# Idle Staking game notes

## Rough idea

- Make staking exciting by using free2play game tactics to boost engagement and retention
- Offer people with degen tendencies a way to get their kick without gambling away their stack
- Encourage staking, but also other forms of safer yield, eg SOL-xSOL pools, possibly a little loooping

## Game hooks

- Number goes up is a huge driver. Big fat spinner / idle miner type mechanics are very compulsive
- Loot boxes also a great motivator. Could we drop coins/loot boxes etc as yield is earned and have people tap to claim them? Then number spinner goes up faster?
- This could be entirely simulated for staking yield, or for eg on a meterora farm the coin tap could = claim rewardd tx?
- Staking is too passive. Habits are formed via repetition: bringin people back with push notifications is good.
- This could just be a portfolio check - seek reward, see number went up last night
- But better yet if coupled with an action to take (eg tap on coins) would keep people active and hopefully staking more as time goes on. Does it matter if the coin tap is simulated? Probably not.
- Could use localstorage to track stake on last active session, then pop up a while you're away you earned xxx modal. Tap chest, explosion of coins to tap on, number spinner spins quickly, monkey brain happy
- Mobile app for this would be great. Free push notifications, people checking their numbers when they wake up each morning etc.
- Potentially could do a Progressive Web App (like friendstech) fairly easily
- Some kind of simple mini game (find a free js tutorial game / open source project) like the chrome dinosaur run could keep people engaged while they wait for more coins to drop and tap
- Referrals and points would be cool for growth. But how do you pay out to referrers without either stake/withdrawl fees or launching a token?

## Staking mechanics

* We can simulate the growth in SOL with a counter based on the current APY
* This feels slightly deceptive if staking direct to validator: APY is not earned for some days after deposit
* Stake pools are different: you earn stake day 1 as you share the returns of all existing pool participants
* Easy entry/exit and immediate rewards make me feel a stake pool integration is best here. Either roll you own or use something like Marinade Directed Stake for more impact (eg right now each SOL staked via directed stake means 2 SOL staked to a validator)
* Also provides potential for more yield opportunities in app - lending/looping, LPs etc
* Unsure if SDK exists yet, but directed stake + Kamino Multiply is a bit of a secret weapon, up to 10x stake directed

## Possible bonk angle / monetisation options?
- Theme.. dog food factory? Chuck stake in a mincing machine, bonk treats pop out to claim?
- Appropriate but I reckon humans are conditioned for gold, gems, etc - needs to be shiny
- Could direct stake to bonk validator via Marinade, but then jonny gets no stake
- This could also have a bonk burn counter based on additional validator rewards
- Hardly anyone directing stake to Bonk this way so Marinade API would be easy way to track and confirm new stake through the app
- Could recycle Bonkomatic domain/pool, but fully automated this time
- Counter is then denominated in bonk. Bigger numbers = more compulsive? 🤷
- Delegation could be split between bonk validator + compass?
- Implement Sanctum for instant unstakes (+ additional small fee)
- Potentially create bonkSOL-SOL pools for people to earn more yield
- All pool rewards could use Jup DCA to auto buy bonk, then regularly deposit into a Reward Pool
- so they stake their bonkSOL, rewards go up regularly, click to claim bonk
- Users then get the claim token mechanic as they collect their bonk treats
- Constant (albeit small) buy pressure on bonk plus some percentage of burn?
- Bonk single sided stake @ GooseFX
- Another counter window I guess? Extra tap on mobile app etc
- SDK seems fairly simple to implement, unclear how to check outstanding rewards though, need to dig in
- Bonk liquidity pools - could show a Meteora or a Kamino strategy I guess. Maybe Bonkswap but unsure of API etc

## Design

- Buy some pixel art assets off itch.io or similar for background, items, characters etc
- Animate with a JS package
- Add/draw over with bonk specific sprites where appropriate - maybe Dango can help with this?
- Add some nice animations for claim etc to make it more compulsive
- Mobile layout with bottom tabs for Stake / Earn (LP) / Minigame / ... a bit like stake city's mockup below I guess

## Notes on psychology side..

### Quick notes on Hooked
Cribbed from https://github.com/mgp/book-notes/blob/master/hooked-how-to-build-habit-forming-products.markdown

- Thoughts on gamification:
- Spinners, calculators, number goes up - all great for habit forming. How much do you check orca, metera etc?
- Claim button is goal seeking - can I claim yet? => get reward, get dopamine hit
- Can you apply this to staking?
- Numbers yes sure - simulate growth based on time elapsed since start of epoch, use decimals to make it work
- Claim.. Well autocompounding already happens. But could you simulate it? Or use a stake pool => fee wallet => reward pool mechanism so people could gradually claim their rewards?
- Nir Erwal notes
- Habits = automatic responses
- Trigger => email, link, app icon (wallet popup/notif?)
- Action - behavior done in anticipation of reward. Make it easy, tap into psychological motivation to do it
- Reward - variable reward supresses judgement and reason(!), activates parts associated with want + desire
- Investment : user puts something into product: time, data, social capital or money. Improves service for next go around
- Creating habits stores automatic responses. Customers depend on product and become less price sensitive.
- Free to play = devs delay asking for money until user plays consistenly and habitually
- Hooked users become evangelists. When this happens, the most important factor to increasing growth is viral cycle time - the amount of time it takes a user to invite another user
- New habits are easily lost. Frequent engagement increases likelihood of forming new routines. Otherwise they need a high degree of utility for infrequent to become habit

### Adventure Capitalist notes

- Progress bars fill over time, with separate progress to level up sections
- Always something to do : upgrade existing properties, click the new one to fill bar, pay extra for managers/automation, multipliers etc
- 'Goals' give you achievements and encourage next steps. But always replaced with a new one
- Each give prizes that ultimately keep people playing - time skips etc that deal with frustration
- Boosts - 2x for ads, skip time etc all lead to cash monetisation for team
- Events have leaderboards to pump competition and give a reason to try and push higher
- Nudges - constantly pulls you towards the next compulsive action to ensure you don't get frustrated at lack of progress.
- This could be upgrades to go faster, click triggers, boosts or even restarting the whole board at a higher level to hook you back in
- Restart is a good mechanic for when reward loops slow down. Can it be applied here?

## Paperclip notes
http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html

- Lost a night's sleep on this, careful
- Story aspect of this one is killer. You know you're a monkey pushing buttons , but you want to see what happens next