Townforge: Game, DAO, NFT, fair launch, merge-mine, circular economy, play2earn

[Syksy]

Townforge is an open source economy planning game built on top of a Monero fork, where every in-game event is contained in a public transaction, ensuring full history preservation and cheating prevention. Players can optionally build voxel based representations of their buildings on a procedurally generated 3D landscape, and engage in a number of ways to earn on-chain gold.

Mainnet starts on the 3rd of July
Launch has been delayed to address consensus issues identified with the influx of new players.

Source code: https://git.townforge.net/
Precompiled binaries (Linux, Windows, Mac): https://townforge.net/download

Quick links

• Main site: https://www.townforge.net
• Merge mining pool (with XMR): https://pool.townforge.net
• FAQ: https://townforge.net/faq/
• IRC: #towforge on libera.chat / https://web.libera.chat/#townforge

Social media

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/townforge
• Discord: https://discord.gg/HVtp2m9c
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Townforge/

Basic gameplay
The basic Townforge gameplay is about buying land in a town (some places are better than others, so looking around for nice spots is a good idea), creating various types of buildings on that land, and managing income from those. Other gameplay styles are also possible, typically based on complex economic interactions leading to emergent strategies, with no pre-defined player career archetypes - basically you are free to choose your own destiny and ambitions.

Economics
Townforge is a PoW blockchain, with an emission schedule similar to Monero's, but with faster block times for smoother gameplay. Additionally, in-game DAOs also receive regular emission (about 9% of the total emission), to be automatically distributed to game players based on their gameplay  performance. As in Monero, a tail emission exists to ensure long term playability.

DAO
The town treasuries are automated game accounts controlled solely by consensus rules, ie Decentralized Autonomous Organizations. They receive regular new emission as per consensus rules, as well as income from player economic activity (buying land, purchasing building materials, etc). Four times a day, the DAO pays players based on their buildings' performance, as well as a measure of their in-game prestige.

NFTs
Anyone can create new in-game Non Fungible Tokens with custom designs stored on IPFS (Interplanetary File System). The game can display that data if they're images. Items are not limited to NFTs, and can be integrated into gameplay. Player designed items can also embed gold, which can be redeemed
at any later point. These gilded items contribute to a player's prestige and income.

Decentralized marketplace
Townforge items (construction materials, gemstones, NFTs, food, etc) can be traded in the in-game marketplace, where bids and offers are transactions which can be matched and mined by any miner, thereby executing the sale/purchase.

Prestige
Collecting gold coins and gemstones boost your prestige score, which leads to extra regular income to the twenty most prestigious players. Optimize your collection to become one of the Townforge elite. Gold coins and gemstones can be traded on the open market, and coins may be redeemed for their gold content at any time.

Monetary instruments
You can raise money by mortgaging buildings (automated repayments, and the building will be automatically auctioned if you default on repayments). You can auction building and items. You can create an in-game company and issue freely tradable shares on the market. You can issue dividends in money and items.

Merge mining
Townforge is merge mined with Monero (at the miner's option). This works for both solo mining and pool mining. Merge mining affords Townforge some of Monero's network security while avoiding extra energy expenditure. Mine Townforge, and you also mine Monero with no additional cost. A PoW/PoS hybrid may be added in the future.

Circular economy
The in game economy is based around the city treasury DAOs, which fill up with the money players spend on land, building construction and maintenance as well as the regular coin emission, and provides players with income based on how well they perform in the game. This means that money players spend playing the game will ultimately flow back to them, leading to a circular economy not unlike the real world economy.

In game decentralized chat
In game chat is based on transactions that get to the txpool but never get mined, therefore allowing completely decentralized chat while avoiding blockchain bloat. Supports custom chat colors and built-in emojis, with new unlockable styles based on player achievements.

