To become an easily accessible puzzle game platform for non-crypto communities to play recreationally
To build a diverse community based on different interests through puzzle games
To promote learning through puzzle games
After launching Atocha Protocol for 6 months, we have learned a thing or two about puzzle games, the challenge of building a puzzle game platform, puzzle game interaction with the players, and puzzle games format that suits our current Appchain version. What we are working now is to focus on the large community of puzzle games that interest users from the Web2 world as we think that only through mass adoption, only the Web3 ecosystem can thrive.
This aligns with the vision of Near Foundation to help inspire and empower people to join the ecosystem, by acting as a trusted party and gateway into this new world, Atocha Protocol can be one of the gateways to better understanding Near ecosystem. Through a consistent and well-planned puzzle game (quiz, word games, and more), the awareness about Near ecosystem will reach out to a larger crowd with the strategy of diversifying the topic of interest based on the puzzle game.
We have layout new plans to realize the vision of becoming a puzzle game hub in 2023 through the following action plans:
Onboarding different theme puzzle games based on interest (the current choices are: Near blockchain, travel, culture and history). The puzzle games will reflect the chosen interest through the simplest form of puzzle game which is the quiz. The main purpose is to accumulate sufficient content for each topic to generate traction from different crowds, mainly from the web2 world.
Enabling conventional signup methods through Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and etc. We understood that all of these channels have their own population which is over 100 million in scale. Hence, once we tap into these sign-up methods, it will exponentially increase the probability of onboarding new users.
Seamless puzzle game experience without needing to know more about blockchain or to work out the how. We aim to create a front end for the users to play without directly interacting with the protocol. With that, we could gradually prompt the users on how to manoeuvre around when they start to accumulate Atocha Points and a sufficient level of time spent on our puzzle game platform.
Expected Impact and Value for the Near ecosystem/community:
Raising community awareness about the different project building in Near ecosystem
Bridging non-web3 community to Near ecosystem
Building value for brands/projects to use gamification as part of the interaction, marketing and training tool
Measurement of Impact and Success:
Number of puzzles created daily
Number of players/creators active daily
Total Sponsor accumulated and distributed
Team involvement:
Atocha Core Team Members: 4
Community Leaders/Managers: 4 - 6
Creative Team Members: 2 - 4
Total: 10 - 14 pax
Estimated timeline and milestone to be achieved:
Daily puzzle (lite version: daily puzzle will be puzzle type that is knowledge-based where players can play daily to learn about a fact about Near ecosystem)
Monthly puzzle (hard version: the team will put together a multiple-stage puzzle that will be more complex than the lite version)
The frequency of a daily puzzle is aimed to be an hourly updated puzzle where there will be 1 puzzle created every hour. This means there will be a minimum of 720 puzzles created under the lite version.
The hard version puzzle will be released once per month with an announcement made before the release. The hard version will have a larger prize to win.
Hi @kimzwarch – thanks for the proposal and submitting the form. While I generally like the idea of onboarding people into Web3 and the NEAR ecosystem through a quiz game platform like Atocha (fun and entertaining) I’m not ready to support this proposal in this form yet for a number of reasons – and I need some additional clarification around a few things. Here are my thoughts and comments:
In looking at your site, there are some fun puzzles, but I don’t see much at all about NEAR that’s clear to someone landing on the site for the first time. If you read through the news and updates about NEARCON, you do see it, but I’m conscious of our need to support projects that are prioritizing raising awareness for the ecosystem.
I also see that there are is a lot of text with grammar errors - I get that English is not everyone’s first language, but if you’re going to put out a professional product worthy of funding, it’s important to invest in a proofreader or translator at the very least so the copy/text is accurate. Otherwise, it can be a poor reflection on NEAR’s brand.
Where are the answers/results posted? I see a ton of solved puzzles/quiz questions, but no answers/solutions. That seems like it would be a good thing to add in the future.
