Vision and Criteria for Grant Proposals
For the first six months of this role, the focus will solely rest on indie games.
Some of the most loved games of the past decade have been created by solo developers or small indie studios with tight budgets and a passion for fashioning in-depth experiences.
Here is a list of a few common attributes of Indie games to understand what makes them a natural fit for this allocation.
- Indie games (usually) take less time to build
- Indie games take less money to build
- Indie games are built by small teams or solo developers who are more agile and able to adapt to market sentiment and audience desires
- Indie games span a wide range of genres and can appeal to all types of gamers
By fostering an ecosystem of high-quality Indie games on Arbitrum, more gamers will find their way to Arbitrum. When there are more gamers on Arbitrum, more game developers will want to build games on Arbitrum… And so the flywheel turns.
Milestone articulation: the milestones can be presented in either text or chart form. Regardless of the format, all milestones outlined in the following section should be included by the team in the proposal plan, complete with numbers and dates where applicable.
Audit requirement: ideally, the base product should be expanded upon only after it has been audited. If a new product is being built from scratch, planning for an audit is a requirement.
Criteria
- Indie developers and studios that already have demos or vertical slices but may need some extra funding to cross the finish line.
- Gaming ecosystems like Treasure and Xai where the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts through interoperability.
- Games that use (or can incorporate) blockchain in meaningful ways that ADD to the user experience.
- On-chain games or Autonomous Worlds that use the chain in innovative ways that can only be accomplished on L2’s.
- Games with a social or viral component that will help bring new users into the Arbitrum Ecosystem will especially be considered for the unique onboarding ability.
- Fun games that friends would want to either play together or share with one another.-
This is an open-ended call to all indie solo developers and small indie game studios. Even if your game does not match one of these focuses above, please consider submitting a proposal. This domain is in search of a wide-ranging offering of indie games to bolster the portfolio of games building on Arbitrum, and this domain wants your game to be part of that portfolio.
Your game or project should not be at the whitepaper or draft stage. You must be able to show meaningful progress in the form of a demo or vertical slice. Ideally this domain should be able to play at least a portion of your game.
The cap for individual grants is set at 25k ARB.
Proposal review and evaluation rubric:
Proposals in this domain are typically reviewed directly by the domain allocator. Depending on the proposal content, the domain allocator may consult with allocator(s) in relevant domain(s) and may invite other allocator(s) to provide additional review.
The evaluation rubric consists of four items that are each scored from 0-5 points:
- Team experience: Have you or your team shipped a game before? Do you have a track record of success in either the web2 or web3 gaming industry? If not, can you or your team show meaningful progress on a game demo that can speak for itself?
- Novelty and quality of the idea: Does this game stand out amongst the noise? Is it bringing something totally new to the table that may attract users interested in innovation? If your game is a rehash of a tried-and-true genre, why does it work well in web3?
- Relevance to our ecosystem: Will users already on Arbitrum want to play this game? Will it bring new users from other ecosystems? Does this game ‘fit in’ on Arbitrum? Do you have a good answer to the question ‘Why Arbitrum over other chains?’
- Completeness of the plan: Do you have a clear vision for your game and its next steps? Will this domain be able to understand the steps necessary to achieve that vision? Do you have the necessary manpower and funding (possible grant notwithstanding) to accomplish what you’ve set out to do?
- Feasibility of goals and timeline: Are your milestones and timeline feasible? Are there any known obstacles that may delay or otherwise halt your progress? Will this domain be able to see some form of meaningful impact to both your game and the Arbitrum ecosystem within 6 months of approving your grant?**