HONEYWOOD — amazing Play-and-Earn Game on separate Blockchain.
Hey there, gaming world! I’m Roman Chizhikov, the founder and CEO of the HoneyWood gameFi project. The past year has been a real rollercoaster of change, that has taken up absolutely all of my time. But finally, the team and I have grown from a simple idea to now the beta release of our project. We are heading towards the time where HoneyWood will be shown to the whole world, so now is probably a good time to take a deeper look and allow me to explain more about it…
HoneyWood is a game that captivates with its gameplay. It’s a P2E game that can be played by people of all ages and backgrounds. Just imagine a game where you can build your own farm, breed beautiful Bees on it, or combat against others on an exciting match3 field. But hold up! That is far from all! Check this out: you can actively earn cryptocurrency while playing and having fun. Sounds like fun? If so, let’s read a little more by starting from the beginning where I can explain everything in order.
Honeywood: The Origins?
We started developing the honeywood.io project in August 2021 to be a game on an independent blockchain. The world’s first Bear’s DAO. One of the first play-and-earn projects (not to be confused with play-to-earn), hosting two native coins: HoneyCoin and CONE. The whole HoneyWood team is working on a truly exclusive project that will be released on the mainnet very soon. But we came to this result through experiments and daily work. So, how it all started.
As I’ve already said, in August 2021, intensive work on the project began when a small team of 4 people thought about creating a blockchain game. We understood that creating any product is a complex and costly undertaking and so, we tried to minimize everything wherever possible: minimal graphics, minimal gameplay, there was no game legend. Initially, it looked like this: a game about diamonds.
We did have the support of the Moneta Today ecosystem and a small amount of investment from them. To this day they have played an active role in our development and we value them seriously as long-term supporters. With this support, we did not stop at the game rhombuses. Actually, there were many important issues to be resolved.
Why are we making a game on the blockchain?
Quite simply because the blockchain is a unique phenomenon. It is not just a tool for transferring tokens/coins to each other. We have always looked at the blockchain more broadly. It gave people from all over the world the opportunity to interact with each other according to a single, initially designated rule. No one can break them, not even the creators. The absence of a human factor has made this system one of the most reliable and stable systems in the world today.
Imagine any social network that does not have a single decision-making center. Banning Trump from Twitter (I am not a supporter or opponent of Trump) is technically impossible without the participation of the community. The rules are written in advance, everyone acts according to them, even the administrators (if there are any). Shops, banks, games and everything related to the interaction of an indefinite number of people. These types of products can be called truly general because they do not belong to a particular group of people. And this is guaranteed by the blockchain. This is a completely new way of looking at creating products, and it is exactly this, which is promoted by the Moneta Today ecosystem.
Any game is a set of rules by which thousands of players play. Can administrators at some point take advantage of their position and appropriate some resources outside the rules? Of course they can… and they do! This is always found in regular games. Developers know how to deal with external threats and attacks, but how can you be protected from the developers themselves? An internal threat exists! Players cannot be sure that the project team plays by the same rules as the players themselves. Ultimately, this unbalanced system creates inequality. Blockchain games however, do not have this drawback.
How to choose a name and come up with a game legend?
Choosing the main image of the player, we settled on a bear. This animal is found in almost all corners of the globe: brown bears, pandas, polar bears, etc. Bears can be menacing and bears can be cute. Netflix made a cartoon “We Bare Bears” about three friends who find themselves in the most ridiculous situations. The story of Winnie the Pooh has Been familiar to everyone since childhood. There are a huge number of images, legends and myths. Each person will find something different in a bear. We thought that this was a really good image of a player on an international blockchain game.
Now, what did Winnie the Pooh like? He loved honey! We understand that all bears are different and not everyone loves honey, but in our game everyone just loves it! Honey is one of the most basic needs in Maslow’s Bear Pyramid. And if HoneyWood bears are deprived of honey, they simply cannot play.
Of course honey comes from Bees, and the best friends of our bears are indeed Bees. Hard-working creatures work day and night to generate honey. The bear tames them, he takes care of them, creates the best conditions for them on his plot of land. In this sense, our bears can be Beekeepers on their farm too.
