Blockchain Cuties Universe (founded in 2017) is a multi-blockchain collectible game with adventures built on Ethereum, TRON, NEO, and EOS. It is a crypto game where players get to play with puppies, lizards, bear cubs, cats and other real and fantasy creatures alike. The game allows players to bid and win their custom cuties[1][2][3].
The Blockchain Cuties game was launched on April 24, 2018. A Blockchain Cuties Wallet (BC wallet) was also integrated into the game. It was designed as an alternative to Metamask.
Blockchain Cuties is set in Cutieland, a place much like Earth where all the Cuties live. Each cutie, which is an ERC-721 token, can be transferred or sold to other players.
Every Cutie adhere to a hierarchy. Regular Cuties are the most common, the way they look is tied directly to their genomes and they don't possess any special abilities. Tribute Cuties are tributes to modern pop culture, cinema, and video games, they are a bit stronger. Unique Cuties are ultra rare breeds that can't be reproduced by regular players, they only come in limited quantities. Cuties can be traded on TRON, EOS, or Ethereum blockchains and in 2018, it was reported that blockchain Cuties Universe was the first game to support two blockchains simultaneously.
Blockchain Cuties has an involved community that actively participate in polls to determine which creatures, items, features, and other useful things should be added to the game. Their product roadmap is a Trello board.
In the beginning of April 2019, Blockchain Cuties Universe sold off it's beloved mascot and first ever digital pet Koté in a pivotal moment for the game. The game will be focusing less on collecting and trading, and more on strategy. The company announced that 90% of the funds from the sale would go to adding new features to the game and the other 10% will go to a Latvian animal shelter.
On April 25, 2019, Blockchain Cuties Universe developed a digital pet named DartaNyan and was offered to users during the Cryptogames Conference in Minsk, Belarus. The sale was hosted by Auctionity and the proceeds were all donated to TeenGuru, a business and tech school for youth[5].
The main in-game "resource" is
Cuties.
Everything is centered around cuties, they are the ones you breed, grow, send to adventures, buy and sell.
Every cutie can gain experience, level up and use items, including those that can improve its cool downs and genes. All important cutie stats are stored in blockchain as compactly as possible, holding the cost of transaction in mind. Some features are even stored off-chain[6].
Cuties are split into three groups: normal cuties, tribute cuties and unique cuties. Cuties are cute tradable and transferable blockchain assets (NFTs) that are generated either by the "Creator" (game entity that generates Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for sale or giveaways) or by the users when breeding two different non-relative Cuties.
Breeding process requires the user to have two suitable characters and to pay two fees:
Cuties are backed either by initial investment in cryptocurrencies, or by time and skill put into the game during the breeding process. Each Cutie possesses many characteristics that define its role and combat skills in the game:
Each Cutie is born on a specific blockchain (generated as NFT) and is attributed to it. When being born, Cutie receives an ID, which is stored in his token property and is available in his web address. Depending on the blockchain, ID consists either of numeric value alone, or includes blockchain first letter:
The closer Cutie is to the blockchain's firstborn, the more valuable he's considered to be. Additionally, Cuties #1, #10,000, #50,000, #100,000 and so forth receive a unique art within some time after they are born. Unique art and being one of a kind introduces scarcity and collectible value. Only Cuties on the same blockchain can interbreed. Cuties from different blockchains can fight each other without restrictions. Cutie token generation date and time are considered to be its birthday and are used in calculation of Cutie's age. Oldest Cuties in the game are around 2.5 years old.
There are 8 Cutie species in the game with 1-2 being added every year. Species define how Cutie looks and what initial bonuses it receives:
Species | Bonuses |
---|---|
Cats | Luck +4% |
Dogs | Defence +2 |
Foxes | Evasion +4% |
Lizards | Attack +1, Defence +1 |
Bears | Attack +2 |
Pigs | Luck +2%, Drop Chance +15% |
Hedgehogs | Attack +1 %, Drop Chance +15% |
Rabbits | Luck +2%, Evasion +2% |
There is another Mythical species type - for all the unique creatures that cannot be attributed to existing types described in the table above. It doesn't provide any specific combat bonuses.
