AIP Potential Proposal: Building a Video Game Publisher in Ape Coin DAO. Thoughts?

Withdrawn AIPs
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Abstract

This proposal seeks to establish a video game publisher, titled “Ape Publishing”, within our Ape (DAO). By leveraging the existing infrastructure, treasury, and framework of the DAO and combining it with the robust gaming economy, the publisher aims to foster the creation, promotion, and support of various gaming initiatives that MUST use Otherside ODK OR support Otherside distribution. The distinctive advantage of utilizing our ApeCoin treasury as the primary granting vehicle for in-game transactions on platforms like Otherside will be a key feature. A strategic partnership with Otherside development partners and Yuga Labs will be pursued to provide publishing support for the games we finance that use Otherside ODK. Along with these objectives, we aim to implement a set of governance rules for the publisher to ensure fair and transparent operations.

Motivation and Rationale

The global video game industry has proven its economic vitality and cultural relevance, and its integration with blockchain technologies has opened up novel avenues for investment, monetization, and user engagement. Ape Publishing can be at the forefront of this intersection, stimulating innovation, diversity, and financial growth within the ApeCoin ecosystem. By fostering relationships with Otherside, Yuga Labs, and game studios, we can build a network of support for game developers and game projects, helping them find their audience and thrive financially. Using ApeCoin as the central operation for Otherside growth will further integrate our DAO with the wider gaming community, fostering a more immersive, seamless, and financially beneficial gaming experience.

Specifications, Implementation Steps, Timeline, and Overall Cost

To kickstart Ape Publishing, we must first review the Treasure DAO infrastructure to estimate a feasible budget. The treasure DAO’s budget would be used as a reference, and based on our capabilities, we would formulate a reasonable budget. Next, agreements with Otherside and Yuga Labs could be drafted, defining the specific responsibilities and support these partners will provide for our publishing endeavors. The development of a publisher governance ruleset will ensure all decisions and actions taken by Ape Publishing adhere to a fair, transparent, and democratic process.

(rough estimate for discussion) The timeline for this project will span roughly 18 months. This includes initial budgetary considerations and partnership agreements (3-6 months), financing of the first round of games for Otherside/ODK (9 months), and refinement and expansion of the governance ruleset (3 months).

As for the overall cost, it is difficult to provide an accurate estimate without a comprehensive examination of the Treasure DAO budget and our intended scope. Nonetheless, a preliminary figure might be in the range of $5-$20 million, which covers partnerships, initial game development funding, operational costs, and contingency funds. Once we secure a more accurate budget based on the Treasure DAO infrastructure, we can provide a more precise figure. Please keep in mind the budget is open for discussion, but it should be noted that building games that will grow the DAO and Otherside are not cheap. The gaming business is not the same as other businesses proposed in other AIPs. Please let me know your thoughts.

Proposals submitted to the AIP Ideas category can be vague, incomplete ideas. Topics submitted here are not required to be submitted as a formal AIP Draft Template, however, you may still use the template if you wish.

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Idea is cool. I wonder about execution and the team behind it to make it happen, because imo it comes down to that.

What would you say will be the team/Board behind to make this happen if any?

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as a publisher backed by a Dao i would have the community come in and help make voting choices on the publisher board. Publishers do not make games they usually market and distribute. Their job is to find, fund and help market games that fit their goals. i have experience on investing in gaming or gametech companies. I have relationships i could bring in to run it that have prior exp.

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the important thing is using this publisher to grow the platform tentacles of otherside. We need to fund and promote games that are building on the ODK. It is the only way to grow the value of otherside and its affiliate groups.

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As a publisher I believe then the goal would be to find great game devs willing to build on Otherside with ODK to create meaningful experiences. Is 5-20m enough tho? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t… I also wonder if ODK is ready yet for developers to experiment with.

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In general, I think this is a good idea and could tie in nicely with AIP-209: Ape Accelerator powered by ApeCoin) as well as the AIP-245: Working Group Charter - Metaverse.

There are a few challenges I think are worth highlightin:

  1. $5M to $20M will be tough to get approved. I would start with a smaller ask, e.g. $500K to $1M for some kind of a proof of concept. Maybe during this phase you recruit let’s say 5-10 game studios to build various PoCs, collect some data, and then for the most promising concepts you go back to the DAO and say “I need a larger amount now to build these X concepts that showed the most promise into full blown games”

  2. Otherside is not live yet - it’s expected to make it debut by end of year. I would imagine the ODK is something similar to UEFN, and from what Herman Narula told us the M2 platform will open its doors by end of summer, so that could be a good place to start. It sounds like they’re going to open a Discord and will give devs access to an M2 sandbox where you can deploy MML and use their World Builder to build various experiences/games. This is where your target game studios that you want to onboard onto your publishing platform could start getting their feet wet in anticipation for Otherside’s launch.

  3. You might need Yuga’s support - the big unknown is how much resources it will take to manufacture all the various in-game objects & avatars. The way Otherside designed their game, you need to use in-game resources in order to make any object playable. Without knowing the resource mechanics, it will be difficult to predict which resources you’ll need to make your game playable and how much it will cost, game devs might have to purchase a lot of Otherdeeds. I believe Yuga will give resource grants to early developers to help offset these costs and onboard players, but it hasn’t been made public yet, hence why I think having Yuga’s support will be critical.

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I think you’re on to something here, Jonah!

