Thanks! I’ve worked on large projects right through my career, so putting this together was just par for the course. It did have some challenges, which is why it took longer (almost two weeks before I posted it here) than I had expected.
No different from how I’ve put teams together throughout my career.
And I am not really “building a team to help execute”. There are pre-existing teams that I’ve worked with over the years, and who have a track record of delivering. I have no concerns about that.
The community team is a different story. I have to be selective (hire based only on experience + qualifications) because the goal there is that when the project is deployed, the community team - having been trained and familiar with the project through the lead third-party teams - can take it over and manage it over the years; while only tapping the original third-party teams on as-needed basis when support issues arise. It’s no different from how Discourse, Snapshot, Discord, the website and other community services are currently handled. With the exception that, the ACE project is designed to be self-funding, staffed based on experience + qualifications etc without having to go through the periodic voting shenanigans, team turnover etc - all of which are disruptive to the DAO operations. And with a project manager in the team, I designed this project so that team members can be replaced on an as-needed basis without the usual disruptions and drama that our DAO is known for.
It’s basically a broader vision of what I had for the Metaverse Working Group last year; but later decided to withdraw for various reasons.
And even if the MwG were successful, knowing what I know now - and have seen thus far - there’s no way that we would have asked for and received funding (on top of the salaries) to build this sort of project via a budget vote. Some around here tend to think and believe in small, short-term bets even though the DAO doesn’t have a strong track record of funding projects which end up benefitting the community.
Here is an example of I am trying to avoid by designing this proposal while being in direct control of the project.
As I type this, below is the MwG budget request of $415K:
AIP-404: ApeCoin DAO Metaverse Working Group Budget
And it looks like they still don’t even have the budget funds which they requested back in April. It’s now mid-July
Implementation Update | AIP-404: ApeCoin DAO Metaverse Working Group Budget
Not only that, they asked for $800K to buy Yuga assets - which seems to be the theme around here - and we have had several such proposals pass; none of which have thus far brought any value to the DAO or the community. Meanwhile, both the treasury and the token continue to decline. That’s just not normal.
ApeCoin DAO’s Otherside Strategy - Acquisition of assets and usage
Yes - there are risks - always. But they are no different from any other game project. Plus, I didn’t start out yesterday. If I were building a rocket, that should give people pause because, well, regardless of my qualifications and experience, I have never worked in the field of rocket designs. But game dev, team management, large projects, bizdev? I’ve been doing all that - and more - for over 40 yrs now. And I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.
For one thing, 90% of this project is in content creation - not coding. Why? Because nothing is being built from scratch due to the fact that all the tech used are based on various pre-existing middleware (that’s why there’s a list in the proposal) tech currently in use.
We’ve had a lot of comments in the thread and which may be lost or glossed over. So, this bears repeating…
Whether this proposal passes or not is of no consequence to me because I don’t need this, and I didn’t do it for me. I put it together as an example of what we can achieve for the long term and for the greater [community] good. And so, as I did with AIP-316 (a game now being deployed elsewhere as part of my Web3 portfolio) when I said that I would never re-submit it, if this proposal does to go to vote in the coming months and doesn’t pass:
- I will NOT re-submit it in any way shape or form
- I will NOT thereafter submit it through the Banana Bill
If it doesn’t pass, someone else can look at my proposal and use it as their launch pad to go build it as they see fit.
While the middleware listed (which I listed for a reason) in my proposal are available to all, neither my AGE nor my WSG interoperable tech platforms are for sale or license. Aside from the fact that neither of my studios is setup to handle third-party licensee support, I build all my tech for use in my projects - such as this ACE proposal.
The AGE tech can be substituted with off-the-shelf middleware (Unity, UE5, Godot etc) with which to build a similar platform. Just note that, even setting aside Otherside which is yet to be a reality, though already scaled back, many similar platforms (Mirandus et al) are either dead or still in dev - over four years later. You’re just not going to build anything resembling the AGE platform inside of 6 yrs nor for less than $25M. Not happening. I would know - I do this for a living.
The WSG [node] tech is immaterial because it’s there to support interoperability and scaling of the AGE platform and everything connected to it. And though nothing like it currently exists - anywhere - unless you need both of those features, no replacement tech is required. But without it, not only will the number of clients be seriously limited (similar to the size of environments), but there would be no interoperability between games on ApeChain. And so, the chain will just end up with a slew of stand-alone games, similar to the catalog found elsewhere like IMX, XAI, Treasure etc.
The other two parts of the project, ApeID and the public facing ACE platform itself - which is the connecting tissue - can all be built with other off-the-shelf middleware. But what purpose would they serve and what reason would they have to exist?
And speaking of which, in case you didn’t read the astounding TON + Moca news this morning, I invite everyone to go read it (below), then ponder the implications.
Now, go back and read my proposal again. As always, everyone is ahead of us - and that lead continues to extend.