Each Cutie has a unique genome that consists of 64 genes and defines how Cutie looks and what attributes it possesses. Same genome combination produces different attributes for different species. Every gene can have a value from "0" to "F".
When breeding occurs following processes happen:
Adjacent genes can create specific combinations that translate into attributes. Each attribute can provide stat and element increases or decreases
Each Cutie species has different secret gene combinations that when lined up properly, unlock unique looks and increase Cutie's rarity, making it a "Tribute" one. Tribute Cuties are inspired by popular pet celebrities, cartoon and movie characters and reflect modern pop culture. Currently there are 58 Tributes in the game. for players to discover.
Each Cutie has a generation, starting from 0 and going to infinity. The lower the generation value, the more powerful the Cutie is in combat and less expensive it is to breed it with other Cuties. The generation difference bonus in combat is not static, but contextual:
When two Cuties breed, their child gets the highest generation of two of the parents and adds +1 to it. Example: Gen 0 and Gen 5 Cuties will have a Gen 6 child using the formula:
=MAX(0,5)+1
Parents always produce less powerful Cuties then themselves. But Cutie generation in BCU can be improved up to Gen 0 using special Youth Potions (consumables). Because it can be done, players distinguish two types of Gen 0 Cuties:
Creator GenO Cuties are valued more than regular one.
BCU sports two similar d20 dice based combat systems that are somewhat resemblant of those used in early Dungeon and Dragons4 days. Combat is happening off-chain and does not require players to pay any network fees. Each combat happens in turns, where one Cutie attacks (Attacker) and the other one defends (Defender).
Each turn Cuties change their Attacker and Defender positions. First battle system is using character hit points to determine the winner, while the second one uses round win count difference to determine who won the "best of three" series. Each Cutie in the game has two types of stats:
Stat | Role |
---|---|
Power | Overall Cutie power, serves as combat bonus during both attack and defence phases. |
Attack | Serves as combat bonus during attack phase. |
Defence | Serves as combat bonus during defence phase. |
Luck | If >=1 % triggers additional pre-attack phase, where it is decided whether next attack will ignore opponent's armor or not. |
Evasion | If >=1 % triggers additional pre-defence phase, where it is decided whether the Cutie should completely ignore opponent's attack or not. |
Raid Bonus | Serves as combat bonus during both attack and defence phases when fighting against Raid Bosses. |
Experience Bonus | Serves as after the fight bonus which alters the amount of received experience points. Helps Cuties to level up faster. |
Drop Chance Bonus | Serves as after the fight bonus only if the Cutie has won the battle. It increases or decreases Cutie's chance of getting an item as a reward. |
Level | Serves as both combat and non-combat bonus. During combat it provides power bonus and defines the amount of hit points a Cutie has. In non-combat situations it serves as an unlocking mechanism to define which items a Cutie can equip. |
Elements serve as additional battle modifiers that create a deeper meta within the game. Each adventure location may have one or few elements attached to it. If location has an element assigned, then this element's value will be used in Cuties' both attack and defence phases of combat.
Elements are usually "farmed" during the breeding process by narrowing down certain gene combinations that provide attributes with specific elemental bonuses. By diving deep into the science of breeding, players are able to create specialized Cuties that are strong in particular adventure locations.
There are three main type of Cutie rarity in the game:
Existing Rarity Types: This is made up of:
Wars of Cutieland (WoC) is a long term iterative conversion update that would introduce a lot of grand strategy genre elements to the game. It will be released as an additional layer that doesn't change existing gameplay, but adds a completely new gameplay on top of existing game. Wars of Cutieland would allow players to:
They are three additional Cutie rarity roles that will also become available:
Nobility is an additional meta rarity parameter that makes Cuties stronger. It can be applied to Regular, Tribute and Unique Cuties via an Aristocracy Elixir (consumable item). Unique Cuties almost always come as noble. Being noble provides: +1 Power and Patterned background.
Items are a huge part of the Blockchain Cuties Universe. There are more than 770 different item kinds in the game right now and dozens are being introduced every quarter. Items are server entities, not NFTs, but they empower NFTs and make up a separate BCU economy layer. All item trade transactions happen through blockchain.
