Sugar Club operation costs 2023

by 0x474543b99438a978b39d39d8983723eb5ff9196b (SugarClub)

Should the following Tier 4: up to $60,000 USD, 6 months vesting (1 month cliff) grant in the Content Creator category be approved?

Abstract

Sugar Club is asking for your vote and support to help fund its current and future operation for 2023.

Sugar Club is one of the very first clubs deployed in Decentraland (since beta in 2019) that started exploring the possibilities of live entertainment, art, and fashion.

In 3 year of operations we greatly contributed to the growth of DCL , worked with International artist from the NFT community as well as musicians/DJs . Notably acclaimed artists Coldie3D, RobnessV2, Bootsy Collins, GraffitiKings , Panther Modern, Connie Digital and more.

With this grant Sugar Club will be able to operate more efficiently while making sure that the quality of our events and designs remain high and engaging as well as having room for expansion.

Grant size

59,840 USD

Beneficiary address

0xf8d8e8dCA72D41abA3E24518194E9eaF03fdDa86

Email address

sugarclub@protonmail.com

Description

Here is our total budget requirements for 2023

2023	operation costs
Audio / video servers	3000
Software	2860
Hardware	3980
Event management	24000
SDK game dev	12000
Artist onboarding budget	12000
Miscellaneous	2000
TOTAL 2023	59840 USD

summary of the operation costs followed by more info:

Audio broadcasting (Icecast) and video streaming hosting + servers

Software subscriptions and paid digital creation tools

Hardware (DJ controller / mixer for live events, 2nd laptop during events separate from main desktop )

Event creation and management ( designing Art posters, POAP delivery, promotion , hosting artists, live music mixing)

Wearable and emote production (mocap suit , paid software)

Upgrading and maintaining Sugar Club models and SDK code

Budget for paid gigs with DJs

Online broadcasting music licensing fee

Event creation and management:

I am the sole creator and manager of events at SugarClub at the moment.

That includes creating the theme, designing the posters, updating the club to the relevant theme with animations and art, hosting the event, promoting on social, organizing the airdrops and giveaways on twitter.

I plan on creating 2 branded events per month with paid dj gigs / and NFT artists featured at our gallery ( included renown artists from the early NFT scene )

With a bigger budget I can start looking for a community manager that could take a load off my shoulders while I focus on the main content creation.

Metaverse Electronic Music Event aka MEME

I have a plan to create and organize an inclusive Metaverse Electronic Music Event (MEME) with some popular venues in Decentraland, fostering exchange and collaboration for the clubbing scene in Decentraland.

Part of the Event creation budget would go towards leading the initiative and organizing the first event in 2023..

Artist / DJs onboarding

I would like to have a budget going forward that allows me to pay artists a fair price in exchange for great DJ sets. Sugar Club is welcoming existing DJs from our web3 network ( Bufalo , Greencross, Gucci Toe, Alien DJ , Panther Modern, Mighty33, Superflat , AmbieNFT , Mumbai Science , GraffitKings, EzzyLand , Eclectic Method , DJ Laroc, DJ LethalSkillz, Bootsy Collins etc.) .

I also want to explore onboarding other DJs and electronic producers by leveraging some of my existing contacts internationally. I have contacts in Europe, notably France, Belgium, Austria, the UK , Mexico/ South America, as well as South Korea.

Game dev

Last year updates have included a new video screen projection code from the SDK repository, upgrading the main stage, optimizing textures, colliders, creating a new UI system to interact with, cleaning up all the modules of the code so they are better organized for debugging, and finally overhauling the VIP gate code to include Polygon as well as Ethereum contracts (an essential part of using NFT ticket access on Polygon)

I would love to have a proper budget for game development, to maintain and debug code when necessary but also to be able to hire on demand for specific features such as a gamified experience at the club .

