Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion, and not a statement of L2BEAT Governance Team
I’d like to start by saying that I’ve spent fair amount of time with @thechaingamer.eth, discussing his vision behind this game, his past experiences and how he plans to bring this to the market. I really enjoyed this discussion and I see @thechaingamer.eth as a dedicated builder who has a decent amount of experience in the IT world, has been involved in building and growing companies and has seen his fair share of big IT projects being delivered to the market, in short - he’s not only really dedicated and passionate about his project but it seems he knows what he’s doing.
I am definitely not an expert on indie games myself, although I do have some background on the market.
I see this project a bit differently than @thechaingamer.eth presents it, as I look at it from the DAO delegate perspective, and not a game author perspective. I’d like to share this view for feedback and consideration.
First of all, for me this project is not just about the game.
Of course the game is essential, I like the overall look&feel, it reminds me a bit of HoMM feat Gwent, so it sparks positive emotions. And I like pixel art, so it resonates with me. But from the DAO delegate perspective I don’t care that the game is not finished yet, I even like the fact that it will take some time for this game to be finished, as this allows us to use the potential buzz around it for our (DAO) benefit for a longer time.
I like the fact that the business model in this game revolves mostly around the fees from NFT collectibles and does not depend on in-game on-chain activity. That way it is cheaper for players and with Arbitrum low fees and the game’s low on-chain footprint new players would be able to enjoy it longer without being worried about gas costs and anything around it (although we also discussed how those topics could be ingrained in the game, so that it’s even fully transparent for the players).
At the same time if the game becomes successful we should expect significant traffic on those collectibles and in-game assets, which (with some luck) can easily scale to significant on-chain activity and inflow of TVL.
Furthermore, as this game is going to be funded (assuming the proposal would pass) from the DAO, we need to make sure that what we’re paying for is ingrained in Arbitrum ecosystem and not easily portable as-is to other ecosystems.
The game itself with its’ mechanics, assets, etc. would not be very Arbitrum-specific, everything, including the smart contracts is very easily transferable into other EVM-compatible chains. What is not easily transferable though is Arbitrum culture, which I understand as a unique set of recognizable projects and individuals involved in the community. If we can plant it somehow to the game, then even if the whole game was ported (or forked) to other ecosystem, it will end up being totally different product (with it’s own culture ingredient), clearly distinguishable from the Arbitrum OG.
Here come the project-branded assets already teased by @thechaingamer.eth. If the game makes extensive use of this differentiator and plants those Arbitrum-specific seeds at its’ core then we end up with not just having a (hopefully) successful game in our ecosystem, but a truly Arbitrum-native game. And since the game has a p2p tournament aspect in it, we can even strengthen this effect by having project-branded teams competing against each other, and even in-game ‘clans’ centered around projects. This, of course, only amplifies the market for collectibles, both digital and real-world.
From that perspective we can treat this project as not just an investment in a particular game, but also as a potentially attractive NFT project as well as marketing tool for the DAO that exposes and strengthens our unique community of projects and individuals. I can easily imagine game-related, project-branded swag distributed during ethCC or Devcon. For example t-shirts with specific creatures from the game but with clear distinction of the project ‘clan’, so there would be a line of GMX t-shirts, MUX t-shits, Camelot t-shirts etc. all providing exposure both to individual projects and to the ecosystem at the same time, in a subtle and visually attractive way.
It’s important to note that all of this could be achieved kind of regardless of whether the game itself achieves great success or not, that way it’s a much safer investment for the DAO as it provides benefits way beyond just having new game in the ecosystem.
Of course this assumes some unified support of this idea and involvement (at least in form of acceptance) from Arbitrum projects and broader community.
Wrapping up - this broader vision is the reason why I believe this proposal is an opportunity for the DAO and makes me excited about it. That’s also why I believe that in that broader vision it should go through the whole-DAO route rather then any specific program or framework.
Of course, this is my vision for the project, which doesn’t necessarily have to be completely in line with what @thechaingamer.eth has in mind, but I think it might be interesting to at least discuss it a bit further.