.
What typically would be called a standalone game, with a one-time purchase price, or a monthly playing license, is the Crypto Kingdom Version 4, coming up in January, 2015.
In Version 3, users can define their own functionalities for the buildings.
In Version 2, the game can be actually played online, so that there is at least some graphics.
Tomorrow is starting Version 1, which does not have any (proprietary) online functionality, just manual administration of some databases. The perks for anyone for participating in such rudimentary form of a game are the huge lands and resources that are up for grabs. The reason for me to start it this way, which requires lots of player management in the early phase (and also gives away much of the gains that could be kept by founding a game development company), is
(since they are already in the game and can voice their opinion, or even vote economically) and contract the development by directly giving out gold, or by selling gold and paying the developers. The game can thus develop itself without money down.
Once we have the stakeholders involved, it's much easier to answer your questions also! Let's see how it works out in practice!
Announcement that the game is now accepting players (2014-10-19)
The Game Is On.NEW: Rules for Crypto Kingdom Version 1.1: Building just out 2014-10-26.Please note that the inception phase of this thread contains much text that is not part of the rules of the Game. Only the rulebook is, plus the King's decisions after the "Game is On" post in page 6 in the thread.Starting from now, characters can be added to the game. We are currently only me and David Latapie playing it, so you get a very low character index by joining now
To make the start happen in an orderly fashion, all characters at this point require a minimum balance of 1,000 gold (this limiting the number of characters and easing the administrative load). Gold can be bought from the people who already have gold. My rate is 50 XMR per 1,000 gold. According to the rules, gold is generated at a rate of 10,000 gold per day for the first 100 days and then in relation to the online activity. Only 100,000 gold exist now, 10 days to the game.
If you like staking,
gold is staking like there was no tomorrow. If you buy 100 XMR worth of gold now, it will have staked you 990,000 stone in the following 90 days. The system sell price for 10,000 stone is 1 XMR, so... you do the math!
In 7 short days, the Building editor and City map will be available, making it possible for the land grab and initial building to start, with the stone that has meanwhile been accumulated to the gold holders!
"My son.. I saw a dream. It was wonderful...,
wonderful." - paraphrasing the intro of Civilization IV
Original Post v.2, edited in 2014-10-17, see a bit below for the original OP
Crypto Kingdom
Gameworld
Crypto Kingdom is a virtual world that uses Monero(XMR) as money. The main screen is a bird's eye 2-D map of square plots with a similar look as the main map of Civilization from 1991. The whole game is a tongue-in-cheek retro style with pixelated graphics and music of the era. By clicking to one of the several buildings or attractions, one or more plots in size, the player first arrives to a pixel-art "building facade view", and then to "rooms", where he can perform actions.
The main action in each room is Trollbox, where players can chat, tip money, drink various beverages, give reputation, play simple games etc. Some of the rooms have special features such as gambling, links to information resources or news, advertisements, faucets, businesses. Some are private houses of wealthy citizens, meeting places of guilds, and the King's castle is there also. The facade view and room view wallpapers are different for each house and room. New features will constantly be added with the focus on playability, not on graphics. Owners of buildings can also add playable functional features (sandbox MMO) to their buildings themselves.
The land is a limited resource, giving rise to real estate speculation. New land will be claimed for the town according to the Town Council's decisions, zoned and auctioned. The most prestigious lots may be valued very high in the initial auction and the aftermarket. The desirability of land will be determined by the larger of 1) its direct value to players 2) its ingame income generation capacity (game automatically grants higher revenue to hairdressers located next to roads as opposed to inside houses etc. A simple house in the game is projected to have a resale value of about 10 XMR. It is also possible to rent for only a fraction of the cost. Some markets (such as houses) are totally free, some (such as drinks) is taxed or (such as doctor) is regulated.
The game starts in the year 1400, which was October 10th, 2014, the first day after the invention of the game. The time is now passing at a rate of 2 game-years for 1 real-day. The game has 2 phases, the "Ancient" phase that is going on now and the "Economy" that will start when the "Version 3: Economy" is launched after 100 real-days. At that point the time will be reset to pass much slower, at a rate of 1 game-month per 1 real-day. Participating in the Ancient phase gives everyone involved much ingame rewards, and the buildings constructed then will most likely last forever.
The game will be developed in a modular fashion with new versions coming up every 6 weeks. The zero-version is almost ready, and the first 7 versions are already in either the feature specification or ingame mechanisms planning stage.
Version 1: Genesis (2014-10-19)
Version 1.1: Building (2014-10-26)
Version 2: Ancients (2014-11-16)
Version 3: Sandbox
Version 4: Economy (2015-1-18)
Version 5: Skills and Businesses
Version 6: Administration
Version 7: Family and Lineage
Version 8: Villages and Towns
EconomyThe ingame currency is monero (XMR, about $1 now), which subdivides to 1 million moneritos. Typically player actions (wager in a gambling game, price offered in an auction, real estate sale) are denominated in moneros with decimals if needed, and game actions (game-hourly wages, meal, drink, or resource prices per unit) in moneritos.
