add blockchainia.md

[eca20]

Project Abstract

Please replace these instructions with a brief description of your project summarising key points (1-2 paragraphs).

If your application is a follow-up to a previous grant, please mention which one in the first line of the abstract and include a link to previous pull requests if applicable.

Grant level

• Level 1: Up to $10,000, 2 approvals
• Level 2: Up to $30,000, 3 approvals
• Level 3: Unlimited, 5 approvals (for >$100k: Web3 Foundation Council approval)

Application Checklist

• The application template has been copied and aptly renamed (project_name.md).
• I have read the application guidelines.
• Payment details have been provided (bank details via email or BTC, Ethereum (USDC/DAI) or Polkadot/Kusama (USDT) address in the application).
• The software delivered for this grant will be released under an open-source license specified in the application.
• The initial PR contains only one commit (squash and force-push if needed).
• The grant will only be announced once the first milestone has been accepted (see the announcement guidelines).
• I prefer the discussion of this application to take place in a private Element/Matrix channel. My username is: @_______:matrix.org (change the homeserver if you use a different one)

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[semuelle]

Thanks for the application, @eca20.
I would like to ask you to review your deliverables and make sure that they are verifiable and reproducible.

• The technical deliverables currently lack details (enable administration and parachain interaction is too vague). An architecture or flow diagram would be useful.
• The other deliverables also should specify something tangible we can evaluate afterwards.
• It sounds like you put Market Research as a deliverable here, but look for funding elsewhere? In any case, research plans should include what is being measured, how and what the delivery will look like.
• Marketing is not an activity we fund with the grants program. See our FAQ.

Also, it would be great if you could include a (technical) comparison of your project to some of the (meta-)gaming projects we have funded in the past and how it differs to similar projects.
Lastly, I don't see any previous Substrate work (two of the repos you linked are not accessible), would be great if you could clarify this and, if you already started working on it, add a Development Status section.

[semuelle]

Thanks for the updates, @eca20. Some more follow-up questions/issues:

• There is no deliverable 1 now, can you re-number them?
• 0e falls under marketing, which is not covered by the grants program, as mentioned above. I'd suggest to replace it with 0e from the template ("We will publish an article/workshop that explains ...").
• I still don't have access to https://github.com/eca20/BlockchainiaJRPG
• The specification of deliverable 4 is unclear. I assume you mean you will publish a manual for developers and users to interact with your system. But how does it relate to hardware? We don't usually fund hardware, unless it is for infrastructure projects, so it'd be better to remove that part.

As a side note, your game concept sounds fun and it'd be great if it was possible to test your architecture not just from the command line but also through a game!

[semuelle]

pinging @eca20

[semuelle]

Thanks for the updates, @eca20.
I like that you clearly have long-term goals with this project. Disregarding the social media deliverable I commented on below, I am going to mark this application as ready for review and share it with my colleagues.
I have to say that I have doubts about this use case, though. Based on my admittedly limited knowledge, I'd say you need some pretty good arguments to encourage users to "pay to play", such as AAA titles. Not to mention the hate in-game NFTs received by large parts of the gaming community. With the complexities of building this infrastructure, games to attract users and onboarding users onto your platform as well as your parachain, this is extremely ambitious. Perhaps something better marketed towards publishers.

[takahser]

@eca20 I added some comments & suggestions, feel free to have a look.

[semuelle]

Are you still working on updates, @eca20? It seems there are still some open issues and questions from @takahser and myself.

[eca20]

Hi @semuelle, I will be updating and adding various relevant git repos and resolving the remaining comments this weekend. I will also revise architecture diagram to be more granular in describing our solution. In terms of how we will appeal to gamers given the backlash that in-game NFTs have received, that involves discussing our go to market strategy. I can create an Element/Matrix channel if you would like to discuss those ideas further.

