//State of the Chikn #13
“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chikn house as to build a cathedral.” — Frank Lloyd Wright
Top of the bok and welcome to State of the Chikn #13.
It feels like yesterday that our little claws tapped out the last SotC, but in such a short time so much has happened.
Vacations were in short supply as the devs got down and dirty, greasing cross-chains and changing the oil on our all-important APIs. It was a month of heads-down building and BD networking, all in preparation for the upcoming move from one chain to two chains, and eventually, many chains.
But it wasn’t all Calendlys and IDEs.
Sherbok stunned audiences with his eloquence and overall bullishness on a Space with the big dogs from Polygon.
Elon Musk walked back his previous comments about CEO Cluck Norris.
God King Emin revealed the secret grand plan for Avalanche.
The rationale behind our tokenomic strategy became clear.
Long-form social media content got even longer.
And Coq of the Week recognised a controversial jailbird, no longer spreading his wings.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So DM your FriendTech keyholders to let them know you’re busy as we explore the month that was in this latest edition, of State of the Chikn 🐓
Cluckdate Log
What the devs have been pecking away at, at a glance.
> New foraging APIs have been tested and are now live with this article! Link further below.
> Significant work on the ChiknX rollout — we’ve been busy in the Polygon space making sure everything is right for launch.
- Sherbok is in conversations with Magic Eden and Polygon Labs for the Creator Grant and about our ambitions on Polygon.
- Several blue-chip Avalanche and Polygon collections have been briefed on our plans and are preparing for integration.
> ChiknX collection backend infrastructure is nearing completion.
- This covers all the contracts for roosting, staking, bridging, etc. for the ChiknX collection.
> Game design focus is on partner NFT foraging and cross-chain integration
- Reducing the barrier to entry for new players.
- Lowering frictions in ecosystem gameplay.
> Marketplace build is in the final phase before deployment.
- This includes chikn, roostr, farmland, blueprints, items and drips.
- The NFT details page is being built currently.
> Core Chikn and ChiknX roosting page has been built with new designs.
- Undergoing testing before moving on to the roostr roost and daycare build.
> Major design rehaul on the foraging, WormFarm and related pages underway
- Inclusion of third-party foraging and cross-chain integration with off-chain infrastructure
R&D
> KFC looking into PWA for mobile-friendly experiences and on-ramps.
- Hen Solo has been developing a small, fun, Chikn-themed app to implement with this tech.
> Hen Solo has been red pilled by KFC on Merkle trees and is looking into L2 infrastructure.
> KFC has been working with an exciting cross-chain partner with an announcement coming later this month.
There are three primary development objectives at the moment which fold into our new plans for ChiknX — more on that below. Firstly, lowering the barrier to entry for partner foraging through the game design and mechanics. Secondly, improving the UX and onboarding experience. And finally, introducing further incentives to craft NFTs.
CoqFight updates
- CoqFight development has slowed down. As we’re a small team, we must prioritise time and resources in this market. Development continues, albeit at a slower pace.
The biggest catalyst for this decision is the focus on ChiknX. ChiknX presents an opportunity to not only grow the player base but to also introduce new revenue streams for the company. With this long-term goal achieved, we can refocus attention and resources back on game development. - Gravy has continued improving animations and fight sequences.
- Game design with new moves,
- Full round of battle from gameplay leaked since summit:
- Here’s another round incorporating more sophisticated gameplay with traps, counter moves, status effects and more:
In both cases, the UI has been trimmed back so we don’t reveal too much or falsely set expectations.
Madskullz Collab
The unsettling chefs of Avalanche have been busy these last few weeks furiously accumulating $xFLSH and $WORM — necessary ingredients to make one tasty omelette.
As we discussed in the previous State of the Chikn, we’ve teamed up with MadSkullz to offer tantalising rewards to stakers both in SkullzCity and at home on the Chikn LP farm.
Since our last article, farmers have been busy. Hard-working Skullz completed the Buildz and the Chikn South Portalz was completed. Soon after, Chikn farmers found their farms filling with both $WORM and $xFLSH — incredible news for anyone looking for an extra protein boost for their efforts.
If you’re a farmer who hasn’t been following the news, it’s worth repeating that all farms were auto-claimed before $xFLSH rewards went live. If you’re checking your silo and there’s fewer $WORM than you expected, don’t panic — it all went to your wallet 🪱
The MadSkullz promotion will run until rewards are finished — but don’t just sit on your wings. When the promotion ends, any unclaimed rewards will be lost. The amount of $xFLSH remaining in the contract is displayed at the bottom of the LP farm tile, so make sure you claim before it hits zero.
