Battle Warriors Case Study

2021

End-to-end creation of an NFT project, from art to community building to launch.

Final project website on laptop and mobile.
summary
I founded an NFT project focused on creating NFTs that players could collect and upgrade. I created the art, led community building, marketing, and site design.
Role
Founder, Product Designer
SKills
  • Visual Design
  • Market Research
  • Marketing
  • Social Media & Community Building
Design Team
  • Myself
  • Community Moderator
  • Smart Contract Developer
  • Social Media Manager
Challenge
NFT collectors were minting or buying projects and then asking what value they would get. Projects were struggling to create utility and the market was filled with scams.
solution
I created a system that rewarded early supporters but also offered new collectors a way to participate. A way for collectors to upgrade and compete with each other while earning rewards.
result
Ultimately the project launched and didn't sell out but I built a strong community of thousands, and learned many lessons for future projects.
How we got there

NFT collectors wanted utility & were growing hesitant of scams and rugs.

Slideshow of project images from character art to items and treasure chests.

Insights gained from frustrated collectors.

I collected and traded many NFTs during 2021 and was frustrated by the lack of utility and ability to customize my NFTs. I started posting on Twitter with some drawings and ideas about creating a new NFT project. This led to creating the 'Battle Warriors' discord server where I worked with community members to shape the project, from the art to traits and the customization would work.

From 0 to 5,000 community members.
Through showing works in progress, listening to follower feedback, and giveaways.
“I love the idea of being able to actually use and upgrade my warriors.”
Community feedback from AMAs and spaces played a huge role in helping shape the direction of the project.
Excited but worried about cost and fees.
Ethereum gas fees become so expensive it forced me to create a way to let people mint for free.

Creating a hub to bring in new collectors - explore the projects site design.

Slideshow of final site design showcasing all site sections.

Lessons learned from the final site design and launching the project.

I created 1,111 programmatically generated warriors with billions of possible trait combinations with over 300 being minted. My personal health issues caused delays to the launch, early turnover on the team left me trying to do too much, and poor communication with my dev resulted in me over promising what we could deliver.

This experience didn't go how I had hope but I learned some very valuable lessons on how to manage projects like this so I can avoid them in the future.

1,111 Unique NFT warriors.
Programmatically generated from over 160 different traits with billions of different possible combinations.
160+ Hand drawn traits to collect for upgrades.
Treasure chests, quests, and rewards would allow players to collect and customize their warriors.
Failed to sell out mint, but valuable lessons learned
I've become a much better communicator & researcher learning from this experience.  

Building games with the community.

Slideshow of early development of the games being made to use the NFTs in.

Expanding & experimenting.

The original idea behind 'Battle Warriors' was to have the NFT warriors be used in a series of video games. The 'Training Grounds' side scroller was the first followed by 'Quests for Valhalla'. As with the original NFTs these are being developed with the community playing an active role.

Want to learn more?

Interested in exploring the details behind this case study? I'd love to connect and share more insights.

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