[Noc2]

Thanks for the application and the updates so far. I have one question so far regarding the deliveries. How are they different from: https://github.com/ajuna-network Will you potentially reuse some of the work by ajuna? Are you already in contact with them? It might make sense that you work together with them rather than creating an independent solution.

[eca20]

Hi @Noc2, we haven't reached out to Ajuna, but I think it makes sense to add to their project rather than reinvent the wheel. Our pilot game would then deploy on Kusama through Ajuna project's Bajun network to test our experimental features. We would likely be adding to their list of open-source pallets with our initial features, which we plan to expand on to create a new type of PvPvE first person shooter. We would eventually like to create pallets that enable web3 enhanced versions of other typical game types seen in first-person shooters, like deathmatch, capture the flag, etc.

[Noc2]

Thanks for the quick reply. If you plan to reuse some of their code, feel free to add this to the application. Apart from this, I would be happy to introduce you to the team. Feel free to reach out to david@web3.foundation.

[randombishop]

Thanks for this application @eca20!
Dumb question from my end: will milestone 1 come with a real game to demo the infrastructure end-to-end or is it only the infrastructure and framework to plug-in future games? If it's the former, which game will it be?

[eca20]

Thanks for this application @eca20!
Dumb question from my end: will milestone 1 come with a real game to demo the infrastructure end-to-end or is it only the infrastructure and framework to plug-in future games? If it's the former, which game will it be?

Hi @randombishop, yes, we will create a game to demo our infrastructure. We are creating a new game type that embeds the benefits of digital ownership into the design from the beginning and reimagines what a video game should be. The Milestone 1 MVP will be extremely limited in terms of features, but we will expand with future milestones. To show off the power of digital ownership we will create two games that operate on our infrastructure. Milestone 1 includes a first-person shooter where the player competes against other online players and environment enemies. The goal is to extract an NFT for completing an in-game accomplishment. In future Milestone's we will expand on these features by creating two games in parallel, a first-person shooter alongside a junior role-playing game that exist in the same "universe". The JRPG will include lore that explains blockchain technology and the benefits of digital ownership to the masses. Each game will allow owned NFTs to be utilized in either game from the same wallet.

[eca20]

I added some information on the game engine, which is the bulk of the value to the ecosystem. The game features are intended to be highly configurable, guided by the community. As such, the initial milestone contains only base features, like eliminating an enemy, storing those events on chain, and receiving an NFT for surviving the match. We will use this base game to refine our engine before we release a more marketable version in Milestone 2. The Milestone 1 MVP will only have one character, one enemy type, one weapon, and one projectile, on one map. Specific character and enemy attributes will be stored in the NFTs on chain as their DNA, which the server will read before the start of a match to alter in-game state of spawned entities. Even with these limitations, we can create a fun game that allows players to compete online in real time for on-chain glory, via their minted NFT avatar. Once the game engine receives a polish we will rapidly expand on features and upgrade aesthetics like game models and textures to deliver a truly game changing Milestone 2 to the world.

[Noc2]

Thanks a lot for all the updates here. I'm generally happy to support the project, but the payment address still needs to be added here or in the case of a fiat payment shared with us via email (Sybil resistance).

[randombishop]

@eca20 thanks for the clarification!

Just to make sure I am understanding this correctly: milestone 1 will deliver the blockchain backend, the game engine and a demo frontend to test it; but not the actual game as can be played by any user with graphics and all. Right?

