Hi -- Deckbound Heroes will be launching in invite-only alpha end of October (if you've bought cards via early access or redeemed an invite code you'll get access to this) and Deckbound Quest is being previewed at events in the coming months.

There'll be some more updates going out in the coming week... including more info on Deckbound Quest, but here's a preview of what we've been up to -- https://www.flickr.com/photos/deckbound -- taken from Deckbound Heroes' first major public outing at Gamescom a couple of weeks ago.

Hey -- we just posted some important news to the newsletter, I've copied the newsletter content & press release below... as well as the first screenshots from Deckbound Heroes Click through to see them bigger at https://www.deckbound.com/heroes

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Two bits of exciting news: we've secured an investment from Aaron L. Kaplan of Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC and we can show you the first screenshots from Deckbound Heroes!

I met Aaron in Boston at the crypto legal workshop in January, where we worked together on defining and discussing applicable issues on a variety of related crypto/token/product areas. Aaron will be joining our board of directors, and Gusrae Kaplan will be representing EVA Plexus as US counsel. I've copied the full press release below.

Screenshots! These are from the Deckbound Heroes preview. They're not final art, but they're close enough to be representative of the art and UI style that'll be used in Heroes. We've a tentative launch date of April for the Alpha.

We're doing some limited demos of the Deckbound Heroes preview starting at GDC next week. If you're in SF for GDC let me know and we'll arrange a demo. Otherwise watch this space (and the Deckbound Heroes page) for upcoming video previews.

   

Hey. I just posted some information to the email newsletter and wanted to repeat here for anyone following just this thread...

You can get 30% more tokens in Block 1 & 2

We've been working on the details for the issue of Genesis Tokens to Genesis Block Holders.



Genesis Tokens are used to create & incept Deckbound cards. Buying Genesis Blocks will result in you being issued a number of tokens proportional to the size of your purchase and the size of the block. The Deckbound system will automatically manage the use and sale of these tokens into card packs across the lifetime cost curve of a Genesis Block's cards. You will also be able to do that manually.
 
We've been working on getting the legal and technical specifics right for this token issue. I was at MIT a few weeks ago for the legal/technical workshops -- see http://crypto.sabir.cc/?page_id=147 -- on various crypto/legal issues, including the issue of product tokens. This was a fantastic event that has allowed us to accelerate what we're doing with Genesis Tokens.
 
We'll be simplifying some of the block size and card issue details, including specifically the target "block size". This is currently at 130% of the BTC size of the block. To clarify how this works, we're going to make the block size and the block target the same thing… but modify the mechanics of how card prices increase such that the demand curve for higher priced cards kicks in sooner.
 
Block 1 & 2 purchases get 30% extra tokens
 
As a thank you to early purchasers in Blocks 1 & 2, and to avoid any confusion, we're going to convert Block 1 & 2 ownership at 130%…. giving you 1.3x the tokens you paid for.
 
This also applies for any additional purchases in Blocks 1 & 2, until Block 2 has sold out. If you'd like to take advantage of this while there's still some of Block 2 left, you can credit your reserved funding address or use the links at https://www.deckbound.com/genesis-block-purchase
 
Genesis Block sales fund the ongoing development of Deckbound and your support is very much appreciated.

G.

Hi Gumbork. Ultimately the number of blocks are dependent upon the number of cards bought by players. Given the size of Block 2, this could be -- and this is an estimate -- between 500k and 2m cards. Once those cards have been sold, it becomes more expensive for players to buy cards from that block and we will offer cards for sale from the next block at the regular price.

Having fixed blocks (instead of an endless supply from one infinite block) allows for an ongoing iteration of new card properties and abilities. A lot of CCGs do this -- Magic, as an example, issues 2-3 core "sets" per year. I expect that we'd be looking to adjust the size of blocks to the ongoing demand for cards. As the player base increases the blocks get larger to anticipate demand.

