Detailed Plan
Who never thought about: "What is it like to be a tree?"
Well, we are here to make this dream come true!
From seed to tree
You start as a seed, blown by the wind across the landscape. When you touch the ground, you begin your journey as a little seedling, striving to become a huge and mighty tree.
On your journey, you have to manage your resources efficiently, grow more roots and branches to optimize your nutrition absorption, form alliances with fungi, produce new seeds and eventually become a forest yourself.
All trees on the map are other players. You do not compete with them directly, but you can trade nutrients and vibe with other trees in your vicinity to earth's song.
Educational aspirations
The game is designed to incorporate information on - you guessed it - trees. These are well-researched and provide an educational and inspirational foundation for a deeper engagement with nature.
While growing, you learn what a tree needs to survive, their most crucial systems and how subtle they intertwine. Also, you will learn to distinguish one tree species from another, making you an expert in identifying trees. You will form an especially deep connection to the tree species that you are growing and never fail to spot them again.
Blockchain integration
After mastering the seedling stage, you have the possibility to mint an NFTree. The NFTree records the state of your tree at the moment of minting. You can use your NFTree to download the corresponding 3D-model in the format you need and reuse it freely in whatever context you like. These can range from simply 3D-printing to reusing it as an asset in another virtual environment/game.
Other people can see the available collection of NFTrees and buy detailed tree assets for their own projects. Both the owner of the NFTree and the game devs earn a portion of the paid price, with the rest being donated to non-profits of their choice.
Speaking of non-profits, these environment-focused organizations/collectives have the possibility to add their own NFT to the game with unique functionalities. Players can assist these non-profits in buying their NFTs, showing their support in-game and in real life. This helps environmentally friendly groups to get more visibility, awareness and resources for their activities.
More technical information
The game is built on the Godot-engine, the world's biggest open source game engine. We are leveraging ProtonGraph, an open source tool for procedural 3D-modelling. One of our team members, Gilles, is the creator of this plug-in, which we are actively shaping to fit our needs even better.
The game will have a browser version and a standalone app. The game graphics are focused on resource-friendly high-fidelity.
Who is behind this?
Educhainment is a passionate group of developers that is building tools and game-based learning applications for the Cardano blockchain.
For "Be a Tree", we are building a team of five people.
Mike is the founder of Educhainment, responsible for audio/sound design, game design, blockchain concept and gathering collaborations. He is a first-cohort Plutus Pioneer, Atala-Prism-Pioneer, cultural scientist, teacher, musician, lifelong gamer and a big proponent of game-based learning.
Gilles, better known as HungryProton, is an experienced software engineer and full stack developer, mostly responsible for the game development and procedural 3D-tech components. His previous public work for the Godot developer community includes tools like Scatter and ProtonGraph that extend the Godot engine's design capacities and enable non destructive, procedural 3D-modeling.
<https://github.com/HungryProton>
Sascha is responsible for game ideation, visual design, tree geometry and research. He had the initial idea and is intrigued by the complexity of trees. He is a specialist for information technology by trade and is currently finishing his degree as a wood engineer. Apart from that, he has a great passion and extensive experience in games + a sharp eye for nifty systems.
Julian is responsible for UX/UI designer, visual design and procedural modeling tech. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Design with diverse work experience in software development, front end, UX/UI and real-time generative art projects.
<https://iuilan.art/>
We will hire one more dedicated arborist to back up the research side.
We all work part-time on this (~60h/month) and leverage previous experience to make this game a reality. It is a special passion to all of us.
Scope of this funding:
This proposal is for seed funding to get us started and build a working prototype/MVP.
5* $1200 * 3 months = $18000
Server costs = $300
We prefer follow-up funding through catalyst, but we will look for further funding outside the ecosystem if needed.
Roadmap:
Q1 2022: Website, Visual Identity
Q2 2022: Design game mechanics. Design of models + textures. Choose a starter set of trees. Research tree geometry for different species and apply to ProtonGraph. Connect with climate focused non-profits (especially on Cardano). Build prototype.
Q3 2022: Integrate blockchain components, audit + testing. Help the partnered non-profits to design their own NFTs.
Q4 2022: Buffer for further testing + refinement, rollout.
KPIs:
- Amount of monthly active users
- Number of different tree species in the game
- Number of in-game trees grown
- Amount of donations to climate non-profits
- Amount of non-profits that created/integrated their own NFTs for the game
What does success look like?
We have built the first proper, playable and complex tree simulator in the world. This gives climate-related non-profits a new audience + revenue stream and helps in fighting climate change. People can learn about trees and their uniqueness in a fun and intrinsically motivating way.
