Wolf Game Summer Is Upon Us
A retrospective on Wolf Game. And why I'm so WOOLISH about the future.
I’m penning this newsletter shortly after the close of Cave Game.
Cave Game was the fourth mini-game experience delivered by Wolf Game in a short 7 months. And likely the last before we arrive at the main event. The big show. The full-featured fucking Wolf Game.
(yes I will swear in my substack, apologies to my mom in advance. although that’ll probably be the least of her concerns after reading this).
My emotional state? A bit melancholy. A bit of withdrawal. But mostly: filled with gratitude, awe, and extreme WOOLISHness.
For the past 50 days I religiously spelunked blockchain caves, commanding my fleet of tokenized sheep and wolves through darkness in search of unprecedented riches. I even went insofar as to play from actual caves in Cappadocia, Turkey.
What I found inside was nothing short of mind-blowing.
And I’m not talking about Gems or $WOOL. Although my final haul was greater than I ever conceived, tbh.
More importantly: I saw a glimpse of the future and what’s possible.
How the hell did we get here?
To fully understand Wolf Game, you need to go back to its humble origins.
In November 2021 we were introduced to Wolf Game in stealth, led by an enigmatic character known as The Shepherd.
The Shepherd is part Front Man from Squid Game, part Willy Wonka, part Vitalik. He* sets the game rules, builds narrative through eloquent Tweets, and has displayed a propensity to shower loyal holders with $WOOL. He also writes some of the most gorgeous code I’ve ever encountered.
The Shepherd remains anonymous. What doesn’t, however, is his ability to innovate constantly and develop premier blockchain gaming experiences.
He’s central to everything.
(*I use he in reference to the character’s likeness. In actuality, Shep could be a syndicate of individuals. I’m not sure that we’ll ever know definitively.)
Act 1 – Wolf Game Launch
If you weren’t around for mint, it’s tough to describe how insane Wolf Game’s beginnings were. Sheep that minted for .069420 had a floor price of almost 10ETH within a matter of days.
Sheep were earning 10,000 $WOOL per day passively. You do the math, but at one point, I was calculating how many days it would take me to retire permanently off of digital agriculture. These were money printers.
The likes of Post Malone, Marshmello, Amanda Cerny, Garyvee, and GMoney were prominently involved, amongst many others.
Wolf Game consumed the entire NFT space.
A few innovations immediately stood out at launch:
You were able to mint and stake animals in a single transaction.
Wolves taxed Sheep (20-50%) depending on their decisions. It was amazing to see the interplay between two assets, and the impact of individual choices.
Wolves stole new NFTs. Players could mint a Gen 1 animal for 20K $WOOL, but there was a 10% chance that it was stolen. If you held a Wolf, you could literally end up with a new NFT in your wallet at any time (including another Wolf!).
Sheep couldn’t be unstaked unless they had 20K $WOOL accumulated (2 days time). Even when floor prices went parabolic, the vast majority of players couldn’t sell even if they wanted to.
NFTs stealing other NFTs was the big “oh shit!” moment for me. One of my buddies got lucky and minted an Alpha 7 Wolf… aaaaaaand then had it stolen.
The cheapest Alpha 7 Wolf is listed at 33.69ETH today.
Quickly, one thing became blatantly obvious: Wolf Game wasn’t a static staking game or basic play-to-earn. Nor did it ever aspire to be that.
This was a decentralized Risk Protocol, or Risk-to-Earn (R2E), that was setting out to pioneer a new class of blockchain gaming. More gambling, less grinding. Something for risk-takers, underpinned by strategy, enhanced by data and big brains.
This was my kind of shit.
“Wolf Game is a modern combination of Monopoly, Catan, Chess, Clue, Battleship & Risk.” – Farmer Ron
Some played Wolf Game initially and cashed out on the hype, others avoided it completely because of early ties to Propeller Hat Man™, and still yet, a third group persisted due to Wolf Game’s intoxicating charm and relentless pursuit of innovation.
Seven months later, it’s produced 4 game experiences and one of the strongest communities in all of Web3. More on that in a bit, though.
Act 2 – The Exploits & Turbulent Beginnings
The original Wolf Game (and what I’ll affectionally call the hype phase) ended after 3 days, due to an exploit that allowed minters to guarantee Wolf mints.1
13,809 animals were minted vs. 50,000 planned (now, 4x more rare!).
One day later, a vulnerability was found within the staking/unstaking contract. $WOOL accumulation was halted.
Brutal sequence.
This was seemingly a death blow. On the surface, the tokenomics and gameplay were busted. Lesser projects would’ve failed (the copycats all did). Creators without integrity, vision, or adaptability would’ve walked away. In a space that’s plagued by rug pulls, who would’ve been surprised.
Not The Shepherd, though [insert John Cena entrance music].
Within 3 days (!!!) Shep developed a rescue plan and unveiled what I believe to be his finest innovation.