Fair launch
There is no ICO, no premine, but Sigrid is mayor of the first town needed to bootstrap the game. Townforge is PoW mined. About 9% of the total emission goes to the in-game DAOs. 0.25% of those 9% go to a game account, controlled by the devs. Some of this will be used as prizes for in game competitions, but for the purposes of fair launch, you can assume it all goes to the devs, since they can theoretically take all of it. The rest of that DAO money will automatically trickle down to players according to the game rules, allowing every node to verify all the money goes exactly where it's meant to.

Badges
Badges are obtained by meeting a number of milestones. More badges and higher level badges increase your level, which unlocks new building materials, chat colors and give a prestige boost, as well as allow you to increase RPG attributes used in storyline scripts and live events.

Mortgages and raising funds
A player may mortgage any building to get a cash infusion. Like everything else, this is fully decentralized and rules bound: the player selects a building, how many repayments and for how much, and the game creates new items representing that mortgage, which the player can then sell on the decentralized market. Should the player not be able to meet repayments, the mortgaged building will be automatically sold in auction and proceeds paid to creditors.

Survival aspects
Life in Townforge requires food and warmth. If you can't get these, your buildings will deactivate until those needs are fulfilled. Food can be obtained from others in the marketplace or created by farming. Warmth is ensured by keeping stocks of wood. Farming is season based (a game year lasts a real life week), and winters are colder, requiring more firewood. Manage your food stocks well and make a profit on the markets selling any surplus.

Tech tree
Various discoveries are waiting to be found, providing various bonuses to the discoverer, who can elect to licence the rights to the discovery on the decentralized market.

Found your own town
You can become the mayor of your own town by founding a new town. The more the game grows, the cheaper it becomes to found a new town. As mayor of your town, you can attract new settlers by specializing your town with a choice of bonuses. Mayors get 0.1% of their town's DAO treasury. Choose your random seed to customize your new town's surroundings and bonuses. Players may have buildings in as many towns as they choose.

Complex economic interactions
Buildings' performance is based not only on their intrinsic properties such as their size and type, but also on where they're placed (different locations in the world offer varying bonuses for different building types) and on what other buildings are around it. An influence system allows buildings to help each other out.

Collectibles
Gold coins are the main in game collectible, and various designs are created automatically as the game reaches certain milestones. A better coin collection gives prestige, which in turn make players eligible for extra income. Gemstones (found randomly by stonecutters) give bonuses in building performance as well as prestige. Players may also create their own freeform collectible items, including NFTs.

Scripted storyline
An optional storyline and similar game events will be implemented, in the form of scripts added to the chain, allowing new events to unfold without software updates, just by getting new data off the blockchain. The game theme is loosely based on old Norse culture, around 950 CE.

Full API access
There is JSON RPC for pretty much everything, allowing new clients to be made, focusing on whatever part of the game (or cryptocurrency) they like. For instance a separate web based marketplace trading client could be made. A NFT viewer is in the process of being made, and it might acquire buy/sell functionality later.

Future
Several features are planned after the mainnet launch, including feasts (providing bonuses to participating players and based on inter city competition), possible PoW/PoS hybrid system from inside the game world, art patronage for cultural buildings, as well as private messaging. More aesthetic items will also be added, to be sold by the game. Consensus/balance tweaks may also happen at some point.

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[Syksy]

Reserving second post.

[Sigrid]

Since this is going to a potential confusion point, I want to make it clear upfront:

Townforge is a game where you trade, earn and lose the cryptocurrency (gold) that is on the chain.
This means that as your in-game balance goes up and down as you play, this balance is withdrawable to your wallet address at any time you choose, so you really play with "real" money.

This implies that you have a vested interest in knowing how to play the game before mainnet starts, so you can hit the ground running. Find out how to play, then find out how to play better. Find out what's where, how to make money, how the various parts of the game work together.

Find out how prestige works (the 20 most prestigious players get extra income). Find out how the two groups of buildings (production based and treasury income based) work. Find out how to mine (basically same as monero). Find out the various career paths you can take in the game to carve out your niche as a canny player.

Basically, people who know what they are doing when mainnet comes will have an advantage over those who have to work things out later, same as any other game. But in Townforge, there won't be matches, there will just be a long game with no save games to reload.

