‘Official pet of the metaverse’: NFT pet game Duro Dogs launches

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

We are excited to announce our partnership with @handcashapp!@DuroDogs will be our 1st game featuring digital items fully integrated with Handcash, unlocking infinite possibilities for micropayments and NFTs.

Learn more at https://t.co/JoTHaxrVuL pic.twitter.com/wzUWHbDyZT

— Unbounded Enterprise (@UnboundedEnt) September 1, 2021

Unbounded Enterprise announced a partnership with BSV wallet HandCash on application Duro Dogs, built on the NFTY Jigs platform atop the RUN token protocol. I reached out to the Duro Dogs team to get more information about the application, partnership, and future of the NFT game application.

Duro Dogs asserts to be the ‘Official Pet of the Metaverse.’ Could you elaborate on this concept?

Our broader goal for the future is for NFTY Jigs to be the platform to create and manage digital goods for the open metaverse. Duro Dogs will be the first game and the first set of digital goods in this open metaverse.

Ultimately, one of the main aspects of Duro Dogs we are excited about is that they are designed for interoperability. Our vision is that the open metaverse we are helping to create will truly be interoperable and open—meaning that down the road, you will be able to use your Duro Dog in other games that we, or anyone else out there, creates.

For example, your Duro Dog could be pulled into a racing game, a dog park, or any other type of game someone wants to build on NFTY Jigs without necessarily needing to get our permission.

Why did Unbounded Enterprise decide to build a digital pet game?

There are a couple reasons for this. First, we wanted to build something that was fun for everyone. People love their pets, and we think they will love their Duro Dogs too.

Secondly, we think Duro Dogs can demonstrate both the capabilities of BSV and the potential of NFTY Jigs as a platform.

How exactly does Duro Dogs integrate with the NFTY Jigs platform?

The Duro Dogs game is powered by the NFTY Jigs API. The NFTY Jigs API manages all on-chain activity for Duro Dogs and other applications connected to NFTY Jigs.

Duro Dogs NFTs will ultimately be tradable within the NFTY Jigs application which will include a wallet/inspector, explorer, and store for digital goods within the NFTY Jigs ecosystem.

What's Next for NFTY Jigs?

After the @DuroDogs announcement yesterday, we want to share more information on our partnership with @handcashapp, Gamedrop Jigs, and updates for pre-sale purchasers.

All in this blog from @JacksonLaskey https://t.co/JgiZlw3tGp#NFTGaming

— Asset Layer (@assetlayer) September 2, 2021

Given the rebrand of the presale items from NFTY Jigs to Gamedrop Jigs, how can new users interested in Duro Dogs who did not participate in the presale obtain Gamedrop Jigs?

Users who did not participate in the presale will be able to buy a Duro Dog through a $0.99 adoption fee. This adoption fee will include the associated Gamedrop Jig.

In the future, we will offer purchase of Gamedrop Jigs directly through the NFTY Jigs application via auction. People will be able to adopt as many dogs as they wish.

Will there be any Duro Dogs presale or rewards for HandCash users outside of the NFTY Jigs presale?

We are not far from releasing the game, and don’t have any plans at this point for a presale. It is possible we will do a limited release in advance of the full release which will include the ability to buy new Duro Dogs and the associated Gamedrop jigs.

Presale participants will receive limited edition items for their Duro Dogs. Early users are likely to find themselves with similar opportunities.

Is Duro Dogs going to launch before the Hash War trading game? If so, why?

Duro Dogs will be the first game to be released on the NFTY Jigs Platform this Fall. Hash War is an awesome game—we have been play-testing internally and cannot wait for its release, but designing a well-balanced card game is a difficult task. We wanted to make sure that Hash War is released when it’s ready but also wanted to create an application for NFTY Jigs that is fun and ready to go sooner.

Duro Dogs helped us get a game out there sooner which has incredible potential to grow prior to Hash War’s release.

Duro Dogs are unique—how is the uniqueness/randomness generated? Will there be different rarities for different dogs?

