Fomo nouns has been a hit for the DAO, and I propose expanding its functionality with iOS and Android mobile applications.
Many people participate in selecting the next best noun daily, and mobile apps will be a tangible addition to what is available for them. It’ll also bring some vital functionality and enrich the gameplay.
As a usual player, I have missed things, such as Fomo play start notifications and tactile/sound feedback during the “play” to make it easier to play in volatile blockchain timings. I want to bring these improvements and more to the Fomo players with this app.
Scope of work:
I propose to develop the apps and release them on corresponding Android and iOS mobile platforms marketplaces.
With the following functionality:
Choose the nouns as on fomonouns.wtf website
First of all, I bring what we all do on the website into well working mobile form.
This includes communication with Fomo nouns API and Ethrereum blockchain(though Alchemy, incl getting blocks and noun auctions state). Making the UI, rewriting nouns-sdk libraries in Dart for noun generation since I can’t use TypeScript libraries.
Work-in-progress mock-ups for the play screen:
With additional functionality:
Notifications
Notifications for the start of Fomo voting.
Many people currently have notifications through other spaces like the Noun Calendar Twitter account. It is usually notifying 4 minutes before the end of the auction, and it’s when active bidding starts, so it actually takes around 10-15 minutes to end, in which you have to always check if the auction has ended.
I checked with the timer on January 20, and it took 23 more minutes for the auction to reach the end after I received notification from NounsCalendar.
It takes time and distracts from other things.
Now I get a notification, get the idea that voting will start in around 15-20 minutes, wait for the second notification, and jump into playing.
Check on the video:
With the mobile app I basically want to cut all player interactions into 3 basic and fast steps:
- Receive notification that auction is actually ended and Fomo is starting
- Click on notification → app opens
- Start playing Fomo
And remove the need to open the browser, website, and remove waiting for auction end.
App will also have notifications 5 and 10 minutes before the projected auction end. You can see what it will look like on the settings screen mock-up:
A big part of work on notifications is making a custom back-end that checks the auction state on the blockchain, so notification on the auction end is even possible.
Vibration feedback
To improve the gameplay.
It will be used when you actually “play” the fomo. As you may have noticed, sometimes block comes fast, sometimes not. You may end up waiting for the block to come for more than a few seconds, then turn your attention to something else(like looking out of the window to watch the snow falling), and you miss the start of the voting and several blocks already pass by. Optional vibration/sound notification could solve this as you may feel the vibration holding your phone in hand and turning your attention back to the voting.
Or you are texting in the chat about just missed noun, and of course, you shift your attention into typing, and you are easy to miss a new noun. You will always know when to draw attention back to voting with vibration feedback.
Sound feedback
That will work and have a similar basis as vibration feedback.
Chat
The app will also include chat, one of the most asked features, so you could have fun while waiting for the next noun to appear.
I plan to develop a custom chat tailored to the fomo gameplay with some cool features:
- With a push of a button, you can send to chat a previous noun that we all just missed to grieve it. So no more taking screenshots and then sending them to the chat. All are built-in. There will be access to the five previous nouns, so even hectic block reorderings won’t stop us from keeping some perfect nouns, at least in the chat history.
- There will be custom made animated stickers with easy access, so you can fully express yourself over a missed noun. All will be there: crying, RIP, devastated, happy…with some special all-time classic stickers.
Some design ideas on how chat might look like:
With the layout above, you could have fun in the chat and have the voting window hovering around, so you keep voting without switching back and forth.
The main Fomo team will also strive to include the chat on their website, so everyone on mobile and web will have the same fun.
Information page
To educate people on what nouns/nouns selection is, in case non-crypto involved people download an app and want to understand what is going on.
This also includes intro pages on the first app open, pop-ups that suggest turning on notifications, etc
Other
This proposal also includes additional time for bug fixes and minor additions for a year. In case of a need to add a significant future/majorly change functionality that will require a substantial time investment, I’ll reach for additional funding.
What is also included in the proposal:
- Marketplaces costs for three years.
- Money for hiring an artist to make animated stickers, custom icons and emojis.
Other Mock-ups
Here are also some UI designs for the other parts of the app I did to better show my view:
Funding:
I ask Nouns DAO for funding of 22 ETH for developing and delivering the apps with the scope outlined above.
Who is behind this:
@ng. I have created a bunch of mobile apps released on iOS and Android marketplaces. You can find the links on my website. I hold a CS bachelor’s degree where I concentrated on mobile app development. I also create different things using my software knowledge. With the nouniverse, I’m involved in making NounsNeedNames and drop some nounish things from time to time.
Project Ethos
The project code will be released alongside Fomo nouns codebase, so it’ll be open sourced under GNU GPLv3 with all code shared on GitHub. You can see the current progress in the mobile-app branch, though the app is still in its early days.
And the main thing I want to achieve is to bring the first-class play experience to the Fomo player. That is the goal, and no subpar approach will work.