HoneyWood is two words. We’re done with Honey, but where did the Wood come from? The fact is that all bears and Bees need air. Trees are the main source of air. Bears can plant them on their plot, improving the air throughout the bear world. The whole game is saturated with love for Bees, honey and trees. This game simply had to be called HoneyWood.
As for the legend, in the coming releases, a common enemy will appear, and the bears will understand that they are not alone on this planet. They have to break away from their farming and gaming with each other. Only by uniting will they be able to understand how to deal with a new neighbor. It will be a truly interesting and innovative game story along with a variety of game mechanics. Of course, this will all be happening on the blockchain.
Play And Earn. Why do blockchain games need gameplay?
Those of you who are already familiar with blockchain games know that 99% of them are devoid of gameplay, devoid of any type of game legend, and absolutely devoid of players. People play for money. It cannot be called a game in the truest sense of the word. It’s more of an imitation game. The goal is profit, and therein lies the huge problem. If the earnings run out, the project dies. It is of no interest to anyone if it does not make any profit. This is a short term fundraising story and we’ve heard it all before. We are on a different path, and we are interested in long-term results.
The Play-To-Earn market has Been popular over the past year and will surely continue to grow in popularity. It’s a trend and we all know it, however we’ve decided to take a little extra risk and change the paradigm from Play-To-Earn to Play-And-Earn. Changing one word greatly changes the meaning. Users play and earn. Someone can just play, another can just earn money, yet our players can do both at once. These are parallel things, sometimes intertwined. Thus, we declare that we concentrate not only on earnings for the players, although this is a strong part of our project. You can play HoneyWood, you can earn money in HoneyWood. These are two strong components on which the project will stand.
We decided to go ahead with the popular Match3 mechanics. It’s played by millions of people around the world already, so why not improve it? And it looks like we are the first to transfer it to the blockchain. Bear players can play in solo mode or can battle each other for honey, which is all very fun and exciting stuff! It’s already hard to stop playing this game, and we plan to make it even more interesting, especially in PvP mode. All in all this is a game of attention and the better you see the field, the faster you find various boosters and increase your chances of winning. Personally, I play our game when I’m in a taxi, I like to beat the bot and I’m really looking forward to the release of the multiplayer mode. I believe that in addition to earning,
This game will appeal to those who are far from the blockchain and we have already tested this hypothesis through many surveys and research.
Another popular mechanic that is in our game is the creation of your own farm. Yes, this is the same farm that captivates many of you still, to this day. Also on the blockchain, our bears can increase the size, establish apiaries, plant trees, and set up decorations. Bears will be able to create their own world and their own laws. It’s exactly that kind of thinking and community involvement that makes this process even more exciting.
The two mechanics are next to each other. Players can take a break from the farm and challenge another bear through match3, or vice versa. We carefully thought through the game’s loop and design so that the players are interested and want to return to the game. Both match3 and the farm can be improved for a very long time, and this is one of our tasks.
Two coins: HoneyCoin and CONE
At HoneyWood, all the bears love HoneyCoin. This coin allows you to perform all operations in the blockchain network. With honey, you can buy items, expand your farm, or play match3 with other bears. If there is no honey, then the game does not go on. The game is free-to-play, but without honey, the bear will ultimately be miserable.
The second native coin is CONE. This is a coin mined by bears who have realized their role in caring for the environment. By planting trees, bears receive public recognition in the form of cones. CONE can be staked to receive a passive income from all other bears in the game. Also, with the help of CONE, you can make important decisions about the development of the game world.
Both HoneyCoin and CONE are full-fledged coins, not tokens on smart contracts. Each of them has its own advantages and suits different gaming strategies. Both will be traded on the crypto exchanges.
Smart Contract or independent blockchain?
In short, there are two fundamentally different approaches to creating a blockchain for such a game. The most popular one is writing a smart contract on one of the popular blockchain networks: Ethereum, BSC, Solana and others. This approach has many limitations, but it is fast and seemingly safe.
