AceTCG: Co-Creating Metaverse Mythology | Colton Orr - AceTCG

[Music] okay welcome everybody thank you for coming I'm Colton so one year ago I came to eth Denver with an art project that I called the infinite Garden so this was 20 collectible cards was physical cards every card represented some in crypto that we all know and love um after eth Denver I returned to living in my parents' basement it was the bare market after all and over the following 12 months my brother and I created an entire trading card game we sold out at devc connect in istanbull and we're now partnering with the University of ethereum to create a digital version of the game it'll look something like this so some of you may see this screenshot and go okay I've seen games that look kind of like like this uh what sets Ace apart a couple of things the first one is I think we have some really special game mechanics that make it a lot of fun to play and you'll be able to play it next week we'll have a booth uh you can come by check it out also be talking about it a little bit later the second part is that the cards are crafted by the community so people like you and the third is the story so a great narrative makes uh and experience really really engaging and Ace has one of my favorite kinds of stories because it's not just fiction every card represents real world Innovations and the heroes and villains behind them so we have this ever evolving expanding Universe of your favorite crypto themes and memes and the cards are meaningful because they represent this real Adventure that we're all liveing so I think of this as metaverse mythology and I'm going to be sharing this mythology with you uh by taking a couple of the cards from the game and showing how they track to my personal uh trip down sort of the rabbit hole but while this is a personal story I think many of you will find it quite relatable uh because we share many of these chapters so this is the crypto Heroes Journey chapter one The Ordinary World actually I have some music for this let me see if I can get this playing [Music] too no I not worry about that okay so the Ordinary World Anan had the dream position as a character artist on the Spider-Man video games okay this part might not be quite as relatable but hear me out he worked alongside world class game developers and artists on the hottest PlayStation 5 games it was then Anon learned The Saga of be an artist making extraordinary amounts of money using a strange new technology called nfts he immediately understood the significance of this technology for artists digital art had gone from worthless to Priceless how could one refuse such a call he cast aside the security of his job and leapt down the mysterious Rabbit Hole chapter 2 challenges and Temptations in the beginning his aspirations were Noble Anon wanted to be an independent artist to wield his work as a beacon of change yet the siren Call of the bull market whispered Sweet Temptations the fervor for nfts reached all-time highs with meme coins minting new millionaires overnight the promise of prosperity was irresistible the Mantra was simple get the alpha board the rocket and Ascend to the Moon ens snared by visions of laser Ray to 100K he dreamt of his inevitable Lamborghini for he was no mere mortal he was a gigachad armored in conviction wielding the simple strategy of Buy Low and sell high in the mirror of his mind he was an invincible Crypt bro yet beneath this facade he was but a greedy little coin collector clutching feverishly at every coin within his grasp he dabbled in defi Chasing The elusive next airdrop amassing a horde of altcoins each promising to be the bane of ethereum he tried trading but his Ventures were fraught with Peril and disappointment he turned his hand to yield farming only to find his efforts Barren he wanted to rage quit where were the fabled riches where was his golden ticket when Lambo in The Crucible of his trials he had to change strategies he stashed away his coins and prepared himself for the next chapter of his journey he had learned that in the crypto realm it's best to choose participation over speculation chapter three allies and enemies with Bist as his guide and an orange metap Fox by his side he traveled West into new lands his first Adventure took him to the Grand do your own research Library there he learned to not trust everything he heard and instead seek truth from legitimate parties wandering the hallowed Library Halls he learned of satoshi's spirit why Bitcoin was created and the ethos behind crypto and the cipher punks he learned of the Fiat Fountain the mystical source of Skyhigh inflation around yet another Corner the ancient game of the prisoners dilemma unfolded before him he witnessed the ruthless vampire attacks where emerging platforms drained liquidity from established ones he uncovered account abstraction breakthrough a breakthrough that made crypto more accessible to Everyday users he delved into the world of zero knowledge proofs that enhanced privacy and security for transactions he explored layer 2 ecosystems and the me Bots that exploit The Ordering of transactions he learned about the threat of Cil attacks where a single entity creates multiple fake identities to subvert a network he learned about the da Reaper an evil monster that had crushed the da and the Lazarus group a guild of hackers that stole Millions from unsuspecting Souls understanding these monsters allowed him to successfully Dodge rug PES and the Discord DM demons the infinite Garden of ethereum was as dangerous as it was promising and he was a mere Anon wandering the land seeking to level up his skills his journey beckoned him onward towards the quadratic lands chapter 4 the innermost cave when he arrived in the quadratic lands he met a warlock they called auke auke offered a choice take the green pill and see the bright future they could build or take the gray pill and return to the degenerate Zero Sum games Anan had been playing Anan took the green pill the regen Vision flashed before his eyes the tragedy unfolded before him he saw molok the demon of coordination failure described in the Slate star codex Mok tore at the very fabric of our good intentions and snaring us in a web of competition and self-destruction another flash an alternative reality appeared win-wins enabled by web 3 they had the decentralized technology to coordinate humanity and maybe just slay molok his next mission was clear he joined a guild working on nft fundraisers they launched an nft camp campaign that raised half a million dollars for gitcoin Grants they were directly funding public goods like open source software and web through education as his journey continued he met more regen worked alongside characters and uncovered ether's Phoenix and its Paradigm shifting retroactive public goods funding abilities the summer was hot everything was up and to the right they should have known the winter was coming chapter five the ordeal a manifestation of molok had been gaining power with his Legion of zealous followers it seemed the Luna Empire was Unstoppable yet overnight The Fragile edifice shattered in spectacular fashion the token's downfall erased Fortunes in the blink of an eye the devastation rippled far beyond unleashing a contagion that ravaged the crypto lands countless Souls were Swept Away in the merciless tide of liquidations just as the remnants of the storm seemed to settle a final extraordinary blowup sunk Untold fortunes into the abyss chapter 6 the road back as the dust settled lawmaker cast their gaze upon the fractured cro crypto realm politicians spoke loud with their eyes wide shut sanctions crushed Innovations protocols were outlawed the whale population decreased significantly many retail investors got paper hands and left with their losses together with survivors of past Cycles they watched the bare Market sweep across the land chapter seven the reward the winter was upon them but this was just the beginning of their Journey Anan had made a steady income through grants and art projects and met incredible friends through new web3 communities like Zulu we live Between Two Worlds the Ordinary World and the special world of crypto aces are vision of bridging those worlds through a fun experience about the crypto Heroes Journey We Believe web 3 is Magic and by learning to wield this magic we can shape a better Global Society the cards I just showed represent my crypto Journey but like I said many of us have shared this path and there are many Adventures to come Ace's one Journey that I hope we embark on together as of now Ace actually has two games a finite game where players compete and an infinite game where players create cards and balance mechanics let's begin with the finite game and by the way you can swing again you can swing by our booth next weekend uh you can check it out so for the game playay flash gems spark awesome comebacks ace cards lead to Epic final action sequences Shields are an intuitive way to protect against unfun matches while opening the door to cool new mechanics and we keep the basic rules simple so you can just jump right in but don't let that fool you because there are a whole world of sneaky mechanics and strategies that you can master so whether you're planning your next big move or pulling off an epic comeback Ace is all about those Unforgettable moments that'll have you wanting to play again all right so we've got a really fun competitive game now let's switch gears talk about the infinite game the way games are made is changing two people made Ace and with new game design tools and this extraordinary W of of AI we don't have to build a large team to make a digital version that means we can do things differently unlike those big traditional franchises that keep rehashing the same stories and games Ace breaks free of top- down narratives with designs and mechanics dreamed up by you it's like we're all sitting around a giant table throwing in our best ideas for new cards tweaking the rules and evolving the game to be more Dynamic and exciting than ever some of the most popular cards in the alpha Edition were crafted by the community and this is just the beginning Collective creativity also Fosters a deep sense of ownership and connection when you create a card you're leaving your mark on Ace's ever expanding universe and it doesn't stop it creating card designs one thing I'm really exced excited about is that by using generative AI anyone can easily craft skins for their favorite cards skins can make designs more personal they can take the story of a card in a new direction or just create a flavorful way to celebrate an upcoming holiday you can also create new playing fields that capture the vibrant diversity of the crypto landscape each of these contributions can be rewarded through tokenomics or through nfts because remember with nfts everything you create or collect in the game is yours to keep trade or expand upon each card is a little piece of the ace universe and who knows the card you design could be the next big hit or even spark a whole new game or story within the ace world so we've talked about narratives and art and when it comes to balancing many games crumble when they centralized teams make unilateral decisions that don't align with their community's desires Ace takes a different approach found a card that's too op or maybe you've got an idea for a card that could shake things up jump in let's make sure every change is embraced and celebrated by those who play ace the most so in closing we have a game that's really fun to play and an Ever evolving Adventure that you can be a part of I invite you to join us on this Epic Journey create a card tell your story and shape the world of base together let's discover just how incredible a game can be when it's limited only by our Collective imagination now I've got one more piece to share with you which is that until now uh we've been making these Community cards by just holding small events we'll do little creativity exercises people will vote on different cards that they like but I have been like the sole bottleneck for this and uh in the spirit of building we've just launched the very first version of the web app so you can now just start creating cards so uh this is very early first version you can only create charact uh creatures right now it's only one color um but huge shout out to Jill for making this uh it is an amazing amazing piece that he put together um it's all powered by Eden and you can uh scan this QR code to join the Discord and in there you'll have a link to uh go straight to the card creator um again the most fun part of this project for me has been just working with other people to come up with these cards that represent this Shar journey and uh I would love to see the cards you come up with you can just share them back in the Discord and I hope you have a really good time with it we've been having a lot of fun with it already so I can try to take questions the HVAC is quite loud so you'll have to really shout uh does anybody have any questions any hands so I'm just going to be parked over here for a little while and if people want to chat off some cards with me too so you can check those out uh thank you so much