Author: coderdan (1484) Quorum requirement: 20% (9M) Vote duration: 10 days Link to Discord thread: https://discord.com/channels/732491344970383370/1283971443838943244

Background

The GHST DAICO concluded successfully in March 2023, raising 30,000,000 DAI for AavegotchiDAO over a three-year period.

Of this sum, 25% was allocated to Pixelcraft Studios for continued development and marketing of the Aavegotchi gaming protocol.

Over the last 18 months, Pixelcraft Studios has worked diligently to build out products we believe have a strong chance of success in crypto gaming, while also expanding the mindshare and reputation of Aavegotchi in the gaming vertical.

Some major accomplishments during this time period include:

• The development of 3D-compatible Aavegotchis for use in Unity and other 3D engines, as well as the 3D dressing room;
• The development of Spirit Force Arena and pivot of Gotchiverse2D (built in Phaser) to Gotchiverse3D (built in Unity).
• The development of Gotchi Guardians, a Unity gaming title for the growing Tower Defense market (estimated 2.3B market size by 2030)
• The launch of Licky’s Escape puzzler, the first mobile game of Aavegotchi
• Numerous improvements to the Aavegotchi dapp to offer a beginner-friendly access point to Aavegotchi, while still offering features for power users.
• Development of the Aavegotchi Gaming profile and integrations into SFA and Gotchi Guardians
• Research and development on Gotchichain, now announced as Geist
• Production of a soon-to-be published sidescroller that also delivers open-source game-ready sprites for all Aavegotchis and wearables
• Numerous IRL events and activations, augmented by the Gotchi Greetooors program
• DAO-specific tasks, such as Rarity Farming, Wearable updates, and Snapshot maintenance

Now, after this period of extended development, we are ready to begin enacting our Geist-centric go-to-market strategy: “Fun games, good rewards, members-only”.

Sustainability is our goal

The goal of Pixelcraft Studios is to build out a sustainable gaming business that ensures AavegotchiDAO and Pixelcraft Studios are well-funded and can continue to thrive as crypto gaming goes mainstream. Big players like Epic Games, Sony, and Ubisoft are all warming to Web3 gaming – leading indicators that the industry is about to experience exponential growth. We believe Aavegotchi is perfectly placed to benefit.

Pixelcraft Studio’s burn rate over the last 24 months has averaged around $350,000/month, which covers salaries for our team of ~30, subscriptions, infrastructure costs, and other expenses such as audits, legal, or other billing. We still hold a significant balance of GHST, but our runway in stables/bluechips is running low.

On the DAO side, informed members know that Rarity Farming in its current form is not sustainable unless AavegotchiDAO is able to re-fill its coffers with GHST rewards.

Therefore, it is our aim in 2025 to make Pixelcraft Studios net revenue-positive, while also contributing funds back to AavegotchiDAO where it can distribute them as it chooses.

Importantly, we want to earn these funds in sustainable ways that do not dilute the assets of existing NFT holders.

In 2025, we anticipate multiple revenue sources, both recurring and one-time, coming online for both AavegotchiDAO and Pixelcraft Studios:

Recurring Revenue Streams

• Geist membership fees. It is our goal to grow the membership base of Geist to at least 10,000 throughout 2025. With memberships costing roughly 19 GHST per month (or 99 GHST for annual membership), this would bring in 100,000-190,000 GHST per month, with a revenue share for AavegotchiDAO.
• In-game purchases. Gotchi Guardians, our flagship mass-market game, will soon be integrating a native Shop where players can purchase skins and power-ups to enhance their gaming experience.
• Lootbox Keys. A core component of the Aavegotchi Gaming Console is lootboxes that are distributed to players playing Aavegotchi games. Lootboxes are generally free, but opening them requires a Key, which will be purchasable using fiat or GHST in the Aavegotchi Gaming Console.
• Marketplace Trading Fees. With more assets and more players, trading fees in the Baazaar will likely increase.
• Merch sales. We are building a new Merch shop from scratch that will support print-on-demand items, native crypto payments, and PoS payments.

One-time Sales

• Glitch Pack Sale. Envisioned as the ultimate booster pack for Aavegotchi games, the Glitch Pack will contain a variety of lootbox keys, as well as one “Glitch Key” – a special key that always gives the rarest item in a given lootbox. We are aiming for a max quantity of 5000-10,000 packs, with some airdropped and some sold for GHST or ETH.

With proper marketing and live-ops, we believe that these revenue streams combined can generate enough revenue to make Pixelcraft Studios revenue-positive, while also generating significant cashflow back to AavegotchiDAO.

Marketing Begins

Up til now, Pixelcraft Studios has been fairly light on marketing Aavegotchi and our gaming products, preferring to wait until our product line is more mature.

Now, with the upcoming launch of Geist, multiple Aavegotchi titles nearing readiness with built-in monetization, and big reward campaigns being planned, we are ready to get out there and spread the good Gotchi gospel around the world.

Some major beats we are planning over the next year include:

• At least one Coinbase quest to raise awareness of Geist and the Aavegotchi Gaming Console to high-quality Coinbase users.
• A major play-to-airdrop campaign for all eligible games on Geist.
• Strategic, targeted Invite giveaways to partner communities and projects.
• Targeted campaigns with Youtubers to create long-tail funnels into our ecosystem.
• Increased IRL presence in US, EU, and APAC regions.

Many of these initiatives are already underway and just waiting for a catalyst to move forward. The launch of Geist, in combination with Gotchiverse, Gotchi Guardians, Dropt, and other accessible community games, will be that catalyst.

Thank you for your support

We would like to have a moment to express our deep gratitude to AavegotchiDAO for believing in Pixelcraft Studios’ vision of an interoperable gaming protocol, and supporting our journey over the past four years.

Although these four years have been exciting, we strongly believe that the best years of Aavegotchi are still ahead of us. We are ready to come out of “ghost mode” and show the world how a truly native Web3 gaming community operates!

Our Ask

We are requesting $3,000,000, paid in USDC, distributed in two equal tranches: the first upon the successful passing of this proposal, and the second after the launch of Geist Mainnet (as determined by block explorer being functional).

The source of these funds is the Treasury wallet. For each tranche, Directors will need to withdraw 1.5M USDC from Aave. The funds should be transferred to 0x86cEee5D55AE2670c94A6005aD4a3890A1885Cfc on Ethereum Mainnet.

[Note, the SigProp originally specified Polygon Mainnet, but Ethereum Mainnet is correct].

In return, we are committed to returning 20% of all of Pixelcraft’s gross revenue back to AavegotchiDAO until the DAO has earned $13M in revenue (including the $3M initially paid), or until the DAO votes to end this revenue sharing agreement.

These sources of income include Geist membership fees, in-game purchases, Lootbox key purchases, and any other revenue generated through our games.

As an additional level of security, we also commit to transferring the ownership of the Aavegotchi IP to AavegotchiDAO in the event that Pixelcraft Studios is unable to continue operation.

Conclusion

Thank you for your continued support as we enter this new, exciting phase of the Aavegotchi project together!

Pixelcraft Studios team