[Resubmission] Dungeons and Dragons & Decentraland

by 0x2e09a10eaace1ef3a66fbf6f1f782c8c0cb8c942 (Armadillo)

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

Abstract

Dungeons and Dragons is played worldwide by an enormous range of players and it is no less intriguing to watch others play as evidenced by the great success of organizations such as Critical Role. We believe a good implementation of this concept has the power to introduce many new users to Decentraland!

Grant size

60,000 USD

Beneficiary address

0x2e09A10eaAcE1Ef3a66FbF6F1F782C8c0cb8c942

Email address

cenmodelscontact@gmail.com

Description

Goal

The main goal in creating this game is to expand the user base of Decentraland and showcase it as a place to have fun! Decentraland has many casinos and other establishments that require financial investments from players and thus, for an ordinary user Decentraland looks like a place where everyone wants to get money from you - but it is and can be much more than that!

Original proposal

https://forum.decentraland.org/t/dao-bafkrei-dungeons-and-dragons-decentraland/13138

TL;DR changes in resubmission

• Renting land for a reduced price through @dax
• Updated budget focused towards achieving a concrete six month Roadmap
• More details re: past team experiences in game and software development

We believe that the main thing missing in Decentraland is the reasons for an ordinary user rather than an investor to join Decentraland. The main goal of our game is to become such a reason and thereby attract a large number of new users to Decentraland.

The game we want to create will be inspired by Dungeons and Dragons but won’t be a copy of it. We decided to simplify some mechanics so that the game fits better into Decentraland and is easy to understand for all users regardless of roleplay experience

Scope

The scope of this grant proposal is ~8 months, until about the end of March 2023. In that time our goal is to release a game in several steps until we have, by the end of this time, a fully working v1 of our game accessible to all Decentraland users.

Game mechanics

As we mentioned, we decided to build a roleplaying experience specific to Decentraland. Some of those modifications are:

• A session in D&D lasts on average 2-3 hours; in our game, we want to reduce the time of one session to 40-60 minutes.
• An AI (Artificial Intelligence) will perform the role of the gamemaster (host), so players will have a limited number of action options in a given situation.
• Players will choose one of the proposed characters rather than creating one themselves.

Specification

How we see the final result:

1. Each player (3-5 players in total in one session) is given random characters.
2. Each character has characteristics (strength, charisma, etc.), specific items in the inventory (crossbow, potion, etc.), and other differences.
3. The characters find themselves in a situation where they need to solve a problem or receive a task from a non-player character in the story.

For example, a simple scenario might be that players start their journey in a tavern, and they need to find a villager who is a werewolf.

The main gameplay will lay in the fact that players will choose options for actions, such as: "Inspect the tavern," or "Approach the tavern and start talking to the quiet villager”

Some actions’ success gets determined by a dice roll. For example, to "Sneak attack the guard" you need to roll a dice to test your dexterity. The required number for success is a 10; you roll the dice, if you roll a ten or lower you miss, greater than 10 and you hit.

In total, the player will change up to 5 locations during the game. The game ends when the players have completed the task, failed it, or when all the players’ characters have died.

Due to the variability, the game has great replay value. Play as another character, take other companions to your team, and the game outcome will be completely different. We also plan to release new scripts regularly.

Budget Breakdown

Total: 60k

Team Salaries: 49k

• 15k SDK Dev
• 15k 3D Artists
• 8k Game Designer
• 4k Game Master
• 4k 2D Artist
• 3k Sound Designer

Marketing: 6k

Servers and infrastructure: 3k

Land Rental for 6 months: 2k

Tech Stack

Much of the game will be built using the Decentraland SDK but part of the infrastructure will be external. For this we will use a custom built backend server to store player scores, preferences, gaming history, and more.

Revenue plan / Sustainability

While we do plan to create some wearables and possibly make some purchases available, adding a large number of profit-making functions will greatly burden the project, and making a profit is not our goal.

Personnel

Core team

Soulsinger - manager of the CEN studio; game designer; the ideological inspirer of the project

Dax - SDK Developer In Decentraland since 2017; 10 years of software development experience; winner of the 2022 DCL Game Jam

Casuallvl & Orina - 3d artists. Specialists in 3D modelling of low-poly objects

Master Eador - Gamemaster. Longtime TTRPG player; 2 years experience as a professional gamemaster

Mia - 2d artist. Art student with experience in building game assets

Alexander - Sound designer. Known in some circles as ‘The Man with Three Ears’

Relevant experience

Each member of our team has been working in game development for many years. We sincerely love games and our work. One of our recent games was created on Roblox - TOWER MASTER - with more than 2 million visits in the past year!

Rift Arena - the 2022 DCL Game Jam winner, coded by Dax

CEN studio office - Demonstration of low-poly modeling and programming

Roadmap and milestones

Estimated Timeline: 8 months

2022 Q3:

Prototypes of the main game mechanics (action selection, dice roll, etc.). Adventure scenarios and world building Concepts of characters, locations, items Rough 3D models (characters, objects, etc.) Main goal: Alpha version of the game on testnet

2022 Q4:

Development of all game mechanics based on Alpha feedback All 3D models (scenery, effects, etc.) Images (player cards, location backgrounds, etc.) Audio (virtual gamemaster voice acting, sounds of objects, etc.) Main goal: Beta version of the game in Decentraland

2023 Q1:

Collect user feedback of beta version Implement remaining features and polish the game experience Marketing (payment to Twitch and YouTube channels, inviting famous bloggers to play our game) Main goal: V1 Live

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO