ZiberBugs will contribute to the NFT Gaming revolution by fulfilling multiple dreams for people in love with video games. Opportunities such as earning a life-changing income while having fun with your favorite game, or starting your own business-like entity to help others in need of a job.

Cardano currently has less emerging competition in the NFT gaming space than its size and popularity implies. Cardano is a perfect fit for NFT gaming, and we intend to prove it.

<u>Does this proposal fall within the scope of the challenge brief?</u>

We are not only making a Cardano-integrated game, but also stating an example of how to do it for everyone to learn from. We will be contributing to onboarding gamers from the traditional space to crypto and Cardano.

<u>Does this proposal show clearly how it will add value to the Cardano System?</u>

A development company having Fun First as their top priority, while at the same time having previously proven concepts will be destined for success within the currently fun-lacking NFT gaming space. Few games are made by actual game designers, few initiatives have adequate traction. ZiberBugs will change that by working with game designers that are also gamers, cooperating with their community to develop an intriguing gameplay.

<u>Have key metrics and goals of the proposal been stated clearly?</u>

Key metrics and goals of the proposal are to raise initial capital as a means to launch a proper marketing initiative to grow our follower base and connect with investors, launchpads, partners and advisors. We are a newly formed indie dev company in early stages, without a previous follower base or a budget. Proper marketing channels often cost money, hence an initial budget could really be make-or-break for us.

<u>Do the key metrics and goals of the proposal fall within the scope of the challenge?</u>

Without this initial fund, we may not be able to reach an adequate size of our initial community, and as a consequence, it could be extremely hard for us to acquire investors, launchpads, partnerships and advisors.

<u>Can the proposal scale to address future challenges?</u>

The proposal can be scaled to address future challenges because there may be multiple more challengers within gaming and entertainment and metaverse.

<u>Will this project have a positive impact on the Cardano system?</u>

This project will have a positive impact on the Cardano system because the gaming industry is currently bigger than both sports and movies combined.

The biggest risk we have identified are:

- Marketing Failure

- Overrun by Competition

- Technical Challenges & Delays

- Legal Issues

- Cardano Goes to Crap

Our solutions are:

- Hire the best crypto marketing agencies and spend a lot of money on them.

- Employ senior developers from companies such as Google, Amazon Prime Video and King.

- Work closely with jurisdictional experts such as gatwick-ag.com to set us up in the best jurisdiction legally.

- Be fully ready to migrate to other blockchain if needed.

Project Roadmap

All entries are subject to change, and scope may expand further as the project moves along. Details may be adjusted, and additional entries may be included at a later time.

Q3 2021

Project Planning - Finalized scope, initial draft of requirement specification

Partner Negotiations - Introductory communications with IDO platform, marketers, private investors

Game Design - First version of game functionality, technology research, securing tech resources

Team Building - Securing personnel, definition of company structure, workflow definition

Q4 2021

Presentation Deck - Partnership finalizations, community building, social media marketing launch

Darkpaper - Finalized Tokenomics, complete roadmap, tech stack established

Web Page - Static content, links to social media

Partnerships & Advisorships - Securing of contacts, assets and collaborators

Q1 2022

Social Media Launch & Promotion - Discord, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Medium, Facebook, Instagram

Seed Round & Private sale - Value partners

IDO - One or two launchpads

Q2 2022

Development Start - Agile workflow, team allocations

Token & NFT Creation - ZIBER minting, PHERO minting, pool setup, Ancestor bug creation

Gameplay Trailer - Paid marketing launch

Q3 2022

Closed Alpha - Gameplay testing with real NFTs

NFT Sale - managed by alpha testers in our Marketplace

Breeding Launch - $PHERO minting commenced

Q4 2022

Open Beta Launch - Game publicly playable and available

Hives Launch - Guild feature available from Open Beta launch

PHERO Swap Pool deployed - Play 2 Earn enabled

Ranked Preseason Launch - Player Ranking introduced

2023 and Ahead

The project scope and future beyond beta launch varies vastly based on the success of 2022. Therefore, the roadmap for 2023 and beyond is depicted below in order of financial priority, rather than time. Growth is, as depicted in this chapter, the main priority of this project, its founders and its future. Here are the milestones:

