As I dove into the uncharted waters of NFTs, my journey was fraught with misadventures and a profound lack of knowledge about this alluring cryptoverse. Having spent years dabbling in Bitcoin and Ethereum mining, I thought I'd have a leg up on most entering the space. I eventually discover that mining did not quite ready me and would quickly have to alter my approach to truly enter this brave new world.
In January 2022, GameStops Creative Director reached out and asked if I could bring my talents to the table and help design a NFT collection for their marketplace. This seemed like too great of an opportunity to pass on - especially when it came to getting more eyes on my work. After some consideration, I seized the chance and began brainstorming what I was going to create.
After seven years of passionately working on an animated short film, I finally made the decision to use this deadline as a goal to complete part one of this project. This exciting first chapter follows a swarm of drones as they embark on their mission - hunting down and capturing a larger mechanical delivery ship. It has been an incredible opportunity for me to hone both storytelling skills and technical expertise in computer graphics. I would eventually realize that the decision to use this project as my genesis NFT would be my first mistake.
I had overlooked the importance of respecting the initial creative intent and structure of the project I was working on. Despite having minted five pieces, including four stills from different environments used in various shots as well as a the short film, I failed to understand how to structure and market my product. Four of the NFTs in the collection sold relatively quickly but it seemed that the pricing on the fifth -the film -was too high for many prospective buyers. A restructuring would have allowed me to create something better suited for this space but redesigning the mechanics of a NFT project is almost impossible after its minted.
The second mistake I made was not understanding the audience of the marketplace. I decided to mint this short as an expensive one of one. It sat and collected dust on the shelf with a ton of likes but no bites. Despite high praise on its quality from potential buyers, no one was willing to pay my expensive asking price of 10 ETH. I work in TV and film and understand the value of this short film. If I were to deliver this type of short for a client I would easily be asking 100-120k to do so. As a result of this I couldn’t bring myself to ask for less. The environment stills however did sell and I am very grateful for that. My first buyer was Tor FX a good friend of mine who actually helped me with some matte painting work for the unreleased part two of the series.
I had drinks with the Creative Director of GameStop a few weeks after launch who was filled with innovative strategies to boost sales: create small projects that build upon each other into a larger, more satisfying story. It's an intriguing concept - one I'm excited to implement.
For my next collection I was inspired by the advent of cutting-edge AI tools, and decided to explore their potential through a unique project. Drawing on famous pieces of artwork as my source material - including The Scream - I recombined them with the iconic styles of other well known artists to challenge traditional creative notions. From mid journey for base images to photo bashing with Nuke, this challenge ultimately resulted in a collection I called Re/Imagine: original NFTs accompanied by stories crafted with the help from Jasper AI.
This process was very interesting for me and was my first project utilizing AI. The problem was that this collection was not geared towards the audience on the marketplace. It would have done better on something that had artists who valued fine art or even written word NFT’s. This collection did sell more than the short film I released but still did not pull in enough ETH to compensate for the hours I put into the work.
I decided to try something new and created an NFT with 5000 editions of my signature. I was pleasantly surprised when people started buying them for 4$ CAD, making it possible for others who wanted to support me but couldn't afford the higher priced items in my collections. It brought a great sense of joy when holders sent messages on Twitter expressing gratitude that they could finally show their appreciation.
It was a turning point - I realized what both the audience and market needed from me. Suddenly, my future project wasn't just a guess; it contained everything learned from past mistakes. Crafting something with this newly gained insight felt like starting anew!
I took a step back for a couple weeks trying to recall memories of gaming. Nostalgia has the power to transport us back in time and bring a smile to our faces. I remember setting off on adventures that took me on 40 minute drives, but it was worth every second; my destination? Blockbuster! With games as far as the eye could see, this magical place brought with it some of my fondest gaming memories.
As I recalled these memories I remembered that I still had my Gameboy in storage. After an extensive search that lasted half an hour, the device was found – though its battery pack and games were nowhere to be seen. Fortunately with the power of modern technology at my fingertips, procuring replacements proved easy; after ordering some online from eBay I spent a week reliving nostalgic days gone by on this beloved handheld console.
That startup sound immediately gave me chills. The monochrome screen and the chunky design on the unit made me feel all sorts of fuzzy feelings. I was inspired to create something special for the GameStop audience that captures this same essence of warmth and coziness with a sci-fi twist.
The name SLEEPERS came from my love for SLEEPER PC’s. I was fascinated by the concept of an ultra-powerful machine tucked away in a vintage exterior - a modern computer wrapped up like something from the past. So the name SLEEPER SYSTEM was born and I began to design and composite 151 different SLEEPER NFTs. The sails from these NFT’s would allow me to assemble all the parts needed, such as 3D printers and designing on-screen graphics through SLEEPER OS - with the goal of the launch of SLEEPER ONE: a stunning piece of tech art that transports you to a different time.
After minting the first batch of SLEEPERS SYSTEM NFTs, I was thrilled to see interest from the community. The sales picked up quickly and within two weeks 2 ETH worth had already been sold. Then in week three, support for my project skyrocketed when GameStop featured it on their homepage - resulting in an influx of 1 ETH daily during that period! However suddenly after a successful spotlight, sales plunged back down to 0.2 ETH each day until disaster struck at the beginning of week four.
