Roadmap & Catalyst Proposal
Check out our estimated roadmap and our Project Catlyst proposal below for our first game – Captivate: Cardano Edition
Roadmap
Estimated Completion 2024
COMPLETE: Game Testing & Card Design (1 Year of Development Time), Card Artwork (#1-48), Promo Card Artwork (#1-3),
Information Insert Cards (1-14), Discussions with Manufacturers, Rulebook Design, Packaging Artwork & Design
IN PROGRESS: Card Artwork (#49-52), Promo Card Artwork (#4), Grow Social Media,
Discord Server & Twitch Channel
IN QUEUE: Promotional Videos, Discussions with Distributors & Retailers
We intend to reach and accomplish as many of our goals in our roadmap as possible by the outlined dates.
Ideally all goals are accomplished by these dates, but there is some flexibility for moving things around if needed.
For a complete and detailed project breakdown, check out our Project Catalyst proposal:
F9: Dapps, Products & Integrations: Connecting Tabletop Games & Cardano
Sustainability
Long term, we are looking to create our game products in a manner that is more sustainable than what has been available in the tabletop game industry in the past. We will work with our manufacturer to be able to achieve as many of these options over the short term as possible, and to ideally implement all of them eventually.
The goal is to maintain a superb product for collectors and players without adding additional waste.
By doing our part, at the very least we are making a positive change for the world. At best, we set an example for other tabletop game projects, and they adopt these same practices.
Cardano as a project focuses on resolving economic, social, and environmental issues. This project works to address six of the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
GOAL 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
GOAL 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
GOAL 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
GOAL 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
GOAL 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
To learn more about SDGs, the Cardano Community has created a great SDG tool to help link your Catalyst proposal to these goals:
https://cardanocataly.st/proposer-tool-sdg/#/
Connecting gamers
While the scope of our project is focused on producing a physical card game, we are still connecting gamers to Cardano in many ways:
THEME:
Future Captivate editions of Captivate will have different themes to reach and connect different audiences together. After Captivate: Cardano Edition is complete, we have Captivate: Cryptid Edition scheduled next, and then Captivate: Fantasy Edition.
By integrating these different themes together, we’re able to connect different audiences to Cardano.
DIGITAL FTs:
Gamers can get early access FTs by delegating to our stake pool GAIA.
A full set of Captivate: Cardano Edition Early Access FTs will be redeemable for a Premium print version of the game with limited supply of 1000 decks.
The rarity and collectability of this will be attractive to both digital asset collectors and physical asset collectors, and is another way to connect people to the Cardano blockchain.
You can learn more about our early access FTs here
INFORMATION:
We’ll also add some information card inserts to each deck. These cards will have further details about Veritree and the Cardano Forest, GAIA Stake Pool, and Cardano.
We’ll also have QR codes printed on these cards to give gamers a quick way to get further information from websites.
The Captivate cards themselves also feature Cardano Stake Pool Operators and projects.
FURTHER DIGITAL INTEGRATION:
At a later stage, we could develop a Captivate Dapp for mobile, but that is beyond the scope of our current project.
We understand that gamers who’d like to play Captivate may not be able to do so in person, or would like a way to try out the game.
A solution to this could be to create a digital version of Captivate in Tabletop Simulator, available on Steam. This would be something we’d likely explore after the physical version of Captivate has already been released.
METRICS
Our proposal addresses the challenge of on-chaining gamers, but we are doing it in a different way. We are targeting a different sector of gamers (physical rather than digital). However, the demand for physical games is quite high, not just in the digital games market. Here are some stats on the tabletop game industry:
“The majority of survey respondents, 57%, own between 1 and 25 board and card games, while 22% have between 26 and 50. “
“Despite already having many games in their possession, collectors aren’t showing any signs of stopping. In the past year, the majority of gamers (41%) purchased five to ten new games or expansions.”
https://printninja.com/board-game-industry-statistics
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for achieving SDC goals
While our project will not have a significant impact on these KPIs, we can do our part and encourage others with our actions:
9.2.1 Manufacturing value added as a proportion of GDP and per capita
9.2.2 Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment
9.4.1 CO2 emission per unit of value added
12.5.1 National recycling rate, tons of material recycled
12.6.1 Number of companies publishing sustainability reports
14.1.1 (a) Index of coastal eutrophication; and (b) plastic debris density
15.1.1 Forest area as a proportion of total land area
15.2.1 Progress towards sustainable forest management
15.3.1 Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area
Risk Assessment
Providing we meet all our own goals and submissions on our part, there are still some risks we could still encounter:
ILLNESS OR EMERGENCIES:
If our team suffers an illness or emergency, this could delay our productivity and overall timeline.
MANUFACTURER DELAYS
Covid has impacted production timelines already with manufacturers, so their schedule for production could be longer than we’d like. We are ultimately picking our manufacturer based on quality, reputation, and ability to fulfill our goals.
SHIPPING DELAYS
Covid has also impacted shipping timelines, and we could see delays in shipping that are out of our control.
SHIPPING DAMAGE
Some product could be damaged in shipping. Usually print runs of product are actually a bit more than the total amount, about 5%. This is to cover any misprinting or damage in shipping. Ideally we don’t run into much of this, but we’ll have a buffer to cover this, and we’ll get insurance on our shipment.
DIFFFICULTY IN ONBOARDING SUPPLIERS AND RETAILERS
This is a possibility as well. Retailers may not wish to take on the product. We’ll do our best to pitch our product with both the promotional videos and gameplay videos we’ll have made. We’ll also incentivize retailers with some kind of promo/prize support, bulk deals, and promotional materials for their store to help advertise the game.
Worst case, we have to pivot to online sales and working with existing Cardano supporters to get our game into the hands of gamers. We’d prefer to onboard brick and mortar stores & traditional distributors to build a relationship, but as we’ve seen with successful Kickstarter projects, this isn’t a necessity.
Thankfully right now there is a big demand for new tabletop games and card games, and there is currently more interest in trying new things in this market. There are also many features to help Captivate sell from a practical standpoint:
– It is a small box game, so doesn’t take up much retail shelf space.
– It will have a very reasonable retail price point, as it is a basic poker style tuck box product.
– It is portable, so easy for players to take with them.
– Product is easily shippable due to low weight of an individual deck, so very low shipping costs for online retail.