[Grant Application] Project Nebula (NFT collectible game) 2nd Grant

Project title

Project Nebula (https://www.projectnebula.app)

Project category

Development (NFT collectible game)

Project duration

5 months covered by grant. We intend to develop Project Nebula indefinitely, but we are applying for the ICON Foundation’s grant funding to help us with the next stages of development. Please see Project milestones chapter for additional details.

Project description

Project Nebula is a space themed collectible strategy game on the ICON blockchain. It will be released as a cross-platform browser game to ensure accessibility to the widest possible audience. The individual unique planets in Project Nebula will be non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which players can claim inside the game and trade or sell if they wish to do so. Planets come in several rarity classes - each planet will have unique design and attributes that will determine how useful and powerful they will be in the game. The game will also include elements from the “4X” genre such as exploration, research and resource management.

We successfully completed the first 3 stages of the whole project with the help of our first grant (https://forum2.icon.community/t/grant-application-project-nebula-nft-collectible-game/874), we are now applying for an additional grant to continue working towards releasing the full game.

A limited demo of Project Nebula showcases the progress made so far. It includes the main views of the game along with a working marketplace for NFT-s and authentication with ICONex wallet.

Project milestones

We have listed here the development milestones of the whole Project Nebula. This application is for completing the 4th milestone and launching the game.

  1. Finalize planet-related game mechanics and content

  2. Release first planets on Testnet

  3. Launch in-game marketplace for NFTs

———————— completed—————————

  1. Project Nebula launch
  • Back-end development & Planet presale launch
  • Back-end development
  • Finalizing the Exploration/Region Views
  • Planet infrastructure upgrades
  • Technology tree
  1. Post-production

Funding amount requested

The total cost of launching the Project Nebula game is approximately $76 000. With this grant we are applying for $46 000 . This amount is planned for milestone 4 to cover our expenses until we launch the game. We are going to cover the rest of the costs from our delegation rewards, personal funds and hopefully also from the revenue of the planet presale that is starting in October 2020.

ICON Forge completed the first 3 stages of the whole project with a team of 2 persons. To deliver the full game in time, we will need to increase our workforce. The next stage of development is significantly more difficult and complex which is why we plan to hire an additional developer to speed up our development process.

Being active in social media and interacting with both our fans and third parties is crucial to the success of this project. We have already experienced that we are unable to invest enough time into marketing and staying connected with our growing fanbase whilst keeping the focus on developing the game itself, which is why we are also planning to include a marketing/community manager to our team. We are already in contact with several people/publications outside of the ICON community regarding promoting Project Nebula, but there is a lot of more work that can be done in that area.

A significant part of the funding is planned for ordering new artwork and soundtracks for Project Nebula. Collectible art and sound pieces play an important role in creating an immersive experience for the players. The market for NFT art is currently growing at an incredible speed, which is why we really believe that having high-quality art is integral to the success of this game.

Examples of the Collectible Landscape Art currently in creation:

Example of Project Nebula’s collectible soundtracks:

Total cost of 4th milestone : $76 635

  • 5 (months) * 2 * 3500 (salary) * 1.17 (EUR->USD) = $ 40 950
  • 5 (months) * 2500 (salary) * 1.17 (EUR->USD) = $ 14 625
  • 5 (months) * 2000 (salary) * 1.17 (EUR->USD) = $ 11 700
  • 8000 (artwork/soundtracks) * 1.17 (EUR->USD) = $ 9 360

Funding amount requested : $46 000

Details of the development plan are here:
Project Nebula Grant 2 - Google Sheets

Team

Kaarel Sööt is a full-stack developer following the ICON project since its ICO. His latest challenge was building a crypto exchange Change Invest.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaarel-soot/

Holger Sundja has game design experience and a business background from the biggest passenger transportation company in the Baltics, Lux Express.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/holgersundja/

For more information visit our website - https://www.projectnebula.app

Official Team Name

ICON Forge

Contact

General - hello@iconforge.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ICONForge

Telegram: https://t.me/iconforge

Holger - holger@iconforge.io

Kaarel - kaarel@iconforge.io

Public Address

hx70f9a54bccc5295e4adecbe98d9a291bef4ff9a9

Initial Review Result Comments

Review Result

Approval pending on revised conditions

Review Comments

  • We are excited for Project Nebula to come to fruition because we believe it will bring meaningful value to our core KPIs of Monthly Active Wallets and transaction volume
  • This is the first significant use case of NFTs on the ICON Network and we are happy to support this project
  • However, we believe the requested funding for the remainder of this project is high in proportion to the overall costs, especially when we’ve already provided funding previously to help get the project off the ground.
  • Due to this reason and because we like the progress so far, we’d be willing to support a maximum of $22,800, same amount as before.
  • If Project Nebula has strong potential (we believe and hope it does), our recommendation is to rally the ICON community to support the project with additional funding. For example, you may be able to sell NFTs prior to the launch.

Next Procedure

ICON Foundation provided the Initial Review Result Comments on the proposal. Grants recipients will respond to the Foundation’s response. If the recipient finally agrees on the outcome of the ICON Foundation, the foundation will provide the Final Review Result Comments.

Thank you for the review!

ICON Forge understands the comments and accepts the Foundation’s offer. We will work on finding funding for the remainder of the costs ourselves.

ICON Forge’s team is grateful for all the support we have received from the Foundation so far.

Final Review Result Comments

Review Result

Approved

Reporting Period

Grant recipients should produce Periodic Reports in order to continue to receive grant funding. If the Periodic Report is showing that the initiative is not meeting expectations, the ICON Foundation has the option to halt continued funding. Please check the link (ICON Community Grant Program (“ICON CGP”)) and leave reports on this page (https://forum2.icon.community/c/g/pr )

The team must submit the Periodic Report by the timeframes below (UTC):

  • 2020/11/23 02:00 AM (UTC)
  • 2020/12/21 02:00 AM (UTC)
  • 2021/01/20 02:00 AM (UTC)
  • 2021/02/22 02:00 AM (UTC)
  • 2021/03/22 02:00 AM (UTC)

Funding Amount

The ICON Foundation is going to give out $22,800 in 5 monthly installments based on the Periodic Report. The amount of ICX will be determined and paid according to the price at 02:00 AM (UTC) on the day of payment.

  • 2020/11/24 02:00 AM (UTC) - $4,560
  • 2020/12/23 02:00 AM (UTC) - $4,560
  • 2021/01/22 02:00 AM (UTC) - $4,560
  • 2021/02/24 02:00 AM (UTC) - $4,560
  • 2021/03/24 02:00 AM (UTC) - $4,560