Each Duro Dog will be one-of-a-kind, making it rare in its own right. However, some dogs will have traits that are more rare than others. Each Duro Dog is randomly generated with a unique combination of physical traits including primary fur color, size, shape, and many more. Physical traits will be common, rare, or ultra-rare.

Dogs will be randomly generated by interpreting the serial number of the associated Gamedrop jig. So you may have a dog that has an ultra-rare primary fur color, but that has other common physical traits. Or you could have a dog that has a rare eye color, but a common primary fur color. Closer to the release, we will share the full list of different possible physical traits each Duro Dog can have.

It is possible that some dogs will begin with the same set of traits (there will be hundreds of millions or more possible combinations), but they will each be derived from their unique serial numbers. These serial numbers can be interpreted to add additional traits over time, by us or by third party games.

Ultimately, as the open metaverse expands, we see the potential for these different physical traits to represent different skills across other games. As time goes on, Duro Dogs will only become more differentiated from one another.

Will users be able to view their Duro Dogs in the HandCash wallet?

No. Displaying information relevant to the NFTY Jigs ecosystem is a very different challenge than what the current HandCash UI is designed to solve. At first, Duro Dogs will only be visible within the Duro Dogs app. When we launch the NFTY Jigs application, Duro Dogs will be visible there as well.

Will developers be able to use and transfer their Duro Dogs outside of the NFTY Jigs API / HandCash wallet?

Not in the immediate future. Keeping Duro Dogs managed by the NFTY Jigs API within HandCash enables us to deliver on our main value proposition, interoperability between games, more quickly.

We have a fully peer-to-peer architecture with HandCash which enables us to sidestep some of the performance issues which token applications have dealt with to this point in BSV’s history.

Why choose RUN as the token protocol as opposed to others?

Only RUN delivers the functionality we really need from a token solution. It is also the most widely adopted solution. We have a lot of trust in the RUN team to continue to make RUN the premier token ecosystem on BSV for games and applications like Duro Dogs, Hash War, and NFTY Jigs. It was really a no-brainer for us given our use case.

Since Duro Dogs implement RUN, will Duro Dogs be tradeable on the RelayX exchange?

Not to start… We love what RelayX is doing, but we depend on the feature set of HandCash at this point in time. It isn’t feasible for us to integrate other wallets right now and retain our desired UX.

NFTY Jigs will have it’s own store which will be better suited to the needs of NFTY Jigs. Tokens are going to be a massive industry. Not all tokens will be appropriate for every wallet and every exchange.

We do, however, look forward to a more mature token ecosystem where we can begin to interoperate with other wallets and exchanges without making sacrifices to key aspects of our product.

The site states players can ‘Start for Free and Earn from your Play’, but the latest blog post states Duro Dogs have an adoption fee of $0.99—how can they start for free? Who pays the mining fees?

You can start playing Duro Dogs without any upfront cost. It is sort of like fostering a dog. You have your dog, can play the game with your dog and earn rewards and items as you level up, but your dog will not be tradeable until you adopt the dog and make it your own.

You can also choose to adopt your dog(s) right from the get-go. There is no limit on the amount of dogs you can own and the more you collect, the more you will be able to earn from your play.

We are covering all mining fees on the NFTY Jigs platform. We don’t think this is something players should need to worry about. We think it’s important that players are able to start for free. We aren’t offering an investment. We are offering a fun gaming experience with the potential to earn from your play.

How can users earn BSV from playing the game?

This is where the fun kicks up a notch. To start, users will earn treats when their Duro Dog completes a trick. The treats will serve as an in-game currency for either buying items to outfit their dog or food to nurture their dog. Duro Dogs can also dig for either treats or items as well.

As users collect dogs and in-game items, all of which are NFTs, they will be able to sell the NFTs for BSV in the marketplace. The more dogs someone owns, the more treats they will be able to receive, and, in turn, the more items they will be able to collect.

We have some other tricks up our sleeves as well for innovative ways of getting BSV to new users so that they can start participating in the Duro Dogs economy more easily.

Thank you, Unbounded Enterprise, for taking time to answer my questions. I hope the readers learned more about Duro Dogs and are just as excited as I am for the launch!

This article was lightly edited for clarity purposes.