Wolves –
Our team has made a significant decision regarding the future of our project.
I think the reasoning and background is important, so I hope most of you read through this. But since I know many won’t, TLDR is that our team has decided to fold Hungry Wolves into White Sands, the other project that I run built on HYTOPIA. Wolves will be given unique utility in WS (interactive pets, working vehicles, gated areas) based on their upgrade tier, as well as benefits when we launch jpgBattles. For details and context as to how we came to this decision, continue reading.
It's hard to believe that Hungry Wolves launched more than two years ago. When our project minted, we committed to ambitious goals:
NFT art based on 3D rigged models at a time when this was considered highly differentiating.
Allow holders to join one of 10 Wolfpacks based on their revealed NFT traits, unlocking gated Discord channels and the ability to compete together on pack leaderboards.
Dozens of Scrumptious Sheep / Lil Lamb NFT airdrops with rarity levels, unique & collectable art, randomly distributed to holders (free) each IRL full moon.
The ability to eat (burn) sheep NFTs with your wolves to earn Dominance.
A system to challenge (PVP) other wolves to steal Dominance and NFT metadata ranks.
A digital storefront to spend Dominance and live-upgrade the visual traits of your wolves.
While other projects have implemented features like this over the last two years, when we launched Hungry Wolves these concepts were incredibly novel. There were no templates. We were pushing the boundaries of “gamified NFT utility” at a time when few others were thinking about NFTs in such a way.
We delivered on all these promises. Our Wolf Den became a powerful piece of software that integrated together all our project mechanics. It was extremely rewarding to see thousands of sheep be “eaten” by holders as well as watch PVP battles and NFT traits upgraded live in real-time.
All of that said, our project never really “took off” in a traditional sense; at least not from a floor price perspective. So, we decided to try a number of things that weren’t on our original roadmap:
Released a free-to-mint collection of Hungry RUNTZ with completely new art and over 100 layered 3D traits.
Created “Hungry World” on NFT Worlds (now HYTOPIA) where you can play as your wolf, hunt sheep across a 3D immersive landscape, upgrade avatars/weapons as well as earn live-minted NFTs and $WRLD token.
Launched “Sheep Shooter” a fast-paced mobile game where you can hunt sheep, upgrade wolves/weapons, fight bosses, compete on leaderboards and earn $WRLD token.
Partnered with White Sands to launch a Hungry Wolves blueprint home, exclusive to Hungry Wolves holders, alongside other projects like MAYC, Cool Cats and Azuki.
Supported a series of “Hungry Games” tournaments created by community members with ETH and NFT prizes.
Worked with Sandstorm to make Hungry Wolves VFX avatars available for Sandbox.
Completely relaunched our website and whitepaper with an entirely new visual look/feel.
Announced the creation of jpgBattles, a March Madness style battle engine for NFTs with X (Twitter) integration.
Hungry Wolves, for a project of its size, not only delivered on its promised roadmap, but created more features and utility than most NFT projects. But utility doesn't always drive sustained momentum in web3. And while Jimmy and I remain passionate about Hungry Wolves – the reality is there are only a few dozen people still paying attention to it. It's extremely difficult to take a project that’s two years old and revive it to compete in today’s landscape. And the fact remains, Hungry Wolves hasn’t generated revenue for a very long time.
So we thought about what options we had. We could shut down the project entirely. But candidly, we hate that idea because we love what we’ve built. We could continue to trek forward slowly, building new features and naively hope they’ll turn the project around. But that’s unlikely. And candidly, eventually the project would simply run out of money.
In speaking with a number of people I trust, the idea was posed to fold Hungry Wolves into White Sands, the other project that I run with a great team. White Sands has more resources, runway, and is built on the HYTOPIA platform which is scheduled for public launch in 2024. But most importantly: it’s a gaming project. And Hungry Wolves was always positioned as a gamified NFT collection.
The bottom line, hard as it might be to accept, is that Hungry Wolves isn’t likely to see success as a standalone project. If we keep building utility for it, a handful of people will continue to pay attention, and over time it’ll simply die when there aren’t funds available to support it.
The alternative is to take the opportunity to provide Hungry Wolves holders with exclusive benefits in White Sands and have that become the “capstone gaming utility” of the project. So that’s what we’ve decided to do.
Here are the details:
Each Hungry Wolf will unlock a package of game assets inside of White Sands for anyone holding the NFT in the same wallet as their HYTOPIA account. The assets you receive in-game will be based on the upgrade tier of your Hungry Wolf.
o Tier 2 Wolves: Legendary Pack (Wolf Motorcycle Vehicle + Dire Wolf Pet)
o Tier 1 Wolves: Epic Pack (Wolf Jetski Vehicle + Ghost Wolf Pet)
o Tier 0 Wolves: Hungry Pack (Scrumptious Sheep Pet + Zombie Wolf Pet)
These specific items will be exclusively available by owning a Hungry Wolves NFT. Anyone who wants to use these particular vehicles or pets in White Sands will need to own a Hungry Wolf from one or several of the tiers above.
We don't have previews of these specific items yet (as they're currently being designed) but this video showcases a number of other vehicles and pets available in White Sands to give you a general idea of quality: https://twitter.com/whitesandsgame/status/1564805751142588416.
Starting next week, you’ll have until mid-February to eat sheep, earn dominance, and make final upgrades to your wolves. At the end of this time period, your tier (and game assets) will be permanently locked.
You do NOT have to own NFTs in White Sands (land) to utilize these assets. Anyone can join the world and ride vehicles or utilize interactive pets.
A “Wolf Den” area will be created inside of White Sands, token gated to Hungry Wolves holders. Think of this like a permanent clubhouse inside of a virtual world. It will be themed after Hungry Wolves and pay homage to the project history with images of our art and project features.
Other Hungry Wolves assets/properties, including the Discord, Wolf Den, Hungry World and Sheep Shooter, will be closed in early 2024. We will continue supporting $WRLD rewards via those games until that date.
jpgBattles, which we continue to work diligently on completing, will launch under White Sands. But with specific benefits for Hungry Wolves holders, as always promised. A unique role will also be created inside the White Sands Discord for those holding Hungry Wolves NFTs.
I’ve personally talked to several of our largest & most active holders about this plan for feedback. The sentiment has been overwhelmingly positive – so I hope that’s shared amongst those reading this. Jimmy and I genuinely believe this is the best outcome for everyone involved and are incredibly thankful for the support you've shown over the last two years.
<3
Adam
