AdaQuest PROTOTYPE Phase 2

After creating the Concept for Phase 2 we have to develop a Prototype. This will allow us to start a smooth final development cycle.

Tech Lead: Dirk worked for Ubisoft, founded two gaming studios as a Dev Lead, and is currently working as a Technical Architect. He is the go-to guy, well in everything tech-related. 20 years of pro coding experience! (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-potulski-71313428)

[IMPACT]

PHASE 2 - Gameplay Concept - Dungeon Gameplay

Dungeon Gameplay – 10 important questions – some answers

1. What can you expect?

Since Phase 1 is all about individual character and ability development (Leveling), Phase 2 will bring your friends to the show! This will be a fully fleshed-out competitive dungeon crawler with some absolutely new and fresh unique features in this genre. Dungeons will be generated procedurally!

2. This is what a Round in AdaQuest Phase 2 will look like!

After you and your friend (2vs2) decide on which tribe you will go in season gameplay (dwarfish, barbarian, elfish, magician), you will be able to select one of the available dungeons.

In one of these dungeons, you will encounter a duo of a rival tribe. Besides this, the dungeons will offer hidden secrets, traps, monsters, and of course treasures! (Somebody says NFT? *looking around*)

You and your comrade will explore the dungeon in real-time and after solving some of the riddles and secrets you will be hopefully able to fight against the boss of each dungeon.

3. What will happen to the rest of my NFTs, when I choose the seasonal gameplay?

Hopefully, this overview will make it easier to understand:

Phase 1 - Duel-mode: All of your NFTs are available for leveling - no gain of season points

Phase 2 - Dungeon-mode: You choose a folk (Barbarian, Dwarves, Magician, Elves) for season gameplay:

• All other folks will be NOT available and locked for collecting season points!

• A Season can last 3-6 months. This has to be decided!

• There will be a bot mode for testing every NFT you like within one generic dungeon. 

• In the future, there will be more than one tribe within a folk (like two different Elf tribes e.g.)

4. Can I fight against the player rival tribe duo within the dungeon?

This will be possible and will include one of our secret mechanics we do not like to spoiler now!

5. Will I lose my equipment or even my NFTs?

No! Even if you die this won´t happen. BUT you and your tribe will lose season points which will lead to loss of territory --> Please remember we are creating a whole World for this.

6. What kind of battle mode will be used?

We asked already our community (over 600 members on Discord) and the majority seem to like a mixed-mode. Since we always communicate that this game is created by games for gamers, we will use the real-time mode for exploration and scouting and the turn-based for fighting and riddles.

7. Will it be possible to play Phase 2 in 1vs1 mode?

Yes! Of course!

8. How will matchmaking work?

For the first version, we will always adjust the power and level of each duo or single (1vs1) hero. Example:

• Your friends Stonebiter Bone Twister Dwarf (Level 10) and your Spade Walker Dwarf (Level 20) will meet in the Black Bay Caverns a Stormbreaker duo (Level 20 and 25).
• Since the Stormbreaker Barbarians have a stronger Power-Level (45) than your team (30), the Stormbreaker level will be adjusted (thanks to a nice formula) to make this a fair as possible fight IF you will encounter this duo at any given time in the mentioned dungeon!

9. My precious! My treasure! Where is all the gold? What can I earn?

Okay, okay understood. As already mentioned and typical for this genre, you will get for fighting monsters, rivals, bosses, traps, and secrets this kind of rewards:

• Fragments (Special In-game currency – NOT buyable with Ada, Euro, Dollar, etc.)
• Gold (Also an in-game currency – Also NOT buyable with crypto or fiat)
• QuestToken (our own token used for promo and for buying cosmetics ONLY within our game)
• Basic Items (only available within our game, these are not the NFTs you are looking for :D)
• Equipment NFT (here you go! Our lightpaper will be dealing with this issue in a more detailed way)

10. How many Heroes do I need to play this game?

Well, at least you will need one NFT AdaQuest hero to really enjoy the game with all the features. However, we decided also to create a basic Adventurer totally free to play. This hero will let you experience all the important mechanics but without play 2 earn, token gathering, or further ability development.