For the first few blocks we've intentionally kept the size small (2m cards isn't very many when you consider that average players may have 250 or more cards in their collection). Because of this, we're being careful to only release block sales as and when we're ready (especially as we've not launched any games yet). At launch of the block system we announced blocks 1 and 2. Block 1 is fully sold and block 2 is over 70% sold now, but as it currently stands we haven't sized Block 3. It's likely that there'll be a gap between blocks 2 and 3.

G.

Hey -- just launched the first version of the Deckbound Explorer... so figured I'd include some details here for those following along.

The explorer is a visual browser that you can use to look at Deckbound cards -- a bit like blockchain.info or insight... but for Deckbound cards, and in 3D.



It's in a very early stage, but you can already use it to look at test cards and live transactions pulled from the Bitcoin network (Deckbound cards are all based on Bitcoin transactions, so we can simulate cards by looking at live transactions on the Bitcoin network).

There's a intro video explaining all this at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV_5GhGhI-k



If you just want to play around with it, point your WebGL-compatible browser at http://index.deckbound.com/explorer... it works well with any recent GPU and the recent versions of Chrome & Firefox. Should also be okay in Safari and IE as well.

To make all this work we did a bunch of work on procedural generation and determinism using Bitcoin transactions (and Deckbound card IDs)... you can read more about that at https://www.deckbound.com/card-inception.
 
This also marks the first public release of the Deckbound API -- you can get the raw information about Deckbound cards and build your own explorer should you want to. Find out more at http://index.deckbound.com/

Hey Prophetx,


Blocks will continue to be created in proportion to card demand, and cards will be issued in proportion to block size. As the price of cards from a specific block increases once a block reaches its target size, there is effectively a target card distribution for each block -- which itself varies based on player demand for cards. This is detailed at https://www.deckbound.com/genesis-block with some examples.


At the moment, you can do this via a private sale for blocks 1 and 2. But you would need to arrange sale and transfer of the controlling email address or private key used to make the direct purchase.

Having said that, we're working on the token issue to Genesis Block purchasers... which is ultimately used in card creation. This will likely be the default for Block 3 and beyond (i.e. tokens are issued at the time of sale) and depending on finalising some details, may also apply to Block 1 & 2 purchases.

G.

We just put up a intro/overview for Deckbound at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_-mxgUNiOM

G.

Hi -- sure. We needed to be able to do hierarchical tagging for Deckbound, using multiple address sets at each part of the hierarchy. There wasn't anything that allowed us to do that and maintain compatibility with existing bitcoin tech (particularly regular wallets), so we built bitbind.io. Much of what the service itself does is maintain the flattened tag list for each address, but it's totally feasible to rebuild that from the raw tag data and the blockchain itself.

G.

Thanks -- have been considering options for card vocabulary (i.e. mapping of "names" to incepted identity IDs) and this could be an approach.

Hi. The current games (Heroes & Land Grab) do rely on connecting to a web service, and are played in a browser. The underpinning card architecture is all part of the data we write to the bitbind.io API, which will eventually have it's own instance-able node, so theoretically you could run it offline.

The types of games we're making are inherently multiplayer (though AI play is supported from the outset with all of them) so we don't see offline play as something that's critical. Having said that we're also keen to not introduce unnecessary dependencies, so, for example, unless you're creating new cards there's no need to run from a live bitcoin node (though you do require a node and an instance of the bitbind.io API to retrieve the card data).

G.

Hey -- you've got a while left yet for early access. Basic outline of releases for Heroes (the first released game) is as follows:

1. Test Alphas (these will use a fixed set of test cards) -- coming in the next few weeks

2. Alpha releases (these will use actual cards, but there'll be room for change in incepted abilities and card attributes -- i.e. the inception algorithms may change a lot in this period, so any redeemed or purchased cards will change) -- I expect this will be around Oct/Nov time, but that's very much TBC until we get through (1)

3. Beta releases (this is primarily a systems release, not a game one -- i.e. making sure card purchase and inception, account management, player levelling etc is properly functioning)

4. General (and ongoing) releases -- the games will all be updated on an ongoing basis, but at this point the game is considered "final", and the releases are more like patches and feature releases than the phases above

Insofar as early access (and more specifically heavily discounted card packs and guaranteed access to other pro and test features) is concerned, this will be available until right up until the start of phase 4. At the very earliest, I expect that this would be Jan/Feb, but i'll obviously keep this thread and the website up to date with more information as and when we have it.

