We are talking to DungeonMaster today — the project lead and founder of Generative Dungeon.
DungeonMaster's Intro:
It's a pleasure to be here, I'm grateful for the opportunity to reach out to your audience! I've been following you guys since the beginning and I've watched you grow by leaps and bounds, and all I can say is it's well deserved. The community really needed a decent NFT calendar, and there wasn't one until you guys came around.
Chris from NFT Calendar: Thank you so much, we do our best! Let's talk business.
What is the concept behind Generative Dungeon NFTs?
DungeonMaster: It's been known in the community for a while that NFTs can embody more than simple JPGs, for example audio, video, 3D interactive models, and the like.
But we hadn't really seen anybody make a full-fledged game as an NFT before. Sure there have been a few minor, single-NFT attempts, but most of the NFT collections out there these days are profile picture projects. And not that there's anything wrong with pfp projects--we own several and love 'em--but we wanted to make something different. Something with innate utility.
We wanted to build a collection where each NFT was a game in and of itself.
So, when we sat down to build our dream collection we started with a few goals:
- Each NFT had to be playable on OpenSea and other marketplaces
- Each NFT had to load instantly--no waiting on status bars.
- Each NFT had to have unique traits.
- Most of all, each NFT had to be fun. Maybe addictive.
Now, many caffeine-fueled months later, we present to you Generative Dungeon.
A collection whose NFTs are more than JPEGs. More than avatars/loot usable within other games.
The NFTs ARE the game.
No two are alike. From graphics to layouts, each is unique and needs different tactics to win.
Chris from NFT Calendar: How does each NFT work as a game in and of itself??
DungeonMaster: Well the static images you see when you're browsing the Generative Dungeon collection on OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces are actually screen captures of the starting screen of the game associated with that particular NFT.
So for example say you're scrolling through the collection on OpenSea, and see an interesting dungeon with a Dragon standing next to an underground lake (a Dragon avatar is very rare in Generative Dungeon, by the way!).
So you click on the dungeon image and you're taken to the NFT details page, where you see a larger view of the image along with the usual traits and pricing sections. But you also see something new and a little unexpected--a flashing "Click Here" button in the center of the NFT image.
When you click that button, you dive directly into the game, and can play that particular dungeon immediately, right on the site.
There are no load times, no status bars while you wait for the game to load. You click the NFT and the game backing it is instantly available, ready for you to play. The initial game screen matches the NFT static image exactly, because as I mentioned, it's simply a screenshot of the game.
When we deployed the first iteration of the game, it didn't have a "Click Here" button, and it became apparent some people wouldn't even realize they could play the game in their browser, because it looked identical to the static image. So we added the button and it's much more obvious.
Each dungeon is generated in real-time based on an initial random seed. This seed will be updated with the hash of the blockchain after the mint concludes.
The gameplay is rogue-like. If you've ever played Hack or games of that type you'll be right at home. You have one life, and when you die you have to start over at the beginning. You gain experience for every monster you kill, and when you advance to the next level you get a skill point you can assign to different attributes.
There are 20 different avatars, and each one requires slightly different strategies because of their abilities.
So for example, as mentioned the Dragon is basically the rarest in the game, and simply dominates because of its high health and strength. On the other end of the spectrum we have the Slime and Bunny, also rare but extremely hard to play since they have no spells and low health. The latter do have the advantage of stealth though (can be harder for enemies to spot them)
There are several other traits that influence gameplay:
- what starting scroll you begin the game with (Toughen Skin vs Lesser Heal vs no scroll, etc),
- what zone you start in (Dragon's Den = easy way to grab lots of loot at the beginning, as long as you don't wake the dragon),
- how many levels (infinite means you'll never finish, which hardcore purists will love);
- the map layouts are all different of course, but never change for each individual NFT, so if you memorize or map yours you'll know where all the exits are, and what monsters to look out for on that floor.
The tileset traits associated with each dungeon are cosmetic, in that they affect the visuals only. CGA, Monochrome, and ASCII are rarer than 32-bit orthogonal and full color versions. One of the rarer tilesets also changes all the monsters into shitcoins.
