Author: @0xMavWisdom

Note: This article is for information sharing only and does not endorse the project and is not intended as any investment advice.

The development of an animal NFT game called Degen Zoo, a hackathon like game with a gimmick of completing a game in 30 days and daily updates on social media platforms, has recently received community attention. Degen Zoo has attracted over 20,000 Twitter followers and over 10,000 people have joined the official Telegram as members in less than 30 days.

Built by the likes of DAOMaker founder Chris Zaknun and former MakerDAO development engineer, the game will be developed on an ultra-low budget of just $20,000 and is scheduled to be completed in just 30 days. Inspired by the CryptoZoo NFT scam, the Degen Zoo project hopes to prove the incompetence of CryptoZoo founder Logan Paul and satirise such metaverse gaming scams that defraud investors by building the game with little money and little time. In addition, as a charity game NFT, all profits from the project will be donated to endangered animal charities, and one of the aims of the project is to make people aware of caring for animals and nature, teaching players through the game what happens when animals are killed or species become extinct.

Two keys to Degen Zoo, the Animal Egg NFT and the DZOO Token (both not yet live).

There are 5800 animal egg NFTs which are used to hatch into animal NFTs. There are 100 animal species in the game and a fixed number of NFTs can be minted for each animal; if all NFTs for a certain animal have been minted, they will become more scarce as they reproduce or die.

Each animal has 4 characteristics (diet, size, gender, rarity). The different diet and size characteristics will determine the size of the DZOO Token earnings the animal can generate. Regarding the gender of the game, only animals of the opposite sex can mate with each other to produce offspring, two males cannot produce offspring and the same applies to two females. The more endangered the animal species, the higher the NFT rarity, and Degen Zoo classifies rarity as overpopulated, not endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, endangered and critically endangered.

The total supply of DZOO Tokens is 100 million, and the initial market value is uncertain, but is officially expected to be around $300,000. Tokens are mainly used in the game to obtain animal eggs and hatching eggs.

According to the Degen Zoo V1 white paper, the complete game cycle that a player has to go through can be divided into four stages: obtaining animal eggs — hatching animal eggs — animal evolution — killing animals for gain.

(1) Obtaining Animal Eggs: Players can obtain animal eggs by providing liquidity, staking DZOO Token, and whitelist minting.

(2) Hatching Animal Eggs: Players will need to spend 100,000 DZOO Token to hatch the animal eggs into animals, with each animal having a lock of 25,000 to 500,000 DZOO Token.

(3) Animal evolution: Players can feed their animals other species to make them evolve. The number of DZOO Tokens locked within a higher level animal is always greater than the sum of the two lower animals. Every animal can evolve twice, and feeding an animal the same species twice can raise an animal to three levels. Evolution can increase the number of Tokens available to an animal and change its appearance.

(4) Killing animals to gain revenue: Each animal has an individual life expectancy, ranging from 10–250 days, and players can kill animals for Token, i.e. burn the animal’s NFT to gain the DZOO Token locked in its body. However, killing an NFT early will burn the locked Token. The shorter the life span of the animal, the more Token will be released when it burns. Killing a minor animal is subject to a penalty of 1% per day if the animal has a life span of 100 days. For example, if a player kills an animal on day 22, there is a penalty of 78% of the player’s locked up unexpired Token. If the NFT is destroyed on the day of minting, the player will lose 40% of the Token and the remaining 60% will go to the player.

Players feed on animals of other species to promote evolution, two female (male and female) animals NFT mating (which will die) to produce new offspring NFT, and each time they feed or mate, the total amount of NFT decreases. With the number of animals fixed at the outset, the Degen Zoo NFT supply decreases rapidly over time. NFT deflation is theoretically possible and becomes increasingly scarce in the later stages of the game.

Players killing animals in advance will burn part of their Tokens, and DZOO Tokens that enter the incubation will also briefly exit the market circulation. In addition, the life of animals is not consistent. When the price of DZOO Token becomes stable, the time of players killing animals will stagger accordingly, which will not cause the concentrated selling of Tokens.

However, the game is still not free from the ponzi model, as the first players to participate can kill animals earlier and have a greater chance of making a profit due to the low cost. As players rush to grab DZOO Tokens for hatching or buying eggs, this will lead to a short term increase in demand for Tokens which will drive up the price. If the popularity of the game wanes later on, players who enter the game in the middle and late period are prone to high trades, and will kill animals to stop their losses if they see the Token price trend is bad.

Although the official framework for the game has been given, it is still in development and not yet live, and more detailed rules are probably still being tweaked, with Degen Zoo officials actively updating the game’s progress on Twitter and other social media platforms on a daily basis.

In addition, Degen Zoo’s challenge may also show from the side that the cost, time, manpower and material price required to develop a Ponzi model P2E game may not be as high as imagined. At present, VCs are chasing blockchain games while P2E games are often seen to be funded at exorbitant prices with early Token issuance but have not landed, it is worth paying more attention to such game projects with high transparency and continuous advancement.

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