Retroactive costs

I would like to use this grant to fund early hardware such as my mocap suit for emote creation and the 2nd laptop i use to log into DCL

Specification

Budget specification

Servers and streaming

Servers and streaming	operation costs
Audio / video servers	3000
TOTAL	3000 USD

Software

Software	operation costs
Photoshop (graphic tool)	180
Substance Painter texturing (3d model texturing)	212
Blender 3D add-ons (3d modeling tool)	300
Marvelous Designer (digital garment creation)	280
Zrbush sculpting (3d modeling tool)	390
DJ software	99
VJ software	99
Audio library (paid tracks and samples) During Dj sets	1000
Graphic AI generation tools for visuals (graphic tool)	300
TOTAL	2860 USD

more info on software costs

Making 3d content via blender is free, however professional paid tools are essential to help with workflow and quality of delivery.

One example is wearable production. The professional workflow of designing a wearable with very detailed realistic textures is as follow:

Create High Poly model > retopology to low poly model > bake high level details onto low poly > finish texturing on low poly > dcl builder testing

This workflow requires multiple paid software such as:

Zbrush and Marvelous Designer for high resolution garments creation

Retopology add-ons for creating the low poly model

Substance Painter for texturing the garments and baking the details

These Tools are industry standards in 3d creation and are essential for digital fashion creation of high-quality garments.

Other essential paid add-ons for blender include Motion capture retargeting tools for emote creation, Hard surface modeling tools, UV mapping tools etc...

All those subscriptions combined become a workflow that helps content creation tremendously and are essential to operate on a professional level as a digital artist.

Hardware

Hardware	operation costs
Separate Laptop for DCL events (retroactive)	1000
Mocap suit for emote creation (retroactive)	2000
Pro DJ mixer / controller / audio interface	900
Headset	80
TOTAL	3980 USD yearly

We use a main desktop station for our broadcasting, and a smaller laptop to tune into Decentraland during events.

We also need to upgrade to a DJ controller/mixer for live DJ sets and live streaming. Up until now we have only been using a digital DJ interface for our shows.

Event management

Event management	operation costs
Event creation +management + marketing	1500 per month	18000
Community management (to hire)	500 per month	6000
TOTAL		24000 USD yearly

Game dev/ SDK

game dev	operation costs
SDK game dev (part time to hire)	1000 per month	12000
TOTAL		12000 USD yearly

Artist

Artist onboarding	operation costs
Artists/DJ budget	1000 per month	12000
TOTAL		12000 USD yearly

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous	operation costs
Adviser / legal fees	1700
Music license for radio broadcasting	300
TOTAL	2000 USD yearly

GRAND TOTAL 59840 USD year 2023

Personnel

Sugar Club founder (Kay)

Twitter

Linktree

discord: @sugarclub.eth#9693

Creative director of sugar club and NFT artist. In charge of content creation, event management , curation, marketing , Dj.

Hprivakos : developer

discord: @HPrivakos#4268

In charge of server upgrade, code base, technical advisor. Well known coder of Decentraland projects. Active since the early DCL beta. Hprivakos has been helping SugarClub since the early days.

JessieJess : assistant- advisor

discord: @Jess | NonFungible.com#0165

Jess Ford is has been participating in blockchain projects since 2013 and NFTs since 2017. During the past five years she has been deep in some of the most notable NFT projects namely Decentraland, the first blockchain metaverse owned by its users and NonFungible.com the worlds biggest and oldest NFT data resource. Meebits DAO Founder and Palm DAO Committee Member - PUNK#6079

Staff to hire part time: Community manager, Game dev.

Roadmap and milestones

Bi-monthly event schedule for the duration of 2023 (or an output of 24 branded events annually +smaller meet up events throughout the year )

Organizing 1 annual community led Electronic music festival in conjunction with other popular venues of DCL (separate from the MVMF event called MEME )

Onboarding new DJs into the metaverse and Decentraland, alongside continuing support for the existing DCL DJs community

Increase the traffic to Sugar Club and create a buzz around the electronic music and clubbing scene in Decentraland in general.

periodic report on the grant status and delivery of the project

For those that don't know us, i invite you to come to our rave event next week 9th November right before the MVMF festival to discover who we are.

https://events.decentraland.org/event/?id=80f069c5-b19d-40b9-8868-c8a4dadaedfe

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO