Please discuss here. Happy to answer any questions or jump on a call.
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One piece I’d like to add is the recent change in T&C where open source isn’t required prior to approval, per Adri. For example, please see the Lute wallet xGov proposal. Thank you!
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I’ve never ran across anyone on Algorand that hadn’t heard of Astro Explorer — it has been live for quite a while without any assistance and just a dedicated creator. I own some of the tokenized characters from the game myself, and although I am not particularly interested in the Java-based implementation perhaps there may be some that will be. I highly recommend others recognize the resources poured into developers, and the community surrounding Astroexplorer that has persisted these past few years.
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Thank you for the kind words, Leo.
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I checked the astro explorer and find the general idea very nice : To have arcade games played on Algorand and Web 3.0 in general but I have big doubts about usability, security, UX and traction and I would love to see some improvements before this project can be considered an asset for community:
1- Remove very heavy constraints of many tokens to optin to before anyone could get to use the games
2- The authenticattion and instrcutions for it are not clear at all: it says authenticate and by clicking user sees an optin to an asset! This does sound all bad alarms given the very bad image of crypto we already are witnessing! The asset is called Aether but the name in transaction details is Bork Bork…
3- There is no information regarding games and if those are developed under this project or just bundled from open source games (if you could ellaborate on that it would be very nice)
4- Your description does not have any details about project technical details and why do you think it will be useful
5- Your traction stats does not have any verifiable linking or fact checking resource attached to them and it will be nice to be able to have them checked somewhere (even on the website)
6- For a website with heavy (1M gameplay) usage , honestly it looks poorly maintanied and I recommend to maintain it , remove dead links and surely add some more wallet connections if possible (would be very nice if Lute can be added for example)
I hope these comments could help you to improve your proposal and make it easier for xGov voters to see the value in it as you see.
Wish you best of luck
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Hey Emg, thanks for the feedback. Speaking from a non-technical aspect and I will check with some of my developers on a few other aspects if needed.
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tokens can be removed. no issue there. those are added for our user earned rewards.
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We have the authentication linked to Aether, our community asset used for prizes with no monetary value, and that can be adjusted to any asset. Authentication is very important for gaming and this route allowed us to kill two birds with one stone by routing authentication and opt-in together.
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Regarding the games, they are all Astro Explorer games. I’m happy to give a Bork Bork or Zerker for a test run to any xGovs. All six games can be previewed on the website via GIFs, too.
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I find it to be useful because it has been useful for the past three+ years. There hasn’t been a day within those three+ years the games haven’t been played. I’d argue the arcade had helped with retention of Algorand users and it’s driven quite a few over the years from other chains. What technical details would you like? Happy to provide what I can at this stage of proposal.
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Regarding stats, I’m happy to share over calls or whenever this goes up for a vote. If I pass the link, the calls for that data will cost me each time it’s requested, so I don’t check it on the daily and I don’t provide that link. However, it tracks every exploration — and the blockchain tracks every SUCCESSFUL (winning a game) exploration.
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Apologies on the dead links via Asalytic to view the Bork Bork and Zerker collections. I will see if I can get those changed to Downbad. Outside of that, I’d say website design is subjective and I appreciate your feedback, but I quite like the design of the website. Also, the Astro Explorer website is not what’s being discussed — we are chatting about the game engine when you hit “Play” on the website. Hope this helps a bit!
Edit: There is no need to have wallet connect on the homepage, however we have Pera and Defly connect for the arcade (https://arcade.astroexplorer.co/).
Edit: Dead links to Asalytic replaced with Downbad, however the project website isn’t in the proposal — the arcade engine and games are.
Re: Lute — we spoke with them a while back ago, and they mentioned it wasn’t a quick lift. I can check back with them but Pera is the most used wallet and best interface to play from, so we highlight them. Nothing against the Lute product or team.
Appreciate the feedback and helping me get this across the line! I’ve put a significant amount of time, energy, and money building something fun, sustainable, and scalable for the Algorand community. I hope open sourcing it brings many game creators to keep adding to the engine on their own websites. A great spark of utility for any project.
Have a great day!
Respectfully,
Eric
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I’ll be short - any active gaming project in Algorand eco brings tons of value, because games are where the user retention is (because then $$ incentives dry up, games are still fun), and all these gamers are potential users of other ecosystem products.
The proposal itself has my personal support mostly due to following:
1 - the tech stack is very useful for those who don’t rely on gaming engines such as Unity and Unreal, so it’s good to have an algorand integration with such stack example available for builders.
2 - the product using this gaming stack has shown traction over the years, so it’s stable and working
3 - (not really scope of xgov, but it’s major factor for my personal support) running and maintaining ANY platform over longer period of time, takes a lot of $$ and a lot of energy and dedication and is what’s keping algorand eco alive.
Thanks for applying!
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Thanks for the kind words and I appreciate the warm welcome to the xGov proposal stage. Let me know if you have any questions, Simon.
thank you for response, my points was just to make sure your proposal brings actual value to chain and by removing hard binding to community tokens in a way that it becomes more like a white labeled gaming solution and marketplace I personally think that value will be guaranteed and I will personally support it. In its current for it is just usable for your communities and takes a lot of effort for anyone to put it in use IMHO.
If a solution is only targeted for a specific community it should normally look for rewards and revenue from that community since it cannot be used by other communities or global audience, Thats the juice of my points. again those are just my personal ideas. Best of luck to you and I wish you the best any how. 
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Emg - thanks for the thought and time.
When Open Sourced, I’ll be sure to have options where individuals using the code can choose to use tokens or choose simple authentication.
Feel free to keep the feedback coming! Discussion is great. 