‘City States: Medieval’ is a slimmed down version of the 'stratemacy concept’. Some text has been taken over from the thread on reddit since they are still valid for this proposal, some have been rewritten and some are completely new. This is a long read and there is a TL;DR at the end but if you are interested in supporting this proposal, please read the following in full.
Contents:
- Intro
- About the game
- Basics
- Resources
- The Economy
- Earning HEX/XLM playing the game
- What is HEX?
- Why would/should someone buy HEX?
- Why we think gaming will be THE entry point into crypto/Stellar
- Cross-platform support
- Slowly learning while playing
- Possible Playerbase
- Pay back the community fund
- Transparency and frequent updates
- Reception so far…
- And what about stratemacy?
Intro
After getting into cryptocurrencies, I developed several theoretical concepts for projects that would get the average person into crypto with the lowest adoption barrier possible. The truth is that a lot of people are in crypto not for the tech but for the money they gain by trading or simply holding a coin. Combining making money online, cryptocurrencies and gaming is a logic conclusion. But this can also be used to get new people into crypto without them even knowing or thinking about it in the first place.
Gaming connects, gets the player attached and is the optimal platform to educate in a playful way.
From the start, it was clear that this has to be a strategy game. Not only because it’s my own favorite genre, but because it’s something you want to invest time into and can play for weeks, months, or even years. To add competition it needs to be multiplayer and to have an economy it needs resources that players can trade. Since we also want to get ‘the average Joe’ into cryptocurrencies, the barrier needs to be as low as possible.
The choice for Stellar was easy, not only because I’ve been a supporter for well over a year myself but because ethereum wouldn’t be suitable for what I want to achieve anyway. This is not about NFTs but a complete game-economy with a shared global market on the SDEX.
About the game:
‘City States: Medieval’ is a HEX-based, massive multiplayer, empire building and resource management strategy game. Supporting cross-platform distribution (Mobile, Web, Desktop) to reach as many players as possible.
Basics:
The base game is similar to other mobile MMORTS where you need to harvest different resources to craft goods, tools and other resources.
The multiplayer aspects are:
- Trading resources on a global market utilizing the Stellar DEX.
- Diplomatic actions and interactions
- Raiding other players bases
- Defending against and conquering/dominating other players
- Working together to beat global dangers
Domination of other players replace any known clan-mechanics of other games till date. The game is set to be played over a long time frame like most mass multiplayer games, slowly building up, expanding and improving your settlement into a flourishing city.
Resources:
We are starting with five base resources (Wood, Stone, Iron Ore, Gold Ore, Food) that can be used to build and level up structures, enhance (Coal, Beer, Gold/Iron bars) and craft (Weapons, Armor, Tools). All resources and goods can be obtained in the game by playing it. Either through harvesting, mining or manufacturing.
The Economy:
Game-mechanics like upkeep for buildings and units, ever increasing cost for advanced buildings, leveling up of existing ones and special events will force players to trade resources they have an abundance of for resources they need.
Accessing the Market opens a SDEX interface where players can trade WOOD, STONE, COAL etc instead of BTC, ETH, XLM. The price for every resource is found naturally through demand and supply.
Earning HEX/XLM playing the game:
The big incentive to get many people interested outside the Crypto- or Stellar-sphere is the fact that players can earn crypto by selling/trading their resources. IAPs, IAAs, survey completions, literally anything some players do to obtain more resources will benefit the whole market and all players instead of the developers only as it is in other games.
Trading smart or producing resources with high demand among other players can yield a profit the player can withdraw to their personal Stellar account. This is another step of learning about Stellar-usage and encouraging to do their first transactions in crypto. The experience should also have a positive effect for the players perception of crypto as a whole.
What is HEX?
HEX is a token issued on Stellar. No worries, this is not an ICO, crowdsale or a future token dump. HEX is used inside the game as the gameworlds currency every resource is traded against. This is mainly to prevent cheating and to decouple the game-economy from the volatility of XLM. HEX will be more like a stablecoin whose worth is defined by the success of the game itself.
Why would/should someone buy HEX?
The main purpose is obviously for players to advance faster in the game. Skip production wait time, buy protection when on vacation etc. Since HEX represents the economy of the game, the value rises the more people use or buy it. People that are not playing the game themselves can buy the token to speculate on the future success of the games economy itself.
Why we think gaming will be THE entry point into crypto/Stellar:
Wallets, exchanges, payment processors etc are the infrastructure of a cryptocurrency. But they don't speak to the average Joe. There is no incentive for the masses to try something new when they can't immediately see how it will benefit them. Although we agree that one day people will use blockchain and crypto without even realizing it, we see much more benefit in actually educating people to use it on their own. To know what crypto is and when they are using it. To build a base of actual active users of Stellar that spread the word.
