Project Update (6th February, 2023)
State of the Project, State of the Market, and Moving Forward
Hello Cryptopians!
First and foremost, apologies for such a long delay between significant updates. We assessed the project from a holistic standpoint and realized there were some significant decisions that we had to make on what direction we took with CryptoVillages. These were as followed:
THE STATE OF THE PROJECT
As we were working towards launch, we realized that we were solely focused on hastily getting a finished game out to the community, despite there being several original ideas that we were discarding in our haste to deliver something ASAP. This was a fault on my part – the perceived pressures surrounding rushing a launch had me forgetting about the core principles of what makes CryptoVillages such an amazing opportunity for all of us. The level of detail, the quality of our project, and above all else, the goal of delivering something not seen in the GameFi space. Granted that development takes time and money, however, failing to include all the features we had originally set out to include, would have been a disaster. In the current iteration, we were sacrificing the following:
Different languages (crazy given half our player base cannot read English)
Mobile versions (this would have been an after thought given our current development schedule)
PvM battles that aren’t just basic ClickToEarn, but rather have layers of interaction / depth / require more foresight
Guilds / Clans
and the list goes on…
Sticking to an original vision becomes increasingly difficult the more pressure gets thrown into the mix. Launch dates, investor’s expectations, etc. inadvertently can result in deviating from that path. Nevertheless, the team and I took a step back and realized that the current road map would have been disastrous. Functionally, the game would have been playable… technically. However, it would have been lackluster in depth, under-tested and in my opinion, would not have thrived in this market (this is a good time to Segway into the next topic…).
THE STATE OF THE MARKET
It’s absolutely no secret that we are in a crypto winter, and CryptoVillages has not been immune. In the projects infancy, when the market was healthier, we found that our original marketing strategy of focusing on organic growth, was delivering as predicted. Our Discord saw a steady stream of new faces, eager to jump on board the CV train. However, the second half of 2022 was the polar opposite. Major crypto firms imploding every other week, combined with a global economic crisis, resulted in CryptoVillages momentum slowing down considerably. While the approach of ‘build a project using only organic growth as to avoid nefarious investors’ was a great ideology, unfortunately, this did not play out in reality. Perhaps in a bull cycle this approach would have been viable as a solo strategy, it is clear now that a traditional marketing campaign is required to give the project visibility to the wider crypto community. Our streaming partners and AMA hosts to-date have been amazing, and we are immensely grateful for their support. However, it is time to acknowledge that presently, CryptoVillages needs significantly more exposure to get to the heights it is most certainly capable of achieving.
MOVING FORWARD
(Bit of context: The team are located entirely in Australia, with half of us in Brisbane and the other half in Sydney)
Last week, the team met up in Sydney, and we spent entire weekend deciding the best course of action for CryptoVillages moving forward. It was decided that we would need to adjust the road map significantly and raise additional funds to cover the full development costs, as well as bolster the coffers with marketing funds to launch a campaign when the market was in a healthier position. Although there were several options on how to do this, ultimately, it was decided that we would convert the in-game marketplace transaction fees that are currently designated for server running costs to form a secondary stakeholder collection. The specifics surrounding this can be seen in the CryptoVillages whitepaper v2 for those interested. But for this post, the most important thing we want to stress is that this inclusion in no way affects the recently sold-out collection. On the contrary, given the prolonged time period that our earliest investors have been waiting, we have increased the transaction fee that is distributed from 1.5% to 2.5%. We will be introducing some benefits for existing holders of premium buildings in the next week or so, watch this space.
Finally, we understand that some people will be disappointed that we’ve had to delay the launch again, especially given that the date is now TBA, and we are unable to give a specific road map at this time. Unfortunately, that is the space in 2023. The stakeholder buildings are designed to generate returns based off of in-game trading volume, and it’s important that we don’t rush a launch without adequate traction. The ROI for the team is structured in a way that we receive financial compensation post launch, and that delaying does not benefit us in any way. On the contrary, by adding all these extra steps, it keeps the team locked down and unable to pursue other endeavors. However, we committed to building this the right way, and that’s exactly what we plan on doing. We do appreciate everyone’s patience, support and understanding.
That’s all for this update. Stay tuned and watch this space!