Jun 12•7 min read
Hey Whales!
We hope you guys are doing alright given the market circumstances. Remember that for some now's the best time to step away from the computer and enjoy life with friends and family.
Since our last newsletter, we've picked up some new members to the Madstar Team including an accountant, two engineers, and a 3D motion designer. Our accountant helped us prepare the numbers for our last AMA with the team. Recall we showed the breakdown of the mint proceeds and how we were allocating them. Our engineers have been working on our new web3 site and assisting our 3D motion designer in the Whale Endeavour virtual space.
This newsletter will cover our whale endeavour map, updates we have to share, information about future drops, and lastly addressing communication!
We're sharing with you our roadmap for the Whale Endeavour! This map shows the first few points of interest (POI) and teasing upcoming features in terms of utility and what's to come.
Let's provide a quick breakdown of what the Whale Endeavour is for those new whales that have joined us since our mint:
"It all started by the discovery of a mysterious map that draws a path to reach an undisclosed region of mythical origins. Whales have no clue what they'll find beyond the safe grounds they depart from, though they expect obstacles of all kinds. It is unclear if other species inhabit this planet.
An interactive map is being created on our new website so you can follow along in the journey. During this long travel, the whales will stop temporarily at specific points of interest. Here we'll hold community events based on airdropped collab NFTs, challenges, giveaways, treasure chests with big surprises inside, mini Web3 video games, and more!
Understand POI as landmarks or obstacles which are significant and relevant to the story. We stop temporarily there as we hold community events like the aforementioned."
Now we are going to break down some POIs that whales will be exploring in the upcoming weeks. Our first POI will be the Madstar hospital, which represents one of the core objectives of this project: the "Save the Whales” plan. Once whales reach it, we'll open new channels in our discord that will display information regarding the amounts being donated and what the foundation(s) do with that in order too protect and preserve the whales.
As you can see, there's also a poster which shows the way to a secret location that contains an exclusive free drop for holders. We’ll explain what that consists of later in this newsletter.
We'll let you in on a little secret among the Madstar whales. In the distance we can see a rocket that some whales have been working on. The volcano also houses a base of operations where the whales study the endangered species of the planets closest to Madstar. The rocket will help save these species that inhabit unknown planets, yet the fate of the expedition is not entirely clear and will have to be decided by the whales.
We're giving you a couple days to inspect the map and speculate as to the meaning behind the rest of the first points of interest and the background elements!
Team expansion: 1 accountant (PVnRT), 2 engineers (paparagdoll and Elias), 1 3D motion designer (Daniel), and 2 mods (brick.btc and fitzroyjenkins).
Note: Our new website will be dynamic and interactive. As you scroll down, there will be elements in the background moving around based on your mouse input. The user will be able to connect their Hiro Wallet.
Our engineers are working right on schedule. Hiro wallet linked in order for user to connect wallet and display whales with option to list + will allow us to have a record of our holders to carry out all the interactive actions in the Madstar world. Back end development thoroughly done.
Our Progress being done with web design. Multiple tabs to access information about the project, team, and Whale Endeavour. Hyperlinks set up to redirect user to STX NFT marketplaces.
Roadmap published.
Team working with 3D designer to create a 3D Madstar whale model that will be used as the playable character in the virtual space. We've gone through a couple rounds of development and continue to polish the product.
Engineers working simultaneously on virtual space to host Whale Endeavour.
Found promising foundation to work with. In contact with them to figure out details.
Team analysing alternatives for donations due to crypto market plummeting (original plan was to donate with crypto).
Working with designer to create more designs.
Secured contact with local influencers to promote our brand.
Planning infrastructure to accept designs from community and vote on best designs to include in store.
Online store will be a separate website, though we'll have links on our main website to redirect users there.
Researching the possibility to make the whole thing an eco-friendly brand.
Possibility to host scuba diving events with holders in Florida from September to December (DM us if available!)
Possibility to host scuba diving events with holders in Singapore from January to May (DM us if available!)
We have planned and currently preparing two future drops!
One of them is a derivative collection created by the valuable member of our community and holder, Teflon Musk. Madstar is supporting this collection and will be assisting in launching it. This will be a free drop for our Humpback and Blue whales! If you hold at least 10 whales, be sure to verify your wallet in the server in order to be eligible. We'll post a separate announcement with the specific details about this drop and the date for the snapshot. Examples below:
Our other future drop will be an addition to our Madstar universe. This collection will let us go deeper into the intricate universe we've created. In a sense this collection is more complex, hence our designer is currently working on it. It'll have shared benefits with the whales, as well as some exclusive ones. Be aware that holding the Hback Whales will guarantee a free access to this collection. The number of free mints will not only depend on the number of whales but also on their type (mutant, zombie, astronaut).
Note: The artist is currently working on the generative art. However, the team is focusing on building around the whales and providing utility for them. We wanted to have the artist working on the next collection simultaneously in order to save time and prevent a situation in the future where you holders are sitting ducks waiting for the collection to be finished.
There's room for improvement in terms of communication with holders. We're striving to improve this substantially. For that reason we're going to be deploying several changes and rebuilding our framework to address this.
We'll be posting more announcements on discord and twitter to provide updates about our work behind the scenes.
Expect much more activity from our twitter account. We've hired a person to manage the account.
Bistro calls will take place twice a week and will be scheduled events. Team members will be present.
Blue whale role holders will be able to meet on calls with our community manager.
Our community manager and mods are open to be hear your feedback and recommendations, and will relay them back to us to ensure that our holders are part of the decision-making process. We have channels in our discord for this.
We're improving contact channels with our mods and giving them more responsibilities and power.
Removing inactive and redundant channels within the discord and keeping the most important ones. The #collab channel will be deleted and collabs will be included with the rest of announcements in the #announcements channel.
We want to thank our holders for the continuous support, specially those in our bistro calls. Take care and see you in the discord!