The manual is your friend. Hopefully it's up to date but there are so much things in the game if you find something that's off please let me know

Good luck to all


Edit:
also, there is a testnet running atm still. That's how you get to know the game Add --testnet to the game command line (ie, townforge --testnet).

[CaVO32]

As you said, you can convert townforge to real money, but what exchange are you going to list this with? Or it will be your internal exchange like p2p?  But this is good for gamers, because a lot of them are really putting their money on games without earning anything. But here, they have the chance to earn money while playing this game.

[Sigrid]

As you said, you can convert townforge to real money, but what exchange are you going to list this with? Or it will be your internal exchange like p2p?  But this is good for gamers, because a lot of them are really putting their money on games without earning anything. But here, they have the chance to earn money while playing this game.

I filed a request with Tradeogre about it, it's got a fair chance I think. Otherwise, any exchange is free to add it. If they support any Cryptonote, it's basically the same (except no payment ids, so it'll have to be subaddresses).
If that doesn't happen then I guess it'll be P2P

[Xsinx]

Can this game play for free, Or you can start from zero and earn something from playing the game. Or some deposit is required to get you started?

I will try the test now today and see how it works and post my review soon.

[Sigrid]

Can this game play for free, Or you can start from zero and earn something from playing the game. Or some deposit is required to get you started?

I will try the test now today and see how it works and post my review soon.

It is open source, so you can run it for free and explore the world.

You will need to pay to perform any action though. This includes the tx fee (every game action that impacts the world, such as hunting, building, buying items, seling them, tech research, etc) is a tx on the chain (though they're small, typically about 100 bytes for a lot of them).

So basically read mode is free, write mode requires gold, which you can mine. There's a 1 gold fee to create a game account to avoid jokers creating millions and gumming up the works. After that, transaction fees are something like 0.0002 per action, so super cheap.

[Syksy]

Can this game play for free, Or you can start from zero and earn something from playing the game. Or some deposit is required to get you started?

I will try the test now today and see how it works and post my review soon.

Also something to add on top of Sigrid's response;
the game also supports an invitation system, where an established player can create an invitation code with gold in it for a new player to create their new player account. Both the person generating the invitation as well as the new player get a small discount on their next land purchase, so this is to encourage influx of new players.

I regularly have posted invitation codes both on Reddit as well as on Discord, and will do so for the on-going v0.31 testnet asap.

EDIT:
Here are 5 invitation codes each with 2k TFG (Townforge Gold) in them for the v0.31 testnet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Townforge/comments/nwoerh/5x_invitation_codes_with_2k_tfg_in_each_of_them/

[AmoreJaz]

Can this game play for free, Or you can start from zero and earn something from playing the game. Or some deposit is required to get you started?

I will try the test now today and see how it works and post my review soon.

Also something to add on top of Sigrid's response;
the game also supports an invitation system, where an established player can create an invitation code with gold in it for a new player to create their new player account. Both the person generating the invitation as well as the new player get a small discount on their next land purchase, so this is to encourage influx of new players.

I regularly have posted invitation codes both on Reddit as well as on Discord, and will do so for the on-going v0.31 testnet asap.

EDIT:
Here are 5 invitation codes each with 2k TFG (Townforge Gold) in them for the v0.31 testnet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Townforge/comments/nwoerh/5x_invitation_codes_with_2k_tfg_in_each_of_them/

1 TFG is approximately how much do you think in satoshis once you launched the mainnet? somehow, you need to think of a base price once you launched it. and also, to create game account, you need to pay 1 gold fee. is it readily available to purchase? maybe, you can also add that in your faq, how can you deposit the TFG to create the game account? and where are you going to purchase it?

[Sigrid]

1 TFG is approximately how much do you think in satoshis once you launched the mainnet? somehow, you need to think of a base price once you launched it. and also, to create game account, you need to pay 1 gold fee. is it readily available to purchase? maybe, you can also add that in your faq, how can you deposit the TFG to create the game account? and where are you going to purchase it?