The second approach we’ve taken is the creation of an independent blockchain network. This is a more expensive solution, but it does have a number of unique advantages:
1.It is possible to create a native coin. As a result, all commissions will be paid in this coin and will work for the benefit of the project;
2. Predictable transaction fees. The load on the blockchain network does not depend on the hype of other projects
3. High transaction speed. For the same reasons — there is no load or backlog from other projects
4. The ability to update the network through voting
5. The ability to use autorun methods.
The last point is very useful and valid for all games in general, as it allows the developers to create a game world that operates according to its own set of laws, regardless of the actions of the players. All smart contracts are deprived of such an opportunity due to the call-to-action mode.
The HoneyWood blockchain network has incredibly low fees of 0.1 HoneyCoin for gaming operations and 0.01 HoneyCoin for transferring coins between wallets. This has an approximate value equal to 0.01 USDT and 0.001 USDT at the listing price. From the very beginning, we have kept in mind that the lower the commission, the better it is for the players in the community.
The bandwidth will also pleasantly surprise our players too as about 10 thousand transactions per second can be carried out, without increasing the commission (gas fee). The network was originally designed with this high bandwidth in mind.
We have gone with the proven Cosmos network and Tendermint solutions as this reduces the chances of any critical bugs. These solutions have already Been audited and have millions of dollars under their auspices. This is the guarantor of the security of our network, so we were pleasantly surprised when the Cosmos network included us in the official list of ecosystem projects just a short while ago.
The Bears DAO. How to make the decision-making process interesting?
Now, while on the subject of an independent blockchain network, the logical question that question is how to manage it. The established networks such as ethereum or bitcoin do not have this capability nor opportunity. They cannot be updated to make any improvements. Evensmall yet critical bugs have Been solved through forks, i.e. splitting of the block chain. The rules that were originally laid down really cannot be changed, and this is a very real problem. But, we are talking about a game that should develop and delight users.
The inability to break the rules and the ability to update the rules is, at first glance, a conflicting thesis. But, in fact, in the modern world of blockchain technology, they actually complement each other. It’s just that the rules are now updated, that’s all. It comes in the form of a community voting system. Blockchain monitors the integrity of voting and we use this approach when building the HoneyWood blockchain network.
In our case, the more CONE that is staked by the user, the more their vote weighs. If the number of CONEs staked by all users is 100, then the user with 1 CONE has 1% of voting power. This is a purely technical story that usually happens through merge requests on github. People without a technical background usually do not know these terms and do not participate in this process, giving us and insightful edge and competitive advantage.
However, most people just can’t technically figure it out, so we decided that governance would be built into the game mechanics itself. All voting will take place not somewhere on github or through the linux console, but right there in the game itself. And this should be another interesting game mechanic for being totally organic to HoneyWood. And there lies the inception of The Bears’ DAO.
The Bears’ DAO is a piece of game mechanics and a way to govern the rules of the whole bear’s world. Bear players who have done more good for the community will have greater voting rights. Now, as things stand, Moneta Today has a large share in the decision making process, but in a year from now our share will have diluted and the game will be truly decentralized.
Air system. How to make a project long-term?
One gameplay is just not enough as this is an open system and such projects are subject to the risk of reduced liquidity. It’s necessary to organize the economy in such a way that the number of coins in the hands of users is comparable to the demand, or lower. Any P2E game promises to earn money for its users, and so can we.
Remember also that in farms, bees can extract honey. To start, you need to buy one apiary, buy one Bee and settle the Bee in the apiary. Now a hardworking Bee will be able to please his master with honey that is farmed every second. The speed of production depends on the Bee itself, the number of Bees in the apiary and the air.
Each Bee is not isolated from the general world of bears. The better the quality of the air, the faster it produces honey. Air for the entire game world is general. In short, this is a number from 0 to infinity. It can be equal to 1, it can be more, it can be less. So the Bee can extract honey at the usual speed, either faster or slower. It ultimately depends on the air. And this rule applies to all Bees too. There are Bees, for example, which are less dependent on air. Naturally, they are rarer and more expensive.
