Written by: sleepy.mid
First of all, I really want to thank the wave of the NFT mini bull market brought about by the Penguin TGE. Although I haven’t received much airdrop, and the floor price of small ghosts hasn’t increased correspondingly, the changes it has brought to the entire small ghost community are more meaningful. I have seen the awakening of community awareness, and I am very touched. At this moment, my hands are even trembling as I type in front of the computer, as time seems to rewind to three years ago.
I want to share some heartfelt words with everyone through this article, to take off the mask and tell you how we have come through these years and where we plan to go in the future.
First, I need to sincerely apologize to the community family. We haven't synchronized our progress and plans with the community for too long, to the point that the team is very busy but the community is unaware. The community wants to help but doesn't know what the team needs. Our project will continue, and in the future, we will share more project progress with everyone, allowing the community to participate and contribute their strength to push the project forward together.
Recently, the team has undergone significant adjustments. We did not have any beef; it was simply out of necessity due to the company's cash flow pressure. Therefore, it is now a crucial time for our community family to participate and support us.
For almost the last year or two, we have been continuously discussing financing, but the result has also been constant setbacks. It can be said directly that many of the products we developed were made for financing, such as ManeSTUDIO. When we said we wanted to create culture and IP, they told us we needed to have a product; otherwise, they wouldn’t know what they were investing in. When we presented a product, they said the track is no longer viable and we need to change the narrative. When we changed the narrative and developed a product, they said we needed data. When we had some data, they said the market was bad. When the market improved, they said that funds are mainly investing in secondary markets now.
This is certainly not the portrayal of all investors. I have also met some very sincere investors who will tell us very directly where we need to improve and why they can't invest this time, but they hope we keep in touch and strive for cooperation next time. There are also some investors who bought small ghost NFTs after listening to our pitch and became family, telling us that they are trying to push things forward but can't convince the big boss. However, they support us very much, and we can reach out to them anytime if we need help. Unfortunately, such people are indeed few, but fortunately, we have all become friends.
About the business
Indeed, ManeSTUDIO is a product we brought out for funding, developed under pressure. However, CutUp was unable to develop due to our misjudgment. I no longer want to hide behind explanations. I want to openly admit that the overall launch of CutUp was rushed. We did not successfully connect the upstream and downstream, overestimated the demand of the Web3 crowd for 'neutral' cultural peripherals, ultimately leading to issues like productivity not keeping up, production costs not being reduced, and sales channels being blocked. Although I think the product quality is acceptable, as a brand, we did very poorly. We will open-source ManeSTUDIO, and after some time, we will hold an event to give away the accumulated inventory of CutUp, inviting everyone to bring friends and family to claim it. We will streamline our product line and fully focus on IP.
Regarding IP development, starting next year, we will also try new models.
Let's first discuss why we can't continue with the model from the past two years.
The first reason is the continuous decline of the overall consumer market. If you are not all-in on Web3 and still care about your real life, you must be able to feel this. Almost all brands are cutting their marketing budgets; some have cut by half, and some have even canceled all marketing activities for next year. Some brands that had originally planned to collaborate with us have also informed us last minute that they will not proceed, which has had a huge impact on our overall rhythm.
The second reason is that although the model of the past two years has accumulated a wealth of brand collaboration cases, it is difficult to support the company from a revenue perspective if we solely rely on it. According to past collaboration models, we do not pay the brand side to do collaborations. We need to collaborate with high-profile brands to enhance IP value, and we need to make money from the brand side. These three aspects constitute an impossible triangle.
We originally planned to co-create a convenience store baking brand featuring OUTA with partners. If everything had gone smoothly, everyone would have been able to buy our baked goods in thousands of convenience stores across the country by the end of November. However, the launch date has been repeatedly delayed, so we can only share two pictures for everyone to see. Currently, this matter is still being promoted, but progress will be relatively slow.
First, let me answer a question.
Is the project still ongoing?
Doing. We are also continuing to do it.
The current OUTA game will see a wave of content updates during the Christmas period. Previously, the game team provided feedback that if a little content is updated, it would take a lot of time to release a separate package, so we have accumulated some content to be updated, and this time we will update it all together. Moreover, this part of the workflow is being optimized, and in the future, we should be able to update continuously little by little.
What are our plans for the future?
First of all, our goal is still to build IP, with small ghosts at the center, and OUTA surrounding the small ghosts.
Next, we hope to use mini-games as a medium to promote and operate the IP. It is important to emphasize that our decision point is 'mini-games', not 'TON', 'TG', etc. Lower investment costs + opportunities for viral spread are what we value.
Switching OUTA to the TG ecosystem was a temporary decision; it will certainly not be limited here in the future. As a slow-paced idle game, it is not well suited to the TG ecosystem. We are not satisfied with its current performance in the TG ecosystem. Currently, we are collaborating with Web2 overseas game publishing companies, and they highly recognize our game, planning to use Web2's distribution channels to more precisely capture more players. The publishing company will use a more Web2, more systematically professional approach to bring OUTA to millions of Web2 game players.