I really like the idea of ApeCoin DAO as a video game publisher that supports builders using the Otherside, which is powered by ApeCoin.

Because the preliminary figure could seem large to many, it would be beneficial to break this idea/project into phases instead of seeking the complete funding upfront. This approach could facilitate the completion of the initial tasks while generating enthusiasm and awareness with the community.

While we await clarity from Yuga on the many unknowns that still need to play out, such as the release of the ODK and manufacturing in the Otherside… there’s certainly foundational efforts that aren’t reliant.

Would be great to determine the initial steps and propose a budget that can accomplish them to get the ball rolling. Even if it’s a budget for R&D or forming a group. Also curious if this fits within the realm of Metaverse Working Group…

I’m a fan of what Game7 is doing, which I know you’re aware. I would love to see an AIP in this direction come to life. Thanks for writing this up and great to see you in the discourse. Hope some of this feedback was helpful.

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it’s a good idea, I hope you’ll be able to pull it off.

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Hey Jonah,

Good to see you here. Knowing who you are, I’ll speak direct, as founders/investors do.

Great direction. Idea makes sense, if not obvious.

What’s lacking are details, which I’m sure you’re thinking of adding before you rewrite this as Draft.

As to which details… Areas I’d focus on:

  • Why would devs choose this publisher over any other? Perhaps you can involve Brycent and it can become web3 influencers-owned publisher, a la the just-announced Mad Mushroom by OTK.

  • Do the work re: budget before you convert to draft. An AIP is basically an investment deck - requires a good amount of research, prep, and presentation unless you’re asking for a miniscule amount, have the reputation of previous execution, and it’s an obvious benefit/small task. In fact, keeping AIP brief but linking to investment-style deck seems a good move since people love pictures and hate reading.

  • 5-20mil won’t pass. 2mil might (esp if Brycent joins). 1 mil likely. 500k far more likely. I’d thus aim for 500 - 2m. Imho, of course. Plenty of small, fun gaming experiences can be built for cheap. Then you’ll be far more likely to pass a proposal asking for a bigger amount.

  • I’ve been told the DAO only funds 1-year projects max, so find a way to break it down into steps or shorten timeline. This one may skirt rule, though, as it is more akin to a fund than a service/product.

  • Most of the detail about publisher operation needs to be part of the draft. So if you say you’d love the community to come in and help make voting choices, describe that process in detail.

  • What are you doing until ODK comes out if this AIP is approved, say, tomorrow? What happens if ODK is delayed 6 months or 12 months?

Hope it’s helpful. :heart: Let’s chat, I’ll dm.

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great point and we can go deeper on how to get to 20m

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this fits within metaverse working group. imo otherside needs to win for ape coin to have massive success and holder base. thats why i feel it is imperative to put serious dollars into a funding vehicle for games. of course we can go deeper and outline how we get there

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great points and we can chat about how to get to 20m. I think yuga would support this. its a large allocation to help them get to success, but with third party eyes. M@ has docs out and UEFN is open. otherside is built on unreal so i imagine its not too different. I do know they use web GPU tech so we can keep that in mind

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You spoke about this on a spaces right?

Broadly speaking, I’d support such an AIP with a handful of caveats. A lot of people greatly underestimate how expensive it is to develop games. If you want a decent indie studio to produce a compelling game, there’s a cost to that.

The single most important thing to me is knowing that we’d have someone in charge of the process with a deep level of understanding of the gaming space who we could trust to oversee this and push it forward. I agree deeply that the general ape AND crypto communities have a lot of negative headwinds to overcome to really get gamers interested. We have to earn this, it won’t be given. I believe we can with the right investments, mindsets, and amount of time.

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i would be happy to have another space with apecomms directly about this in the public to walk through my rationale and how we can get there. if this is taken seriously I’m happy to guide it and then work through how we bring on additional expertise.

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You can definitely build the game and invite Apecoin holders to its beta release like others did or create a proposal for its implementation like Apecoin earnings. Make sure to think how can you reward apecoin holders.
We have a great example with Otherworld Game where apecoin holders can game and pick up Polygon wear NFTs

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Agreed. As this shapes up, would be great to have Metaverse Working Group put energy around this. I’d like to see a budget allocation that cover different levels of creators/studios, covering the spectrum of AAA to indie.

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Like the ambition, but probably too much risk vs. reward in its current state.

Many legal issues here to consider, especially if it requires support from Otherside / Yuga. While community-led AIPs can support building for Otherside, Yuga likely cannot take the risk of participating in this. The entities legally need to stay separate.

Additionally, many assumptions here what Otherside will become. If it becomes a “Third Life” or adult version of Roblox, as many believe it to become, best to wait for its arrival than to build (and spend $$) for the unknown. (Also, Yuga will likely be building out support for micro-economies at launch, effectively becoming the publisher you’re seeking to build here.)

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regarding assumptions i agree, but with ODK access it will not be an assumption. Average indie games cost 1-5 million this is the nomral risk of the gaming industry which yuga is taking as well. so is animoca. legality i cant speak to you may have a point there.

Yuga is doing what epic games is doing with fortnite. please read the UEFN documents. Im happy to go into detail with you on it.

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I love the idea. But just as everyone has said, I’d also love to see how the idea is developed here as a proposal considering the amount for funding as requested. Seems a lot though.

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Should be cancel all middle self elected man and actually vote from and elect or you think that metaverse approval was good enough ? Thank you.