Dot Play Quarterly Review
Bits of Signum | 02.24.25
Welcome to our quarterly review - where we have been and a reminder of where we are heading! The Dot Play team is confident in our ability to build the pivotal hub for gaming in Polkadot. Our mantra comes from our friend Sam Hinke - “Trust the Process!” As the only North America-based representation on the core team, I decided early on to embrace a Signum Growth Dot Play-customized time zone, somewhere between New York and London. With a goal of synchronizing our team among five time zones, we kick off each day with a meeting at 6am ET, and our afternoon wrap concludes at 3:30pm ET. We are advancing through the pipeline, moving fast, and aiming to win for Polkadot.
Please Join Our Next Game Souk! We meet every day from 9:00am ET - 9:30am ET, and while it is always open to all, we advertise the Game Souk on Thursdays.
Events - Where We Have Been This Quarter!
Slush, Helsinki, Finland: By far, the biggest event that we have hosted so far was at Slush. We were invited by the largest studio on Roblox, Gamefam, to host the only Official Gaming Side Event at Slush, a very difficult conference ticket to access. As the sole representatives of Polkadot at the conference, the entire team attended, along with a few of our partners who were invited to speak. Over 400 people checked in or joined for a part of our one-day event. The event was budgeted for 250 people, and fortunately, we allowed for extras. And yes, we are ordering more of the pink scarves. Slush attendees: investors, companies, creators, game developers, entertainment industry professionals. See pictures below. Speaking of the scarves, we set one aside for our Dot Play Bounty curator, Chrissy Hill, whom I was able to meet at Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty Conference in Washington DC!
OODA Con Cyber Security Conference, Washington DC: Our friends Matthew Devost, CEO and Co-Founder of OODA, and Bob Gourley, CTO of OODA, host an incredible cyber security conference every year, and this year did not disappoint with one of our favorite themes - Convergence. Angela Dalton was interviewed in a fireside chat, as the only representative of a blockchain protocol my panel is "Blockchain in the Context of Cybersecurity" and Polkadot was the only branded blockchain. The audience included CEOs, CIOs, and CISOs of T Rowe Price, Citi, DELL and UBS Global and focused on the geo-politics and security of disruptive technologies.
2025 Game Awards, Dot Play + CAA Inaugural Frame & Pixel Party: Angela Dalton was invited to the Game Awards as the guest of Death Row Games (Snoop, Cordell Broadus). Thanks to intro by Immix Law, CAA invited Dot Play to be added as a Co-host for an Evening Celebrating Video Games & Hollywood with approx 125 guests from Film, Media, Athletes, Gaming, Legal
Game Souk, Hosted by Dot Play, Angela Dalton, London. Approximately 35 people attended to learn about Polkadot and Gaming
Pocket Gamers Keynote Presentation, Angela Dalton, London How UGC Platforms Like Roblox & UEFN are Accelerating the Convergence of Entertainment and Gaming
SLUSH 2024
OODACon 2024
The Vision
Dot Play’s goal is to connect the dots in a fragmented entertainment landscape. We aim to proactively reach the highest growth genres in gaming, and to demonstrate the ways in which web3 can empower game developers to maintain their sovereignty and to stay close to their audiences. This is a big vision, and we don’t see anyone else in the market who is brave enough to tackle it. At the same time, we aim to respond to and assist all types of game developers, regardless of size or whether they intend to launch a token. Importantly, we aim to empower creators with essential tools, and provide sustainable business development support for trans media* extension, with Polkadot as behind the scenes infrastructure.
*Trans media: the consumption and expansion of an IP or experience across social media, gaming, television and film
Powered by Polkadot is our new mantra to anyone and everyone we meet. So far, we have created two trailers to showcase the concept.
Nitro Nation World Tour’s global launch is planned for Q225. The game assets will be secured by the Mythos chain, Powered by Polkadot.
Sortium, Polkadot’s 3D asset generation tool, will be provided to game publishers in the Polkadot ecosystem to be able to create games faster and more efficiently.
The Strategy
Unchanged from the original strategy, we view the business development process as the top of funnel entry point to educate and onboard game developers, studios and other companies and investors to Polkadot. This is an intense process of coordination that we all must dedicate to in order to execute. Initial meetings (“INTRO I”) are either referred to a best fit in the ecosystem, or they continue down the funnel. The middle of the funnel consists of due diligence, INTRO IIs, followed by meetings with others in the ecosystem. The bottom of the funnel are potential game publisher partners of the Dot Play Bounty, or recipients of capital from other investors. In the future, this will include the AD8 Dot Play New Superstars Fund.
The gaming industry is evolving rapidly, with three powerful trends shaping its future: User-Generated Content (UGC), Web3, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These technologies are converging to create a new wave of opportunities, fundamentally democratizing the way in which games are developed, distributed, and monetized. As Eliza Jäppinen, our Head if IP Development says,
“Studio level professional tools are in the hands of 15 year olds.”
