Happy New Year, everyone!
As of now, we have decided to initiate a community vote regarding the potential delisting of our Dapp. This decision arises from thoughtful and reasonable discussions within our team, where we concluded that it is important to give the community a chance to express their collective voice on this matter.
We want to make it abundantly clear that this decision is not a response to toxic voices, harassment, or undue pressure. Such behavior has no place in our ecosystem and should be left out of this discussion entirely. I will address these issues directly at the end of this statement.
While this vote is essential to ensure transparency and community involvement, it’s important to acknowledge that a delisting would have a significant impact on our roadmap. Prolonged processes and lack of funding could greatly affect our ability to build efficiently. Nevertheless, we remain committed to our vision and to delivering value to our community.
We hope that the community that has trusted us so far will continue to support us and entrust us to remain listed as a Dapp. Your ongoing belief in our work and your participation, including continued staking, are critical to ensuring the success and longevity of this project.
Vote Link Here
I personally wanted to address a few points that have been brought up as well.
What Did We Do With the Skylab Funding?
Here’s a detailed breakdown of how we utilized the funds to further our project:
The Team
Skylab is a dedicated team of five core members
2 Game Developers
1 CEO/3D Artist (myself)
1 Marketing/Community Manager
1 CFO/Merchant
Over the past 15 months, we received approximately $55,000 through Dapp Staking, UCG, and the Yoki campaign.
Allocation of Funds
Here’s where the funding was directed:
Taxes: 40% (~$22,000)
Since we’re based in Germany, taxes are unavoidable. This reduced our usable funds to ~$33,000.
Game Development: 40% (~$13,200)
Artists:
3D modeling and texturing for four characters.
Animation creation (walk/run cycles, fight animations, and cutscenes).
Background music by Yuka.
Assets:
Various assets purchased from the Unreal Marketplace.
Marketing: 15% (~$4,950)
Giveaways, visiting events, such as Blockchain Life to create awareness and attract partners.
Operational Costs: 9% (~$3,000)
such as rendering, power supply etc.
Key investment: An NVIDIA RTX 4090 for one of our workstations to enhance productivity.
Blockchain Development: 23% (~$7,590)
We faced challenges in migrating our NFT collection. Two external developers were hired but couldn’t deliver the results due to unforeseen personal and skill-related issues.
Recently, we’ve engaged a highly recommended developer with a reliable team, and we’re optimistic about completing the migration and blockchain integration for our game in Q1—provided our finances remain stable.
Internal Loan Payments: 13% (~$4,290)
As a team of five, each member effectively received ~$57/month over 15 months. This highlights the passion and commitment driving our project.
Blockchain Development: 23% (~$7,590)
Since early 2023, we’ve been working on migrating our NFT collection and integrating blockchain functionalities into our game. Unfortunately, this process has been fraught with challenges.
Issues With Contractors: We initially engaged two external developers for the migration, but both failed to deliver results. One had to abandon the project due to personal reasons, while the other lacked the expertise to complete the task.
Delays With Partners: Misaligned expectations and technical difficulties further hindered progress, consuming both time and resources.
Despite these setbacks, we are now collaborating with a highly recommended developer and their team.
Their expertise gives us confidence that the migration will be successfully completed in the coming weeks. Following this, we plan to integrate blockchain technology into our first game, targeting completion in Q1—provided our financial stability holds.
Do we buy and use assets from the Unreal Marketplace for our game?
Absolutely, we purchase assets from the Unreal Marketplace with commercial licenses!
This practice is standard in the film and gaming industry, especially for projects that are complex and resource-intensive. We’re not creating a 2D or 2.5D indie game, where developers often pour a lot of passion into crafting every single element from scratch.
We’ve aimed for a realistic 3D look, which is far more complex to execute.
For example, take a look at this game created by a talented studio:
Because of the complexity, we can’t build every asset from the ground up. Additionally, we don’t have the budget to hire 20-30 artists for a period of two years, especially when their daily rates average around $250-300 per day.
We leverage every innovative tool available to keep our costs low while delivering products at the expected quality.
That said, we absolutely do not tolerate asset flips in game development. Asset flipping—where developers solely purchase assets and create a game with no original creative effort—is unacceptable, and we strongly distance ourselves from such practices.
Here for example:
Everything—except the monster we used as a placeholder at the time—was created by us. From the set and battle system mechanics to the UI, it’s all our own work.
Is Our Yoki Collection AI-Generated?
No, it is not AI-generated. Like our previous collection, everything in the Yoki Collection has been crafted by us.
To provide more transparency, we’ve shared a detailed “Making Of” video that showcases the creation process:
In Summary:
The funds have been used responsibly to support our team, overcome challenges, and push forward with game development.
The NFT migration and blockchain integration have been a significant focus since 2023, with many hurdles along the way.
However, we’ve learned from these experiences, and our current partnerships show great promise for completing this critical phase.
While our journey hasn’t been without obstacles, we remain committed to delivering a high-quality product and contributing meaningfully to the Astar ecosystem.
By utilizing resources like the Unreal Marketplace responsibly, we not only streamline development but also support the broader creative ecosystem that fuels the gaming industry.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and look forward to showcasing the results of our hard work in the near future.