Cross-Chain Card Game

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We will make a cross-chain game using NFTs from multiple block-chains as cards in a shared gaming experience. Game play will be similar to off-chain games like Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

We are a team of professional devs, artists, gamers, and NFT enthusiasts who met through the Cardano NFT community. The team has already developed core gameplay on the Cardano blockchain and has prototyped cross-chain game functionality.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The Cross-chain card game is titled "NFT Fighters", and is a 2-player card game that lets players uses NFTs from multiple NFT projects inside the game.

Audience:

Intended audiences are NFT holders and gamers from Cardano and other blockchains.

The game will provide a new way for NFT owners from other blockchains to learn about and interact with the Cardano community through play, and will build a new cross-chain community around NFTs and gaming.

Benefits and Outcomes:

The project will foster communication and collaboration between Cardano and other blockchains through the primary outcome (a playable NFT game using NFTs from multiple blockchains), and the secondary outcome (a new cross-chain community of players who communicate and interact through the game and social media channels to discuss gameplay, strategies, and other topics).

Outcomes will be marketed through press releases and social media posts and videos on the game’s website, Twitter, Discord, and YouTube channel.

Tournaments will be streamed on Twitch.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

This project will combat tribalism, promote interoperability, and increase communication and coordination through cross-chain collaborations as follows:

• NFT Artists and Developers - We will establish working groups with NFT projects on multiple block-chains to integrate their NFTs into the shared gaming experience.
• NFT Owners - The game will provide a shared gaming experience where NFT owners from multiple block-chains can create cards from their NFTs, play in single and multi-player games and tournaments, and form new communities around cross-chain and interoperability.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Play-Balancing will be a challenge to make sure the game is fair to all chains and NFT projects. We will normalize NFT trait values to keep things fair.

Recruiting NFT projects from other chains may encounter some maximalist attitudes. This will be overcome by seeking out NFT project communities that are open and enthusiastic about cross-chain gaming.

Player-vs-Player and tournaments will require striking a fair balance to ensure whales and single-NFT holders can both enjoy the game and feel they have fair chance of winning. A potential solution will be the introduction of leagues, pairing whales against other whales, etc.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Roadmap/Milestones/Timeline

Month 1-2:

• Cardano-Solana Integration (dev)

• Onboard 5 Solana NFT projects (engage project communities, develop custom art, determine trait mappings to card attributes)

• Public Beta 1

Month 3-4:

• Cardano-Ethereum Integration (dev)

• Onboard 5 Ethereum NFT projects (engage project communities, develop custom art, determine trait mappings to card attributes)

• Public Beta 2

Months 5-6:

• Public Release

• Cross-Chain Tournament

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Budget Total ($37,000)

$10,500 (Game Design/Coding – 140 hours @ $75/hr)

$4,200 (Coding/backend/server – 70 hours @ $60/hr)

$10,000 Art (10x $1000 flat rate per NFT project, engage original artists when possible, in-house when not)

$4,000 (Webpage Development)

$5,000 (Community building)

$3,300 (Marketing)

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Lead Dev: John Moreland - A Unity developer, 3D artist, and project manager with 12 years of experience creating educational games at Purdue University's Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation. "I love making games and playing them. I've dabbled in crypto since 2018 but just started developing with Cardano this year. I see such a bright future and am enthused to be bridging the gap between current tech and sci-fi stuff like Ready Player One https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrmoreland

Art: kinetic_pixels - A multidisciplinary designer with over 13 years of professional experience in Branding/Identity and Website/Application/Digital Experience design. Has worked on projects with larger Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller startups and independent artists. Currently crafting meaningful products & experiences in the B2B/Enterprise communications software space as Lead Product Designer.

"I started investing in early 2021 which is also when I found Cardano and fell in love with the underlying principles, global mission, and the methodical approach to creating a solution with lasting impact."

Backend Dev: Tanatos - A dev that loves everything related to web development, from the back-end to the front-end. Has been using web technologies professionally on a daily basis for the past 12 years, and has been really enjoying himself doing so.

"I got involved in Cardano last year, but thus far I love everything I'm seeing, that's why I decided to get involved in a bigger capacity than just an investor."

Community/Partnerships: Fenam - Lead mod from the Gingerbread NFT community.

"I am a crypto and human community-based investor. I believe in improving humankind and closing income inequality gaps. My experience is 33 years of being a human and many of them towards the benefit of all of us hopefully."

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This project will seek repeat Catalyst funding in later rounds to integrate more block-chains and NFT projects and growing additional collaborations.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We will measure success through the following:

Number of Blockchains integrated in the game

Minimum: 2 (Cardano + 1 more blockchain)

Goal: 3 (Cardano + 2 more blockchains)

Number of NFT Project collaborations:

Minimum: 5

Goal: 10

Total users:

Minimum 500

Goal 5000

Number of tournaments:

Minimum 1

Goal 4

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success will be a playable game that new players can access through nftfighters.io

There will be an active player community, with NFT projects being used from at least 3 blockchains, and the project will be “done” upon completion of a cross-chain tournament. (However, development will continue past this point and will seek to onboard more chains and nft projects in the future).

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal.