Please describe your proposed solution.

World of Pirates is a fast turn-based strategy card game, which aims to bring regular gamers to the Cardano blockchain environment offering a smooth transition/entry into blockchain technology.

Our game is free to play, so new gamers will not need to first buy any of our NFTs, only when they really like the cards/project, then they can invest in esthetics items, that offer no better performance than the standard ones!

We focus on creating a fun game that any gamer will love to play another match to win points and get rewards. The rewards can be in-game consumables items or NFTs, that can help the player to earn some money once they are ready to learn more about the blockchain.

We want to put the player first and offer him an amazing game with incredible lore that makes the player come and play the game again.

Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

We believe to create a top game that will attract a lot of gamers that are also not aware of the Cardano Blockchain. Through us, they will learn about our game and the technology behind it and at the same time will increase the Cardano ecosystem and awareness.

We are actively participating in business and game conferences, where we advocate for the Cardano blockchain.

What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Needing more resources to develop the game. Currently, besides the fund, we are investing our knowledge, time & experience, but also our own money. Finding the right formula to create an enjoyable game is pretty hard and AAA companies sometimes don't find it, with way bigger teams and funds.

In order to mitigate that risk we already are building a community, we plan to use tools to test our concept, design, and later on the game that big companies are using, by getting in touch with these projects and getting startup/indie studios discounts.

Another way to mitigate the risk of failure we will hire two additional senior game developers with expertise in the areas we are missing (3D Modelling, Sound SFX) to help us create a better game.

Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Q2 2022 - concept & game design development, concept A/B testing + survey focus groups, NFT sales, Marketing.

Q3 2022 - prototype development, prototype A/B targeted testing, prototype playtests, NFT sales, Marketing.

Q4 2022 - alpha version development

Q1-Q3 2023 - beta version

Q4 2023 / Q1 2024 - final release

Q2 2024 - E-Sports tournament

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Playtestcloud.com video tokens = $7,300 (60+)

Animator/3D Modelling Developer= $12,400 (~170h)

Combat, AI, and Interactive Object = $6,000 (~120h)

Game Developer = $37,000 (~360h)

Music Composition/Sound SFX = $13,300 (~100h)

Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Edwin Tuzar - Founder of WOP - Avid gamer with a great passion for the ocean and aquatic life. Brings 10 years of experience in software development, blockchain development (Plutus Pioneer), DevOps, and consulting in DACH industries.

Alicia Mehlich - Illustration & art concept - Brings experience in communication and graphical design, illustration, and art concepts from the gaming industry.

Torben Poguntke - software developer for automation smart factories, blockchain developer (Plutus and Atala Prism Pioneer), and experience in research and building safety systems for the past 20 years

Praveen Pinto - Serial entrepreneur, a Crypto researcher/investor, bringing over 24 years of experience in putting together global marketing/growth strategies in digital.

Cristian Iordache - Senior game developer, creating games for global companies and indy companies for the past 15 years.

Tanja Pracht - Social media, communication design & community building.

Fiona Gundermann - Game design, working in the industry for the last 2 years.

2 Junior Game Developers (starting in July/August - still in negotiations)

If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

We probably we will return for Catalyst funding because developing a successful game takes usually a lot of money and until we get a profit and become sustainable other funds will exist.

We have also other parts of our project that we want to enhance, like our campaign Pawn of The Month (POTM), where we try to increase the awareness of the ocean problems and gather money to donate to organizations that fight to change something (see our first campaign, where we sold NFTs and 50% of that went to Sea Shepheard).

Besides that, we will have other enhancements to our game universe, that we believe to attract more gamers and keep the future gamers tied to our game.

Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

• how many NFTs are sold
• how many new accounts do we have
• how many games were started/played
• new followers on Twitter
• how many engagements do we have on social media (Twitter, Facebook & TikTok)
• new members on Discord & Telegram (from the date we start the campaign)
• how many websites hits do we have
• new features implemented (running a scrum base development)
• number of new characters/cards

What does success for this project look like?

Short-Term Success: 2022

• Build game prototype with Cardano blockchain wallet integration.
• MAU (Monthly active users/players) >20.
• Increase community numbers (Discord 1000 users, Twitter 1000 followers).
• Increase the number of engagements on social media to 300k.
• Increase awareness of Cardano/ADA/NFTs/Blockchain Gaming through World of Pirates.
• Increase the number of sold NFTs to 500.
• Increase the trading number of our NFTs.
• Testing results / Poll results.

Mid-Term Success: May 2023

• Increase the number of sold NFTs to 1000.
• Increase the number of engagements on social media to 1 million.
• Release the alpha version of the game.
• Release the PVP mode.
• MAU (Monthly active users/players) >200.
• Complete successful Pawn of The Month campaigns & funds raised.
• The game starts to be self-sustainable.
• Increase team number.
• Testing results / Poll results.
• early in-game metrics (tutorial completion, session lengths, no. of sessions, etc.)

Long-Term Success: December 2023

• 2000 installs (mobile)
• community numbers ( 10k+ Discord users, 100k+ Twitter followers, >5M social engagements)
• 5k+ NFTs sold
• MAU (Monthly active users/players) >1000.
• TAU (Total Active Users) > 100,000.
• Total number of payers > 1,000,000.
• Release Beta version
• Complete successful Pawn of The Month campaigns & funds raised.

Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

We had previous proposals, but all of them were not funded.