Conkis ~ Multiplayer strategy game

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We will integrate Cardano in a way that the average user does not have to know that we are using blockchain technologies. The usage of CNFTs, tokens and wallets must be a feature, not a requirement.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

We have more than 17 years of experience in fields such as web development, programming, 3D design, teaching or marketing. And more than 4 years of experience in blockchain development.

More info: conkis.com

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Conkis is a strategic turn-based tactical game, set in the Middle Ages, where you have 6 types of units available to built your army. The way to prevail in a battle is by capturing the flags, destroying the towers or annihilating your rival. We are big fans of both chess and the Age of Empires saga, the influence of these two games does not go unnoticed.

It is a free game, in which all players can play competitively and fairly against other players without spending any money. It is not a play-to-earn game and of course it is not a pay-to-win game. We intend to design and achieve a competitive and fair game, for any player who wants to enjoy it. In this way, competitive games will be balanced thanks to the free rotation of cards.

But… what are the cards?

This is where Cardano comes into play. Cards are powers that you can use at any time during the game to boost your army or weaken the enemy; there is a wide range of possibilities, healing, protection, increased/reduced mobility, increased/reduced range, increased/reduced damage, the ability to summon special units and even use the forces of nature to your advantage thanks to the … Magic.

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

Cards cannot be purchased individually. Players will buy booster packs, and the luck will decide which cards they get. 

We will implement CNFTs much as an exchange does. By default, we will have the CNFTs in our custody. Then, the user will be able to Import or Export to their wallet if they wish, so they can trade them in markets like cnft.io.

It is on our roadmap to creating a marketplace. But the fact that players cannot sell their CNFTs or tokens internally at the beginning on Conkis, will motivate them to start learning and getting familiar with the crypto world.

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

One of our biggest concerns is the lack of resources to get our idea to as many people as possible, this is one of the main reasons why we made this proposal.

The great challenge before us is to get people to give Conkis a chance, for this we want to differentiate ourselves from other NFT games, since we do not consider ourselves an NFT game in itself. We will use the CNFT added value to a fully functional game, focusing our monetization on this aspect.

On the other hand, we love the idea of having our own token. But we are afraid of ruining the game by having the economy poorly designed. We have closely followed the rise and fall of Axie Infinity, and we understand that the same can happen to us with Conkis if we only approach our game based on the token. We will not launch a token until we are completely sure that it will not affect its philosophy and principles.

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

After years of constant work, the game already has an acquired form and a beta version is playable. Development will depend on whether this bid is successful because it would provide us with the necessary resources to accelerate Conkis' progress. Our next challenges are the following:

PHASE 1 - Completed

• Beta version
• Website
• First cards

PHASE 2 - Q3-Q4 22’

• Elo ranked games
• 10-20 Cards
• Centralized/federated token
• Paypal payments integration
• Stripe payments integration

PHASE 3 - Q1-Q2 23’

• Crypto payments integration (We will accept multiple coins, Cardano, DJED, USDC, DAI…)
• Cardano wallet integration for direct payments (lace.io/nami)
• CNFTs presale
• Import/export CNFTs to wallet

PHASE 4 - Q3-Q4 23’

• Friendlist system
• Games viewer (Replay games and live games)
• Mobile version
• 2vs2 and 3vs3 games with different maps

PHASE 5 - 24’

• 100+ new cards
• Cardano native token
• Tabletop game
• Marketplace

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

You might think that we have chosen Cardano simply because we need money and Project Catalyst is a good way to fund it. But the truth is that the founders have been investors and believers of Cardano since its inception.

Conkis has received a small investment of $25,000 from Eleven Yellow. We have squeezed this money to the maximum thanks to the fact that the founders decided not to get any salary and use that money only for the resources necessary for its development. Unfortunately the money of this initial investment has run out and right now we are paying the expenses with our savings. If we get funding from Catalyst we'll use it carefully the same way we have been doing it until now.

We assume that by the end of Phase 4, we will be a profitable and sustainable business. Thanks to the pre-sale of CNFTs and the regular sale of card packs.

