🛠️Development Plan

Our general approach is to keep our efficient and tight-knit as possible in the early-doors in order to get the tasks done and only work with like-minded people who share our vision and standards. As far as possible, we want to keep control of the project and develop it as we want without any outside interference or restrictions. The senior team is contributing their time without liquid reward at this early stage, and we aim to generate income from our growing community through early-adopter incentives for them to purchase utility items in advance, such as avatars, accessories, shops, land, etc. When VerseX becomes operational, they will be able to use them within the metaverse.

We may seek venture capital investors who share our vision and will allow us to proceed with building the project our committed way, as long as it is viable when the time comes that we will need external financing to expand and improve our development team.

Project setup 2021-22

  • Through 2021 and 2022 the team have put in place all of the essential building blocks to define and plan the project, including:

  • Issuing the original whitepaper 1.0 and roadmap.

  • Setting up community Discord, Twitter and other channels to start growing supporters.

  • Putting in place the core team for the initial stage – leaders, community management, 3D artists and developers.

  • Creating the project website.

  • Setting up the tokenomics and initial small-volume sales of the $XVR utility token that can be used to pay for various items in the VerseX metaverse. This was done through an Initial Decentralised Exchange (DEX) Offering of tokens to the VerseX community. Additional Dex listings have been achieved to create a market and to wider awareness for the tokens;

  • Developing artwork and designs for all of the main metaverse areas and releasing image and video walk-throughs to the community;

  • Based on the history so far, lots of research and analysis and lessons learned from other projects, release the update version 2.0 of the Whitepaper.

  • A full fledged game design document has been formed to help guide the development team to construct VerseX, as this is key to building a solid foundation for a game type project, this GDD includes risk management, user-flows, art styles, competitive analysis and more.

  • Business forecasts, flows and inclusive business plans have also been formed in order to create a solid infrastructure.

  • Server Security, structure, and overall hosting have all been shortlisted and decided upon.

The team is happy with the overall design and specification of VerseX and how it will operate at this point and is ready to proceed with the serious development of the working product.

Deliver Minimum Viable Product (“MVP”) 2023/24:

During 2023/24 we want to get to a fully working initial live implementation of the VerseX metaverse that will be usable for a small number of business participants in each of the main areas and also available for a limited number of users to enter, explore and undertake real commercial transactions.

At this early stage, the VerseX world will be a downloadable application that can be installed and run on PCs (and may also linked to some VR headsets via the PC). There will be limitations on the number of people who can be given access and levels of concurrent activity. It is a working proof of concept rather than the finished product.

Definition of Minimum Viable Product (MVP):

A working 3D world in the futuristic and photo-realistic VerseX style with entry points, maps, movement systems and portals;

  • Ability for users to enter the world with their avatar into the VerseX Information Hub which is the starting point for them to move around all areas. Movement can be by walking, using vehicles and boats, using transportation systems or by making use of the portals around the world to move quickly between areas or to a desired location;

  • Onboarding tutorials for new users available within the Information Hub or on the website:

  • How to download and activate the VerseX metaverse application

  • Basics for entering and using the VerseX metaverse, including avatar creation, setting- up a wallet and buying $XVR tokens, NFT basics

  • How to buy metaverse assets as NFTs and use them in the VerseX world

  • The process for creating and running a shop business in the VX Mall

  • How to participate in the in-world activities

  • Ability for users and business owners to purchase limited numbers of the available digital assets in the VerseX world (we aim to release about 10% of the total available assets in each category during 2023 as the individual areas become operational).

    • avatar characters and accessories

    • vehicles

    • land

    • apartments

    • shop locations

    • advertising billboards

  • A working version of the VX Mall area, with ability for shop owners to set up business, display their products and make actual sales of digital or physical products to users with payment clearing. Featuring links to their back-end e-commerce and accounting systems. We aim to have at least 20 shops operational and taking orders by the end of 2023;

  • For users, the ability to enter the VX Mall with their avatars and navigate the open areas and shops. To view 3D products and their supporting information, engage in live chat with shop assistants and place orders for products with payment in fiat or cryptocurrency, using credit cards and crypto wallets.

  • A limited version of the Entertainment Island, that will allow users to watch acts within the VX Arena and purchase NFT tickets to watch in a "front-row seat" style.

Development team and funding required for the Minimum Viable Product:

The current team of 2 full time developers will be expanded over the first 6 months of 2023 to a total of 5 full-time-equivalent people. The funding to cover development costs during 2023 will be raised through sales of utility tokens, NFTs and other metaverse assets.

It is likely that, at some stage, we will need longer-term venture capital funding to make the step-changes needed to complete the VerseX world and develop the business partnerships that will be needed. If possible, we would like to defer that until most of the MVP is in place and we have a demonstrably viable product with a larger user and business community.

Community development in 2023

We define our user community as including:

  • Utility token $XVR holders

  • NFT holders

  • Social media followers (we aim to get all of our community members to join our main information channel on Discord but will also develop our content and followers on all of our other channels)

We also have a community of business partners with an interest in using or providing services in our metaverse and potential shop owners.

We estimate the total size of our user community at the start of 2023 as 4,000 people, around 500 of whom are actively engaged. Our plan is to increase that to 20,000 people with 2,000 actively engaged by the end of 2023 (see our detailed Community Development Plan for how we define and measure these and what we are going to be doing to grow them).

At the start of 2023 we have established 15 business partnerships covering a range of metaverse activities and have 5 businesses actively interested in opening VX Mall stores. By the end of 2023 we plan to increase that to 50 business partnerships, 20 operational stores and 50 more people interested in joining the VX Mall when capacity becomes available.