The intersection between these three technologies is where disruptive change is occurring. The accelerated capabilities of AI is currently acting as fuel for UGC and Web3, both on the asset generation and game development fronts. IP rights is an emerging topic, as we approach what will most likely be an era in which we see an explosion of digital assets, alongside an explosion of a crisis in authenticity. Polkadot’s secure infrastructure, which will ensure provenance and authenticity, along with its ethos of Less Trust, More Truth, will be perfectly positioned to onboard creativity.
Also unchanged - the Roblox and Fortnite creator platforms are the perfect hunting ground for the web2 to web3 gaming migration as they are full of successful independent game developers and these are the most active platforms in gaming. It is surprising, even to people in traditional video games, that Roblox is larger than all of AAA combined!
We believe that independent game developers in UGC (User Generated Content) spaces are behaviorally built like crypto engineers - they value their freedom and privacy. When we discuss the ethos and values of Web3 (without referring to “tokens” or “blockchain”) they embrace the ideals.
Heard from almost every important game developer -
“I want to be able to figure out a way to stay close to my audience as my content evolves.”
Also heard -
“If we have a hit, I would like to be able to take my content to other mediums without constraints.” (note: remember when YouTube was going to empower content creators, and then they repeatedly tweaked the algorithm until creators had nothing? We are back to those early days of YouTube, but in game development.)
“I have heard of Bitcoin of course. I think I recognize Ethereum. I have never heard of Polkadot but it sounds cool!”
Notably, we have yet to receive the question -
“Is Polkadot EVM compatible?”
We do, however, believe that both Moonbeam and Laos will be feeders into Dot Play’s Experience Exchange.
Finally one negative on crypto that we still hear -
“I can’t have a money grab in my game. I don’t trust crypto.”
A final piece of our strategy is to offer a community service - our industry expertise, extensive experience in contract negotiations and general business practices. Currently, there are proposals that are going through the treasury that have not been vetted or negotiated because there is no way in the current system to do so. We aim to become an active part in changing this so that Polkadot can negotiate contracts that are in our best interest. A compounding aspect to this challenge is that the process is public, which invites competition. This should be a good thing for Polkadot, but we have no way to respond to it. An example of this is the plethora of esports referendums. There are currently two esports proposals, led by two separate community members, and neither has been negotiated. As this is a public process, it wasn’t surprising to receive a call from FaZe Clan, the largest and most valuable esports organization, where I formerly served on the Board of Directors. The activity got their attention, prompting the company to consider throwing its hat in the ring to compete with the others. We have been speaking on the AAG to educate the community before voting, and in addition, we submitted this esports report to all of the DVs and offered time to meet with them this week.
The Technology to Execute on the Strategy - “The Experience Exchange”
In addition to onboarding game and entertainment content, our strategy led to the creation of an Experience Exchange, a complementary vision of the Polkadot Hub and Cloud. We have been meeting with as many potential partners and developers, both in and outside of the Polkadot ecosystem. However, our goal is to use what has already been built if at all possible. For example, we aim to connect to Moon Bearer’s community activities as he has already started a new rewards program which we could extend into our various games.
The Experience Exchange will be an all-in-one community engagement and rewards platform designed for UGC creators, mobile game developers, and Web3 game developers to seamlessly onboard content, engage, and retain their audiences. By integrating automated newsletters, Discord role syncing, and social media challenges, our Experience Exchange will enable creators to track in-game activity, fan engagement, and event participation, while rewarding their communities with exclusive badges, leaderboard recognition, and VIP perks—all within platform guidelines and Powered by Polkadot. Our solution streamlines communication, enhances player loyalty, and drives organic growth, giving creators powerful tools to scale their communities effortlessly.
Polkadot Hub will be core to the Experience Exchange, and we will work closely with Joe Petrowski, a Curator on the Dot Play Bounty, to make sure that it is a seamless integration.
Polkadot Hub Key Concepts that we will expand upon in our next newsletter -
The Polkadot Hub is the entry point to Polkadot for all users and application developers.
The Polkadot Hub is the set of functionality available on Polkadot that does not involve deploying and running a parachain.
Interoperability is a key concept. Joe reminds us that even the original Polkadot whitepaper did not describe Polkadot as a single chain, but rather as a “multi-chain framework.”
The protocol itself is a singular concept, with many chain components -
“Polkadot is a scalable heterogeneous multi-chain.” - Polkadot whitepaper
To create a scalable and customizable platform that connects developer rewards and events, the Experience Exchange will be designed to adapt to each developer’s brand and business needs.
Rather than requiring individual funding for each game, we aim to structure it as a self-serve business model, where developers customize their own engagement strategy within the platform.