Like every other hero on Ada, this one will also use the basic items available through gameplay and at Tingle&Tangle special store 😊

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Please keep in mind this is currently our concept. So, every subject can be changed within testing. However, and as promised we will also let the community decide after creating the fundament. Thanks!

This is the heart of AdaQuest, as we like to call it. While the first mode is mainly about the single-game character, the Dungeon mode is targeting cooperative play. Of course, it's also possible to play this mode 1 vs. 1, but you'll have the best experience with your friends and collect more points for your tribe. We think that this is the logical addition to cover this challenges problem statement:

!Mass Adoption!

Adding more content is always a good way to generate revenue within the gaming business. Since Red Potion Studio is more focused on the mantra - GAME experience First - bringing this to life will deliver a real AAA candidate from the Cardano ecosystem.

!AdaQuest offers the fundamentals to accomplish this challenge!

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Main focuses - AdaQuest Development

Game experience FIRST!

• Hand-drawn graphics
• 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

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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!

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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 a feature (after releasing this Prototype)
• Website Visits, Page Impressions & Views (also YT, Twitter, etc.)
• NFT Sales 

Further tracking makes no sense for us since this is concept work!

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Target Groups

Primarily:

• Turn-based & strategic hack & slay lovers
• Fans of competitive games
• Core gamers

Secondary:

• NFT & blockchain enthusiasts
• Hand-drawn art lovers
• Casual gamers

Tertiary:

• PC gamers
• Curiosity-seekers

Challenges

• Blockchain-related updates/upgrades that can influence our development
• Providing user suggested feature upgrades
• Merge mechanics, gameplay, lore into a fun and competitive experience
• Delivering the promised concept in time and budget

Risks

• Generating technical debt through "bloat" feature sets
• Compensation of non-productive time
• Unforeseen technological obstacles

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]

Q3 - Q4 Dungeon Crawler Prototype timeline 2022

• Using game design concept for creating a prototype with simple features
• Using 2D concepts to create 3D whitebox / greybox placeholders (character, assets)
• Adding first environmental mapping to test 3D performance
• Finalizing Prototype & self-running tech demo
• Developing this by using the unity game engine

Two Coders (freelancing) = 200h --> 80$/h == 16,000$

Two 3D Artists (freelancers) = 120h --> 70$/h = 16,800$

Game Designer(full-time) = 120h --> 40$/h == 4,800$

Estimated cost: 37.600$

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)

Game Design & Balancing: Alex worked as a creative director at Ubisoft's campus and as lead developer of Faith and Honor Barbarossa. He has considerable experience researching psychological and neurological sweet spots in game-based learning. With over 4 years of experience in game design, Alex is geared to bring the best gaming experience to AdaQuest!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-cimpeanu-b9507a112)

Tech Lead: Dirk worked for Ubisoft, founded two gaming studios as a Dev Lead, and is currently working as a Technical Architect. He is the go-to guy, well in everything tech-related. Besides running and tracking our stake pool he is doing his magic to create the foundation for our project. 20 years of experience! IF var string = "you are looking for a coder?" THEN result = "Dirk"

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-potulski-71313428)

Strategic Advisor & Founder: Marcin worked in marketing, sales, and project management for THQ, Ubisoft, CI Games, Daedalic Entertainment, and Rockstar. In the past 10 years, he has helped some start-ups in their initial phase, and he will also provide guidance for the Cardano gaming community, as well! (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcin-kugla-a92b5964)

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Freelancers we are working with:

Artists, Illustrators, Animation, Design, Coders

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/

Viktor Machnik - https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktor-machnik-98b9031a8/

Daniel Fischer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-fischer-29004b220/

[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.

Offering a prototype for the Dungeon Crawler (Phase2) will define the foundation for further development. This will include the following points:

• Tech demo
• 1st Dungeon art-, level- and character design ready
• Playable Prototype ready to be pushed into full development

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