Air, just like in the real world, is in a dynamic state. Its quality decreases if there are too many Bees and bears in the game. On the positive side, the quality increases if there are many trees in the game. No one regulates it by hand. It depends on the actions of all players in the bear’s world. The creation of Bees, however, does degrade the air and so by planting trees, each player actively contributes towards improving the environment. And what’s more is that the blockchain supports this rule!
The air balances the game and prevents the unlimited supply of HoneyCoin. Players are then able to choose their own strategy: someone plants trees and earns on staking (while improving farming), while someone else earns through farming (while improving staking).
Proof of stake. Do you need to play to earn money?
The HoneyWood blockchain works on the Delegated Proof Of Stake consensus algorithm. We are an environmentally friendly project and, of course, we do not use any proof of work.
CONE owners can stake their coins and earn income from all gaming fees. They will receive HoneyCoin while the rest of the players buy items and make transactions, including those conducted on the exchanges. All HoneyCoins are distributed among CONE Holders who have staked their coins. Simple.
Please note that you can get CONE coins either by planting a tree OR by purchasing via any of the exchanges. In both cases, you can put coins into a stake and do nothing for a long time (total stake and chill). During this time, you accumulate rewards from commissions and for the purchases made by all players throughout he game.
Thanks to this mechanism, the game is thus fully decentralized. Most of the CONE coins are initially in the hands of Moneta Today, then by incrementally reducing the stake by allowing players to plant trees and generate new CONE coins in the community themselves.
Transition to the real world. What is the environmental mindedness of the project?
There is a declining Bee population all over the world, it’s just a fact. There is also an issue of atmospheric deterioration and CO2 emissions. As you have already noticed, the HoneyWood project is about Bees, trees, and also… ecology. All game mechanics are built on natural processes — caring for Bees, planting trees and creating a beneficial effect for the environment.
We want the HoneyWood project to contribute to solving these problems in the real world and not only within the game world. We want to feel like every Bee bought, or tree planted in the game, has a positive real world impact.
Beta release. Where are we now?
We’re a game on an independent blockchain. The world’s first Bear’s DAO. The world’s first play-and-earn project. The entire HoneyWood global team consists of more than 20 people, who are working on a truly exciting and exclusive project.
At this very moment, over 200 people around the world are testing the game released on March 25, 2022 After collecting more than 1500 questionnaires, we boiled it down to 200. After just the first few days, we had already received about 300 completed feedback forms and bug reports. There is a very dense work of eliminating critical bugs that remains, but we have already eliminated most of them. Needless to say, the work goes on.
Simultaneously, the team is looking for strong partners. We are in no hurry to sell our coins into the hands of the first comers. There is a lot of money in the gameFi market to be made, but most of it is money alone. What we are looking for is smart money. We have a fairly small issue and capitalization at the time of listing, so we are not in a hurry.
The current resources of the team allow us to develop this project further and make smart investments into marketing. Yes, we could do it faster with more investment, but even now there are over 20 thousand people in the community and we are actively communicating.
What will happen next?
The team is running in strict accordance with the projected roadmap. We plan to have HoneyCoin listed in Q3. We are focused on exchanges from the top 20. Listing of CONE is scheduled for the end of this year alone.
Also, by the end of this year, we plan to completely decentralize the game. This means that our share of CONE will be less than 51% of the total stake. By the same time, we plan to have integrated the update voting mechanism into the game.
Our blockchain uses Cosmos and Tendermint, as a result, we can connect to other ecosystem blockchains using the IBC protocol. The plan is to develop other games and create many relationships with HoneyWood. Thus, after some time, the game will turn into an open system with many relationships that affect gameplay. It will be something really interesting for players, partners and observers to experience.
A huge amount of work is planned to improve Match3 and the Farm. We plan to actively position ourselves among ordinary players and involve them in the blockchain game. HoneyWood is the next generation Play-and-Earn game. Join our community, we are looking forward to new bears in our ranks! The Bears’ DAO is here!
