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:
- Collectibles - (Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, etc.)
- Video game assets - (CryptoKitties, Axie infinity, Metaverse items)
- 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:
- Attributes
- Adjacency
- Combination
- Completion
- 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.
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.
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.