LEAD NAME: ajewdicator (Wassie Mom)
PROJECT NAME: Waddle Waddle Wassie & Wassie Match (names not final)
ELEVATOR PITCH
Two separate, wassie-themed games (one card game and one board game) that reinforce principles of character, cooperation, friendly competition, and critical skillsets (turn-taking, academic foundations, etc.) in fun, entertaining, and silly ways.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Wassie Match Card Game Description:
This is wassie-themed memory matching game is a remix of the old classic. 36 pairs of cards (for a total of 72 cards) that you mix up, lay face down, and then turn face over two at a time to try to make a match. The game can be made simpler by using fewer pairs. A memory game is a great way to get kids to appreciate the silly, alterable characteristics that wassies have (hats, glasses, body shapes, sigils, feet, colors, etc.) and highlights one of the cool things about NFTs that so many non-crypto grownups don’t get, yet. The beauty of wassifying something so simple comes with the opportunity to highlight how accessible the Team has made the ability commercialize wassie-themed ideas. Thus, this game will utilize only CC0 wassies. The initial plan was to select 36 kid-friendly wassies (no weapons, no pipes, etc.), but as I have been crowdsourcing my selections to adults and children alike, adults have expressed interest in the game and a version that utilizes the CC0 wassies I originally excluded (some have an expressed a particular interest in playing the matching game as a drinking game). To address this interest, I am considering making the game with 25 kid-friendly pairs and then including 11 pairs with weapons, pipes, etc., that adults can choose to add for themselves/older children.
Given the similarities of the some of the CC0 wassies (e.g., there are large numbers of red, blue, and green CC0 wassies with many shared features), I have made several different versions of the match groupings to test the level of difficulty. I have asked children and adults who are unfamiliar with wassies to test the packs, in order to find the right level of challenge for all age groups. I continue to receive feedback and adjust the packs accordingly. I anticipate having a final grouping to propose to the team within a week or two, depending on how quickly I receive feedback from all of my testing groups.
Game testing has revealed that rather than using playing-card-shaped cards for this matching game, the best shape for the cards is a square of about 2.5 to 2.75 square inches (6.35-6.985 cm). The cards would need to have a laminate finish or be made of pvc plastic, in order to stand up to repeated play, flipping, and children.
Waddle Waddle Wassie (Cooperative Board Game) Description:
The current, working name for this cooperate board game is Waddle Waddle Wassie. This is a multiplayer, cooperative game for ages 3 & up involving up to 6 little wassies who hatch from eggs in the refrigerator. The wassie hatchlings are racing to beat an outcast wassie to the refuge of the couch. Get all the wassies to the couch first and the players win! If the outcast gets to the couch before all the little wassies make it there, the outcasts kicks the little wassies off the couch, they are banished backed to the fridge, the players lose, and the game starts again. The game is played cooperatively, and though players take turns (because turn-taking is an important skill for children to learn), all the players work together to discuss which wassies to move at each turn to get the wassies waddling as far as possible with each spin of the spinner.
The game can be played in easy, medium, and challenging modes by choosing whether to start with 3, 4, or 6 wassies, respectively. Game play is dictated by a spinner. The spinner is divided into 7 spaces— 6 colored spaces and one large outcast space. The colored spots correspond to the colorful path on the board from the fridge to the couch. The wassies each have to travel 36 colored spaces (6 spaces of each of the 6 colors) to get to the couch. The outcast only has 14 spaces to get to the couch. The outcast space on the spinner is a bad luck space that anyone might land on. If you spin the spinner and land on an outcast, then you must move the outcast one space forward on the outcast path to the couch (eek!). But if you spin the spinner and land on a color, you get to move any wassie to the next unoccupied space of that color. If you spin red, for example, and there’s already a wassie on the first red space on the board, then you can choose any wassie to waddle past that occupied red spot to go to the first unoccupied red space in front of the selected wassie. A player can move any of the wassies. When all the wassies are in play, it helps to talk as a team about which wassie would move the farthest to occupy the next free space corresponding to the color spun on the wheel. This is a way to work with kids to teach them strategy and win or lose as a team.
HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT ADD VALUE TO THE BYWASSIES COMMUNITY?
