UPDATE This is the latest version of the proposal: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/proposal-non-constitutional-funding-for-into-the-dungeons-machinata-a-pvp-digital-miniature-game-v2/21025
Abstract - Into the Dungeons is a Web3 native IP. The closest thing is Forgotten Runes. We are building a 2 player PvP digital miniature turn-based strategy game called Machinata. We are seeking funding, in tranches, to help us offset development costs as well as speed up development.
Motivation - We’ve been involved in TreasureDAO since its inception and have been building Ruffion Reborn – the first homebrew cartridge for Treasure. The game is fully open-sourced, with a front-end built in Godot and backend in JS. The alpha of the game is live https://alpha.ruffionreborn.xyz – no NFTs or wallet connections are needed to play. You do have to have someone else be online to play it though 😊
We are currently working on Godot/Wallet integration and some smart contracts so that it is a fully functional project that people can use to develop their own Arbitrum/Treasure games. It is supposed to serve as a tutorial for game developers.
Ruffion Reborn was all self-funded. The mint (currently open) raised about 4.5ETH and we got a 5000 ARB grant from Treasure. All these funds were used offset develop costs.
Rationale - Into the Dungeons: Machinata is being built as a collectable digital miniature game, where our primary goal as it pertains to the Web3/NFT aspect is to create something that is sustainable and does not rely on speculation. We realize that it is impossible to stop people from speculating, but we have kept the design such that there is a collectability aspect to the game which although doesn’t provide any competitive advantages is like owning a 1st Edition Charizard from the Pokemon Base Set released in 1999.
We are huge believers in the ETH ecosystem, and Arbitrum specifically. Evangelizing it to others within the ETH ecosystem and outside of it.
Key Terms (optional) – TBS: Turn-Based Strategy, PvP: Player vs. Player, Machinata: Name of the game being created. It is the chess equivalent on the world of Xyg (a fictional place where Into the Dungeons stories are set)
Specifications - The game will be made using Unreal Engine 5
Steps to Implement - We’re sharing a PowerPoint deck that is uploaded on OneDrive. It includes more details about the Into the Dungeons Universe, team background, roadmap, cost breakdown, etc.
We will provide an overview of the steps to implement in this section. Please feel free to ask questions if more details are required.
We have prototyped the game on pen and paper. Created a 27 card deck. There are three types of cards – units, buildings, spells.
We prototyped the game in Godot/Unreal and decided to go with Unreal for several different reasons.
The art style has been finalized and all 27 cards will be created along with the accompanying miniatures.
We are first creating a subset of the game with 9-12 cards, a single player experience with an AI opponent.
That will be made live for the community to test, give feedback on, while we work on the multiplayer component.
A core part of the Machinata Digital Miniature ecosystem is to allow artists to create their own versions of miniatures as limited editions and sell them in the in-game marketplace. There are two parts to this tooling: 1. Asperite templates and 2. Marketplace where assets can be uploaded for approval and then sales.
Timeline
High level Roadmap:
Mar 2024: Finalize art and animations
Mar 2024: Playable single player build, with a subset of the 27-card deck
Jun 2024: Prototype + Website Release
Sep 2024: Alpha release of game + Marketplace
Nov 2024: Incorporate community feedback
Feb 2025: Release V1
Overall Cost - We’ve estimated the overall cost to be about $415,000 USD to complete and release V1 in Feb 2025
Ask - We are seeking a grant from the DAO for 30,000 $ARB, to be released in tranches as we make progress towards certain milestones.
Upfront release of 15K ARB for end of March 2024 deliverable – Single Player Build with subset of 27 card deck
Release of additional 7.5K ARB once Prototype is completed and made available to the community. This prototype will not have multiplayer.
Release of last 7.5K ARB once the website is live, and Marketplace designs are shared.
The launch of the website will allow us to offer our already completed PFP collection for sale as well that will help us raise additional funds. We did not want to launch a PFP collection first and then commit to a game. Instead, we want to release a playable version of the game first and everyone who will mint a starter pack for the game will get a PFP along with it.
Why? - This investment of 30,000 $ARB will enable us to release the game, raise additional funds that we need to complete the game. We believe this is in the DAO’s interests for the following reasons:
Into the Dungeons - PFP Art & Machinata Art Examples, PPTX & In-Engine Demo Clip
Some examples of the 1:1 PFPs - All of them are ready and this will be an under 10K collection, likely 7777.