There are two types of items in the game:
Players get items from:
Adventures , In-game shops , Crafting , Trading , Loot Boxes , Season events , Contests and social activities and Lottery.
Most wearable items have Level Requirement property that defines a minimum Cutie level required to wear them. This creates a sense of progression and adds use cases for less powerful items in specific contexts instead of always going for "best in slot" ones. All items provide bonuses, but some provide additional bonuses when worn together. This mechanic is called Item Sets. Sets start to provide bonuses when only some of the needed items are found and worn together (e.g. 3 out of 5), but produce full effect only when all needed items are worn together. This introduces hundreds of effective Cutie builds tailored to specific circumstances and deepens the game meta.
Items in BCU have rarity. There are 8 rarity types in the game, each color coded with a separate color:
Common (Gray), Uncommon (Green), Rare (Blue) , Epic (Purple) , Legendary (Yellow) , Unique (Gold) and Set (Pink [set item can be of any rarity, but is always color coded the same]).
Rarity helps to indicate both the subjective and market value of a specific item.
Other types of items in the game are:
Resources and Ingredients: Resources and ingredients are either consumable or control items (you need to have it to do something, but it doesn't get consumed) that are required in the process of making new consumables of wearable items.
Resource item types: Magical Dust - a resource generated during item recycling process and used in item crafting and enchantment procedures. Materials - goods such as pine, leather, basalt, wine, dried herbs and so on. They are used in the crafting process. There are 3 tiers of materials, each next is more expensive and harder to come by. Recipes - consumable or control items that are required during the item crafting process. Includes Recipe Scrolls (consumables), Tomes of Crafting (enabler items) and so on.
Crafting and Enchantment: Game offers two mechanics to deal with existing items. Crafting - system that allows players to use existing wearable items, control items, materials and Magical Dust together and in big numbers to produce new, more powerful items. Overall power curve of craftable items is higher than one of the grindable ones, which makes them more sought after. Crafting process requires a lot of grindable items to be burned, removing them from the in-game market. This creates demand for such items and pumps their value. Crafting process has a defined 100% success rate. Enchantment — part of the game Forge system that allows players to iteratively upgrade an item, making it more powerful each iteration.
Current system settings allow the player to upgrade an item up to 5 times. Users spend Magical Dust in the process. Each enchantment iteration costs more Magical Dust (MD), takes more time, requires rare Toolkits and offers diminishing success rates. Only certain items are allowed to be enchanted. This system serves as an item power curve controller inside the game economy. To upgrade items above +5 enchantment level, players would additionally need special Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) granted for staking HERO tokens, which are farmed by staking BCUG tokens.
There are two major types of cooldowns in the game:
Cooldowns play an important role in the BCU economy, as they always create a need for consumables to keep Cuties effective.
Cutie's value, as an asset, is compound, it derives from many different factors (apart from being transferable, tradable multi-blockchain NFT).
There are hundreds of thousands of Cuties in the game, ranging in prices from several cents to tens of thousands of dollars. Most expensive one was sold for 48.5K USD. Players usually distinguish two general value categories of Cuties - farmers and heroes.
Players can send their cuties on adventures, it takes time to get there, but when cutie arrives, it starts to search for a foe. When an opponent is found, battle begins. It happens in a turned-based roll-the-dice manner: one cutie attacks, the other defends and vice versa. Both cuties gain experience for that and each creature can raise their level. The victor also gets a chance to receive artifacts. There are two types of items in the game, wearables that are visually displayed on the pet and provide different bonuses; and consumables that usually alter cooldowns and genes.
Breeding is one of the most important aspects of the game. Every cutie in the game has it's own unique genome. Think of genome as a human DNA which consists of many molecules where each molecule corresponds to a certain appearance trait. In genome there's 64 genes. Combination of different genes create attributes like
"Sad", "ZeMoustache" e.t.c.