That stroke of genius is now known as the WOOL Pouch: a tradable NFT (ERC-721) that drips ERC-20 tokens over a 4 year period. It’s a financial instrument that elegantly controls the money supply, and is central to the Wolf Game economy (and $WOOL tokenomics).
Today, all rewards are issued in Pouch form.
Pouches enable the game to burn liquid $WOOL today, and reward it back through a predictable, time-released mechanism; creating an economy that’s aggressively deflationary, and designed to burn liquid supply to the ground.
Once you realize that, it’s impossible to ignore the potential.
What’s more: The Shepherd took the dev team’s entire 600MM $WOOL allocation and locked it in a Pouch of their very own. Actions speak. Confidence in your own product, with your own bags at risk, speaks louder.
Act 1 grabbed my attention.
Act 2 captured my conviction. It demonstrated the team’s ability to adapt in real time & develop elegant solutions on the fly.
Ordinary teams aren’t capable of that.
From my perspective, Wolf Game is lucky these exploits happened.
The project is in an elevated state because of them. And specifically, because it has a shepherd that was capable of capitalizing on the second chance they provided.
Act 3 – Pre-Game Minigames
In the 6 months since, we haven’t had any more exploits. In part, thanks to The Herdsman. Players have come and gone. And for the most part, all has been calm on the Farm.
What we have seen, though, is a thriving community—bound together by shared adversity, a fascination with cryptic storytelling, and the pursuit of $WOOL—and steady product delivery, including three additional mini game experiences. Each of which has been unique and innovative in its own right, and has layered on new dimensions of gameplay.
Collectively, they’ve provided a tiny glimpse into what the full Wolf Game experience might look like… and have proven stupidly lucrative for loyal & active participants.
The Shepherd has shown time and time again that positivity and loyalty win in Wolf Game. Oftentimes, that’s met with fat Pouches of $WOOL.
Minigame 1: Risky Game.
Upon leaving the barn (post-exploits), every Sheep was offered a choice.
They could either play it safe and claim a small Pouch (~65K $WOOL) — or risk everything for a 50% shot at a big Pouch (~240K $WOOL). Losers left empty-handed.
What would you have done?
Simple concept, but very high stakes. Risky Game pouches for Sheep are worth ~2ETH today.
Wolves automatically collected giant pouches. Pouches ranged from 505K-805K $WOOL depending on Alpha level. These are borderline unobtainable today, and have sold for >10ETH.
While choices were individual in nature, the winning prize pool was dictated by the collective. More Sheep opting in = more mouths to feed = smaller Risky Game allocation for each winner. Wolf Game will seemingly always be interconnected.
Much like the early days of Wolf thievery, Risky Game very clearly demonstrated that high risk, high reward gambles will be ever-present.
Go big or get out the barn, as they say.
(I’ll also take this opportunity to plug my dank WOOLfstradamus predictions.)
Minigame 2: Alpha Game
“On the journey to Lands of high stakes and rewards, Wolves and Sheep flock behind their chosen Alpha leaders.”
Alpha Game introduced gamified staking, and has served as an interim bridge to the full Wolf Game. More specifically, it put 500,000,000 $WOOL up for grabs (~$30MM USD currently), making it one of the largest eSports prize pools in history.
The concept is simple. Players staked Sheep, Wolves, and $WOOL with a Pack to help it accrue points. Teams can attack another pack (-3% points) or defend (absorbs 1 attack), with the goal of finishing with as many points possible at the end of the staking period. Prize pools scaled depending on place of finish, as well as performance in special events.
Alpha Game accomplished a few major things:
Established Alpha 8 Wolves as clear leaders. Each of the 14 A8s were awarded a pack to lead – with rights to 5% of their respective prize pools. These include prominent names such as Garyvee, Gmoney, PantherQB, CryptoCorey, and Shamdoo. The winning alpha is likely to take home a pouch worth over 4MM $WOOL.
Rewarded early adopters. Those that staked, and have remained patient, are set up to win massive Pouches. Many players will net Pouches >1MM $WOOL. This is a gift for early adopters.
Buys time for the dev team. The Shepherd created a persistent social game that can run as long as needed. Players that unstake lose their rewards, effectively locking people in. Holders are much more likely to be patient if they’re rewarded (handsomely).
It’s deflationary. Players that unstake have their accumulated rewards burned from the $WOOL supply forever. I’d estimate that Alpha Game will burn more than 50MM $WOOL.
Reinforced the interconnectivity of gameplay. Prize pools are dynamic, depending on [1] a pack’s place of finish and [2] the number of participants. Winning teams don’t necessarily yield the best rewards for their stakers. Our collective choices continue to influence prize pools & outcomes.
And most importantly, it built a strong ass core community.
At its core, Alpha Game is a social game — much like Survivor.
Players chose packs and pledged allegiance. Private Discords spun off. Rivalries formed. Mercenaries made themselves available for hire. Fights broke out on Twitter Spaces between whales and snakes. Participants submitted dank memes, Wolf anthems, and focaccia recipes — all growing the community along the way.