An example of The Nightwalker card and the five animations that go along with the miniature:
Idle
Attack
Move
Damage Taken
Special Ability
The Forgotten Machine Team
Ali Husain, Co-Founder, Game Design & Story
Ali founded Forgotten Machine to fulfill his childhood dream of designing and developing games. He has been very actively involved in Crypto and Web 3 since 2015 and is an avid collector of all collectable things – comics, miniatures, action figures.
Under Forgotten Machine, Ali launched Ruffion Reborn, a self-funded project that is built to enable other developers to create their own games on Arbitrum and in the Treasure ecosystem. All the art assets are CC0, and all the code is opensource. The alpha went live earlier this year.
Ali also co-founded Navigate, a Web 3 AI data platform powered by crowdsourced data and was part of the core team that raised the seed round of $7.625MM from numerous investors.
Previously, Ali has served as the Chief Software Architect and Chief Product Officer at SkyGrid, a Boeing-SparkCognition joint venture, named as one of the Top 50 Blockchain companies by Forbes and spent 8+ years at SparkCognition, an award-winning industrial AI company. He joined SparkCognition during its initial startup days and left to lead Navigate at the end of December 2023, when the SparkCognition had grown to 400+ people and was valued over 1.4B USD.
Ali has a B.A. in Economics and my BSc in Computer Science from The University of Texas and has multiple patents under his name.
Zehra Akbar, Co-Founder, Project Management
Zehra is a business strategy and operations with experience building and leading high performing projects. She started Forgotten Machine alongside Ali to build amazing games and engage the Web 3 community.
Previously, Zehra served as the Chief Strategy Officer at SkyGrid, a Boeing-SparkCognition company, named one of the Top 50 Blockchain Companies of 2021 by Forbes.
She also helped close the funding round for Navigate, a Web 3 AI data platform powered by crowdsourced data and was part of the core team that raised the seed round of $7.625MM from numerous investors. Her other job experiences include strategic projects as SparkCognition and consulting work with Deloitte and Accenture.
At Forgotten Machine, Zehra is responsible for running operations and project deliverables.
Zehra has a Master’s degree Global Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and multiple patents under her name.
UPDATE This is the latest version of the proposal: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/proposal-non-constitutional-funding-for-into-the-dungeons-machinata-a-pvp-digital-miniature-game-v2/21025
Abstract - Into the Dungeons is a Web3 native IP. The closest thing is Forgotten Runes. We are building a 2 player PvP digital miniature turn-based strategy game called Machinata. We are seeking funding, in tranches, to help us offset development costs as well as speed up development.
Motivation - We’ve been involved in TreasureDAO since its inception and have been building Ruffion Reborn – the first homebrew cartridge for Treasure. The game is fully open-sourced, with a front-end built in Godot and backend in JS. The alpha of the game is live https://alpha.ruffionreborn.xyz – no NFTs or wallet connections are needed to play. You do have to have someone else be online to play it though 😊
We are currently working on Godot/Wallet integration and some smart contracts so that it is a fully functional project that people can use to develop their own Arbitrum/Treasure games. It is supposed to serve as a tutorial for game developers.
Ruffion Reborn was all self-funded. The mint (currently open) raised about 4.5ETH and we got a 5000 ARB grant from Treasure. All these funds were used offset develop costs.
Rationale - Into the Dungeons: Machinata is being built as a collectable digital miniature game, where our primary goal as it pertains to the Web3/NFT aspect is to create something that is sustainable and does not rely on speculation. We realize that it is impossible to stop people from speculating, but we have kept the design such that there is a collectability aspect to the game which although doesn’t provide any competitive advantages is like owning a 1st Edition Charizard from the Pokemon Base Set released in 1999.
We are huge believers in the ETH ecosystem, and Arbitrum specifically. Evangelizing it to others within the ETH ecosystem and outside of it.
Key Terms (optional) – TBS: Turn-Based Strategy, PvP: Player vs. Player, Machinata: Name of the game being created. It is the chess equivalent on the world of Xyg (a fictional place where Into the Dungeons stories are set)
Specifications - The game will be made using Unreal Engine 5
Steps to Implement - We’re sharing a PowerPoint deck that is uploaded on OneDrive. It includes more details about the Into the Dungeons Universe, team background, roadmap, cost breakdown, etc.
We will provide an overview of the steps to implement in this section. Please feel free to ask questions if more details are required.
We have prototyped the game on pen and paper. Created a 27 card deck. There are three types of cards – units, buildings, spells.
