# Nouns Game Publisher: Changing the Game

![Nouns Game Site](https://i.imgur.com/NfGOCNb.jpg)

🕹️ *Imagine a gaming website full of Nouns games ...*
## TL;DR
### Increasing the Value of Nouns with Games, by:

* Designing a set of **Games for Nouns Communities** 
* Publishing **6 new games** for iOS and **6 prototypes** for web
* Creating a **Nouns CC0 Gaming Toolkit** for Unity game devs
* Building a **nounsgames.wtf** gaming website and publishing pipeline
* Launching **Nouns x Games** collabs with shared revenue models

### Ask
* Invest **199 ETH** in the Games category

---

# Why should Nouns invest in games?

[![Games Industry Chart](https://i.imgur.com/sSwx3ro.jpg)](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/history-of-gaming-by-revenue-share-full-size.html)

🔎 ZOOM [50 Years of Video Games](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/history-of-gaming-by-revenue-share-full-size.html)

## Games are a smart investment for a brand like Nouns
* In 2022, the number of gamers worldwide was around **3 billion**
* In the US alone, Nouns games can reach up to **215 million people** 
* For Nouns to **capture attention** in this market, **investing in games** is essential

### 5 Business Reasons
* Games are a simple way to **onboard new users** to Nouns and its concepts
* Games can **increase the collection value** of Nouns with in-game utility
* Games can **make money** with minting, IAP, subscriptions and sales
* Games provide **data and insights** about audience behavior and tastes
* Games **help Nouns compete** with other top collections in the space

### 5 Creative Reasons
* Games allow Nouns to **experiment with new technology** and innovate
* Games **expand the IP universe** with new storylines, characters, and worlds
* **Gamified collecting experiences** engage players and extend gameplay
* **Interactive storytelling** in games is more personalized and immersive
* Games **strengthen the brand identity** by engaging fans in new ways

### What are the best platforms for investment?
* For Nouns: **mobile games** are the best entry point
 
![Global Games Market](https://i.imgur.com/SGtwGJe.png)

---

# Problem

## Games aren't getting funded by Nouns - right now Nouns has 0 active investments in gaming

❗ Just **1 mobile game** has been funded: **Nouns Run**

![Nouns Run](https://i.imgur.com/qnl2vqN.gif)
This side-scroller was funded for **2 ETH** by a Prop House win - **2 years ago**

### 70 Proposals, 1 mobile game ... here's the research:
* [Nouns Games Proposals - History](https://hackmd.io/@bowlingseed/nounsgameshistory)

### 👉 *A new approach to funding games is needed*

---

# Solution
## Nouns Game Publisher
### Launching games in collaboration with Nouns communities
![Nouns Game Site](https://i.imgur.com/8DlTcCg.jpg)
### What we're building:

* **Games** - web games & iOS apps designed for communities
* **Gaming website** a place to playtest new games
* **Nouns CC0 Gaming Toolkit** game-ready assets for Unity
* **Game Dev Discord** community for game builders
* **Marketing Machine** to get the word out about Nouns games

---

# Here's the Gameplan

## Part 1. Build Nouns Bowling as a Lead Title
Nouns Bowling is a new 3D bowling game built with CC0 assets from the [3D Nouns](https://3dnouns.com) and [Noun Sounds](https://nounsounds.wtf) projects. This game is LIVE on the [iOS App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nouns-bowling/id1660679079) today!

Bowling is popular on **all gaming platforms** and can blaze a trail for publishing multi-platform Nouns games. Bowling is an approachable, universal game and appeals to all age groups.

### 👉 Play Nouns Bowling: [nounsbowling.app](https://nounsbowling.app)
![Nouns Bowling](https://i.imgur.com/xqmhQNc.jpg)

[![Nouns Bowling](https://i.imgur.com/5TKGiiU.jpg)](https://youtu.be/A-FBNGRYy4A)

WATCH VIDEO: [Nouns Bowling trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-FBNGRYy4A&list=PLQLUWbPbAeHEdkgI9PFPj7lShFrCg_iPI&index=1)

### Here’s what the funding is for:
- **Core technology** - build key technology for the other games here
- **3D Art and Animation** - expand the game and boost production values
- **Metagame** - features to wrap core gameplay, reusable in other games
- **Teams feature** - adding team competition between Nouns houses
- **Prizes feature** - adding prize competitions for game nights

