Since the founding of the Hikari NFT project, we have endeavored to create something never seen before in the industry.
Knowing the incredible talent of our renowned artist Jeez, we wanted to fully utilize his ability to develop a true one-of-a-kind experience and forge a deeper connection between each holder and their art.
The result is Gen-U.
What is Gen-U?
Gen-U is a proprietary generative personalization system developed by Chain-X.
Capable of creating truly unique trait combinations based on decision data from users, Gen-U is a core feature of the Hikari NFT experience.
How will the process work?
The Hikari personalization process will combine aspects of world-renowned personality profile testing (DISC framework) and an original, branching anime storyline with an interactive web experience.
Minters of Hikari will be able to connect their wallets to our website and engage in an immersive experience following their character from birth to adulthood.
The decisions made throughout the storyline will directly influence the art that will be generated for each holder by the Gen-U script. We have crafted the system in such a way that players will have their morals, ethics, and values tested throughout the process and the resulting art will reflect their in-game choices.
The storyline for users will contain multiple story branches, the first occurring at birth where users will be able to choose the gender of their character. Each experience will be unique, with thousands of unique routes to follow and vastly different endings based on earlier decisions.
For example, the experience will give users the chance to create a character that resembles themselves or role-play and create a character with their imagination.
How will this system affect rarity?
Gen-U is our solution to the adverse effects personalization can have on an NFTs value. We have seen collections that allow direct personalization of the art by allowing their users to add or remove traits. We see this as a primitive method ripe for innovation.
To preserve value, there must be a randomized aspect to the creation of each art piece. The Gen-U script works on a system of ‘buckets’ to which users are allocated based on their actions within our web experience. They then receive a piece of art generated with a limited set of traits that reflect their character’s decisions.
Even if two users take the same route through our storyline, each user will receive similarly but two different unique pieces of art.
By retaining the randomized component, our personalization process will have no adverse effects on the value of the Hikari collection as a whole.
Why personalization?
Personalization has already revolutionized the DTC industry, allowing brands to better tailor their product to the varied needs of their customers. We see the same movement adding significant value to the NFT space as well.
Our job was to develop a web experience to collect consumer data and generate unique, personalized art for Hikari users that reflects their decision-making profile.
Through Gen-U, Hikari aims to create the deepest bond between holder and art ever seen within the NFT space. Each holder will raise their character as a parent would raise their own child.