It's really hard to say, but a possible indication is that since the emission curve is the same as Monero, scaled by 2 IIRC, then if you consider it might be valued at 0.1% of Monero for its market cap, it'd be... $250 / 2000 = 12.5 cents. Of  course it's kinda circular reasoning since this number relies on estimating the  market cap to be worth 0.1% of Monero's, so it could be $1.25 if you think it should be 1% of Monero's, or 1.25 cents if you think it should be 0.01% of Monero's In the end, it'll be whatever people in general think it should be.

To get gold, you either mine it or buy it. It might or might not get added by an  exchange, but if not, I'm sure people will offer P2P exchanges. Once you have some, you just click on "create account" in the game, and fill your player name and how much to deposit. The fee will be taken on top.

I imagine the first few players will just mine some to start with.

[Sigrid]

There are several ways you can make a niche for yourself in Townforge. Some career paths give you recurring passive income, while others require regular play to earn gold. All of them will be lucrative in some conditions and less so in others, so changing tactics may be a good idea from time to time.

The following list is not exhaustive.

Rent seeker
This is the easy one, which is suitable for "fire and forget" type players who want to get in the game and get recurring income afterwards with minimal involvement. You basically buy land, build a building which receives subsidy from the town treasury, and log in every few weeks to repair and restock. Those buildings include residential, craft, commercial, and more. This is expected to be very lucrative at first, but the more players enter the game, the lower the income will be, since the town treasury will be shared among more players.

Materials producer
Some buildings do not get town treasury income, but produce materials instead, like wood and stone, which are needed to build other buildings. By building stonecutters and sawmills, you can produce materials and sell it to others who need it in the in-game decentralized marketplace. Again, this is expected to be very lucrative at first.

Farmer
Food is required for buildings to tick, so people will be buying food stocks. Building agricultural buildings lets you farm grain or vegetables and sell the surplus to other players on the in-game market. Food is perishable though, and managing sowing/harvest times makes this career path a high risk high reward one, requiring regular play (basically twice a week at least).

Prestige seeker
Collectors of gold coins and gemstones are ranked according to the size and rarity of their collection. The most prestigious players get extra passive income every tick. This is a fairly hands off way to earn gold in Townforge, but one that will likely require a fair amount of up front money.

Speculator
The in game markets are a great place for traders to play the ups and downs of a real economy. Not only you have a dozen or so items with real demand (food, building materials), but rarer items also exist (collectible coins, gemstones, and player designed items). Buying low and selling high is a dangerous but potentially very lucrative endeavour.

3D designer
While building 3D models of buildings to place in the world is optional, good looking buildings will earn their owner badges, giving a prestige bonus, and thus extra income. That owner may then find it financially attractive to pay a 3D designer to build fancy models for some of their buildings.

Entrepreneur
A player may create a company, as well as shares as custom items in the game. These shares can then be traded freely in the in-game marketplace. Dividends can be issued to current owners of said shares. Need I say more ? An enterprising player can start an in game business and sell shares to get funding. Richer players with less time to play can invest in those shares and get regular income.

Lender
Buildings can be mortgaged, so a player wanting to expand their empire can raise money to do so. Mortgage repayments are secured on a building, which will be automatically put to auction if the agreed upon repayments are not met, with the auction proceeds used to pay the debt. This is a great way for rich players to earn gold with close to no play time.

Researcher
There is a tech tree in Townforge, and players discovering tech can not only benefit from bonuses, but can also licence those to other players, since a discovery comes with ten licence items, which can be traded on the market.

Land developer
Buy land and build houses on them along with a nice 3D model, to resell them with a little markup to new players looking for uncomplicated exposure to the game passive income system.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and some of the strategies above are risky, but this shows a good overview of what is possible in Townforge. Since the game rules are intentionally fairly open ended, I look forward to see how enterprising players find other ways to earn gold in game.

[Fire Rabbit]

Nice to see another play2earn site. I am a huge fan of blockchain games. I liked the idea of merge mining.
When will the landsale be and how much will be its rate?