I’ve noted your report around the controversy after the NEARCON treasure hunt. I remember hearing a lot of people excited about the treasure hunt while at NEARCON, so I think the project started off with a cool premise. But the outcome of the treasure hunt led to a lot of questions and negative feedback from the community. It may have all been resolved since then, but I would like to see some demonstration of a well-executed initiative before funding $4.5K (more than previous funding). Would you consider running a week of puzzles instead of a month to demonstrate that your team can execute this?
What’s the reason for 30 puzzles a day? Seems like you might get more engagement with fewer.
I am not generally a fan of giveaways because I don’t really see them creating much long-term engagement. Others may disagree with me, but that’s my observation. Lots of wildly popular games (Wordl, old school crosswords, etc.) have zero cash incentive. You might think of other ways to generate enthusiasm for the project.
Note we can’t fund community moderation anymore
I look forward to other council members’ thoughts and your feedback here. Thanks!
First of all, I really appreciate the feedback and would love to provide further clarification for the proposal. Also, I will modify the proposal to be more fit for the purpose which can ultimately benefit the ecosystem as a whole.
Our puzzle as of now is more diverse and doesn’t have a specific theme. While we want to welcome different theme puzzles to be created on our platform, it is easier for us to focus on one so that we can have a clearer target audience. So, what we will be doing is creating a Near theme puzzle quiz page that will highlight all related quizzes under one page. This will improve the browsing experience and easier for the players to engage with the content.
The creation of the puzzles is mostly done by the community members based on their personal interests and initiative. In order to create a better quality puzzle quiz under Near Foundation, we will be leading the puzzle creation under the Atocha Core team that we can ensure that there will be a professional appeal of the puzzle quiz to the audience. In other words, we will filter out non-official puzzles from the quiz puzzle site that features Near related puzzles.
The answers/results are posted and recorded on chain (which is ultimately what Atocha Protocol is for). We have an indexer where you can track the puzzle and also the answer, creator, solver, reward and time-related info on the block. To make the cross-check easier, we will have the answers/results reflected on the front end as well.
Yes, we will do a shorter version of the puzzle quiz prior to this longer-term initiative. Undoubtedly, it will be best for both sides to vet through the performance of the puzzle game itself. Along the way, feedback and improvement for the game mechanism shall take place to further improve the game experience.
The reason for having 1 puzzle daily is one experimental format. After discussing with my team, I think it will be best to have a weekly new puzzle launched for the initiative. Within 1 puzzle, there will be a set of 10 quizzes (as the new upgrade will allow the such format of creation, the current version will only allow 1 question per puzzle). Indeed, it will have more engagement as most attention will be on that specific puzzle itself.
Agreed, we will also promote the accumulation of Atocha Points and ATO rewards as you solve the puzzle along the way. Of course, this will be from Atocha team and not from Near Foundation. What I would suggest is that we may discard the giveaway for the time being and introduce that into a more meaningful prize giving (based on a meritocracy system).
Understood that community moderation is not fundable. We will take note on that and readjust the resource to take up that role.
Hi @kimzwarch first my apologies on behalf of the Marketing DAO for the delay in coming to a decision on your proposal. I have read your proposal and the comments by fellow council and like the general concept of using puzzles.
However, i feel that in this case i am unable to see strong enough benefits in line with NEAR goals to allow me to support.
At this stage I don’t support this proposal. Some of my reasoning:
The section asking for previous funding was left blank on the Tally form. I have some questions about previous NEAR Grants, Octopus grants, ATO IDO, etc. It seems like the proposals asks for Marketing DAO to fund the operational costs of an entire team which is not the intended purpose of Marketing community grants.
I am not aware of what the NEARCON Treasury Hunt controversy is, but I do know that in general this is why we are steering away from prizes.
Expanding on the above - can we create products or events that are fun enough that people want to play without requiring prizes? Web3 as an industry has spend millions in prizes and user acquisition and conversion remain low.
As a side note - I’ll mention that we are already funding a puzzle initiative created by one dev as a hobby and adopted by an active community, who are seeing a lot of traction for what is a simple product with very low budget requests.
Thanks for your application. Before we approve new proposals, we require that the reports from previously funded projects are submitted through the forum.
Please submit your report for this funded project:
