THiNG.FUND Community Call Recap

On 16th July, William Pucs, founder of THiNG.FUND joined the community for an update call, below is a recap. Enjoy:

1. Who is William Pucs?
2. What is the Renas and why do we want to build this game?
3. What are the upcoming events for the Renas?
4. Ask me anything.

Who is William Pucs?

I started my gaming career in 2000, working as a content designer for the Dungeons and Dragons series in Wizards of the Coast. Over the next 17 years working on game R&D, I developed and introduced over 10 tabletop and video games as the lead designer, producer, and publisher. Those products include the No1 social game in China, Little War — No2. TTRPG globally, the Pathfinder Series, The Cthulhu Series, and The Witcher Series. I started studying blockchain technology in 2017 and joined the Blockchain content platform Bihu in 2018 as their product director.

In 2004, I published China’s first original TTRPG Meshal which has now become open-source. It is still actively run by the player community, boasting multiple derivative games, including MMORPG The Revolution, indie game Banner of the Maid, tabletop game Retreat, the world of Kunlun and Aran, etc. In 2016, we published the board game Gaianus, the first board game that was co-created with the community. In 2018, after joining Bihu, I designed its write-to-earn model and tokenomics. For more than 4 years, Bihu was China’s largest blockchain content platform, with over 1m crypto users.

What is the Renas and why do we want to build this game?

The Renas is a browser-based D&D style text game that allows ppl to co-create in a bottom-up way.

You can play it at any time via any device. And the gameplay is simple. It only requires several minutes for a new player to get started. When you play, it will automatically generate the contents based on your actions. You can also use creator tools to build more complex content. If your creation goes popular, you’ll earn more incentives.

Why do we build it? Because we see potential!

D&D is a proven genre for decades. It has a massive user base and has co-narrative gameplay. It’s a perfect playground for creators and players.

In crypto1.0, we addressed the issue of ownership confirmation. In other words, crypto1.0 answered the question of who owns what financial assets, as this is the easiest to quantify, with tokens. In crypto2.0, NFTs are invented to determine the ownership of non-standardized items. But now we are seeing a glimpse of crypto3.0 and the issue that lies ahead is IP. In other words, instead of merely answering who owns what, IP requires a greater degree of participation.

So in the two wheels of THiNG.FUND, crypto art, as represented by the Starly collection, and crypto game, as represented by the Renas, this is what we want to achieve and we are quite advanced.

The Renas pioneered this model of browser-based D&D style text game that allows people to co-create in a bottom-up way.

You can play it at any time via any device. And the gameplay is simple. It only requires several minutes for a new player to get started. When you play, it will automatically generate the contents based on your actions. You can also use creator tools to build more complex content. If your creation goes popular, you’ll earn more incentives.

Data attests to it. So far it has 69% of D1 retention, 62% of weekly retention, and 38% of monthly retention.

Community participation is another proof. A couple of days ago, we started a campaign to solicit interesting stories from the community. About dozens of people submitted their short stories, which is no small achievement, given the amount of brain power you need to put into such creations.

The idea is that after you create this story, you become a part-owner of the adventure map, leaving your name on it for starters. Later on, as adventure is fully open to financial interests, you will enjoy royalties sharing as a co-owner. On the technical front, this function has already been developed. But we need to wait until everything is ready to roll it out. This is a very good example of deep community involvement to co-create an IP, which then turns into some cash cow that returns endless financial interests to its owners. In other words, ownership is one thing. But the right to gain from an IP is another, though equally important thing.

What are the upcoming events for the Renas?

Next week, we will release a new version and your in-game test $CP will be reset to 30.

In this new version, players will be able to build facilities with their existing materials and resources.

There will be two new facilities, including a tent, which spares players the need to consume test $CP for new character slots, as they can do it by upgrading their tent. Of course, you can still burn $CP to expand your character slots. So it all depends on how you want to maneuver.

Another new facility is the watchtower, used to increase the number of adventures you are randomly allocated.

We will keep adding new facilities and as this function becomes live, players will start to scout for recipes during adventures.

In addition to recipes, you will need people to erect new facilities or houses, tasks that you survivors can fulfill.

In a word, the next focus for the Renas is to grow your characters and build facilities or home bases. From our perspective, we will keep rolling out for fun events to incentivize players’ participation.

One example of such events is the leaderboard that we have just announced. We offer fortnight prize pools of 50USDT to those ranking at the top or most blessed with luck. Specific prize rules will be subject to change after a certain period. But we will always announce it in advance so that players know how to tweak their activities.

Ask me anything.

1. I have claimed numerous FLOATs from previous Renas events, what can I use them for?

A: First of all, FLOAT is an interesting piece of souvenir for attending special events. But we try to make it more than a mere display of attendance. We will integrate FLOAT with the Renas game and make it convertible to in-game test $CP, props as well as USDT and FLOW token. Stay tuned!

2. What is the Potion that we have for attending this community call used for?

A: It is used to improve your characters’ action points, so that they can be sent on adventures that are previously inaccessible to them.

3. As a crypto incubator, what are the criteria for THiNG.FUND to choose a project?

A: First of all, we will see if the project has innovations. Second, we look at the tokenomics. Third, we evaluate the team. That being said, there are still many subtle considerations.

As I have been in the gaming industry for over 20 years, with experience from development, and publishing all the way to post-market operations, with a track record of some blockbuster games, like D&D. These experiences give me some leverage in evaluating projects.

4. Do you have plans to issue tokens?

A: Yes. But we want to make sure we have solid tokenomics in place. Some initial thoughts are:

First of all, you can stake it on a UGC in the Renas, be it equipment, an adventure, or other in-game assets to generate yield.

Second, some bulk materials will be designed not as NFT, but as fungible tokens, so that players can easily swap amongst them. As the Renas world is a post-apocalyptic universe, it’s only natural players want to barter with each other. In the future, these NFT or FT assets will be extracted from the Renas game to be listed as standalone assets. This works the other way around as well. Your wallet assets can be projected to the Renas game. We can even add more fun to it by giving it more utility. Off the top of my head, say, someday, you design a weapon that’s used by others to reap yields. As the original designer, you will receive a tiny portion of passive income from it. This will encourage more creation and co-creation.

5. What is your plan for marketing?

A: We prefer to remain low-key at this POC stage so that we can grow the community organically.

We cherish very much the loyal early-stage users and will explore together with them for better tokenomics and more fun game-play. In this process, we hope to give back to these early supporters.

For example, I mentioned the AAA game, fusionist. When they come out, THiNG.FUND’s NFT holders and Renas players will have priority access. We will also craft more partnerships with other Flow ecosystem projects and the greater Web2 and Web3 world in general to give our community supporters more benefits. Actually, the integration with FLOAT NFT is a very good case in point.