There are two tradable entities in the game and two markets. One is for Cuties (NFTs) and another one is for items (server entities). Despite items being server entities, all trade happens through blockchain. Cutie trade is happening using a Dutch auction5 system, separately on each blockchain. Right now there are 5 Cutie markets in-game: Ethereum , EOS , Tron, Matic and NEO. Native blockchain currency is used as a settlement tool ($ETH for Ethereum, $GAS for NEO, $TRX for Tron and so on). Ethereum blockchain also allows players to trade using ERC-20 tokens (DAI, BNB, CUTE, etc).
BCU takes 4% commission from all the trade happening on the in-game Cutie market. Cuties being an ERC721 NFTs can also be traded on third party marketplaces, such as OpenSea6. When such trade occurs, BCU does not take any commission. There are also Unofficial Trading Community Groups built around the game, where savvy players that do not want to spend extra money on commission, commence in trade manually, by sending Cuties to each other. It's cheaper, but less secure, as BCU does not act as an escrow agent this way[7].
Item market operates using a fixed price per unit approach. There are also technically 5 item markets in the game, but they are combined into one space, as players can sell each item on whichever blockchain they like. They need to have a proper blockchain wallet attached to their account to be able to receive the remuneration in specific currency.
BCU takes 4% commission from all the trade happening on the in-game Item market. As items are server entities, they cannot be sold on a third party market directly. So the only way to do item trade goes through official in-game Decentralized Exchange (DEX). It is possible to equip Cutie with items and sell it on a third party marketplace, but it takes a lot more effort and this method is not price sensitive[8][9].
BCUG or Blockchain Cuties Universe Governance Token is the native digital cryptographically-secured utility token of the Blockchain Cuties Universe (BCU) ecosystem. It’s a transferable representation of attributed functions specified in the protocol/code of the BCU products, which is intended to be used solely as the primary utility token within the BCU ecosystem.
BCUG is a non-refundable functional utility token which will be used as the medium of exchange between participants in the BCU ecosystem. The goal of introducing BCUG is to provide a convenient and secure mode of payment and settlement between participants who interact within the product(-s) on the BCU ecosystem, and it is not, and not intended to be, a medium of exchange accepted by the public (or a section of the public) as payment for goods or services or for the discharge of a debt; nor is it designed or intended to be used by any person as payment for any goods or services whatsoever that are not exclusively provided by the issuer.
BCUG does not in any way represent any shareholding, participation, right, title, or interest in the Company, the Distributor, their respective affiliates, or any other company, enterprise or undertaking, nor will BCUG entitle token holders to any promise of fees, dividends, revenue, profits or investment returns, and are not intended to constitute securities in United Kingdom, British Virgin Islands or any relevant jurisdiction. BCUG may only be utilized on the BCU ecosystem, and ownership of BCUG carries no rights, express or implied, other than the right to use BCUG as a means to enable usage of and interaction within the BCU ecosystem.
BCUG is to be used as the base ecosystem currency for the purchase of various digital assets, such as:
BCUG is also to be used as an indication of commitment to the ecosystem and safeguard against malicious behaviour. Players are also required to stake BCUG to issue:
BCUG, being an ERC20 token is inherently transferable to other users, and also fully exchangeable with various supported ETH and ERC20 tokens, such as DAI, BNB and others.
BCUG provides the economic incentives that will encourage participants to contribute to the BCU ecosystem. There are elements within the Blockchain Cuties Universe ecosystem which utilizes BCUG as means to align incentives between the BCU DAO (the Senate), Cutie holders (players and collectors), BCUG liquidity providers as well as the game developer (company).
Players purchase and spend BCUG in the game on Cuties, items, land pieces, tournament fees as well as pay for some in-game mechanics. Big portion of that value generated is transferred to BCUG Vault (an entity controlled by the BCU DAO) and stored in various reserves. These reserves can be used to:
BCUG token is a very important and indispensable part of the Blockchain Cuties Universe ecosystem because it creates a closed loop system, where every participant has two roles (unique and a shared one - Token Holder), all role incentives are aligned, the system supports itself.
In Blockchain Cuties Universe, players will be able to farm (mint) a new type of non-transferable utility token - HERO, by staking BCUG. Amount of HERO tokens farmed will be generated proportionally to the amount of staked BCUG, using formula: 1 BCUG = 1 HERO per day. Players will be able to see the amount of tokens farmed in their profile in real time. Unstaking the BCUG will seize the minting of HERO tokens.