⭐ *Includes new 3D bowling alleys for Nouns communities:*

* **Nouns Alley** - the original alley for the OG Nouns
* **Lil Nouns Lanes** - a big bowling alley for the Lil Nouns
* **FOODNOUNs Bowl** - tasty environment with an OTG angle
* **Gnarly Bowl** - a gnarly alley for extreme bowling athletes

---

## Part 2. Establish the Nouns CC0 Gaming Toolkit
As we build Nouns Bowling, we'll create the **Nouns CCO Gaming Toolkit**:

* **3D Nouns characters** - game-ready Unity assets based on [3D Nouns](https://3dnouns.com)
* **2D Nouns characters** - game-ready Unity assets from [Nouns Sprite Sheets](https://nouns.wtf/vote/201)
* **Famous Characters** - famous Nouns NPC characters with AI features
* **Nouns 3D environments** - models and other 3D assets 
* **Useful Unity systems** - to help devs build Nouns games quickly

### Competitive Advantage for Nouns
No traditional games business would release 3D characters, environments and gaming IP into the public domain. **What if Mario was a CC0 brand?** 🤯

![Nouns 3D Characters in Unity](https://i.imgur.com/6eGYUvg.gif)

🕺 Game-ready **3D Nouns** ready to rock

### ⭐ Including this BONUS item ...
![Rose Parade Nouns Float](https://i.imgur.com/FVe75yc.jpg)

![Rose Parade Nouns Float](https://i.imgur.com/PdwSIRV.png)

🚧 3D model of the Rose Parade Float - as seen in Nouns Bowling 🚧

### Rose Parade float CC0 asset:
- Game-ready Unity package with characters and animations
- FBX assets for use in Blender or other game engines like Unreal
- Rendered images for use in videos or on websites

⭐ *Just one example of a useful Nouns 3D gaming asset!*

---

## Part 3. Fire Up a Game Publishing Pipeline 🔥
### Process for prototyping and shipping Nouns games
Competition in games is fierce - only the **top games** in each genre survive. Two ways to win: be a top game in an existing genre, or create a **new game genre**. 

Lots of prototyping, with rounds of cuts, is the method used by savvy game businesses.

### Pipeline Steps
1. **Proposals** - generate new ideas and proposals
2. **Prototypes** - build prototypes for web
3. **Betas** - fund betas for web and iOS
4. **Ship** - ship top games on web, mobile
5. **Publish** - take Nouns games to new gaming platforms

![Nouns Publishing Pipeline](https://i.imgur.com/0Z8HLPr.png)

This game publishing pipeline is designed to deliver a **stream of prototypes** to playtest, while attracting new builders to Nouns. 

This proposal delivers **12 prototypes** and **6 winners** will be pubished as iOS apps.

---

## Part 4. Launch a Nouns gaming website
### Purpose
* First place to launch prototypes (early access for NFT holders)
* Run beta testing before shipping games to mobile
* Best platform for web3 experiments and innovation

### Playable Prototypes

[![Nouns Game Site](https://i.imgur.com/D7xZuVA.png)](https://nounsgames.wtf)

🕹️ You can play these game prototypes at [**nounsgames.wtf**](https://nounsgames.wtf)

### Future Website
Imagine a web gaming site like [Poki.com](https://poki.com) where ALL games are Nouns games!

### No Gatekeepers
These web games will run on **mobile devices in a browser**!
... this is a solution for **mobile gaming** without App Stores

*NOTE: we **will** also publish iOS apps with advanced features*

---

## Part 5. Publish and Evolve Nouns Games
![Evolution](https://i.imgur.com/HCODOxx.png)

### Marketing and Evolution
The marketing fund (24 ETH) will be used to onboard new players to Nouns through games, while providing insight into customer preferences.

Gaming metrics - engagement and retention - help make decisions on:

* Which prototypes to fund
* When a beta is ready to ship
* When to scale up advertising

Round by round, games evolve, and small experiments guide the way.

Evolution rules.