Alpha Game might not be for everyone, but it’s served a very critical purpose in the project’s arc.
We almost burned the place down for a minute.
I’m so glad we didn’t.
It’s a hell of a lot more fun this way.
(ps: Alpha Game is still going. You can stake your Sheep, Wolves, & $WOOL here to earn.)
Minigame 3: Cave Game
Ahhhhhhh here we are, back where this story began: Cave Game.
Present day(ish).
Cave Game was an interactive, real-time minigame. It reminded me of part dungeon explorer, part old-school Zelda, part running through caves in Pokémon Blue without Flash. It was a hit of nostalgia that was an absolute blast to play.
Gameplay was simple but intense. Sheep and Wolves were given a limited amount of energy each day, and they were tasked with excavating caves in search of loot: including $WOOL, Gems, and Merch.
The kicker: players competed against their pack, in a race for the same loot.
The second kicker: players could burn morsels of $WOOL in exchange for power-ups. Risk/reward via microtransactions, firmly on display.
The third kicker: some loot was insanely valuable. Players could find anything from rotten carrots and parchment, to 100K $WOOL Pouches, to Gems worth upwards of 5ETH.
It also introduced first-edition merch (100% wool, occasionally cashmere), free for anyone lucky enough to find it. Another gift from Shep.
At times, Cave Game felt like the greatest scratch-off lottery ticket in history.
At others, it was beyond maddening. Some players burned upwards of 430K $WOOL… individually. Others made out like bandits, myself included. And others came out with nothing to show for their efforts.
The unpredictability of it all is what made Cave Game so thrilling.
Never forget: Wolf Game is a competition. $WOOL must be won.
In my mind, Cave Game was a massive leap forward for a few reasons:
First, it introduced Wolf Game’s version of Web 2.5 gameplay: a hybrid on/off-chain minigame on Ethereum. Gameplay was largely gas-less, outside of periodic on-chain claims and $WOOL deposits. And it worked flawlessly. Gameplay was silky smooth. Transactions were infrequent and painless.
Suddenly, L2 solutions felt less relevant.
Second, it (unexpectedly) pushed the series beyond DeFi and staking protocols into interactive, real-time gaming. I really wasn’t expecting anything like this, let alone before Full Game.
Third, it introduced the concept of gamified rarity (I think for the first time ever). Gems were designed for one purpose: to guarantee rare Farmer types at reveal. Shepherd manufactured value out of thin air by gamifying metadata… and literally built an entire minigame experience for Farmer Reveal. That’s the behavior of a beautiful madman.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, it introduced microtransactions. Cave Game offered power-ups in exchange for a small sum of $WOOL. They were used extensively, to the tune of almost 1MM $WOOL burned per day. They were so successful that Cave Game almost flipped the universal Pouch drip on a daily basis… and that’s in the pre-game, with minimal burn mechanics active (now imagine breeding, land expansion, etc etc) & a small spending player base.
All-in, Cave Game is set to burn ~64MM $WOOL (that’s >1% of supply).
Incendiary, to say to least.
I hope these mechanics return in some form, and I suspect they might. Land, I’m looking straight at you.
Act 4 – Wolf Game Summer
What a batshit crazy 7 months it’s been.
And to think, we’re still not at the full Wolf Game. We don’t even know what it looks like, or what any of our assets do (for the most part). There miraculously haven’t been any leaks. It’s a black blockchain box of mystery.
Kind of surreal.
But what I do know is this:
The Shepherd has our best interest in mind. Trust his process. Stay a while and enjoy the ride. He’s a visionary.
The Wolf Game community is insane. If you’re looking for a home in Web3, I can’t think of a place I’d recommend more highly. Come hang. We do Twitter Spaces every Tuesday at 2PM EST. You should also watch this video of The Auctioneer and the Relic auctions. One of the most electric moments in Web3. Expect more of this.
Farmers will be PFPs – and you can burn Gems to guarantee rarity up until the deadline (TBD). Identity always commands a premium.
All Farmers will be scarce, and they’ll be extremely valuable. There are 20,000 plots of Land, but only 11,737 Farmers to tend to them.
Wolves are undervalued. If you doubt this, refer back to the name of the game.
Sheep are mighty. They’ve produced in Risky Game, Alpha Game, and Cave Game. Don’t get discouraged if you can only afford 1 Sheep. They’re massively powerful and central to gameplay.
$WOOL is precious. Hold it tight. Spend it wisely.
It’s not too late to join. Wolf Game hasn’t even started yet.
The best is yet to come.
I will be laminating a copy of the Wolf Game whitepaper and taking a day off to digest it whenever it finally arrives.
Grab your sunnies and SPF.
Wolf Game Summer is coming in hot. I can’t fucking wait.
From what I remember, sneaksters could use flashbots to run on-chain randomization — and revert the result if they didn’t get a Wolf. Wolves were intended to be rolled 10% of the time. In this case, they could guarantee 100% success rate.
Looking forward to trying out Cave Game!
Woolish !!!