We prototyped the game in Godot/Unreal and decided to go with Unreal for several different reasons.
The art style has been finalized and all 27 cards will be created along with the accompanying miniatures.
We are first creating a subset of the game with 9-12 cards, a single player experience with an AI opponent.
That will be made live for the community to test, give feedback on, while we work on the multiplayer component.
A core part of the Machinata Digital Miniature ecosystem is to allow artists to create their own versions of miniatures as limited editions and sell them in the in-game marketplace. There are two parts to this tooling: 1. Asperite templates and 2. Marketplace where assets can be uploaded for approval and then sales.
Timeline
High level Roadmap:
Mar 2024: Finalize art and animations
Mar 2024: Playable single player build, with a subset of the 27-card deck
Jun 2024: Prototype + Website Release
Sep 2024: Alpha release of game + Marketplace
Nov 2024: Incorporate community feedback
Feb 2025: Release V1
Overall Cost - We’ve estimated the overall cost to be about $415,000 USD to complete and release V1 in Feb 2025
Ask - We are seeking a grant from the DAO for 30,000 $ARB, to be released in tranches as we make progress towards certain milestones.
Upfront release of 15K ARB for end of March 2024 deliverable – Single Player Build with subset of 27 card deck
Release of additional 7.5K ARB once Prototype is completed and made available to the community. This prototype will not have multiplayer.
Release of last 7.5K ARB once the website is live, and Marketplace designs are shared.
The launch of the website will allow us to offer our already completed PFP collection for sale as well that will help us raise additional funds. We did not want to launch a PFP collection first and then commit to a game. Instead, we want to release a playable version of the game first and everyone who will mint a starter pack for the game will get a PFP along with it.
Why? - This investment of 30,000 $ARB will enable us to release the game, raise additional funds that we need to complete the game. We believe this is in the DAO’s interests for the following reasons:
Into the Dungeons - PFP Art & Machinata Art Examples, PPTX & In-Engine Demo Clip
Some examples of the 1:1 PFPs - All of them are ready and this will be an under 10K collection, likely 7777.
An example of The Nightwalker card and the five animations that go along with the miniature:
Idle
Attack
Move
Damage Taken
Special Ability
The Forgotten Machine Team
Ali Husain, Co-Founder, Game Design & Story
Ali founded Forgotten Machine to fulfill his childhood dream of designing and developing games. He has been very actively involved in Crypto and Web 3 since 2015 and is an avid collector of all collectable things – comics, miniatures, action figures.
Under Forgotten Machine, Ali launched Ruffion Reborn, a self-funded project that is built to enable other developers to create their own games on Arbitrum and in the Treasure ecosystem. All the art assets are CC0, and all the code is opensource. The alpha went live earlier this year.
Ali also co-founded Navigate, a Web 3 AI data platform powered by crowdsourced data and was part of the core team that raised the seed round of $7.625MM from numerous investors.
Previously, Ali has served as the Chief Software Architect and Chief Product Officer at SkyGrid, a Boeing-SparkCognition joint venture, named as one of the Top 50 Blockchain companies by Forbes and spent 8+ years at SparkCognition, an award-winning industrial AI company. He joined SparkCognition during its initial startup days and left to lead Navigate at the end of December 2023, when the SparkCognition had grown to 400+ people and was valued over 1.4B USD.
Ali has a B.A. in Economics and my BSc in Computer Science from The University of Texas and has multiple patents under his name.
Zehra Akbar, Co-Founder, Project Management
Zehra is a business strategy and operations with experience building and leading high performing projects. She started Forgotten Machine alongside Ali to build amazing games and engage the Web 3 community.
Previously, Zehra served as the Chief Strategy Officer at SkyGrid, a Boeing-SparkCognition company, named one of the Top 50 Blockchain Companies of 2021 by Forbes.
She also helped close the funding round for Navigate, a Web 3 AI data platform powered by crowdsourced data and was part of the core team that raised the seed round of $7.625MM from numerous investors. Her other job experiences include strategic projects as SparkCognition and consulting work with Deloitte and Accenture.
At Forgotten Machine, Zehra is responsible for running operations and project deliverables.
Zehra has a Master’s degree Global Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and multiple patents under her name.
It a copy of our decision from another thread for the same proposal: Our team cp0x voted AGAINST this proposal. Our comments were not taken into account, which was to get the work done at Arbitrum first. It was important for our community, I think. Also, the developer reported that he have no plans to build this out of ARB. So we don’t see the benefit of voting to fund this game. However, as I said earlier, I like the game and after taking into account our comments, we will be ready to support this project.
fair points.