HERO tokens will be used to purchase tickets for the
"Battle of Rights" lottery that will be held once a week.
Each week a certain limited amount of "Rights" to receive different rare goods or upgrades will be distributed among participating players. In order to participate, players must spend their HERO tokens to buy "Claims" for specific rights.
"Claims" in essence are lottery tickets aimed at winning very specific prizes. Buying certain amounts of Claims will not guarantee a win in the lottery, but will statistically improve a player's standing in it. BCU DAO (The Senate) can vote to add additional Claim types to this mechanic to make it a one stop shop for everything super rare and powerful in the Blockchain Cuties Universe.
After the Wars of Cutieland update, players will be able to farm (mint) a new type of non-transferable utility token - PPOW (Political Power Token), by staking BCUG. Amount of PPOW tokens farmed will be generated proportionally to the amount of staked BCUG, using formula:
1 BCUG = 1 PPOW per day
Players will be able to see the amount of tokens farmed in their profile in real time. Unstaking the BCUG will seize the minting of PPOW tokens. PPOW tokens are meant for the top players during the very late game. They are very situational, but provide great power if used successfully.
Wars of Cutieland Factions
In Wars of Cutieland, players will be able to conquer and own land on a global political map of Cutieland. Whole map will be divided into factions presented by the blockchains. There will be five of them:
Ethereum , EOS , TRON , NEO and Matic.
Players that pass the land ownership threshold (calculated in % of all land controlled by the faction) and have at least one Cutie of a "Prince" rarity are eligible to participate in King Elections. For the duration of the elections, players would need to stake their Prince Cutie (possible future King) and PPOW tokens choosing the type of political action their influence would provide:
PPOW tokens staked won't decide who will become a king, it will be done using a fair election process, where each eligible participant will have an amount of votes based on the % of faction lands he controls. Players can vote for themselves. Player who controls 51 % of the faction territory would win the election. Same king can be elected only three times in a row, even if he has 51 %+ of faction territory. If that happens, this player and Cutie receives a cooldown for the next two elections, temporarily losing the ability to vote for himself.
If the voting falls into a stalemate (50/50), the election process restarts. While the new King is not elected, the faction operates without any bonuses, so there is always a collective incentive to avoid stalemates.
Staked PPOW tokens come into play in the political metagame. Most of the players would want to secure the rule of the faction for themselves. They would also quickly learn which kings are wise and farsighted and which are mediocre at best. During the voting process, the amount of PPOW tokens staked and the type of political action chosen (Support of Undermine) influences the amount of time a new King shall rule, as well as the list of Royal Decrees that will be available to him.
If player who VOTED for himself won the election choosing Support and the total amount of tokens staked for Support was 20% bigger than those staked for Undermine: Player gets to rule as a King for 1 additional week and Player receives an additional economy based Royal Decree to issue during his rule.
If player who DIDN'T VOTE for himself won the election choosing Support and the total amount of tokens staked for Support was 20% bigger than those staked for Undermine: Player gets to rule as a King for 1 additional week.
If player who VOTED for himself won the election choosing Undermine and the total amount of tokens staked for Undermine was 20% bigger than those staked for Support: Player gets to rule as a King for 1 week less and Player receives an additional military based Royal Decree to issue during his rule.
If player who DIDN'T VOTE for himself won the election choosing Undermine and the total amount of tokens staked for Undermine was 20% bigger than those staked for Support: Player gets to rule as a King for 1 week less.
In all other cases, where 20% advantage for either Support or Undermine cause is not met, elections are considered to be neutral and the elected King rules for 2 weeks (default value). King also doesn't receive any additional Royal Decrees during his reign. Royal Decrees are faction wide bonuses active for one week and issued by the King. Examples: Forced Ranged Training: All faction ranged units have +1 range during the next week. Field Siege Engineers: All faction siege units fire 10% faster. Forced Irrigation: All faction controlled cities produce food 5% faster etc. After the election, all staked PPOW tokens are burned and players need to farm them again.