It is possible to play with only ingame assigned income, faucets and giveaways, but to get something real going (except in the early days of the game when all the early adopters get rich due to initial land grab, even with zero money down), the account needs to be funded. This is officially possible with XMR only, although it is expected that any kind of value can be tradable to blockchain XMR (already is) or directly as ingame XMR by third parties. The emergence of such services means, on the other hand, that ingame value in practice is exchangeable for outgame value, no matter what the game admins wish.
In addition to XMR, whose quantity fluctuates with player deposits and withdrawals, there is a pseudo-monetary resource of Gold. In the Ancient phase of the game, which lasts 100 real-days, 10,000 gold are mined each day by the King, who sells half of them to the investors or players to fund the development. Gold is an income-generating resource, granting building resources in the Ancient era and XMR in the Economy era. In the Economy era, King no longer mines gold but rather new gold is generated to all players of the game in proportion to time spent online (captcha will be asked, to ensure only human playing generates gold). At the current exchange rates, 1 real-month of rather active play generates 10 gold (from Version 3: Economy onwards). Owners of gold select the town council. It also has various ingame prestige uses as a luxury resource. Gold's value is measured in a free market.
CharacterPlayers have a character that, after the introductory levels, can take one of 5 career paths - Servants of the King (moderators and such), Engineers (game developers, also get a cut of ingame construction), Merchants (businessmen and people who want to pay to play), Scholars (wise people having an academic profession, and knowers of Bitcoin and Monero) and Artesans (handy townspeople who spend the time in taverns and earn when there is building going on in town). Each path has several levels with increasing perks and prestige.
The most advanced players in each path may be promoted to Nobility, again of different levels. Nobility owns large palaces in the most prestigious areas, and huge stashes of gold. They may converse with the King, and when visiting drinkhouses, they always drink wine, which is 10 times more expensive than beer, and gives the tavernkeeper a good income. Or just entertain each other in their palaces and plan new businesses for Cryptocurrency's advancement. Or their own. They decide.
Although there is no avatar, the profile page of a player can be accessed by clicking his name in the chat. That lists the picture, whatever the person wants to say, and his achievements, Badges, Medals, Honors, and Orders. The game has numerous ways to keep track of achievement, so each player may decide to excel in something, even if he lacks the resources to attain the cream of the society.
To Whom And WhyThe game is directly playable in a browser and no questions are asked, also no deposit needs to be made. It can be started with never putting money in, and in fact 90% of the players are expected to do so, working from rags to... middle class, at least. 1% of the remaining 10% is expected to pay 90% of all income to the game. They also get promoted to the highest powers.
The game is developed especially to be a way to increase popular (small holder) interest towards Monero, but it will include many bonuses for MEW members joining. The ways how Monero (and any cryptocurrency whose holders gain presence in the game) can be promoted to the players are very many: information, chat, games, forum links, ways to invite other people in the game and give them a starting stash are just some.
Call To Action
A 4-member core development team is under search:
- Game designer (me)
- Lead developer (no gaming background necessarily required)
- Project manager (general project management)
- Marketing guy (get this thing out, to spread virally, connections to gaming communities).
We are searching for experienced/elite people with high productivity and work ethic, teamwork ability, and good compensation. PM me.
If you are interested in speculation, the initial gold can be purchased from me by using XMR. When Version 1 is launched, the gold is awaiting for you in the crucial land grab stage, providing resources and payment medium. Minimum investment is 100 XMR and price is halved from the previous offering to 0.05 XMR/gold, putting the valuation of the whole initial stock at 50k XMR. Currently (2014-10-17) I have 80,000 gold in total, and am interesting in selling half of the stash. I am paying all the development from my pocket. The initial gold sales is expected to cover this.
EDIT: The gold is currently sold in auctions at a price exceeding 0.20 XMR/gold, see later the thread.The game "Version 1: Genesis" (published 2014-10-19) will enable character registration, trade of gold, and building resource stockpiling (which happens to gold owners). The initial gold sold now is kept in my accounting until this.
The game "Version 1.1: Building" (coming 2014-10-26) will enable ownership, claims and sale of land, and construction of buildings.
The game "Version 2: Ancients" (coming 2014-11-16) will enable online play.
I am happy to answer any questions!
PleaI am humbled by the amount of positive feedback, which keeps my spirit high in the development work, which at this stage is admittedly pretty lonely. Please keep the thread free of negativity of any kind - if absolutely necessary, make a new thread for criticizing this game, or use one of the many threads in existence used (or even dedicated) to criticism of me and everything I do. Subjects that are uninteresting to me, and not related to game development, such as legal issues, will be deleted. A game is a game, and any time or value you expend in the game should be considered lost (and converted to enjoyment 
), as it is in other games. 