G.

Totally agreed on both points here -- matching options are important, but the core feature of any quality CCG has to viable play with asymmetrical decks and collections. I'm not avoiding that players will need to buy cards to engage fully in the game, but the Nomad system allows new players a way to experiment before making a purchase. It's also a useful way of buying specific cards (you can buy specific Nomad cards directly or buy card packs).

Specifically on the match-making thing, we will be allow for custom matchmaking options, and one of those will be "play against Nomad decks only". There will also be AI opponents to specifically cater for players who have a limited collection or deck. Eventually the matchmaking and related systems will be opened up via a public API so the community can construct other systems as desired.


Yea, I've thought about this a lot. Not specifically announcing anything at this stage, but intentionally giving ourselves plenty of options at the technical and commercial level. Of course because the cards are just tracking Bitcoin transactions, this could be handled outside of Deckbound. But I expect we'll get to constructing and organising a variety of tournament systems once the games and cards setups are stable.

@gordoh -- thanks, pretty interested myself... obviously


Best thing to do at the moment is sign up for both the general and fundraising mailing lists (both available from https://www.deckbound.com/contact), as alpha invites and other news will go out to those before they're more widely available (though in some cases early access customers will get access before that).

As we launch the first Heroes test alpha (which is gameplay focussed on fixed cards) and move on to the first card-based alpha we'll be looking for testers, especially those who've got experience with other CCGs and are willing to participate in our forums (http://meta.deckbound.com -- active but pretty vacant right now) -- it'd be great if you could get involved in that. I'll be sure to post updates to this thread as well.

G.

I've developed a design, architecture and set of services to support playing collectible/trading card games (like Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Netrunner etc) using digital identities based on Bitcoin transactions. I'm a games developer and Bitcoin enthusiast and am thrilled to be able to be able to leverage my experience with both to launch Deckbound.

The Deckbound website is here: https://www.deckbound.com/

There's an introduction to the Deckbound Explorer from Jan '15 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV_5GhGhI-k



I've built a public service to allow tagging and object tracking on the blockchain: https://bitbind.io/ -- i've posted about that previously here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=708517.0

The business that runs both is EVA Plexus Limited, which is incorporated in the Isle of Man with the support of the IOM's Department for Economic Development.

The first game based on all of this is called Deckbound Heroes and launches in test alpha soon. You can get early access, sign up for the mailing list and more at the site https://www.deckbound.com/earlyaccess

I'm a passionate believer in the value of skilled play, and want to offer something that allows gamers and the gaming community a way of building meaningful, persistent collections of digital assets by using Bitcoin as a platform. The Deckbound architecture has been designed to allow others to build on top of the same cards and services -- I'd love to hear from people who are interested in doing the same. You can read more about how it works at https://www.deckbound.com/howitworks

Deckbound is a set of collectible trading card games and supporting services where every card is based on a Bitcoin transaction, and can be traded, levelled up and tracked across the blockchain.

We've developed a design, architecture and set of services to support playing collectible/trading card games (like Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Netrunner etc) using digital identities based on Bitcoin transactions. I'm a games developer and Bitcoin enthusiast and am thrilled to be able to be able to leverage my experience with both to launch Deckbound.

Full details on the mechanics of card blocks are available at https://www.deckbound.com/genesis-block

Information and background on how the card game infrastructure works is at https://www.deckbound.com/howitworks

We built a public API and service to support this, https://bitbind.io, thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=708517.0

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The business that runs both Deckbound and bitbind.io is EVA Plexus, which is incorporating in the Isle of Man, with the support of the IOM's Department for Economic Development, we're looking to fund development through genesis blocks sales if possible.