In addition, we are developing another text-adventure casual game featuring small ghosts as the main character, pairing with OUTA for adventures. The development is currently over halfway complete, and we plan to launch around February next year. Similarly, we will cooperate with Web2 game publishing companies for broad promotion and user conversion in Web2. After the game launches overseas, we will also begin discussions with domestic game publishers to strive for a launch in the domestic market. We hope this model can bring us a larger user base and higher revenue levels. If it proves successful, we will continue to replicate and scale it up.
Where do we get the money to do this?
As mentioned earlier, we have repeatedly encountered setbacks in the financing discussions, so we currently do not expect investment from investors. Of course, it would be better if someone is willing to invest, but we will not take it as the only remedy. Therefore, we are currently negotiating Grants support with public chain parties, and this has progressed to a relatively deep stage. We expect to reach a cooperation soon and obtain the first grant. We will also develop a parallel Web3 mechanism behind the game, allowing users to become Web3 users without awareness and participate in subsequent ecological construction.
In the future, we will change our entrepreneurial mindset, shifting from an internet entrepreneurial mentality [burn money -> scale -> obtain financing] to a business perspective [investment -> profit -> reinvest], taking our future into our own hands.
Next, I will answer some questions raised by family members in the group.
Ask Me Anything
Feel free to ask me any questions.
Q: @koolob#17 What are the three most important things the current team is working on, and what difficulties are being encountered?
A: Obtaining grants, developing the small ghost game, and updating OUTA. There are many difficulties, haha; I have written quite a bit in the article, but I believe there are more solutions than difficulties!
Q: @luckytree.eth #4802 Does the project still intend to persist? Are you currently confident? What cooperation does the community need to do?
A: We must do it; I am confident, and after adjusting my mindset, I am even more confident. I am researching which app or website can conveniently release demands to the community. I will let everyone know what needs help through this method.
Q: @Drew#1283 What does the current team composition look like, and what are the future plans for the team? Is Lee still involved, and in what role?
A: The team is currently very streamlined, aiming to operate as lightly as possible. Li is busy with his entrepreneurial project. He has already contributed too much to us, and we have no reason to tie him down to continue investing.
Q: @koolob#17 Does the current status of the OUTA game meet expectations? If not, is there a phase summary?
A: Not meeting expectations. The reasons include that switching over temporarily has led to a poor experience with the account system and store system, and the game type is not well adapted to the TG ecosystem. Moreover, there was an overestimation of traffic distribution and user willingness to pay within TG.
Q: @Gordon Playing the Outa game, I feel there is no need to require holders to stake small ghosts to gain relevant rights; it doesn't mean much and instead adds a barrier for holders to play the game. Additionally, the level of holders playing the game should be related to the number of small ghosts held. The more you hold, the higher the level, making it easier to score in the OUTA game. It's equivalent to the number of small ghosts being directly linked to airdrops. When holders see the value of the small ghost token airdrop, they will hold more and buy more.
A: Very good suggestion, but we need to consider more factors for staking; NFT transactions are happening all the time. If not restricted, it may cause issues with in-game information and data.
Q: @封心锁爱 When will TGE happen?
A: Frankly speaking, we currently do not have the qualification for TGE.
Q: @程1296: 1. Why has CutUp been on hold for a year? Because clothing isn't profitable? 2. How long until diamond hand holders see returns? 3. Predict the floor price of small ghosts three years from now; will it be 1e or 0.01e?
A: 1. The problems with CutUp have been mentioned above. 2. I don't know, but I hope there will be an opportunity next year. 3. 1000E!
Q: @SHIN Are there plans to expand overseas? Currently, most people know about 👻Telegram OUTA are domestic and overseas Chinese.
A: Yes, TG is quite good, but we think it can be better. We hope that overseas distribution through Web2 channels can open up more visibility for our IP.
Q: @Rex My OUTA mini game is still unplayable and has not been resolved; what should I do? Will not playing affect my future participation? Will NFTs still have empowerment? I have already staked, but I still haven't seen an increase in relevant rights.
A: We have contacted the platform side about this, but it can't be resolved; it's quite mysterious. However, you should be able to participate later! Regarding empowerment, we will reflect this in subsequent products. This will also be an area we will continue to strive for, such as learning from the little penguin to bring more token airdrops to everyone.
Q: @地板换1-1找我#928, does 4844 need financing support?
A: Yes, but the current objective situation is that the hope is not great. As the year-end approaches and the market is doing well, it will significantly affect investment in the primary market. Therefore, we will not have too much hope in this regard. It would be better if someone could invest, but more still depends on ourselves.