* Tournament Initiative - ZIBER Prizes

* Cinematic 3D Game Platform Upgrade

* Land Sales & Bases

* Adventure Mode (PvE Expansion)

* Additional Games

* Ziberverse

MARKETING:

Influencer Marketing

• Agency Fee: $5,000
• Influencer Fee: $20,000

PR and Media

• Agency Fee: $9,315

Paid Social Ads

• Agency Fee: $2,000
• Service Fee: $10,000

TOTAL: $46,315

CEO: Tom Metzger (Vancouver) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommetzger/>

Successful business manager with 20+ years of managing/director experience (13 out of which as a chief executive). Has built his own business from nothing to profit with a team of 15, and is now aiming to transition to crypto and gaming.

Game Designer & Visionary: Simon Isbäck (Stockholm) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-isback/>

Senior fullstack developer with 15+ years of experience. Has worked as a contractor since 2015, having been the lead developer and co-designer of games for LeoVegas and unicorn company GlobalPoker, and designer of games for Cubeia. Competitive gamer at heart, with over 10,000 hours played online.

Creative Director: Fabio Persegani (Stockholm) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabio-persegani-b5799020b/>

Stockholm-based graphics designer with 20+ years of experience in designing for Universal Music, EMI and BrightLabs among others. Designs with a passion for crafting functional brand identities and content that communicate and connect with people.

Marketing and Creative Strategy Consultant: Dimitri Fernando (Sri Lanka)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrifernando777/?originalSubdomain=lk

Active member of Catalyst Community - General ADA Holder in Catalyst Circle V3, Community Advisor in Fund 6 and 7, Veteran Community Advisor in Fund 7, VCA in Flash Assessment in Fund 7, Cardano4Climate, Cardano Creatives, Founder of South Asian Town Hall, Active in Eastern Town Hall, Pacific Town Hall, European Town hall, Catalyst Swarm, Gimbalabs Playground.

Serial Entrepreneur, INFJ, Marketer by profession, Creative by passion, Strategist, Writer, Poet, Storyteller

Additionally, the team will have 6 more people.

PHASE 1: Investment phase

Tasks:

1. To raise enough capital to fund the development through private sales and IDOs

2. To gain a follower count of 10,000 to fulfil the requirements of the best IDOs

Graduation Criteria:

- IDO is scheduled

- Capital is secured

PHASE 2: Development phase

Tasks:

1. Develop the game on time (est. 9 months)

2. Maintain follower base by producing content and hype

3. Launch bigger marketing initiative

4. Hand-pick alpha testers for our Closed Alpha and NFT sale

5. Build use case for token to maintain its value (ie staking)

Graduation Criteria:

- Beta version of game is complete and launched

- Closed alpha test is complete

- 25,000 bugs have been bred and sold on the marketplace to players waiting to get in to the open beta

- Code audited

PHASE 3: Growth phase

Tasks:

1. Become profitable

2. Expand on the game to completion, according to income allowance

3. Launch Tournament initiative

Graduation Criteria:

- Profitability

- Tournament(s) launched and ran successfully

- New exciting features released in the game

PHASE 4: Metaverse phase

Tasks:

1. Launch tournament initiative

2. Land sales

3. Adventure mode (PvE expansion)

4. Additional games

5. Investigate collaboration with other game developers wanting to build on the Ziberverse

Graduation Criteria:

- None. Do this forever.

We have an initiative to develop the project "in public". That means we will have a streaming schedule where we stream the coding process and the testing process, not only granting full transparency to the development, but also including the community in certain decisions and trying out the game at early stages through the stream chat.

We successfully manage to build and maintain a community of initial members interested in playing our game (at least 10,000 people). We launch a Closed Alpha with our 1,000 hand-picked players, and they eagerly play and hype the game for 3 months while conducting the initial sale of bugs, which they breed themselves. We launch the open beta, and 5,000 or more people start playing the game. As the player base keeps growing, we keep expanding the business scope to include game expansions, game upgrades, more games, immersive 3D world, land sales and a Ziberverse.

This is a new proposal.