In addition to building character, critical thinking, and cooperative skillsets, these wassie-themed games make the world of wassies accessible to families, children, and people outside of the crypto space. A favorite childhood game or toy has the potential to become a thing of nostalgia. The nostalgia we feel for our favorite childhood toys and games hold a very special place in our memories and our heart, keeps companies alive, and inspires parents to pass down the music, games, toys, books, and other very favorite childhood things to their children. People open their wallets for nostalgia and the hope that their children will find joy in the things they loved as kids. We can build a generation of children that have nostalgia for something that is also new to us and that we first experienced and enjoyed in adulthood. For them, it’s wassies in the form of toys, books, and board games. For us, it’s the wassie NFTs and the experience of the wassie community on ct. But for once, we are building nostalgia together. That’s a very powerful connection that has the potential to make wassies the first character/product/experience that both children and adults can experience together for the first time. If done correctly, the products will be enjoyed equally by people who are not into wassie NFTs yet but who are introduced to wassies through their children’s games and toys.
FUNDING REQUEST/FINANCIALS & TASK BREAKDOWN
Funding for both games is still TBD. I am in the process of obtaining manufacturing quotes from companies in China, the U.S., and elsewhere. Though the costs are yet unknown, the expense items for each are anticipated to fall within the following categories:
Matching Game
- 72 laminate-finish or pvc cards
- Card box
- Instructions insert
- Artist to do artwork for box and instructions
- Other manufacturing costs (such as shipping)
- Possible compensation for a portion of my time developing & testing game, working with manufacturer, artist, team. Whether I will pursue any compensation is still TBD and dependent upon a number of factors.
Note: If any unanticipated costs arise, I will immediately notify the team and update the community in detail through the forum.
Board Game
- Board
- Spinner
- Outcast piece
- 6 wassie pieces
- Instruction insert (if too expensive to print on the inside of the box)
- Game box
- Artist to design all of the above
- Other manufacturing costs (such as shipping)
- Possible compensation for a portion of my time developing & testing game, working with manufacturer, artist, team. Whether I will pursue any compensation is still TBD and dependent upon a number of factors.
Note: If any unanticipated costs arise, I will immediately notify the team and update the community in detail through the forum.
ESTIMATED TIMELINE
Card game: Completion of the final draft for Team and community review (following extensive, continued draft pack testing and feedback from several age groups) is anticipated before mid June 2022. From then, I would anticipate working with an artist for approximately 2 weeks to finalize box and instruction art. Manufacturing will start as soon as a final prototype with artwork is blessed by the Team, and once a suitable manufacturer provides an approved estimate.
Board game: By the end of June 2022, I intend to have a draft of the board game worked out and sufficiently tested to ensure that the math for the game play works (number of spaces on the board, division of the spinner board, etc.). By mid July, I intend to have that game play tested by children of several ages (and adults) for feedback about how to modify/improve the game play. Armed with that information, I would work with an artist for approximately one month to finalize art for the board, the spinner, the movable characters, the box, and the instructions. Manufacturing will start as soon as a final prototype with artwork is blessed by the Team, and once a suitable manufacturer provides an approved estimate.
BUSINESS MODEL
Sales: Sales would be direct to consumer (via Amazon or any other sales marketplace, should the By Wassies team establish one for grant recipients) and through local (Washington, DC area) boutique toy stores.
Pricing: Pricing model will be determined once the costs of manufacturing and shipping are identified. The final artwork, as well as choice of materials, and shipping rates will be the primary cost drivers.
DELIVERABLES
- Wassie Match card game
- Waddle Waddle Wassie cooperative board game
CURRENT PROJECT STATUS
Card game: I have developed several draft card packs and am in the process of having adults and children test the game play with the different packs, in order to identify the proper level of difficulty (driven by the mix and overlap of traits). I anticipate having a final draft for team review within a week or two.
Board game: I am in the process of developing an ugly but working draft of the game play suitable for testing the game math (number of spaces for the wassies and the outcast, as well as the percentage of the spinner board that the outcast and the colored spaces occupy). When the gameplay math is finalized, I will videotape the method of play on a mock game board (without art or any artistic design to the board) to demonstrate the mechanics of gameplay and the kind of conversations that occur during gameplay. The team will provide feedback, and if they continue to be interested in pursuing the game, then I will seek an artist for collaboration, board and box design, etc.
OTHER INFORMATION
I will be seeking different artists to work on the artwork for the match game box and for the board game design. I believe we have the right kind of talent “in house” to make this a smashing success. I’d like to hear your thoughts and ideas about how to bring these concepts to life and make them something beautiful, inviting, and silly. DM me.
Also, if you have connections with companies that can print & manufacture either of these games, please contact me. I would be interested in getting quotes.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
To give a very rough sense of how the board game would work, I am attaching some hideous imagery here. The spinner and paths on the board game will not look like this— this is simply a super basic sketch to visually lay out the board game concept I am describing. An artist will design board artwork/colors and will create paths that are interesting (and maybe even intersecting) to demonstrate a silly, playful wassie romp around a house, from fridge to couch.