---

# Discord Strategy

## Provide games for existing Nouns communities
* Web games are easy to decentralize and customize for communities
* Our standard web build has Daily high scores - perfect for prizes
* Each game we build is designed for one or more communities

## Build a new Discord for game devs

Discord is the best place for:
* Onboarding game devs to Nouns
* Trying new game prototypes
* Review of gaming metrics
* Brainstorming new game concepts
* Experimenting with new technology like AR

#### 👉 Join the [Nouns Games Discord](https://discord.gg/Ez3KnkrrVk) server

---

# Design Philosophy

## Building Apps for the Whole World

The [Nouns Virtuous Cycle](https://medium.com/@punk4156/the-nouns-virtuous-cycle-95586bb9c7c9) calls for "consumer apps the whole world wants to use"

![Nouns Virtuous Cycle](https://i.imgur.com/yh7H6BX.jpg)

Did punk4156 foresee a gaming future? 🤔
#### 🌎 *The whole world wants to use Nouns games ...* 🕹️😺

### Games are consumer apps ...
* Played across all gaming devices and age groups
* Games are played by **3 billion people** worldwide
* **Casual games** play to the largest audience

### Simple games are the most universal ...
Here are 5 genres of game with broad appeal
* 2D Puzzle games
* 2D Platform Hopper games
* 3D Kart driving games
* 3D Sports titles (think Wii Sports)
* Simple multiplayer games (for communities)


### Web games on mobile are the new frontier ...

[![Alps Snowboarding](https://i.imgur.com/qlc8ieW.gif)](https://nounsgames.wtf/snowboarding)

👉 *[3D snowboarding](https://nounsgames.wtf/snowboarding) runs in Safari on iPhone!*

---

# Budget
### Summary

* Gaming Website - **20 ETH**
* Game Production - **155 ETH**
* Marketing Fund - **24 ETH**

## 💰 199 ETH Total

---

## Budget Breakdown
### Gaming Website - 20 ETH
* Design, build and launch the [**nounsgames.wtf**](https://nounsgames.wtf) gaming website
* Publish web games and prototypes for playtesting
* Prepare web games for publishing across the Nouniverse

### Nouns Bowling - 35 ETH
![Bowling Budget](https://i.imgur.com/NGr70PB.png)

### 5 New Games - 100 ETH
Designed with **specific Nouns communities** in mind
![Games Budget Table](https://i.imgur.com/nNUTAts.png)

### 6 New Prototypes - 10 ETH
* Establish a fund for prototyping new web games
* Finding new **blue ocean mechanics** is one goal
* Testing new **game development talent** is another

### Nouns CC0 Unity Gaming Toolkit - 10 ETH
* Nouns 3D Characters for Unity game developers
* Nouns 3D Environments for use across Unity games
* Rose Parade Float CC0 model for community projects
* Useful Unity systems to quickly add Nouns to games
* Deliver as a FREE Unity Asset Store package

### Marketing Fund - 24 ETH
Run measurable advertising experiments to inform design
* Small paid advertising experiments bring in new players
* Campaign results help inform the game design process
* Web game metrics help select the games to ship as iOS apps

### Budget Details
We are asking for a total of **199 ETH**

* Art - **52.5 ETH**
* Design - **17.5 ETH**
* Engineering - **105 ETH**
* Marketing - **24 ETH**

### Multi-Sig & Transactions
Upon successfully passing the prop, **199 ETH** will be sent to a 6 person multi-sig requiring 3 signatures for each send:

1. modrovsky
2. Kwik
3. kerimbonia
4. TheGrandEnnui
5. Gio4NFT
6. TCarti

---

# ROI for Nouns
### Increasing the value of Nouns with games

![Online Games Market](https://i.imgur.com/WkBDGip.png)
## Games are a category with excellent ROI potential
👉 10 ways to **capture attention** and **create value** for Nouns:

### 1. Minting NFTs with Shared Revenue Models 💰
Generate revenue for Nouns communities by minting gaming collectibles

### 2. Increasing Value of Nouns
Games can **increase auction prices** of NFTs by adding in-game utility

### 3. In App Purchases
Traditional in-app purchase model for digital items on mobile

### 4. Games Meets Toys
Game-enabled toys capture attention and increase toy sales

### 5. Traditional Game Sales
Sell games for $USD on traditional gaming marketplaces

### 6. Subscriptions
Subscribe to the gaming website, or for individual games

### 7. Advertising
Rewarded video ads and other non-intrusive methods only

### 8. Collection Metagames
Completing a collection of digital items across games

### 9. Merchandise
Clothes and accessories with QR codes to load in-game

### 10. IRL Gaming Events
Play games to win a spot in real-life tournaments (like bowling)

---

# Team
![Kwik](https://i.imgur.com/1IrhJvn.png)
### Game Designer & Programmer
[**Kwik**](https://twitter.com/bowlingseed) — Game developer with 36 shipped games (20+ year career in games)
Here are 12 picks (**click to watch YouTube videos**)

