Please describe your proposed solution.

Video gaming is a booming billion-dollar industry that is expected to rise enormously in the following decade. The boundaries between gaming as leisure and profit-making activity have already become blurred, but we are not happy with the results so far.

Rookiez is the first decentralized blockchain-based motorcycle racing platform that joins racing enthusiasts in a community where you train your NFT riders, mint new NFT motorcycles based on your research, and scout new NFT riders who can become future champions. However, Rookiez is not meant to be a play-to-earn game. We don’t like the direction that many self-proclaimed “play-to-earn” games are going, simply because the first goal for any game should be for the players to have fun.

In our vision players own their assets, and they can decide what to do with them. If a player trains a brilliant rider for years and (after all of this effort) decides to sell him/her for profit, it’s not our business. We just want to make sure that players have an enjoyable experience with a first-class management game.

With the requested amount of funding, I can complete and release the first playable prototype of the best motorcycle racing manager game on Cardano. This will not be the complete game, because access to the championship seasons will be added at a later stage, but it will include all the main management parts and the NFT minting procedures.

The success of this project will bring other Indie Game developers to the Cardano ecosystem, by showing them that different business models are possible, without scammy P2E mechanics, nor to pay a 30% Steam tax. Also, I aim to bring regular gamers to Cardano, who will have an enjoyable experience with a first-class management game.

Please take a look also at the other proposals about Rookiez:

• Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Website and Community engagement
• Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Graphics and Infrastructure updates

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

While there are plenty of NFT projects that allow the owners to use those assets in some kinds of games, Rookiez takes a totally different approach: It's a game that uses NFTs for assets.

This sounds tautological but there's a big difference: there are no tokens, no NFT marketplace, and no pre-sale because all the NFTs are minted directly from the game when the players decide so. The mint price of those assets will be particularly low because the real value of these assets depends on the player, the strategy he/she applied, and the improvements that this strategy will bring in the long term, making them more competitive.

In the "traditional" game-dev community there are still many doubts (and, often, prejudices) about NFT technology. Being an indie game developer myself, I think that most of this negativity is difficult to dissipate mostly because of the lack of inclusivity that practically every project seems to show, from the traditional video-gamer player point of view: usually, the first thing that happens is the sale of NFTs, which are supposed to become in-game assets for that specific project, often for an incredible floor-price. With Rookiez I'm directly addressing this issue.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

I want to show the gaming industry, with a specific focus on indie game developers, that thanks to Cardano and NMKR it is possible, and somewhat easy, to deploy a different kind of business model, therefore driving more adoption for both the Cardano ecosystem and NMKR. I think that releasing a working prototype, with a small funding request and completing it in a short time as described in this proposal, will prove that this is possible and will encourage other developers to follow a similar path.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The progress will be documented using the social media platforms of choice (Twitter and Discord) with regular updates (not less than once per week). Feedback from the community will be extremely helpful and being active on those platforms is a real priority.

Communication and engagement with the community are very important for the success of any game, and for this reason, I decided to submit a dedicated proposal: Rookiez - Decentralized Motorcycle Racing Manager Game - Website and Community engagement

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

I'm an IT professional with more than 25 years of experience as a developer and systems engineer, and I started to focus on game development 5 years ago. In late 2019, I released my first commercial game, Wood 'n Stones, now available for free on Steam.

My experience allowed me to set up a working backend/server environment and create the client application (the "seed" of the game itself, the object of this proposal) in a very decent time, even if it was not my main job, which I recently left to concentrate 100% on Rookiez.

The reason why I'm asking for a pretty low amount, and I plan to deliver in a short time is that I have already deployed most of the necessary work in my spare time during the first part of this year. It is now time to finalize all those efforts and make it a professional activity.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal for this proposal is to have a playable prototype of the game which offers the main interface where players can give their orders, plan the training of their riders and the research/improvements that will be performed on the motorcycle they own.

The playable prototype will include the necessary mechanics to mint the essential NFTs (riders, staff members, motorcycles) to achieve what is stated above. It will also include some arcade parts, where the players can impersonate one of their riders and directly control their motorcycle in the training environment.

The playable prototype will be available for free for Windows and MacOS, either on the Microsoft and Apple stores or using different publishing/distribution platforms.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Beta testers sign-up, Month 1

A restricted amount of people will be selected for beta-testing the prototype. They will receive a limited amount of assets (riders, staff members, and motorcycles) while I will keep working on the prototype.

Private build distribution, Month 2

A working executable, even if not completed, will be privately distributed to the beta testers, so that they can start providing feedback on the prototype.

Bug fixing and official distribution, Month 3

I will work on the issues found by the beta tester and provide them with updated builds. After this phase, the prototype will be publicly available, using an official distribution platform, like the Microsoft and Apple stores, or other 3rd party platforms.

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

The goal is to provide the users with a playable prototype of the game. It may still use temporary graphics and 3D models, but all the main mechanics will be available.

The result of my work will be the availability of this downloadable game, and the number of downloads will provide an important metric.

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

I'm estimating that, to reach the desired results and deliver a playable prototype, I will need more or less two months of full-time work, which will be spent in programming (the game itself and the necessary backend parts that still need to be completed)

• 300 hours * 40 $/hour = 40,000 ADA (assuming a 0.3 $ ADA)

Game localization costs (target languages: English, Italian, French, German, Spanish)

• 10 hours * 30 $/hour = 1000 ADA

I'm adding an extra 4000 ADA which should cover the following expenses:

• NMKR minting fees for generating the assets needed by the beta testers
• Extra 2D and 3D assets that may be necessary (I'm not an artist, and I will ask somebody else to deliver this)
• Cloud provider fees for the 3 months
• Unforeseen expenses and extra costs

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

For the time being, I'm a solo developer, and I'm building everything by myself, asking for external help when needed. After the playable prototype is released, I'm planning to hire extra people to complete the project. I'm an IT professional with more than 25 years of experience as a developer and systems engineer, and I started to focus on game development 5 years ago. In late 2019, I released my first commercial game, Wood 'n Stones, now available for free on Steam.

Furthermore, I'm a founder and team member of the European Cardano Community.

I'll be assisted by my wife, Hara Iliopoulou, who is an expert multi-lingual communicator and will take care of translating the game into several different languages.

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The stated 40$ / hour rate has been chosen considering the medium costs in the EU zone and on a few different marketplaces, like fiverr.com.

Usually, the prices are higher than this, but this started as a personal project and I have already done a lot of work "for free", so it didn't feel fair to ask for bigger amounts, also considering that I'm submitting a few different proposals for the same project, to cover different areas.