Looking Back on 2022 and Preparing for Success in 2023!
Building an industry is no easy task. From the protocols iterating on security measures and smart contract standards to the application builders pioneering what can only be called a new internet, the work is nothing short of revolutionary. However, just like with any revolution, there are bad actors and opportunistic profiteers seeking to exploit fledgling communities, and honest mistakes being made along the way. Throughout 2022, multiple ecosystem breakdowns exacerbated by a macroeconomic downturn suffocated the optimists and brought a chill to the industry. The good times are now over, a wounded market is in need of healing, and many villains have been unmasked like the boogeymen in Scooby-Doo cartoons.
It’s during these turbulent times that true builders shine their brightest. Forget the glorified celebrity investors, figureheads, and influencers; instead, remember that the point of Web3 is to be trustless and permissionless — and to take back control of our assets and investments from third parties. Let this be a lesson about the certain failure of centralization, and why smart contracts are no doubt the future.
2022 Milestones
At the beginning of 2022, Highstreet set four ambitious milestones to kickstart Highstreet World:
- Develop virtual real estate
- Foster commerce in the metaverse
- Lead the play-to-earn model into the mainstream
- Build a popular MMORPG.
Each of these milestones represented what we believed were the core pillars that needed to be built to begin moving users into our world. They also highlighted the key differences between a game and a metaverse.
We kicked off with a series of real estate sales to brands and partners, followed by our first initial home offering (IHO) for Solarium units. We specifically avoided selling land plots to players because we understood that barren land has no value and any price movements would be derived from pure speculation, which was not only unhealthy but predatory in a waning market. Yet, we still needed to populate Highstreet World and accumulate concrete data on potential user growth to continue signing brand partnerships. Thus, Highstreet Homes were created to give community members a presence that they could own within Highstreet World.
Highstreet’s First IHO — The Solarium
The Solarium was introduced in February, a neon-lit tower located at the heart of Highstreet City, lush vegetation and biowalls covering both the exterior and interior of the condominium, providing a futuristic and optimistic design aesthetic to our first ever Homes. The sale was incredibly successful. It was one of the best performing projects on Binance’s NFT Marketplace, surpassing US$10 million in trading volume within the first week. The team followed up immediately with our Move-In Day, when homeowners walked into their new homes for the first time, using either their web browser or a VR headset.
From an external perspective, everything went more or less as planned, but our team was pushed to its limits to keep the process smooth. In terms of logistics and business development, getting HIGH to be the only third-party token accepted on Binance’s NFT Marketplace took many rounds of negotiations. Poor quality control and outlandish demands from third-party platforms forced us to redesign our NFTs multiple times in a short time frame in order to future-proof Homes for our users.
In terms of technical development, being the first project to merge a native VR application with a Web3 browser application required our entire team to work for 18 hours a day over the course of an entire month. Architecturally, the two target platforms had nothing in common, and even the art assets had to be optimized for both directions. This means that we were effectively building two apps from scratch at the same time.
Furthermore, our planned partnership with Unity Multiplay was supposed to reduce our burden on server development and allow us to scale our growth by utilizing the same infrastructure that powers massive games like Apex Legends. However, a week prior to our release, our contact points at Unity informed us that Multiplay does not support browser-based games. This scenario did not even cross our minds, since Unity supports WebGL. Thus, with just days left before the Move-In Day, we had to build and test our own multiplayer game servers while hot-fixing compatibility issues that arose with a drastic change in architecture.
In the end, although we were able to launch without delay, the duct-tape code we wrote in haste became technical debt as the application got bigger — it eventually had to be demolished and rebuilt. In the months that followed, half of the team focused on shipping fortnightly feature updates to the Home app, from small UI improvements to the introduction of brand new systems like BB Drakes. The other half of the team rebuilt the application from scratch with proper infrastructure, improving one feature at a time.
For developers who are interested, the full, detailed report on our journey to Move-In Day can be found in this post.
Phygital Goods
Having been sidetracked for two months by the patchwork needed for Highstreet Homes, the team finally started crafting the blueprint for our Metaverse Commerce system in late Q2. Our thesis was simple: behaviors such as making in-game purchases and active world exploration will stay with the young players who love Roblox and Minecraft, even after they move on to other games and platforms. Thus, a metaverse that targets an adult user base while providing the same social and economical stimulus could become very valuable in the future. We also hypothesized that 99% of the world will not adopt pure digital asset ownership anytime soon, so the idea of phygital goods stuck. We set out to bond physical items to corresponding digital tokens.
With that in mind, our Unity team created a system that allows players to purchase physical items like T-shirts or sweaters in Highstreet World, and these items could be worn by third-party avatars like those of Ready Player Me. This means that when you buy a sweater through Highstreet, not only will you receive the physical garment, but its corresponding digital cosmetic item could also function as armor, providing additional utility and value within the metaverse.
The web team took this concept a step further by developing a Merchant Portal for brands that allow them to connect Highstreet with their Shopify dashboard and track their activity within the virtual world. This project was launched through our collaboration with 8-BIT by Mostly Heard Rarely Seen. Their 2022 Fall/Winter line, which could be purchased both online and in luxury department stores around the world, had a direct link to corresponding digital garments in Highstreet World. There were many challenges in executing this concept, but here are a few quick points worth highlighting.
