!

• Offering Hand-drawn graphics & AAA visual effects
• Different game modes for different target groups & player styles
• Deep Lore related to the Cardano blockchain (names, places, people, etc.)

Reaching for a wide gamer-centric user base

• Real free to play model without any paywall or pay2win
• Easy and user-friendly game-account/marketplace experience
• Involving the community into the development
• Fair prices and no power creep related NFTs

Ensuring the development cycle

• Using our native on-chain token(QuestToken) for marketing and further funding
• Reaching out to DEX and SEED funding platforms related to Cardano (e.g. kick.io)
• Collaborate with other developers from the Cardano ecosystem
• Onboarding young talents through AdaQuest into the Crypto world

Marketing:

Once completed we will communicate this through our social media and game-related channels. We also will use our business network from the games & entertainment industry. Showing and promoting AdaQuest with different partners like IGN, Checkpointhub, GEE Magazin, and of course a lot of Influencers, Podcasters, YouTubers, and Cardano Partners like Playermint, Muesliswap, or Cardano SWARM!

Key Marketing Strategy: Organic, steady, and healthy growth without useless pseudo Influencer and social media spend!

Our KPIs:

Even if we are free and not at the "mercy" of a big publisher or investor, budget and time are always issues when it comes to creating games. As an independent developer, the biggest risk is that you will run out of money or dev power. Either someone will try to sell you a service he/she can´t deliver in time or someone create something you already paid for, but in the end, it is useless for your project :(

To mitigate this, we work only with people we already know and meet in RL or worked before with them. Sometimes we receive recommendations or test young talents before offering them a contract. Our working and project experience will ensure to keep track of the budget and put enough into our reserve to be prepared for turbulences and struggles, which sometimes you can´t avoid.

That´s why we will track & measure this:

• New user accounts after releasing the visual enhanced feature
• Budget spend vs. Revenue after the feature release
• Website Visits, Page Impressions & Views (also YT, Twitter, etc.)
• NFT Sales after the release of this visual enhancement

Target Groups

Primarily:

• Fantasy, RPG & pen & paper fans and nerds
• Hand-drawn art lovers
• Core PVP mobile gamers

Secondary:

• NFT & blockchain enthusiasts
• Casual mobile gamers

Tertiary:

• Mobile gamers
• Curiosity-seekers

Challenges

• Porting our current available assets into a new graphical presentation
• Creating assets and animations that will be needed long-term
• Finding the right balance between cool look & performance

Risks

• Lose oneself in details
• Unforeseen technological obstacles like performance issues

Our risk management includes the experience we have gathered within the last two decades in games development. We avoid already some of the risks by clearly communicating our steps and taking precautions NOW! That´s why we never will drop a version, because for the sake of releasing something. However, we use some of these tools to help us minimize the risk:

• Only one weekly team meeting (tasks are distributed to each division)
• Tracking & documentation with JIRA & Confluence
• Overall quick communication through Slack
• Learning & optimizing processes by reflecting everyone's working style

[FEASIBILITY]

-- Late Q3 - Q4 2022 --

Mid August - Mid October 2022

--> Finishing the enhanced graphical presentation

• Creating new characters
• Creating new fighting screen assets
• Creating new effects
• Creating new backgrounds for Quest & Stories mode
• Creating new animations

Staff: 2 Illustrators, 1 animator, Art Direction

ARENA Visual enhancement team:

Two Illustrators = 2500$/month

--> 2 months == 10,000$

Animator = 3500$/month

--> 2 months == 7,000$

Art Director = 3000$/month

--> 1 month == 3,000$

Overall estimated spend == 20,000$

Art Direction: Christian is our Illustrator and UX Designer with more than 15 years of professional work in digital art, gamification, interface- and app design in the industry. Starting as a big fan of the classic "point & click" adventures (e.g., Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, Day of the Tentacle) on DOS and hoarding tons of comic books, he turned his geek hobby into an ever-expanding full-time job! (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-hayungs-9ba22457)

Freelancers we are working with:

Artists, Illustrators, Animation, Design

Ann-Kathrin Raab - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-kathrin-raab-8b1815184/

Robert Schneider - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertschneider138/

Celine Zirkel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/celine-zirkel-62304b220/

Oleg Gorshkov - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorshkov-oleg-3408468a/

[AUDITABILITY]

As already mentioned in the Risk Management section[IMPACT], next to the KPIs, we also use well-known tools like JIRA, Github, and Confluence to track our progress.

However, we develop AdaQuest based on our internal roadmap and the milestones we have set. In doing so, we set realistic goals and report them as we achieve them through our social channels. Progress is documented and discussed with the team every week (Mondays). After that, we update our roadmap and take the next step within the development.

Creating and boosting the AdaQuest ARENA & QUEST visual mode will require an enhanced graphical presentation of additional artworks, assets, and effects. This will include the following points:

• Enhanced Fighting Screen with new character models for each available NFT destiny
• Effects, assets, and artworks for event screens
• New Backgrounds, flavours and icon within the whole AdaQuest experience

Achieving this will be the main criteria for success!

AdaQuest was already funded in Fund5. Since then we manage to become well known within the Cardano ecosystem (Gamers On-Chained challenge was initiated by us). Besides founding Red Potion Studios, we have hired people, started to develop AdaQuest, created a Web portal with user management & tools, and build a mission statement & vision for the whole AdaQuest project.

Without the initial Catalyst funding, this would never happen!

To all the VOTERS from Fund5 Thank you for this chance!

Nevertheless, as we stated in Fund 5 already:

Our project with the three planned game phases (ARENA, Dungeon Crawler, Skirmish Battlefield - https://ada-quest.com/howto#future) needs a budget of around 500K$. So all our proposals here are aiming to get additional support. Every missed funding from Catalyst will protract development, because of the nature of such a gaming project. As always we are keen to hear your thoughts. You are welcome to comment!

So far our Catalyst proposals:

Fund 5 - DApps & Integrations (funded - 100K$):

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/351663

Fund 6 - DApps & Integrations (NOT funded - 75K$):

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/365863

Fund 7 - Gamers On-Chained (NOT funded - 55K$):

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382933