[Sigrid]

Nice to see another play2earn site. I am a huge fan of blockchain games. I liked the idea of merge mining.
When will the landsale be and how much will be its rate?

Thanks

There's no ICO or the like. It's a fair launch, there's no land pre-owned by anyone to be sold to others. To buy land, you'll have to mine (or buy gold from others they'll have mined first).

Land cost is a fixed function based on the location. High close to the center (it's prime land, close to the starting point), goes down and then slowly up with distance to avoid people building at silly distances and add a a measure of scarcity and resale potential.

In terms of absolute amounts, you can get a 32x32 plot for less than 10.5 gold some distance away from the town square (the block reward starts at > 17 gold, so that's a steal). Building on that plot costs extra of course, depending on what kind of building you want.

So from the 3rd of July, you can start mining, and buy land with the proceeds!

[AmoreJaz]

1 TFG is approximately how much do you think in satoshis once you launched the mainnet? somehow, you need to think of a base price once you launched it. and also, to create game account, you need to pay 1 gold fee. is it readily available to purchase? maybe, you can also add that in your faq, how can you deposit the TFG to create the game account? and where are you going to purchase it?

It's really hard to say, but a possible indication is that since the emission curve is the same as Monero, scaled by 2 IIRC, then if you consider it might be valued at 0.1% of Monero for its market cap, it'd be... $250 / 2000 = 12.5 cents. Of  course it's kinda circular reasoning since this number relies on estimating the  market cap to be worth 0.1% of Monero's, so it could be $1.25 if you think it should be 1% of Monero's, or 1.25 cents if you think it should be 0.01% of Monero's In the end, it'll be whatever people in general think it should be.

To get gold, you either mine it or buy it. It might or might not get added by an  exchange, but if not, I'm sure people will offer P2P exchanges. Once you have some, you just click on "create account" in the game, and fill your player name and how much to deposit. The fee will be taken on top.

I imagine the first few players will just mine some to start with.

ok thanks for the response. i guess, players will just mine those coins, which i believe is easier than waiting for someone to sell their coins. will look forward on your launch, and try your game. anyway, am already playing a game but without this play2earn feature, which is a very good way to attract gamers.
i just hope that you will continue to develop this game and turn it to a very interesting game for players.

[Sigrid]

Version 0.31.1.0 is out.

This is the version that will be used for mainnet on the 3rd of July.

Note that it is NOT compatible with the current testnet, so if you want to join testnet to try the game out, use 0.31.0.0 still.

Source: https://git.townforge.net/
Binaries: https://townforge.net/download (mac should be there soon)


And for those who want to know more about how land works, what properties make land more or less valuable, here's a blog post for you:

https://townforge.net/how-to-choose-your-new-land

[Syksy]

We're currently running an AMA on the Monero subreddit regarding Townforge's upcoming mainnet launch, please feel free to join us at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/o5pn7q/townforge_ama_fair_launch_on_july_3rd_for_a/

[Sigrid]

v0.31.3.1 is released, and will be the version used for the mainnet launch on the 3rd of July, assuming no showstopper.

The testnet has been reset to use this version as well. If you were on a previous testnet, you'll need to delete your chain before resyncing.

[Sigrid]

Well, there was a recent burst of testing going by new players, and one consensus bug found and fixed. Since there is a realistic prospect of more testing happening in the near future, I'm going to delay mainnet for now, since this extra testing time will be useful.

[Syksy]

Lead dev Sigrid / Mooo has posted an update regarding the upcoming few months, with thoughts on the release and current state of the game and network:

https://townforge.net/the-few-months-ahead

[Twinkledoe]

Lead dev Sigrid / Mooo has posted an update regarding the upcoming few months, with thoughts on the release and current state of the game and network:

https://townforge.net/the-few-months-ahead

So maybe before the end of this year, we will see this gaming platform up and running. They need to fast track their developments as there are now several play-to-earn gaming sites that are really attracting interest from the gaming community. Though it is not yet late for this. As long as they can offer something good, they can always find their niche in the gaming world.