In summary, our collection is basically an entirely new way of thinking about NFTs and gaming in general.
Chris from NFT Calendar: How can I mint a Generative Dungeon NFT? What is the expected price range?
DungeonMaster: You'll be able to mint on Ethereum via our website or directly from the contract.
Price for those who sign up for the whitelist mint will be around 0.05 ETH, while the price for the public sale after will be between 0.07 to 0.09 ETH (haven't decided on final pricing). Minting will begin sometime around the end of December or beginning of January.
Chris from NFT Calendar: Alright. And what kind of marketing initiatives are being undertaken before the NFT goes on sale?
DungeonMaster: A big portion of our budget is directed toward influencer marketing. Without influencers, these days it's simply impossible to stand out in the massive crowd of NFT projects. On NFT Calendar alone for example, there are multiple projects releasing per day, every day. And this doesn't count the projects that aren't even listed there. Things have changed since the summer, where one only had to Tweet about a free giveaway and ten thousand people would follow you on Twitter.
Regarding influencers: I'm not talking about those "influencers" who flood our DMs and comments with "promotion offers" to shill our project on Twitter and Discord--we're actually very selective with the influencers we choose to work with. Because of that, the influencers we've chosen are very well-respected, but also expensive.
We're also using Reddit, Instagram, Quora Ads, and Google Ads.
Oh and, of course, can't forget NFT Calendar!
Chris from NFT Calendar: What are the benefits associated with a Generative Dungeon NFT purchase?
DungeonMaster: a) HODLs will get Generative Avatars free (pay gas fees only)--an upcoming collection of generative art characters playable with Generative Dungeon. Want to play as a Wizard in the dungeon you own rather than the built-in dwarf? With Generative Avatars you can! Each of the procedurally-generated characters will have hundreds of combinations of armor, hair, clothes, and weapons.
b) When Generative Quest comes out, the successor project, you'll be able to play your Generative Dungeon from a whole new perspective. Generative Quest is basically an entirely new dungeon generator with an isometric perspective, but you'll be able to link it to your existing Generative Dungeon and play it with the new graphics engine.
c) When the Play To Earn port comes out later next year, you'll be able to make money with your Generative Dungeon, or rent it out and earn while you sleep!
d) Owners of multiple Generative Dungeons may be able to link them in some way. We're discussing different ideas, such as opening portals to different dungeons available in the same wallet, to importing characters from other dungeons you own, etc. Also, when Generative Dungeon releases, you'll be able to import the Single-Floor Dungeons that were made available during our Twitter giveaway last week, and play them!
e) Owners will be able to change the sprites of their avatar. After launch, a new owners tab will become available on the website. There you'll be able to upload a new avatar to use in the game, among other things. This avatar won't be written into the main NFT (we decided not to let owners do that for now, but it might be something we change if the community really wants it). Instead, the new avatar is something only the owner can access through the website. So for example, when the NFT is played on OpenSea, everybody else will still see the original character, say an Adventurer, but when the owner plays on our site, he sees his own Ettin character. When the owner sells it to someone else, they'll also inherit the custom avatar.
Chris from NFT Calendar: Does the game allow in-game purchases of land like most other NFT based games?
DungeonMaster: Not presently. That might be something we add in Generative Quest if there's enough community interest.
Chris from NFT Calendar: Do you have plans to allow users to create their own NFTs or is the artwork restricted to the founders alone?
DungeonMaster: There is currently no way for users to mint their own NFTs directly in the game. That said, there's nothing stopping someone from making a screencap of their NFT while playing it and then uploading it to OpenSea to sell. If they're the owner of that particular dungeon, we wouldn't stop them, and in fact we'd even encourage it.
Also, if users want to change their avatar from a cosmetics stand-point, we have an API built into Generative Dungeon that supports that out of the box. We haven't yet shared the API with the community, but as mentioned previously it's something that will be available on the owners page of the website after the mint.
Chris from NFT Calendar: Eventually, how can I keep myself updated on Generative Dungeon NFT?
DungeonMaster: If you want to participate in a project that's a little different from the rest, join the community today (discord,twitter)
You can also sign up for the mailing list.