Community Development
Chikn devs might be busy building, but we’re far from the only devs putting in the long hours to make the ecosystem great.
Dedicated farmers are already well aware of the slew of third-party tools available to help them maximise their coqficiency, but in the last few months, things have really ramped up to the point that it’s worth shouting a few of them out.
Note that these tools are not built or maintained by Chikn. We think they’re awesome, but please contact their respective developers if you have any questions.
Eggburn
The Big Daddy of Third-Party Tooling, Search4Yield’s Eggburn has seen some incredible developments since launching just over a year ago. With humble beginnings as a dashboard for tracking (as the name suggests) $EGG burn rates, Eggburn.xyz has today become the ultimate tool for dedicated farmers — and it even has a dark mode ✨
Eggburn’s latest pivot has seen it move from just analytics into a fully-fledged web3 social tool, with users now able to message wallets directly. No more posting up in Discord trying to wrangle an OTC trade on a beautiful bird — Eggburn allows you to message the user directly to secure the flock.
Full access to Eggburn — including the messaging platform — requires an Eggburn NFT, which can be conveniently minted by burning a few $EGG 🔥
CoqTerminal
Chikn OGs remember well the simple utility of the now-defunct BokTerminal. Since going offline, farmers have longed for a simple command line interface to parse their questions about their flock.
While BokTerminal itself might be gone, the torch has passed to a new dev: the Chikn community’s very own Gribbly.
CoqTerminal gives you the power of Gribbly’s famed data analytics at your fingertips and has recently been upgraded with tooling developed by god-mod Nifty.
We’re extremely proud of all the incredible work our community does to support the ecosystem and each other. You can view more third-party creations in the Toolboks on our docs — it’s hard to keep track of everything that everyone is working on, so if you’ve made something and it’s missing make sure to tag us on Twitter.
Roostr Run
Over the last few months, we’ve been having discussions with a low-key Chikn OG who’s been cooking up something special. Seabok is on a journey of teaching himself game and web3 development, and we couldn’t be happier to support him.
Seabok first came to us with an early prototype of his game Roostr Run — an endless runner game themed around the Chikn ecosystem. We put our heads together and ideated, and after a couple of calls, we had a plan. Gravy worked closest with Seabok, providing ongoing feedback on the gameplay and artistic direction, as well as some adapted CoqFight assets.
Pretty quickly Seabok was showing us clips of what looked to be a fun, addictive, high-intensity game. And with his blessing, we are revealing Roostr Run to the world for the first time.
As you can probably tell, the game is still in a very early stage of development. Seabok is continuing to build out the game, add polish and add web3 integration to Roostr Run. But to get there, he’s calling out to the community for further support.
While Chikn has provided much of the infrastructure through our APIs and $EGG burn contracts, Seabok is specifically looking for web3 support to hook it all together. Of course, all forms of feedback and contributions are welcome!
When the game is ready for testing we would like to host a special closed alpha for a select group of community members. Party hat holders? Fattest Roostr? Most $EGG burned? We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, please direct all questions regarding ‘wen’ to Seabok on Twitter (@canadianplayer) or Discord (sea_bok).
And now, a few words from Seabok himself:
Roostr Run — From a Whimsical Idea to a Running Reality
At the dawn of 2022, while browsing through TraderJoe, I stumbled upon the EGG/AVAX LP unaware of the journey that lay ahead. My fascination with the Chikn ecosystem grew swiftly and I quickly became a Chikn owner, holding on to them till today. The Chikn rabbit hole drew me in deeper — leading me from participating in the Roostr mint and $EGG races during the night hours to speculating about the Chikn farm and finally, foraging post its launch.
Confronted by the Chikn community’s array of creative and invaluable tools, I pondered: What could I contribute that would enrich the whole ecosystem? Moreover, how could I introduce Chikn to an even broader audience?
As a seasoned full-stack developer with a penchant for game design, the answer became glaringly clear: a fun, easy, accessible game that embodies the spirit of Chikn.
My initial vision was a stationary egg-catching game, echoing the mechanics of Plants vs. Zombies. However, after in-depth discussions with the Chikn team (a special nod to Gravy and Sherbok), the game’s direction shifted. It transformed from a simple static egg-catching game to the distinctive, dynamic egg-catching runner that we now know as Roostr Run.