[![Kwik Gameography on YouTube](https://i.imgur.com/0i0sgBN.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQLUWbPbAeHFAL_laWR4Zi3oMcIYlhPhZ)
👉 WATCH GAME VIDEOS: [Gameography on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQLUWbPbAeHFAL_laWR4Zi3oMcIYlhPhZ)

---

![kerimbonia](https://i.imgur.com/vzwTjlm.gif)
### Art Director
[**kerimbonia**](https://twitter.com/kerimbonia) — Artist, Animator and creator of [Nouns Animated Spritesheets](https://nouns.wtf/vote/201)

*"Professional 3D artist with over 20 years of experience. Previous clients include Lamborghini, Nintendo, Warner Bros., Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna to name a few."*

![Spritesheet Project](https://i.imgur.com/iPGAqQJ.gif)

### Team

* **TheGrandEnnui** — Super fly Unity game programmer
* **Yung TCarti** — Discord and community operator
* **Gio4NFT** — Consiglieri and distinguished advisor
* Network of contract game developers and artists

### Looking to hire ...
* web3 developers - to build a next-gen gaming website
* Artists and 3D animators - to work on games
* Game devs skilled in Unity - new builders for Nouns
* Marketers and social promoters - spreadin' the word
* Designers and content creators - always valuable

---

# Timeline
## 9 Months
July 2023 - March 2024

---

# FAQ
### Will this be setup as a DAO? No.
There will be no DAO for this project. Here's why:
* There are a LOT of Nouns DAOs, let's build games for those
* Game selection by DAO vote may not be the best option
* Better to keep freedom for individual games to have DAOs

### What about running ads in the games?
Running annoying ads between levels ruins a lot of good games. But **rewarded ads** and **sponsorships** can work. In-game ads can also **promote other Nouns projects**.

Running video ads featuring Nouns **in other people's games** is one advertising strategy. Nouns get video views AND game installs.

### What about Tokens and Play-to-Earn?
**Hot take:** Nouns games should AVOID play-to-earn cryptocurrency models. Gone wrong, they can do more damage to the Nouns brand than good. We don't plan on issuing a token or using play-to-earn tokenomics.

---

# Collabs
### Games play well with other Nouns projects ...
Decentralizing games across communities through collabs. This is big.

![Collabs](https://i.imgur.com/zkWUEuI.jpg)

# Future Proposals

Objective is to bring **ambitious gaming proposals** to NounsDAO, for example:

**Games Meets Toys**
Funding to connect games and toys, loading toys into games, AR features

**Collabs with other Nouns Projects**
Games x Nouns opens up new opportunities for Nouns communities

**Publishing Games to PC and Consoles**
Publish games for Mac, PC, Steam, Epic, and consoles (hello Nintendo)

**Game Dev Hackathons**
Funding for hackathons to create new prototypes and web games

**Scaling Up Nouns Proliferation with Games**
Onboarding people to Nouns with games, by scaling up successful advertising experiments. Proliferation on demand, to desired audiences, with measurable ROI.

---

# Outcome

### ✅ Nouns Communities get Powered Up
Decentralized web games for Nouns communities unlock new business models

### ✅ Nouns Solves its Game Funding Problem
Nouns Game Publisher helps NounsDAO make smart investments in games

### ✅ Indie Game Developers Flock to Nouns
Game publishing pipeline and CC0 toolkit attracts new talent to Nouns

### ✅ Games Get Less Expensive to Market
A network of Nouns games is less expensive to advertise. For example:
* Pay for 1 install, games link to 6 games, 7 installs for the price of 1
* Advertise a games website with 7 games, per-game ad costs reduced by 85%
* Proliferation efforts for **one** Nouns game helps elevate **all** Nouns games

### ✅ NounsDAO Gets Quality Gaming Proposals ⌐◨-◨
When a new game proposal is brought to the DAO, a game should:
1. Be playable
2. Have base metrics
3. Show promising early results

Funding risk is lower, success is more likely. NounsDAO can **scale up successful games** to proliferate Nouns anywhere in the world.

# Nouns = Open Source Nintendo?
Mushrooms, bombs, stars, clouds ... they *already exist* as Nouns 🤯

[![Nounio Bros](https://i.imgur.com/Y625qy0.gif)](https://nounsgames.wtf)

**Play this prototype** (and more) at [**nounsgames.wtf**](https://nounsgames.wtf) 
# LFGame!
## Thank you for voting YES on Nouns games 🕹️😁

Outcome: DEFEATED