TREASURE CHAIN - An NFT Art Network

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Treasure Chain is an art network where users can assign rules about how their NFTs can interact with each other. With these rule templates the NFTs can act like a giant neural network of art.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

I am a lifelong artist, animator, and inventor. Since getting into crypto in 2019 and learning about NFTs, I have began studying programming and learning the Godot game engine to create my own game. I have learned from my digital artist peers what kind of platform would be ideal.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Cardano needs blockchain games that are timeless and appeal to more than just crypto insiders. The handful of blockchain games that have achieved some cultural relevance have only had brief bursts of popularity, or still only remained known to those in tune with the crypto space. This is because they are ultimately shallow games with limited gameplay, usually just showing one particular use case of NFTs and smart contracts. We need a game that is so engaging that users are willing to adopt crypto just so they are able to be a part of the cultural event happening around it. The FOMO must transcend the crypto space to everyday gamers and artists. But for this to happen the game must be adaptable, customizable, and collaborative - basically be more like a social media site.

NFTs are having success right now as three things:

1. Collectibles - (Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, etc.)
2. Video game assets - (CryptoKitties, Axie infinity, Metaverse items)
3. Digital artists are now able to sell their works instead of being beholden to clients and advertisers - (Beeple, etc.)

Treasure Chain is a different kind of game that combines these three things. Treasure Chain is an NFT Art network where users keep NFT artworks in a ‘deck’ and can arrange it on a ‘map’ grid however they like to create murals, landscapes, and games. When minting the NFT’s, users can assign rules about where it can sit on the map, what art can be contained within other art, and what art it can combine with to form new art. With these rule templates the network functions like a giant card game where users create the artwork. These rules can form a sort of neural network of art where artists can create games and collaborative worlds together. All transactions are done in ADA so users can profit off of their creations and contributions. It is as much a social media site as it is a game.

Instead of relying on one specific art style for a card game to receive mass adoption, since all artwork is user created, players can collect and interact with only artwork they enjoy.

The rules assigned to your NFT are inspired from the work of Stephen Wolfram’s cellular automata and the Wolfram Physics project. Wolfram has shown that you can generate infinitely complex systems by just starting with a few simple rules that iterate over each other over time. 

The Treasure Chain rules are:

1. Attributes
2. Adjacency
3. Combination
4. Completion
5. Containment

I believe with just these five simple rules, one can create games such as collectibles, murals, portfolios, world building, treasure hunts, text threads, pokemon-type creature evolving, collaborative art, mood boards and more. Eventually programmable art and shaders could be posted on the platform to open up an even wider array of possibilities.

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

I believe that a game like this will draw much more attention and adoption to Cardano. If it is the only blockchain to have a platform like this, many artists and NFT enthusiasts will migrate to Cardano.

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

This is a very ambitions project. It involves the game itself, a multi-user host server, IPFS file storage, and blockchain smart contract integration.

While I do not personally know how to do much of this programming, the Cardano community is full of brilliant minds who could help. Given the opportunity to work on this full time, I can also learn these tools much faster.

I will take the same approach as IOHK in developing Cardano - slow, steady, methodical, meticulous. While getting to market soon is important, taking time to ensure the product is well built before launch is key to a long lasting product.

I also believe once there is a fully functional prototype, there will be a test phase of allowing a small amount of users to try it for awhile before opening it up to a wider audience. Since the in game transactions are dealing with real people's money and livelihood, it is important to ensure their money is safe.

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

2022 Q4 - Godot game engine functioning prototype. Experiments with different software architectures to see what works best. Also will be exploring the possibility of the UI fully made in Haskell with GTK3+. Research into different means of decentralized storage and web server hosting. Explore the idea of the UI being an NFT itself. Final architecture design will be decided upon, informing next steps.

2023 Q1 - Multi-user game server integration.

2023 Q2 - Decentralized file storage and Blockchain integration.

2023 Q3 - Beta test launch

2023 Q4 - Full product launch

2024 Q1 - Monitoring and improvements

2024 Q2 - Marketing to wider audience.

2024 Q3 -> Product support, app improvements, marketing.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

We aim to split up funding between multiple funds.

Fund 9 - $50,000/ 5 people = $10,000 per person.

Team members have the option to be paid in ADA or USD.

For 3-4 months:

Team leader will receive the funds. Team members will charge an hourly rate to complete tasks assigned to them, with a $10,000 cap per person. Task will be publicly assigned and tracked using Notion and Github.

Team will be around 4-5 people starting out:

Samuel Walton - Creator, designer, Godot programmer

Haskell/Plutus Developers - Dominick Garey, Derrick Oatway

Marketers/Management - Deryck Lance

IPFS/ Web server developers

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

Samuel R. Walton (Slamtron) - Creator.

Experienced in all forms of digital animation from 2D to 3D. Currently learning Godot game engine, Haskell, and Plutus.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-r-walton-429645110/

www.slamtron.com

https://www.instagram.com/slamtron_x/

https://twitter.com/slamtron_x

Deryck Lance- Founder of Quasar Risk Advisors, insurtech engineering.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deryck-lance-9405898/

Dominick Garey-Owner Nehemiah Construction. Current Plutus Pioneer Student.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominick-garey-878a65117/

https://github.com/dgarey/

Derrick Oatway - Founder of Adagotchi.io, Currently employed at APM - Atlantic Project Managers. Pixel artist. Graphic designer.

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

Yes we will return to future rounds. This will be a multi year project, but we are only seeking funding for the next 3-4 months.

[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?

There will be a public roadmap and updates to the Treasure Chain website and social media. There will be monthly posts on what progress has been made and how funds have been distributed.

A more specific roadmap will be created and tasks divided up amongst team members as we move forward. The roadmap will be flexible to account for unforeseen issues but broader deadlines will be somewhat strict.

Notion and Github will be used to publicly track progress and task completion.

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

A few years from now Treasure Chain will have thousands of users and will be a thriving ecosystem. Artists will be able to fully support themselves through the platform. Creators, collectors and gamers will all coexist together and have formed huge networks of interconnected tiles. It will be a whole new artform of collaborative world building.

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

Entirely new proposal.