Safaria World is a gamified CNFT project with a vision to create an ecosystem on the Cardano blockchain with mini games, treasure hunts and gamified collecting.
The project is run by Brian Driscoll, otherwise known as Brian Cardano who also hosts a CNFT YouTube channel.
We chatted with Brian to learn more about the project. If this is your first visit make sure to check out our other interviews.
Give us an introduction to Safaria
Hello CNFT World! Safaria aims to take adventure, mystery, and casual gaming to the blockchain! We want to innovate the gamified CNFT collecting experience through minigames, exploration, and treasure hunting!
It is a 2d world that will be playable via the browser and eventually mobile phones.
Who is the team/person behind the project? What experience do they have and what led them to this project?
My name is Brian Driscoll. I have experience in media, creative roles, and have programming experience. I have built several skills from videography, writing, marketing, compositing, and web development over the last 7 years. In that time period I have written as a freelancer, created short-film content, created general government media for officials of the mayoral level, and more. I’m just a creative person who never stops making things.
I’ve always wanted to create a world. At first, I thought I’d write it out like Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. Then maybe I’d create it through video. I also loved technology and taught myself how to code while juggling creative jobs and personal work.
Then the CNFT world came to be and I realized that if there was ever an opportunity to create a living, breathing place… this is it.
That’s what Safaria aims to be, a living world that I will hand off to its inhabitants. They will choose what direction it will head. I think that leads greatly into the next question…
We have seen a number of “rug pulls” or dev teams abandoning projects due to a perceived lack of interest/sales. This obviously makes it risky for buyers to invest into new projects, what is your take on this and how does your approach differ? What, for example, would happen if sales were significantly lower than your expectations?
First off, my identity is public. I wear an Arizona Diamondbacks hat in almost every video I make on my CNFT Show, so it’s not like I can just easily disappear.
Second, I planned this as a long-term project. You cannot know the outcome of your project which is why a good project plans for different outcomes. I’m ready for when sales flourish, when sales fall flat, and even if the market crashes.
This is not some hobby I get to just put down. I plan to ALWAYS give support to Safaria. Even when I hand it off as an open-source project operated through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
My mission is to free as many people from corporate drudgery as I can. We are not just creating a world, but the technology required to operate such a world in a decentralized way.
We are approaching these immediate 1.5 years as an indie game studio. We will release several games of varying scopes while building out our community website. Our first minigame, “Horeth Fly” is already close to being tested with our original founders.
In the macro 4-10 year timeline, we think about Safaria as a decentralized technology accessible to the world. My company is just going to be on the forefront on how to use this decentralized technology in interactive 2d worlds and beyond.
In terms of blockchain games, we are very early. For those who don’t get how NFTs can be used in games could you give us an explanation of how Safaria World will work from a gaming stand-point? Do you compete against other NFT holders?
Safaria is an ecosystem. That means there will be multiple games in the ecosystem. At first, holders will be able to access our interactive community website (walk around the first town, go to the tavern, check the bulletin board, etc). They will also gain access to our minigames and minigame arcade by having one of Safaria’s NFTs.
Our treasure hunters will be used as character avatars. People can use 1-4 treasure hunters during a treasure hunt. So assembling your treasure hunting group can be important depending on where you are going.
But a lot of this is way in the future. Truly, we are all at the front edge figuring out what is possible and things will change with time.
In the short to midterm, I can guarantee 4 minigames and a community website with several components (tavern, gallery, arcade, lore hall).
What is the future roadmap for the project?
I have to ask, is all artwork done by you/your team or will you be using stock images?
For any NFT we sell, the art is done by my team and I. I mostly concept and do animation/compositing. I have an artist, Raul, who does a ton of the concepting and final works. We also have a few other artists for when the work piles up.
But, for games we create, we will buy assets if needed if that is what it takes to deliver great games consistently.
Our goal will be 100% unique, Safaria assets. Horeth Fly, our first minigame, will be 85-95% unique assets when it goes in beta to our founders. But I find no need to slow this game’s release to reach 100%. Fun and functionality is my priority and we will do our best to create vibrant scenes and characters within our allotted budget.
The important thing is that I can personally push game development forward. So I will focus on creating these game systems and hopefully the art can keep up depending on budget and speed.
Why did you choose Cardano to launch your project?
I wanted to be on a blockchain that gives me a way to securely do business. Cardano answered all of those questions when it came to long term security risks, existential threats, and a long-term plan for the market. Plus I think the community is huge and vibrant.
It seems to me that the whole of crypto underestimates just how many developers/creators there are in this ecosystem.
How do you see NFTs developing over the next 6-12 months?
I think we are going to see an explosion of functionality as more games start releasing updates and more NFT projects start adding functionality.
I consider NFTs as “cards” for access to an ecosystem and to certain functions within that ecosystem. Eventually, these ecosystems will begin to connect to each other. Portals will start to open and projects will be forced to start accommodating a more widespread open ecosystem of multi-access.
That means more collaboration and those who collaborate the most will succeed. I also believe this is our advantage as the Cardano ecosystem, our mindset of collaboration.
It’s probably a little more difficult for a gaming project but if you could collaborate with any current CNFT project who would it be?
Yes! Horrocubes, we actually have announced plans for long-term collaboration with them. They are a fantastic puzzle project with some of the best art I have ever seen.
Everyone should definitely check out Horrocubes, either revelation or damnation will be your destiny in that world, haha. As I said, portals will be activated. We are activating our first portal!
Do you collect CNFTs too? What are your favourites?
100%! I had to slow down actually because of my project haha. But some of my favorites are Derp Birds (they are great), Cardano4speed, Cryptoraggies, Cardano trees, and my 1 spacebud and Cardano warrior.
Thanks for reading and thanks to Brian for sharing his time with us.
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