[eca20]

@randombishop Milestone 1's "demo" will be a very minimal "game" that will not be fun to play. However, it will show that we can embed our web3 functionality into an online multiplayer engine to create a web3 enhanced game that operates in real-time relative to the user (running the client, connected to a game server). We will continuously make updates to the Milestone 1 "Demo" to extend the map, add new scripts, features, functions, and improve performance. The demo can be considered a pre-alpha version of the game, as most FPS games begins in this rough state and take years to build. We want to start small and simple to test our core functionality before expanding on fun features. Embedding service calls to the chain in an online multiplayer games creates latency issues that we will have to resolve and improve upon after completing milestone 1. The 200ms calls from the server to the chain (from Ajuna's documentation) can cause issues for game clients that push updates at 20-50ms intervals to the server. We plan to work on improving performance after Milestone 1 completion, which has no performance requirement. We need the demo from Milestone 1 as a starting point to performance test the architecture before attempting to add features and expand on maps, textures; and things that make a game fun to play. As such,two clients connected to the same server may disagree on the simultaneity of events. Once we complete milestone 1, we will improve performance and release a full playable game and server that is complete enough to gain traction with users. Our intention is to allow anyone to spin up a node, a server, and a client, and have all three interact as they work their way through a short demo. The server will be able to handle multiple clients, connected by configuring the connection ip/port.

[Noc2]

Just a reminder that the payment address is still not part of the application.

[eca20]

Just updated the payment address.

[Noc2]

Thanks for the update. I'm happy to go ahead and share it again with everyone.

[keeganquigley]

Thanks for making all the changes @eca20 this sounds like an interesting use case for ink! smart contracts and gaming in general. I'm also happy to approve it.

[github-actions]

Congratulations and welcome to the Web3 Foundation Grants Program! Please refer to our Milestone Delivery repository for instructions on how to submit milestones and invoices, our FAQ for frequently asked questions and the support section of our README for more ways to find answers to your questions.

Before you start, take a moment to read through our announcement guidelines for all communications related to the grant or make them known to the right person in your organisation. In particular, please don't announce the grant publicly before at least the first milestone of your project has been approved. At that point or shortly before, you can get in touch with us at grantsPR@web3.foundation and we'll be happy to collaborate on an announcement about the work you’re doing.

Lastly, please remember to let us know in case you run into any delays or deviate from the deliverables in your application. You can either leave a comment here or directly request to amend your application via PR. We wish you luck with your project! 🚀

[keeganquigley]

Hi @eca20 how is the first milestone coming along?

[keeganquigley]

pinging @eca20

[eca20]

Hi @keeganquigley! Things are going well, although I haven't had as much time to put into the milestone as I had hoped the past few months. Ive finished 132 out of 368 current story points, and the backlog has been shrinking steadily. I have mainly been focused on the game so far, but ill be pushing some initial code to our substrate repository over the next month.

[keeganquigley]

Thanks for the update @eca20 if you think it will take more than a month or so to submit a delivery, please consider making an amendment to the original proposal in order to extend the timeline. That will take any pressure off. Thanks!

[keeganquigley]

Hi @eca20 are you able to provide an update? If the delivery isn't coming in the next few weeks, we would either need an amendment to extend the timeline, or we could close it and re-open it later when you have more time to work on it. Let me know, thanks!

[keeganquigley]

Hi @eca20 please let us know if you are still working on the grant, otherwise we will close it in two weeks due to inactivity, and you can potentially pick it back up again later when you have more time to work on it Thanks!

[eca20]

Hi @keeganquigley, we are still working on it. The first milestone should be finished in the next three months. I will be updating the grant application soon. Thank you for your patience!

[keeganquigley]

Thanks @eca20 did you submit an amendment yet to extend the timeline?

[eca20]

Hi @keeganquigley, sorry for the delay. I estimate its going to take about 4-6 month to finish at around .4 FTE. I have amended the original application to give more detail into our ecosystem and how the trade offs we make will benefit the gaming community as a whole. Should I reopen this PR, or create a new one when I am ready to submit the application?

[takahser]

@eca20 you can just open a new one, once your amendment is ready.

[keeganquigley]

Hi @eca20 are you still planning to submit this?

[keeganquigley]

pinging @eca20

[keeganquigley]

Hi @eca20 please let us know if you are still working on this grant. Otherwise, the committee will file a PR to terminate it due to inactivity if we don't hear back from you after 2 weeks. Thanks!