As with most of our technical challenges, the obstacles came from the unforeseen need to create ad-hoc compatibility wrappers for third-party, closed-source systems. During development, we struggled to obtain quick approval for making custom 3D apparel compatible with the Ready Player Me (RPM) system. To ensure interoperability, we opted not to create another avatar system. Instead, we developed our own wrapper system that automatically adapts our 3D models for RPM avatars, supporting the 108 new 8-BIT garments. This solution had to be built, tested, and continuously maintained to account for updates made by RPM, which took more time than initially anticipated.
Highstreet x Shopify
Another significant development in 2022 was our Shopify integration on the Merchant Portal. Our initial plan was to create a simple plugin that would enable virtual events within the metaverse to trigger purchase orders on existing Shopify stores, expanding our target market to include the 2 million independent e-commerce merchants on the platform. However, we found that the Shopify SDK was unable to handle this function.
To overcome this problem, we developed new middleware that seamlessly connects purchase and payment data from Highstreet with Shopify. We are proud of this solution as it not only allows for accurate inventory and pricing data to be displayed to players within a video game or metaverse setting, but also provides merchants with valuable sales data via a browser-based dashboard. Although it took an extra month to implement, we believe the outcome was worth the effort.
Highstreet Campus
As the market cooled down, we reevaluated our original goal of taking play-to-earn mainstream in light of a fast cooldown in GameFi. Despite the intricacy of our token economy, we saw that we would ultimately end up in a race to the bottom. As a result, we decided to delay the launch of our in-game token, Street Cred. Instead of launching a play-to-earn dApp, we focused on releasing Highstreet Campus.
Highstreet Campus is a miniature version of Highstreet World — a social hub for testing various features such as shopping, eating, embarking on quests, and engaging foes in combat. It is also a space where our team holds meetings, and improvements are constantly being made to the micro-city. For our most dedicated supporters, it’s clear that Highstreet Campus is continually evolving, with seasonal events bringing changes to the environment, characters, and NPCs. Additionally, as NPCs share stories and lore with the Highstreet community, players can gain a deeper understanding of the world we are building.
FOMO Eden
At the end of the year, we launched our MMO Quest system along with FOMO Eden, an exclusive rooftop lounge complete with a zip line experience and tiki bar for Forever FOMO Duck Squad holders. Not only is this a delivery on a promise made to Duck holders at the beginning of our journey, but also a playground jam-packed with Easter eggs that tease the backstory of our beloved anatine mascot. Keen-eyed observers will enjoy the lore’s richness and anticipate the conflict slowly being introduced to fuel the next chapter of Highstreet World’s development.
Highstreet’s 2023 Roadmap
It’s now January. After reflecting and planning for the past two weeks, we’re ready to share our roadmap for 2023.
Highstreet’s Core Pillars
Last year, we focused on building our digital world’s core pillars by dedicating each quarter to one subject. This year, with those foundations in place, we aim to create core game loops that can be improved over time. To achieve this, we will be working simultaneously across four main disciplines: Social, Combat, Crafting, and Exploration. These four areas are essential for creating a foundational game loop.
The Social layer offers players the chance to form deep connections and create lasting memories as they explore the digital world together. The Combat layer provides opportunities for growth and enables various player groups to establish their unique identities. The Crafting layer builds upon this concept by integrating in-game items with our phygital cosmetic apparel, seamlessly blending commerce into the core gameplay. Lastly, the Exploration layer centers around world-building for the metaverse game and its lore.
The stronger the story, the more powerful the escapism. With VR technology advancing, what we need now is a world worth being immersed in. The Exploration layer requires a balance between our development team and the partners we work with. Integrating brand stories with our lore without creating overly commercial or shallow experiences will be our greatest challenge. To address this, we have formed a team dedicated to conducting research and implementing new partnerships. Lastly, to our loyal FOMO Duck holders, the party doesn’t stop at FOMO Eden. In the coming weeks, we will share how Duck ownership will be integral to our upcoming gameplay.
Building an industry is a challenging task. It is through these challenges that we are able to truly innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible. In 2022, Highstreet set out with ambitious milestones to kickstart Highstreet World. Although we faced obstacles, we were able to overcome them and achieve great success. The past year has been a valuable learning experience, and we look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible in the metaverse. We look forward to you all joining us in our journey and being a part of building the future of Highstreet World. If you want to learn more about our project and stay updated on our progress, be sure to visit and follow us on Discord, Telegram, and Twitter.
About Highstreet
Highstreet is a commerce-centered metaverse integrating shopping with gaming. While products from brands bring an endless supply of cosmetics, bridging character customizations with real world fashion, an MMORPG backbone further adds utility to them, allowing players to craft unique NFTs to either profit or elevate their gameplay. As Highstreet’s phygital products continue to gain traction both online through E-commerce storefronts like Shopify and offline through various department stores around the world, Highstreet’s Metaverse grows steadily through land sales to brand partners; accumulating new stories to be shared and discovered by players around the world.
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General Inquiries: info@highstreet.market
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Contact for Brands: merchants@highstreet.market