After a wonderful vacation, I was thrilled to launch our Discord called Café 64 - this was going well for a week when sadly, my wallet was hacked. An alarming 1.1 ETH had been stolen and sent to 0xAC032c60F7e721eB281Ae1AB8aD8893E8C29E1fa. Fortunately though it could have been much worse; a week prior I had just over 8 ETH in that wallet that I transferred out before the vacation, the total of all my GS sales.
After some reflection, I chose to burn the leftover NFTs and modify the title of my collection to something more appropriate - “hacked account.” A fitting way for me to reclaim control over a situation that had once been out of my hands.
My suspicions were that I was hacked twice. Once by purchasing my passwords and a second by compromising my system. They took advantage of my foolish mistake: using an identical password for multiple logins. To further emphasize their point and make sure I knew who they were targeting, this hacker proceeded to rename the collection with my name four times before crafting one final message that seemed almost taunting in nature: "Feel Free and Buy, Be the Path of History -_^"
After the hacking ordeal had come to a close, I noticed strange messages appearing on our Discord account. It soon became clear that someone was tampering with member roles! To ensure everyone's safety, I quickly spread awareness of this security breach before taking action by shutting down the Discord.
After generating excitement with our second drop - titled ZERO-DAY - I let the news sink in before closing off communications to make sure any lingering questions were answered.
I had run some malware tools on all my systems to find which was compromised. It seemed to be my laptop so I formatted it and ran a clean install of windows. I also purchased a hardwear wallet to avoid using a hot wallet for my second attempt. This way, even if things went wrong again - future attempts would be better protected.
Within a week of minting ZERO-DAY, the generous community bought enough tokens so previous losses could be recovered. With this mint complete I began to organize how I was going to redistribute the SLEEPERS to all the previous holders. I want to grow this project over a long period of time and was not content with just abandoning it due to a bad actor. I also wanted to respect the NFT etiquette and not just re-mint the previous SLEEPERS again. So I embarked on evolving them visually. I added additional atmospheric elements and lighting effects. It gave them a more ominous cinematic feel that I enjoyed. I then began minting and redistributing these in batches on twenty five.
After the first twenty SLEEPER air drops, I observed strange shifts in prices of listings. My wallet also seemed to be a victim of a DDoS type of attack. Something was pinging the GameStop wallet every few seconds trying to get me to sign something. Metamask would continuously pop up even when I was not interacting with my computer. After coming to grips with the situation knowing that something was amiss, I took decisive action: all remaining tokens were burned, followed by a leave of absence over the next month to fully understand what went wrong and develop better security protocols.
This would end up being the most challenging moment for me. A lot of collectors were confused and people were understandably angry. With a project that seemed to be heading for disaster, I knew it was up to me to take action. While my colleagues urged me to abandon everything and move on, I shifted focus - rather than give in, I decided to keep going and evolve the collection further for the better. I pushed forward with an innovative twist: audio components that would enable them to stand out from hacked versions of my work.
I collaborated with a friend to create ambient sci-fi soundscapes for the launch of SLEEPER OS. We implemented some of these tracks into the SLEEPERS themselves in order to give them an even more cinematic, multi-dimensional experience. Going forward, we plan on adding audio components as part of all future releases too, a signature trait of the SLEEPER SYSTEM universe.
After weeks of careful consideration and research, I took the plunge back into the project. My new dedicated laptop arrived for all my NFT and crypto transactions - with extra attention paid towards security protocol. But that wasn't all; I also made sure our Discord was relaunched so everyone could stay up to date on things easily without rummaging through Twitter threads. In an effort to keep people as informed as possible, monthly newsletters were switched over to a weekly format. I also focused the Newsletter less on the creative and more on the progress of the SLEEPER reboot.
After a lengthy two-month endeavor to identify, organize, and test the pieces of an elaborate cyber puzzle, I successfully reminted all the SLEEPERs in early October and began to airdrop them to their respective holders. Once the airdrops were completed I moved over to the ZERO-DAY collection and commenced the same process.
Through a series of challenging (and costly) learning experiences, I have been able to gain valuable insight that will set me up for success in the long run. What we are creating will be truly extraordinary—something capable of captivating and inspiring others through its originality. Im looking forward to expanding this universe through storytelling and use the hack as a creative guide helping to structure the project.
Whats next?
SLEEPER OS will be the visual component needed for the last phase of the SLEEPER project. Im looking to build these physical collectable art toys that are video loopers. Imagine your own captivating piece of art on the shelf, animating retro sci-fi visuals that spark conversations and evoke nostalgic memories for all who see it! Possessing both physical and visual components, these collectable toys will be sure to mesmerize anyone in their presence. They are also at its core a working mini computer powered by a raspberry PI hidden in a chunky sci-fi shell.
I hope you've enjoyed this writeup of my first five month journey into the NFT space. If you'd like to avoid going down a similar road I recommend reading my detailed safety tips in this thread on twitter. Until next time , Be Path of History -_^.
Safety Tips
https://twitter.com/nathanlarouche/status/1613548147325771776?s=20
Understanding how to price your work
https://twitter.com/nathanlarouche/status/1623034043309690893?s=20
Designing a project
https://twitter.com/nathanlarouche/status/1615395813873549329?s=20