Infused with imagery and animations crafted by the talented Gravy, I’m currently sculpting a prototype in the Unity game engine.
As the launch of the prototype nears, I’m thrilled to offer a sneak peek into the closed beta mobile version of Roostr Run. While our inaugural release will be a web2 version, complete with an online high-score leaderboard, the vision that Sherbok and I share is even more expansive. We’re envisioning blockchain integration, the utilization of chikn/Roostr/item-NFTs, on-chain leaderboards, $EGG burn mechanics…
Thus the journey of Roostr Run is just the beginning, and here’s where YOU could step in. If you’re a web3 developer or someone with a passion for the game, I’m eager to join forces. You can reach out to me on X Twitter or Discord: sea_bok.
While the public release of Roostr Run is imminent, I’m optimistic about the potential avenues we can explore. Contemplating setting up a dedicated venture for this initiative, I believe that, given the community’s support and enthusiasm, Roostr Run could pave the way for a range of unique gaming experiences and further bridge the gap between web2 and web3 realms.
Let’s see just how fast this Roostr can run!
Introducing Roostr Run
Dive into “Roostr Run”, a dynamic 2D mobile runner game where agility and reflexes are key. Your mission? Swiftly swipe up or down to maneuver the Roostr, catch as many eggs as possible, and watch your score rocket to new heights!
As you progress, you’ll find that the Roostr’s pace intensifies with each level up. With every 35 eggs you collect (the magic number we all know too well), the Roostr gains a kilogram. Not only does this result in an increase in speed, but the opportunity to choose from one of three upgrades. You may choose depending on your playstyle: Eggstra Health, Biggr Meggnet, or Side Chik.
However, it’s not all smooth winging. Players must skillfully dodge an array of challenges, from perilous bombs and fiery obstacles to tungsten barriers, black holes and evil chikn.
The provided gifs offer a sneak peek into an early prototype of “Roostr Run”. The forthcoming beta version, complete with animations, promises an even richer, more immersive and egg-hilarating experience.
ChiknX: The Latest
Even though new birds are yet to hatch, Polygon has already had coqs knocking at the door.
We started the month with a general foray into the ecosystem, foraging, if you will, for alpha and engagement from the communities across the chain. Sherbok began to make his presence well known in the Spaces and DMs of Polygon’s top communities, gaining insight and a little bit of karaoke cred while there. Thanks to everyone who spied his presence and showed up to these spaces — by all accounts, Polygon is ready for the Chikning.
In big news for projects looking to launch into the ecosystem, MagicEden announced an impressive $1 million creator grant — more than enough to wet the beak.
While nothing is set in stone yet, we’ve already made overtures to ME and the top names behind the grant program. If you haven’t yet, give some love to Sherbok’s tweet to demonstrate we’re not clucking around.
But that’s not all from Polygon 🐔
Running Pops Integration
Coach Seabok isn’t the only one pulling our poultry into shape for next year’s Olympics.
We’re excited to announce our integration into Running Pops — a Free-to-Play infinite runner (much like Subway Surfer) built for mobile and browser on Polygon.
Running Pops is built around Web3 integrations that allow NFT communities to see their beloved PFPs come to life in-game while they battle it out with others to dominate the leaderboard.
We’ve teamed up with Running Pops to bring our coqs into the game ahead of their Season 2 tournament. This means you’ll soon be able to live the Chicken Run experience by making your chikn run in-game, and in doing so enter the competition for some incredible prizes.
The prizes really are incredible — Running Pops are putting up a whole BTC for the community that tops the leaderboard, and there are a bunch of other goodies for runners-up and outstanding individual achievements.
While your Season 2 avatar will be a handsome bird with human feet, Running Pop’s upcoming NFT release will allow you to import your own birds into the game to play with. There’s a lot of technical wizardry that goes into generating 3D playable avatars from 2D images, which is why we’re particularly excited to see what the team comes up with.
Season 2 is right around the corner, slated for a September 20 start. All chikn and Roostr holders are whitelisted for participation, so pull out the running shoes and keep an eye on the announcements for more details 👀
ChiknX Mint
Venturing into Polygon over the last three months has been an eye-opening experience. It’s all too easy to get lost in your own ecosystem — be it Avalanche or Chikn itself — and forget that there’s so much going on in the wider world of web3.