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I am Gareth Jenkins (https://twitter.com/garethjenkins), a passionate believer in the value of skilled play, and want to offer something that allows gamers and the gaming community a way of building meaningful, persistent collections of digital assets by using Bitcoin as a platform. The Deckbound architecture has been designed to allow others to build on top of the same cards and services -- I'd love to hear from people who are interested in doing the same. You can read more about how it works at https://www.deckbound.com/howitworks

Full investment details at https://www.deckbound.com/genesis-block

Ragnar -- thanks, and yea, that's the plan. At the moment the data store is a local repository, but I'd like to move to a distributed hash and implement a basic peer system before opening up the code (else different instances of the service would have different datasets). Also keen on putting in an efficient solution for tracking long-distance tag queries (at the moment it'll recurse through transaction chains which isn't very quick). It internally uses an instance of bitpay's Insight explorer, and it's likely that I'll look to extend that to monitor transactions as they happen to keep a local database of object and tag chains.

Thanks for the, er, Link link -- was discussing something similar with someone at the SF bitcoin meetup earlier in the year. Might've been the same thing. Regardless, going to have more of a poke at it myself as it potentially lines up with some other stuff I'm doing.

G.

Hi!

So, for the last year or so I've been working on a couple of bitcoin projects. The first of those is https://bitbind.io -- a design, architecture and API for attaching digital assets to the blockchain without either polluting it with extra data or relying on non-standard features. The second is a set of digital collectible & trading card games, for which bitbind.io was built to support. I'll post more on that as I get it online, but there's some draft content already available at https://www.deckbound.com.

The first version of https://bitbind.io is online now, with some examples and further description on the site. I've copied the design diagrams below as they explain the principles pretty well.

I'd love to get some feedback on the design and expand the use cases and description of the service as result. Deckbound's architecture utilises bitbind.io to track digital cards (like those in Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering), facilitate 3rd party trade (cards are effectively just bitcoin transactions), provide unique attribute sets (generated from transaction IDs) and allow for levelling and other attribution... but I can see that the idea of tagging addresses (and consequentially the addresses and transaction that result from them) could provide a good lightweight alternative to the various "2.0" initiatives and other related projects.

So -- bitbind.io tags:



Tags and objects are pushed to bitbind.io by a public REST call, using a private API key. That API key denotes the namespace ("foo" of "foo:bar") for the tag.

At the moment, the tags are hosted by bitbind.io, but we're looking to move that to a distributed hash table or validated transaction hash in the future. I'm also interested in exploring options for signed namespaces... effectively a root tag address for each namespace that allows for the "tagging" of other address (I'm doing this with deckbound -- each card class tag is child to a set of genesis addresses and tags).

bitbind.io objects:



Objects represent a trackable item. An object is created from a genesis transaction, the first output of that transaction being the object initial "forward address". The object then tracks that forward address. A transaction that uses it as an input will relocate the current forward address to the first output of the transfer transaction.

An object's address is the transaction ID of its genesis transaction.

...and, most usefully, tagged objects:



A full history of forward addresses is kept as the "address history" of the object. If any of those addresses are used as the output of a transaction from a tagged address, they are implicitly tags for that object. Any tags present on the inputs to the genesis transaction are also considered tags for that object.

The API -- https://bitbind.io/#api -- allows RESTful queries and posts for tags, tagchain, object, createtag and createobject

Testing, use, API Keys and examples

As well as feedback on the design, I'd love to get some other people using the service. If you want an API Key let me know your preferred namespace and I'll set it up. Once I've extended the tags queries for recursive lookups and established some performance boundaries, I'll set up a signup system -- but for now I'm happy to manage them either through this thread or PM/email.

If you've got a interesting use case or example let me know and I'll add it to the site.

Look forward to feedback and discussion -- I'll post more about deckbound separately over the coming days and weeks.