Rather than build new technology components, we aim to use existing components in the Polkadot ecosystem. Likely candidates are below, and we are tapping into technical expertise that exists in our Dot Play Curator group:
Personhood
KILT’s DID
Mythical’s gaming User Interface called Pulse
Unique/NFT Mosaic - advisory on putting the pieces together
Blockdeep - web2 to web3 onboarding tools
Frequency - interested in using Mythical games to bring new users to Frequency
Esports orgs, funded by the Polkadot Treasury, will be leveraged and actively negotiated to maximize their ability to augment the voice of Dot Play
Meeting notes from ecosystem developers and studios around the Experience Exchange:
Overall sentiment: This has important implications for the entire ecosystem. Most acknowledge the need for something that can pull together developers and fragmented community efforts. From a gaming perspective, we would like to have a way to onboard game developers in a simplified, standardized way.
Polkadot Hub Upgrade: Polkadot’s core user functionality has several planned upgrades in Q2 and Q3 of this year that will enable great onboarding UX and powerful tools for the development of the Experience Exchange.
Kilt: Ingo has been particularly helpful in offering help in brainstorming and identifying the appropriate technology implementation for the Player ID. As the intricacies of interoperable assets and platform logins proliferate, we aim to simplify and secure the user experience.
Mythical: We aim to develop the user interface through their application called Pulse, which is geared towards community management.
Frequency: We have been meeting with Braxton Woodham to discuss the ways in which interoperability between chains can be a positive driver of new users. For example Mythical, could provide a new gaming solution to frequency which would enable Mythical gamers to onboard to Frequency.
Unique (now “NFT Mosaic”): Alex Mitrovich would like to be instrumental in helping us onboard a system for the Player ID. Alex believes that the Unique product on Polkadot + Tap Nation will provide easy onboarding of games. Tap Nation comes with a stable of hyper casual games. He has also suggested an iPhone / Android native company, who we will meet next week.
3Thix: Building blockchain-powered advertising and data tracking technologies, 3Thix has been an invaluable brainstorm partner. We are exploring how advertising spend can further support overall monetization (also for users) and provide opportunities for the creators and users of the Experience Exchange.
Current sources of games in the ecosystem:
Mythical
Tap Nation
Laos
Moonbeam
Polkadot native, e.g., Evrloot
The Day to Day Operations
Given the multiple time zones of Dot Play, we begin our days at 6am ET, typically with a European-based company/project meeting. Then, after an internal organizational meeting at 8:45am ET, we host a daily, open Game Souk from 9am - 9:30am ET. Our message to joiners of the Game Souk - come ready to sell your wares at the souk! (wares = ideas) In this meeting, we host a round robin on developments and datapoints in the news that impact our long term views in gaming, entertainment, web3 and AI. During the day, we are meeting with gaming companies until our end-of-day meeting from 3:00pm - 3:30pm ET. In this last touchpoint, each team member reports back on in-process teams, stumbling blocks and wins.
We have been surprised by the volume of inbound interest in meeting to discuss new opportunities, from new studios interested in building on both Polkadot and Mythos, to Polkadot-native existing games like Evrloot, to Web2 studios who are learning for the first time about Polkadot and Web3. At the same time, we have set up a steady outreach to potential web2 to web3 migrations. This stronger than expected pace of meetings has led to more follow up meetings, more due diligence required, more note taking, and more feedback required to teams. We underestimated the human resources required to execute this fast-paced business that requires an all-hands-on-deck approach and an ability to quickly change strategy based on new information that may come from the due diligence process. All in, we have found that a high level of organization, teamwork and our ability to stick to our process are the keys to successfully execute.
Finally, we have added two “Ambassadors” for Polkadot in Roblox and Fortnite, the two largest independent game developer platforms. Our Roblox Ambassador is James Purell, CEO of BuildingBlox, funded by Dot Play Bounty, and our Fortnite Ambassador is Miles Dorsey, who has not yet received funding. Both regularly join our daily team and company meetings to provide a deeper level of insight and to learn about Polkadot.
Dot Play Bounty
In July 2024, we submitted our proposal to create a gaming bounty structured to:
Set up the first games publisher on Polkadot, negotiating revenue share deals in exchange for funding and for providing services like marketing, brand integrations and 3D asset generation tools
Return a profit to the Treasury
Setup and evaluate a new structure for bounties, consisting of boards and Curators
Return a Profit to the treasury
Why? Establishing alternative methods to replenish the Treasury can benefit the ecosystem. Returning a profit in stablecoins can relieve the pressure to purchase USD stables
How? As described in our proposal with net revenue shares in games, taking place in the biggest platforms with the largest audiences
When? The first proposals were submitted in October/November 2024, presented live on a special segment on the AAG show. As soon as we have a 1x capital return, we will distribute 80% of the profits (“net revenues” in gaming language) to the Treasury.
Thanks for reading and see you at the next Game Souk!