Our time networking in Spaces, TG conversations and countless calls has reassured us that Polygon is a terrific, fertile ecosystem to launch into. Communities are strong, passionate, and above all, welcoming to new projects looking to enter the space. PolygonLabs and Magic Eden have been particularly welcoming and actively support our endeavours into the chain.
Huge shout out to all the Chikn fam making noise on Twitter. You’re a huge factor in our success for this first push into Polygon. We’ve had multiple founders and KOLs noting the constant activity and hilarious insanity of Chikn accounts flooding their posts. We’ve said it before but it remains true, you are the wind beneath our wings.
If you haven’t spent time with Polygon communities, nor played web3 games in the ecosystem, we recommend it — the vibes are on point.
But while vibes are certainly an important factor, they’re not all it takes to secure a successful mint. We remain cognisant of market conditions and have been keeping a close eye on projects that launch, observing how they perform at mint, and talking to founders in that neck of the woods.
Realistically, most degens aren’t willing to spend more than pocket change and projects aren’t performing strongly. In this market, we would be undercutting the value proposition of the Chikn ecosystem to reach a user base at the desired scale.
As the primary benefit of this new arm of Chikn stands to be user acquisition, we’ve assessed that the opportunity cost of minting now vs. in more favourable market conditions is too high.
Most would use this as an excuse to do nothing and wait for the rising tide of the bull market to lift all ships.
But not us.
Nimble. Agile. In the arena. Just like our namesake.
The ChiknX mint is only one step in our brand eggspansion. The first of many in an adventure across the metaverse. So we have reprioritized the timeline.
Let them get a taste of the honey until it’s time to open the floodgates.
Instead of the ChiknX collection mint launching as our flagship, we are bringing forward the utility-driven expansion. All the pieces of the puzzle are there in our ecosystem, and they are coming together under ChiknX.
- Foraging and off-chain infrastructure
- TelEGGport/cross-chain technology
- Eggnite and partner integrations
The Chikn ecosystem will bring utility and active players to any NFT. As the floodgates open, Noah’s ark of the metaverse will set sail.
But what do we need to get in ship shape?
Well, the same three points discussed in the cluckdate log as our main developments. Looking at the floor prices of our NFTs, the barrier to Chikn is high. This is also encumbered by a clunky user interface without a clear onboarding path to a complex gamified ecosystem.
Finally, we need incentives for foraging beyond the Chikn ecosystem and CoqFight. We’ve closed the loop — now it’s time to go beyond. It’s time to make an offer they cannot refuse, to take the first step into the loop.
Well, what does this rollout look like?
We will begin on Avalanche with our closest partners.
Then we integrate with the biggest blue chips and simultaneously roll out across Polygon.
Dozens of NFT ecosystems intertwined.
Cross-community pollination at an unprecedented scale.
All funnelled into the ChiknX mint, and ultimately, the Chikn ecosystem.
This is how we reach a massive player base.
We are dawning on a new era that strikes tribalism and unities us all under a common credo:
chikn is life.
But we already know you’re thinking about the most important question: wen?
Cross-chain ventures begin Q4.
Eggspect us.
Foraging APIs
For the last few weeks, a select group of testers have been getting their hands dirty with new APIs that give better insights into foraging, items and resources. We called on the A-Team for this task, with Gribbly, Mesiya and Search putting the endpoints through the ringer. You only need to scroll up in this article to get a glimpse of their resumes.
These foraging APIs are live here right now!
In previous articles and announcements, we discussed fundamental updates to the platform APIs. At the start of the month, the website was taken offline for a few hours to roll one of these updates out.
These changes make the API structure significantly more efficient at handling large numbers of calls, giving us the infrastructure needed to accept a growing number of players. Hen Solo has poured his heart and soul (and fingertips) into making these ready for both volume and cross-chain data.
On that second point, he might have had a little help 👀
The API upgrades put us in a strong position to onboard partners on Avalanche and on other chains for partner foraging. It also opens the door to new opportunities to grow the ecosystem and expand gameplay offerings with a lower cost of entry.
The cross-chain dream is still alive and kicking, cluckers. Bok bok.
Ecosystem Highlights
While Search, Gribbly, Nifty and Seabok got shoutouts earlier in this article, they’re not the only ones flapping about this month.
Art Lord Gravy put the ‘Dream’ back in his name with some dreamy animations to get you mesmerised during your next trip.
That’s a business trip, of course.
