Abstract

This is a revised version of the initial proposal put forth to the DAO that can be found here.

Summary

We have a lot to say about Into the Dungeons, a world we’ve been building for over 2 years, however, in the interest of preserving the DAO’s and delegates’ time this summary will aim to provide a concise overview of:

1. What is Machinata?
2. Our Ask
3. Why DAO Funding?
4. How does the DAO Benefit?

Please ask questions. The goal of this post is to be direct and on point. Happy to share more details with whomever is curious, but wanted this post to be easy to follow.

What is Machinata?

Machinata is a 2 player turn based tactics digital miniature game where each player creates a 9 card deck consisting of units, buildings and spells. Each player then utilizes their deck to capture the opponent’s base.

Machinata is designed to have short to medium session-based gameplay that lends itself to competitive gaming. This would be the first competitive e-sport like title in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

We want to launch a playable version of Machinata during the 2nd half of 2024.

Our Ask

We are asking the DAO for 60,000 $ARB up front as a first tranche, and 180,000 $ARB in total. The rest of the 120,000 $ARB would be paid out in two tranches, 60,000 $ARB each.

1. First tranche of 60,000 $ARB to enable us to deliver the following:

Deliverable	Description
Into the Dungeons Branding, Website, and Marketplace Pt.1 – BRANDING AND DESIGN	The ITD universe is expansive and will be much more than just one game. It will all live on Arbitrum. We are aiming for a site at the level of KPR and have already had calls with the design agency that made the site. The Marketplace is our first product – one where people will come to buy and sell their miniatures and so it needs to make an amazing impact.
Progress on Base Miniature Deck Pt.1 – 7 ADDITIONAL CARDS	We currently have 5 cards completed and will be able to complete the rest of the cards with the funding. Each milestone will include delivery of 7 cards.
UPDATED UNREAL ENGINE PROTOTYPE WITH 12 CARDS	The existing prototype has 4 cards integrated. We will integrate an additional 8 cards and release 2 small teaser scenarios for marketing purposes on our website that will be playable for free. The DAO is welcome to try the full build at the time.

2. After the milestones above have been met and confirmed by the DAO, we would ask for the next tranche of 60,000 $ARB which will enable us to meet the following milestones:

Deliverable	Description
Into the Dungeons Branding, Website, and Marketplace Pt.2 – RELEASE OF MARKETPLACE	This second tranche will enable us to work with the design agency and release the completed website that will not only serve as an entry point to the ITD universe but will also include our first completed product – the Marketplace. The Marketplace is where players will be able to purchase the Base Pack, Expansion, or Single Miniatures. The Marketplace is also a key part of the sustainability of the game. By allowing community members to submit their designs/variants of Miniatures or completely new units, we will be enabling a creator economy that will generate revenue for artists, creators, and Machinata.
Progress on Base Miniature Deck Pt.2 – 7 additional cards completed	By the end of this milestone, we will have 19 cards completed.
Smart Contracts	We will complete smart contracts for: 1. Minting miniatures (on behalf of the community creator, if a design is accepted) with their wallet receiving 70% of the proceeds and Machinata receiving 30% of the proceeds for each unit bought/sold. 2. Since miniatures are collectables, we want to enable collectors to trade them freely without paying us a percentage fee. However, if a miniature is traded to a player OTC, then to use it in the game, the player must register it with us by paying a small activation fee. 3. Match History to be written on chain.

3. The final tranche of 60,000 $ARB will enable us to:

Deliverable	Description
Begin Crowd sale of Base Game set (27 cards) + 1 PFP	With the previous two milestones completed, the last tranche will predominantly be used for launching our collection which will have an actual game tied to it! We are currently contemplating 7777 packs with a percentage reserved for the Arbitrum community – See next section
Initial Marketing and Partnerships	A lot of marketing and partnership money will be coming from the actual crowd sale as that will be key to making an impact in the Web3 space and bringing more users into the Arbitrum community to play Machinata and all the other cool games the community has been and will continue to build!

This funding released over three tranches will allow us to speed up development and raise the rest of the capital required for longer term growth of the game that will include some features such as:

1. Streamed competitions (similar to what Parallel did with their invitational)
2. New miniature packs being released
3. New game modes
4. Further development of the ITD ecosystem

Why Should the DAO Fund It?

We know asking for 60,000 $ARB upfront is a risk for the DAO, but here is why we think it is worth it.

1. We have a playable prototype – footage from in-engine (Unreal Engine) gameplay can be seen in the forum post.

2. We are making a high-quality digital miniature game that has been self-funded so far. Each miniature has an illustration, which is turned into a card and 5 animated pixel art sprites – some of these sprites can be seen in the forum post.

3. We have been active participants of the ecosystem for the last several years. Our first project https://www.ruffionreborn.xyz was self-funded and is completely opensource with all client side (Godot), server side and assets (CC0) being freely available for the Arbitrum community to make their own games. We are currently working on adding smart contracts to Ruffion Reborn.

4. We are doxxed builders and Arbitrum is home! Ali Husain | LinkedIn Zehra Akbar | LinkedIn

How does the DAO Benefit?

The digital miniature model is not something that has been done yet in Web3. Games Workshop, the company behind Warhammer40K is currently valued at 4.15B USD. The concept of collectable digital miniatures with different editions, enabling artists to create variants and create a community powered economy is something that fits in very with NFT technology.

We are also creating some Arbitrum specific variants of miniatures. One example you can see in the forum post that the Soul Thief MUX variant placed alongside the Soul Thief Original Character.

We recognize that Arbitrum has a large and thriving De-Fi community and we want to involve and reward (even if it is a subset of) them for being a part of the ecosystem.

A portion of the total supply (total supply will be 7777 1st edition packs, but the portion is TBD, likely 777 packs for the community) will be distributed to the Arbitrum community for free as a thank you for helping us build the game. We would like to work with the Arbitrum community via the DAO to figure out a fair distribution mechanism when we reach that point.

Machinata’s success is Arbitrum’s success as the network will see more users come onboard and more transactions. Most importantly, a very high quality IP, native to Web3, native to Arbitrum.

Thank you,

Zehra & Ali Forgotten Machine