What is holding back games on other platforms is the prerequisite to even start playing the game. You need to own ethereum. You need to have metamask installed. You need to pay for every transaction/in-game action. These games are targeting people like you and me that already own crypto. They don't bring new users on board but cater to a small audience.
Cross-platform support
Players will be able to use the same login on mobile, browser and desktop continuing their game state on their device of choice. This is important to reach as many people as possible with the tools they have access to.
The game will be released for Android, iOS and Windows. It is planned to additionally release the game on our own website as download and browser based as well as on Steam and kongregate.
Slowly learning while playing:
The game starts with a tutorial, explaining the game-mechanics and ultimately lead to building the marketplace which opens access to the SDEX where resources are traded.
At this point, a Stellar account is created for the player with a short explanation and links with further information for those interested. The SDEX-interface will support market orders for casual players (sell/buy disregarding the price) and placing orders as we are used to from standard-exchanges by setting a desired price. Of course this will also be explained in simple terms for those that never faced an exchange before.
Just like the amount of resources are displayed in the game, the amount of crypto the user owns will be displayed too. The history of all trades and transactions can be accessed inside the game similar to a blockchain-explorer like stellar.expert explaining what the user is looking at while also linking to the public equivalent on stellar.expert to demonstrate the public ledger.
When accessing the crypto in the game, the user will get explained how to set up their own Stellar account, how to send assets to the account and security measures to take. We will be able to promote noteworthy projects inside the Stellar ecosystem what for and where the crypto can be used, how to cash out but also how to cash in via AnchorUSD, WhiteWallet etc suggest mobile wallets, maybe stores accepting XLM or what else will be developed in the coming months and years.
All this won't be thrown at them at once but gradually over time. A slow learning curve instead of overwhelming with information.
Possible Playerbase:
Since we don't have any prerequisites, the game will be free of charge and by supporting different systems (browser, windows, android, iOS), target every gamer not only those that already own crypto. The possibility to actually earn money/crypto playing the game is a major incentive that will draw a lot of attention and will make it easy to market it to a broad audience.
While predictions are always hard to make, we are confident to reach 250-500,000 players within a year after full release which would be a major milestone not only for Stellar but crypto in general. This is based on similar games that don’t even have the option to earn anything while playing.
Pay back the community fund
We pledge to either pay back the community fund for redistribution to other projects or open an independent fund specifically for games developed for the Stellar Network utilizing the SDEX and/or issuing NFTs.
To pay back the funds, after development expenses, 20% of the profit generated will be set aside until at least doubling the amount received from the community fund.
Transparency and frequent updates
Most if not all crypto-projects severely lack transparency. We want to change this by opening the books for everyone to see, explaining transactions (memo has a use-case) and answering questions if there are any.
We will update on the development progress via reddit, youtube, twitter and release early builds for those that want to test. Input from the community will be highly appreciated regarding features to add and balancing the gameplay.
Reception so far…
The initial thread for stratemacy was very well received by the community on /r/Stellar with the most ever awards of any thread in the subs history (2x Gold, 2x Silver), 95% upvoted (69 upvotes) and a lot of encouraging comments.
To gather some insights from possible future players, we posted a short thread in /r/AndroidGaming hinting at what’s to come and posting the very early first build. Although a self-promoting thread with only little information, the thread was top-post of the day receiving only positive (mostly even enthusiastic) comments.
To update several communities over the course of development is part of our marketing strategy to have an initial player base on launch.
And what about stratemacy?
We made good progress on stratemacy as well and will continue to develop it after a successful launch of City States. For now the development has been paused not abandoned. 3D models created for City States may also be used for stratemacy. Internally we see City States as the lite (mobile first) version of stratemacy (desktop focus).
TL;DR: Free to play multiplayer strategy game targeting everyone not just crypto-holders. Incentive to earn crypto(money) while playing the game. SDEX integration to trade in-game resources globally. Introducing to and educating the player about Stellar slowly over time.
Development of “City States: Medieval” started on April 12,2019.
Feel free to post your thoughts and suggestions in the comments. We are aiming to be open and transparent during the development process, trying to take as much input from the community as possible. We will continue development throughout the SCF, update here as well as on /r/Stellar about the progress and release an early playable build before the SCF concludes.
To vote for us, please scroll up to the first post. Thanks a ton!
Follow development on
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/citystates
Twitter: https://twitter.com/addirktive
Trello: https://trello.com/b/AfnwyLRu/city-states-medieval-public