Now that the LTIPP council is finalized, we'll definitely try that route and see how it goes.
In parallel, we're also working with the community on the gaming STIP.
Will try the Arb Foundation route and see how that goes!
Thanks!
The Savvy DeFi DAO's Arbitrum Council has decisively voted FOR this proposal.
In ideal circumstances, we would recommend applying with a proposal like this in a grants program.
The Savvy DeFi DAO's Arbitrum Council has decisively voted FOR this proposal.
In ideal circumstances, we would recommend applying with a proposal like this in a grants program.
However, considering the early stage of LTIP and other incentive programs in the DAO, as well as the need for a clear development and explanation of a project like this, we believe it is a valuable initiative that would bring new users and interaction to the ecosystem.
Got some valuable feedback from folks so sharing my thoughts here for the whole community to consider and respond to.
btw - random thought based on what Kzysztof said earlier (his point was about spraying and praying with small amounts of capital). I understand the hesitance to spray and pray when and where it does not make sense. I also get the concern that potential bad actors can come in and 1. try to spam us with 20k requests or whatever 2. people just start spamming in general.
Got some valuable feedback from folks so sharing my thoughts here for the whole community to consider and respond to.
btw - random thought based on what Kzysztof said earlier (his point was about spraying and praying with small amounts of capital). I understand the hesitance to spray and pray when and where it does not make sense. I also get the concern that potential bad actors can come in and 1. try to spam us with 20k requests or whatever 2. people just start spamming in general.
how about the following?
DAO is able to approve small tranches (lets say where tranches do not exceed 15K or 20K ARB in one go), as long as the application shows the following:
I think this could:
point being - the whole "people will spam us" is not a real issue until it becomes an issue.
I guess my brain is working in startup mode. ty 🫡
Optimism had exactly that problem, starting small until the point delegates spent all their time voting on "experiments"
I would advise applying for LTIPP , working with treasure on the gaming STIP, or arbitrum foundation grants. Having delegates consider tiny funding requests from projects without a prior history of funding from arbitrum is an inefficient use of delegates time
Optimism had exactly that problem, starting small until the point delegates spent all their time voting on "experiments"
I would advise applying for LTIPP , working with treasure on the gaming STIP, or arbitrum foundation grants. Having delegates consider tiny funding requests from projects without a prior history of funding from arbitrum is an inefficient use of delegates time
This is unfortunately a case where the transaction costs are greater than the size of the deal itself. The time taken by delegates to review is worth more than the ask
This is the problem I am trying to understand.
I did not want to wait for frameworks and wanted to see if the DAO would be open to taking a small "risk", in this case 15K ARB, to test out how well it works and how fast we can move.
This is the problem I am trying to understand.
I did not want to wait for frameworks and wanted to see if the DAO would be open to taking a small "risk", in this case 15K ARB, to test out how well it works and how fast we can move.
The thing with the current grants programs is that they have limited funding and in the case of the gaming grant for example, Flook was a huge help, but currently just didn't have the funds to move forward with this.
So, it comes down to either, wait until the grant program gets additional funding or go to the DAO and ask for funding directly.
Still learning how our DAO practically functions and thought this would be a good discussion to have, and also assess the appetite we have for risk/moving fast.
Thank you Larva! Really appreciate the discussion!
I suggest that you can try to apply the Arbitrum Foundation's Grant program: https://arbitrum.foundation/grants
Applying for a Grant by proposal is inefficient, and probably won't be passed because the Arbitrum DAO already has many Grant Programs.
Hey! Did you apply the Arbitrum grants on Jokerace and Questbook?
Hello Larva,
Haven't applied to thankyouarbitrum, but we did apply to questbook, so in the pipeline for that, but I think they're currently not giving out grants, most likely until v2.
The goal with this proposal was primarily to see, how quickly it would be possible for the DAO to move and allocate some funds upfront and then additional funds tied to deliverables.
Hello Larva,
Haven't applied to thankyouarbitrum, but we did apply to questbook, so in the pipeline for that, but I think they're currently not giving out grants, most likely until v2.
The goal with this proposal was primarily to see, how quickly it would be possible for the DAO to move and allocate some funds upfront and then additional funds tied to deliverables.
If this is accepted then we won't need questbook!