It’s been some time since our last official BokBok (something we’re rectifying), but there’s been plenty of other Spaces in the meantime to glean alpha from.
Around the time of the MadSkullz collab, Sherbok joined the great OnethirdNerd for a conversation on $xFLSH rewards — and a lot, lot more.
Chikn’s favourite influencer, KFC, joined one of Chikn’s favourite realtors, Adrian, for a wide-ranging conversation on everything you need to succeed online and IRL.
Sherbok stepped up to another of Adrian’s Spaces on August 25 and spilled the beans on where the project is and where we’re heading.
Unfortunately, the Space wasn’t recorded, creating one of the greatest ‘you had to be there’ moments in ecosystem history. Turn on notifications and make sure you’re there for his next Space — who knows what might happen 🧐
At the risk of SotC 13 turning into an Adrian recap, we also wanted to shout out the 2Six Podcast with Luke152 for their spotlight on Chikn.
The spotlight is shaping up for a multi-part series, so give them some engagement and let them know what you’d like to hear about next.
Search was a busy bird, not only rolling out incredible updates to Eggburn, but also bringing together Dominic Carbonaro and others from AvaLabs for a characteristic to-the-point conversation on the gamification of NFTs.
Finally, mysterious CEO Cluck Norris emerged from the shadows to feature on a panel discussion hosted by Peaky Birds with some of the greats in the Australian NFT space.
In other news…
Viper, author of the acclaimed “Thoughtful Chikn Farmer” (available on Spotify and Medium) has continued his run of quality coq content on the timeline.
We loved his timely reading of the last State of the Chikn and are keen for more — future editions will include cues for him to do voices.
Over at AVAX PDX, Chikn took home the championship against Love Monster making it 2 for 2 at the annual showdown.
Big ups to Hoops and BallnChikn for putting on the show — make sure you get down to AVAX PDX next year where Chikn plans to take the championship hat trick 🏀
Finally, market analysts are in shambles as KFC overtook Sherbok as the most valuable dev on FriendTech.
While Chikn does not endorse FriendTech, we do endorse friends — say thanks to a friend, for being your friend.
“Ask Me What I Do and Who I Do It For”
As the pieces of the multi-chain puzzle click together, we stand ready to throw open the barn to more players, more coqs and more partner NFTs. We’ve all been waiting for this day and it is fast approaching.
We understand that there has been some restlessness in the coop as we haven’t released a major new product or update in a couple of months. Rest assured that we have been working tirelessly building and preparing for the future of Chikn. To keep up engagement over this time, we’ve ramped up our social media presence, fostered community tooling and games, and publicly networked across Polygon.
For a long time we, the Chikn team, were heralded as miracle workers with a grand vision plotted out from day dot unfolding with clockwork precision. While we do pride ourselves on executing our grand visions, the reality is we are just humans—albeit hard-working ones—navigating the rocky road to success. The journey here has been non-linear and we’re constantly adapting to the market, regulation, technology and player base.
Our greatest power is total creative freedom and flexibility. Unlike many projects in the space, Chikn is truly independent with zero invested interest outside the founding team. This kind of product doesn’t come from a corporate think tank. You’ve watched us build it every day, juggling balls, experimenting, learning and growing.
The strengths of this kind of indie development, however, have their drawbacks. Achieving the lofty goals we’ve set ourselves with the runway we have means that releases usually do occur less frequently than any of us would like. The protraction of this bear market has irrefutably taken its toll on our project, our community and on us as well.
Sometimes it feels like the path forward is unclear. Sometimes the narrative is murky. There is no playbook for this industry — we are setting new precedents every day, and adapting to an ever-changing landscape. While we don’t have all the answers, what we do have is ambition, motivation and passion. What we can do is show up every day and build.
Sometimes we will surprise you, sometimes we will disappoint you.
Sometimes Chikn will be in the headlines, at the top of your newsfeeds — and sometimes it won’t.
But that’s ok.
You all know the plan already.
What we have — what Chikn is — is incredible.
And what we’re learning is that our story turns heads.
Folks we’re meeting now are seriously impressed.
The metrics, the community, the game.
They want more.
And we’re going to give it to them.
Over the coming weeks, expect exciting cross-chain news as we craft the narrative and build the path forward.
For now, feed those chikn and Roostr, get them worms diggin’
- and pray to KFC you pull a legendary blueprint.
We’ll see you in the coop.
Bok Bok,
The Chikn Team