User numbers in the VerseX metaverse 2023/24:

We aim to have alpha testing versions of the metaverse available as a PC download from early September 2023 and will be encouraging an initial hardcore of up to 500 leading community members to use it (there will be an invite system and requirements to gain access).

This will give us initial feedback and also allow those users to create their own content about VerseX and start to share it.

Once we are sure that we have prepared the content to the MVP standard and the world is usable and bug free, all members of the community will be invited to download and visit VerseX. The onboarding program will be incentivised in a variety of ways. Nevertheless, we anticipate that our enthusiastic community will immediately be eager to try it, even if it has a minimal level of content and activities, is not fully functional, and has problems and bugs that need to be resolved.

We hope to have over 1,000 downloads of the VerseX metaverse by the end of 2023/ early 2024 and over 90% of those people actively visiting on a monthly basis.

Creating the fully functioning metaverse 2024:

During 2024 we will continue development to add the remaining areas and functionality and work to expand our community, business partnerships, the number of VX Mall Stores and the number and size of events in the VX Arena.

At this stage, we will still be using a PC download application that will hold most of the environment information and graphics so that the rendering is largely done with the user’s local computer rather than on the VerseX servers. This is an interim solution as there are many advantages to doing it centrally and then packing the rendered visuals into a “pixel-stream” that can be sent to the user’s device, including the ability to use the metaverse on less-powerful local devices to gain better interactivity between multiple users. However, we do not feel the technology will be available with sufficient power and at a viable cost to allow for it all to be server-based and streamed at this stage of development.

As the facilities for doing so become available and the costs reduce, it is our plan to move to a pixel-streaming model as soon as it is viable and to extend the range of devices that can use the VerseX world to include lower specification computers as well a tablets, phones and games consoles, subject to having suitable licensing and cost arrangements agreed with the various providers.

During 2024 we will add:

  • A working VX Arena for live events and the ability for event organisers to plan, ticket and hold events plus sell digital and physical merchandise in pop-up shops within the arena. We aim to hold 3 or 4 small events (up to 500 people) and then at least one larger event (5,000+ people) by the end of 2024;

  • The ability to book tickets for the events as NFTs and to attend as their avatar to watch the event, either on a PC screen or a VR headset. Also, to be able to buy or rent VIP boxes within the arena giving private areas where they can invite guests and get prime views on the events.

  • A working VX University campus with ability for people to run courses and for users to book and attend. To include a range of free courses curated by VerseX (using available third-party resources).

  • A working market place for trading all VerseX digital assets within the world and with zero fees; - Zero fees, There are 5% secondary sale royalty fees and proposed small TX fees.

  • Increasing the number of VX Mall shops from 20 to 75 (30% of full capacity).

  • We will build in interoperability with other metaverse projects as far as possible, basing our metaverse assets on agreed standards and integrating services such as Ready Player Me that create avatars that can be used across multiple metaverses.

Expand to initial target size 2024-25:

  • Expansion of userbase in all key areas. Whilst maintaining a 70% retention rate for all users.

  • Understand the VerseX economy and establish the most popular areas. Review and improve areas which may not be so popular, rated and ranked by the community on metrics and votes.

  • Ongoing Improvements in development and functionalities within all key areas after regular bug reporting.

  • Fill the remaining capacity of the VX mall with popular retail stores.

  • Make various sponsorship deals within VerseX for the billboards, events arena and the mall.

  • Have a fully booked-up events schedule with ticketing process improved to be seamless for users.

  • Aim for each Key area of VerseX to be financially self-sufficient and to be able to financially contribute to the continuation of maintenance and development of VerseX.

  • Lock-in long term partnerships with various Vendors, Sponsorships, Investors and Advertisement agencies.

  • Increase the range of courses provided by VX University and expand on the ways courses can be conducted.

  • Have a dedicated community who love using VerseX and see the real value it has too the world.

  • Attract licensing to stream sports events via a user’s interactive TV found in the user’s personal virtual apartment. Have these shown in-world and also include the possibility of watching in Virtual Reality.

  • Have a successful merchandising brand with both digital and physical ‘merch’ that is popular for the user to own.

  • Have a thriving play-and-earn economy where the users enjoy the game experience and enjoy earning their way to rewards.

  • Release MvP of VerseX gaming.

  • Have a intense PvP community and who enjoy the competitive nature of the gaming world.

  • Explore E-sport opportunities.

Decisions on the future of VerseX 2026:

Once the initial version of the VerseX metaverse has been fully developed, the team and community will need to make some decisions for the future operation and possible further development of the world.

The initial development phase will be managed and funded in a centralised way by the VerseX team. We consider that to be essential for planning and effective management of a complex development project. It is also aimed at a very specific audience and community with the knowledge and skills needed to play a part in the developing metaverse.

By 2026, we believe that the barriers to entering and operating in the metaverse will be significantly lower and huge numbers of people will want to join.

Areas for consideration may include:

  • Do we keep the centralised structure or move towards more community ownership and management of the business?

  • Do we keep the “exclusive” nature of the VerseX world or open it up to a much wider audience and larger numbers of users?

  • What are the implications of that in terms of the environment, businesses and community feel of the world and also for the costs of operating it?

  • Do we keep VerseX as an independent operation or aim to merge it with similar worlds or become part of a much larger metaverse player that can take it to a different level?

A lot of this will depend on the extent to which VerseX is financially viable in the form it reaches by 2026 and whether the team and community want to keep it as it is or open it up to a much wider and more diverse audience.

PreviousWhere does VerseX fit into “the Metaverse”?NextMission and Vision

Last updated