Blockchain Cuties Universe propagated community driven development approach and followed it through its 2.5 years history. It was done via polls in public Telegram and Discord groups, as well as in the closed groups where only veteran community members and experienced players (Cutieneers) were invited.
Ting or Thing was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by law-speakers. In BCU DAO it will symbolize the first phase of governance mechanism, the most simple one.
Ting will be launched together with the BCUG token and would work as a simple token based voting on the cases presented in the system. Case types that players can vote for will be limited, but their collective decision (the outcome) will have to be carried out by the BCU team. All vote sessions will be initiated by the team.
Votes will be made by staking BCUG tokens. The more tokens a player has staked, the more voting power he received during the voting session. The option that receives more votes than the others is considered to be a collective decision and must be carried out.
Ting properties:
Eligible Ting vote cases:
Vote for migration of BCU DAO from Phase 1 to Phase 2 will also be made by the community using the Ting system[10].
Because Blockchain Cuties Universe is a game, Phase 2 governance system shall be implemented in a gamefied manner. BCUG will be used as a governance token, but in combination with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The voting will be done by the Senate - a group of Cuties each having different voice power and each representing their owner (token holder).
In order for BCUG token holder to receive a voice in the Senate, he would need to stake a specific amount of BCUG (e.g. 50). This would grant him one slot in BCU DAO (Place in the Senate). In order to activate this slot, a player would need to apply it to one of his Cuties. When that is done, this Cutie would become a Senator and put his life into the servitude of Senatus Populusque Cutielandanus (SPQC).
It means that this Cutie would be backed by the staked BCUG tokens and would be transferred to a smart-contract for custody, providing the player with an ERC1155 (or similar) standard Governance Provider (GP) token.
This GP token would store the information about the owner's (wallet address) and the voices it provides, so people would not be able to sell voices easily.
Each player can have several Cuties representing his interests in the Senate, but each new Senator will require a lot more BCUG staked to back his position. This way it will be very expensive to support an army of Senators to lobby the votes in one player's favour.
If a player decides to remove the staked BCUG he would need to transfer the GP token back to the smart-contract. When this happens, staked BCUG and Cutie are returned to the player, but former Senator Cutie receives a "Fall from Grace" attribute that provides massive debuffs to the Cutie and a temporary debuff to the player. This will be done to incentivize players to take governance responsibilities seriously.
Cutie types eligible to become Senators:
Case types that players can vote for during Phase 2 are greatly expanded and their collective decision (the outcome) will have to be carried out by the BCU team. Vote sessions could be initiated by both the team and the BCU DAO.
Vote types will be strictly classified by categories. Some category votes cannot be held again, until the first decision is carried out or implemented in the game. For example, if players collectively voted that they want to see insects as the next species introduced to the game, they won't be able to vote for next-next species to be introduced, until "Insects" are released.
The Senate properties:
Eligible Senate vote cases:
Vote for migration of BCU DAO from Phase 2 to Phase 3 will also be made by the community using the Senate system.
This phase will work similarly to the Senate (Phase 2), except additional gameplay features will be added to the process and the BCU DAO will receive additional Vote Cases and more control over the project development and decision making in general.
The exact voting gameplay features that will emerge in the Parliament stage will be discussed and voted by the Senate.
Currently proposed mechanic:
Parliament properties:
Eligible Parliament vote cases:
There are two separate pools reserved for governance rewards:
At first, rewards will be paid out from the Governance Rewards Pool, which will be released using a 1 year linear drip schedule. If at some point Governance Rewards Pool will be temporarily empty or completely depleted, BCUG Vault Governance Reserve tokens will be used instead.
Blockchain Cuties wallet is an alternative to MetaMask that was already integrated into the game. The Game wallet is for users who are new to the market or those who do not want to install additional browser extensions to play. For others, MetaMask and other software wallets can still be used to trade assets and access the game both on desktop and mobile.
The main advantages of the BC wallets are its flexibility and ease of use:
BC wallet also keeps to the overall aesthetic of the game which allows players to comfortably immerse in the experience.