On-Chain Tilemaps for Game Worlds

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We want to create a scalable standard for uploading and reading tilemaps on the blockchain. Starting with uploading a games color palette as single pixels we can then map and scale up from there to 16x16 sprites. These 16x16 sprites would then be mapped/assigned a value to represent themselves in the game world using as little storage as possible. They will need to be layerable and have room for a few other key values like whether a game asset can pass through the tile, if the tile will move the asset up or down layers, if the tile transports the asset to a different part of the game world, etc.

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

An On-chain tilemap standard would;

• Bring in indie game devs and allow them to more easily create games on Cardano. We already have usecases for this in our Adagotchi project and we are working to extend it to the Disco Solaris Community right away.
• This could open up a new tilemap nft market.
• Bring token-gated/on-chain gaming to the next level with tile based games.
• After Cardano scaling solutions are implemented, game assets could move through these worlds with micro-transactions to change their position. A future proposal could implement hydra heads as game servers, letting users easily interact with each other on chain in real time.

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

The biggest challenge is to get the tile maps on chain without the use of ipfs. We will mitigate this by starting at the single pixel level and scaling up from there. This will also keep the standard flexible for projects using sprites smaller than our target 16x16 pixel size.

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

Please provide a detailed plan and timeline for delivering the solution.

• Talking with indie game devs to discuss their needs in an on-chain tile map standard.
• Finalizing our first open source tile map.
• Creating on-chain pixels/palette and scaling it to 16x16 on testnet.
• Creating a standard for grouping these 16x16 "sprites" into the finished tilemap*
• Building/mapping the first basic game world on testnet.**
• Finalizing and adding the palette and tile map to mainnet.
• Building a basic game world on mainnet for adagotchi and Neo Miami with our new on-chain tilemap. 🎉

*Example adagotchi tilemap attached below

**Example basic world built with the tilemap attached below

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

• $2500 - 60 hours - Researching and communicating best practices with indie game developers and educating them in Cardano and some of the tools it has to offer them.

• $5000 - 40 hours - Plutus/on-chain development.

• $2500 - 50 hours - Graphic design

• $500 - Blockchain and miscellaneous fees.

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

Derrick Oatway - Marlowe Development - Graphic Design - https://twitter.com/AlpineOracle -

https://adagotchi.io/

https://gist.github.com/Alpine-Oracle

Dominick Garey - Cardano CLI/Plutus Development - dagwell@dagwelldev.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominick-garey-878a65117/

https://github.com/dgarey/

Disco Solaris Community - Neo Miami Tilemap - https://discord.gg/AYFmn99g6M

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

This iteration of the idea shouldn't need any further funding until we add more tools to it. These tools would be dependent on what we learn in the first phase and dependent on other scaling solutions we are waiting for in the Cardano Ecosystem.

[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 be collaborating through miro, trello, github, Zulip and various discord channels to help identify team member and user needs throughout the development Process.

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

Success would be an on chain world that native assets can explore, with a standard for building and scaling these worlds.

[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. We submitted a version of it in fund 8 and just missed funding.