Development:

- Coding (Alejandro) 

$2000/Month (Full time salary)

- 2D Artists (Alex Pushai)

$1000/Month (Part time salary)

- Graphic design / Illustrations (Freelancers)

$500/Month (Average expenses for specific needs)

- Server / Domains

$250/Month

—-

Phase 2 (Q3-Q4 22’) = $22500

Phase 3 (Q1-Q2 23’) = $22500

Phase 4 (Q3-Q4 23’) = $22500

Marketing:

- Freelancer that helps Juandi to make a promotional Teaser like this one

$3000/1-2 Months

- Adsense campaigns to promote the pre-sale of CNFTs.

$10000++

[A this point we hope that the CNFT pre-sale campaign goes well and we will be able to afford the cost of the following]

- We want to attract the Cardano community but public general as well, so we will use social media campaigns to get traffic to Conkis. Influencers and streamers will be hired to promote Conkis too.

- When the development and Conkis’s community are at the right moment, several tournaments will be organized and sponsored by Conkis (we will look for external support), and prizes for the winners will be awarded in ADA.

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

We are three friends who started this idea in 2012. We have been very intermittent for personal reasons. But now we're back and we're more motivated than ever.

We are a balanced team but we are always open to new talent and people who can contribute their knowledge to make us better. As soon as the project develops as we expect, we will need help in various fields, both in development and programming and especially in marketing and communication.

Founders

*Josema Gonzalez - Code

18+ years of experience as a programmer | 4+ years of experience developing blockchain projects (Coinfy, Switchain, Monedero)

*Juandi Liza - 3D Artist

18+ years of experience as a 3D artist | 8+ years of experience as a lead animator in animated feature films.

*Antonio Pastor - Marketing

10+ years of experience as history teacher | 6+ years of experience as director and marketing of Spanicenter. 

Team

*Alejandro Rodriguez - Code

+3 years of experience as a Unity developer | Junior programmer who loves video games

*Alex Pushai - 2D Artist

15+ years of experience as a 2D artist and draftsman | Now very involved in the world NFT

Freelancers

*Miguel Gonzalez - Illustrator

12+ years of experience as an illustrator

*Gonçalo Geirinhas - Graphic Designer

10+ years of experience as a graphic designer

*Andreia Coutinho - Graphic Designer

9+ years of experience as a graphic designer

More info about the team:

https://conkis.com/about

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

The amount we ask is more than enough to develop the key phases that would make Conkis a profitable business. We assume that by 2024, the sale of CNFTs will allow us to self-finance to continue growing.

[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 can measure the success or failure of our project in many ways, being our main KPIs:

User acquisition. For this we will try to do marketing focused on our niche, although we will also target the general public. For this, we must carry out advertising campaigns on social networks, such as promoting tournaments and broadcasts of streamers that give visibility to Conkis.

User retention. How many users who try Conkis, repeat? This is perhaps the most important, since the funnel here is going to get tight, we need to get the game to like it, the players will stay. To do this, we work on a very simple interface, we try to speed up decision-making as much as possible, without losing the essence of a strategy game in which you are forced to make decisions from the first moment.

Impact on social networks. Is there talk of conkis? This is another indication that the project is achieving its objectives and that it has a larger and more active community. For this, we will motivate constant communication on social networks and support for all kinds of doubts, suggestions, bugs that may arise among the members of our community.

Number of CNFTs transactions. Once the marketplace has been created and established, the number of transactions will give us a very representative value of the success or failure of Conkis. Being a community in which the exchange, based on the Cardano blockchain, of non-fungible tokens (NFT), clearly shows us the adoption of our game among cardanians and the general public, in general.

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

We will consider that we have made Conkis a resounding success when we have at least a million players and a category of our own on Twitch with thousands of viewers daily.

We would also love Conkis to become a benchmark for table games, where face-to-face tournaments are held. As if it were Chess or Magic.

[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 an entirely new proposal.