It a copy of our decision from another thread for the same proposal: Our team cp0x voted AGAINST this proposal. Our comments were not taken into account, which was to get the work done at Arbitrum first. It was important for our community, I think. Also, the developer reported that he have no plans to build this out of ARB. So we don’t see the benefit of voting to fund this game. However, as I said earlier, I like the game and after taking into account our comments, we will be ready to support this project.
fair points.
Now that the LTIPP council is finalized, we'll definitely try that route and see how it goes.
In parallel, we're also working with the community on the gaming STIP.
Will try the Arb Foundation route and see how that goes!
Thanks!
The Savvy DeFi DAO's Arbitrum Council has decisively voted FOR this proposal.
In ideal circumstances, we would recommend applying with a proposal like this in a grants program.
The Savvy DeFi DAO's Arbitrum Council has decisively voted FOR this proposal.
In ideal circumstances, we would recommend applying with a proposal like this in a grants program.
However, considering the early stage of LTIP and other incentive programs in the DAO, as well as the need for a clear development and explanation of a project like this, we believe it is a valuable initiative that would bring new users and interaction to the ecosystem.
Got some valuable feedback from folks so sharing my thoughts here for the whole community to consider and respond to.
btw - random thought based on what Kzysztof said earlier (his point was about spraying and praying with small amounts of capital). I understand the hesitance to spray and pray when and where it does not make sense. I also get the concern that potential bad actors can come in and 1. try to spam us with 20k requests or whatever 2. people just start spamming in general.
Got some valuable feedback from folks so sharing my thoughts here for the whole community to consider and respond to.
btw - random thought based on what Kzysztof said earlier (his point was about spraying and praying with small amounts of capital). I understand the hesitance to spray and pray when and where it does not make sense. I also get the concern that potential bad actors can come in and 1. try to spam us with 20k requests or whatever 2. people just start spamming in general.
how about the following?
DAO is able to approve small tranches (lets say where tranches do not exceed 15K or 20K ARB in one go), as long as the application shows the following:
I think this could:
point being - the whole "people will spam us" is not a real issue until it becomes an issue.
I guess my brain is working in startup mode. ty 🫡
Optimism had exactly that problem, starting small until the point delegates spent all their time voting on "experiments"
I would advise applying for LTIPP , working with treasure on the gaming STIP, or arbitrum foundation grants. Having delegates consider tiny funding requests from projects without a prior history of funding from arbitrum is an inefficient use of delegates time
Optimism had exactly that problem, starting small until the point delegates spent all their time voting on "experiments"
I would advise applying for LTIPP , working with treasure on the gaming STIP, or arbitrum foundation grants. Having delegates consider tiny funding requests from projects without a prior history of funding from arbitrum is an inefficient use of delegates time
This is unfortunately a case where the transaction costs are greater than the size of the deal itself. The time taken by delegates to review is worth more than the ask
This is the problem I am trying to understand.
I did not want to wait for frameworks and wanted to see if the DAO would be open to taking a small "risk", in this case 15K ARB, to test out how well it works and how fast we can move.
This is the problem I am trying to understand.
I did not want to wait for frameworks and wanted to see if the DAO would be open to taking a small "risk", in this case 15K ARB, to test out how well it works and how fast we can move.
The thing with the current grants programs is that they have limited funding and in the case of the gaming grant for example, Flook was a huge help, but currently just didn't have the funds to move forward with this.
So, it comes down to either, wait until the grant program gets additional funding or go to the DAO and ask for funding directly.
Still learning how our DAO practically functions and thought this would be a good discussion to have, and also assess the appetite we have for risk/moving fast.
Thank you Larva! Really appreciate the discussion!
I suggest that you can try to apply the Arbitrum Foundation's Grant program: https://arbitrum.foundation/grants
Applying for a Grant by proposal is inefficient, and probably won't be passed because the Arbitrum DAO already has many Grant Programs.
Hey! Did you apply the Arbitrum grants on Jokerace and Questbook?
Hello Larva,
Haven't applied to thankyouarbitrum, but we did apply to questbook, so in the pipeline for that, but I think they're currently not giving out grants, most likely until v2.
The goal with this proposal was primarily to see, how quickly it would be possible for the DAO to move and allocate some funds upfront and then additional funds tied to deliverables.
Hello Larva,
Haven't applied to thankyouarbitrum, but we did apply to questbook, so in the pipeline for that, but I think they're currently not giving out grants, most likely until v2.
The goal with this proposal was primarily to see, how quickly it would be possible for the DAO to move and allocate some funds upfront and then additional funds tied to deliverables.
If this is accepted then we won't need questbook!
