During my time working at GameStop NFT I had the pleasure of being tasked with creating an interactive NFT for the release of the GameStop NFT Marketplace. I was given complete creative freedom, and I wanted to create something that would be a fun, interactive experience for the team and community.

THE FALL OF KOTAKU

I've been deeply ingrained in the gaming world for years, both as a passionate gamer and a dedicated developer. Kotaku was my trusted source, my daily digest of all things gaming. Yet, GamerGate was a turning point for me; it prompted a re-evaluation, a sharpened critical perspective of the gaming journalism landscape. Especially intriguing was when Kotaku penned their thoughts on GameStop's NFT Marketplace. It was then that I realized just how biased they were, given my involvement and insider information on what they were reporting.

THE CREATION

Hit piece aside, I had fun and learned a lot while working on this NFT. It was a project of passion fueled by my appreciation for the team and their work. I joined the marketplace team shortly before the release of the NFT marketplace. At the time, I still felt like a bit of an outsider and wanted to create something that showed my passion for the project and the community. I came up with an idea to create a commemorative NFT and presented the idea to head of the marketplace, Matt Finestone.

Something for the team

I used this opportunity to learn more about the team by collecting a little bit of fun information about them. Something that perhaps they don't even know to this day, but I left a little comment about each person; a personal note that only data miners might find. You can see the data below of the team.

Something for the community

Something about the community that reolves around the GameStop saga love puzzles. They like digging into the data and finding hidden gems. I wanted to create something that would be a fun easter egg. I am going to be purposefully vague here, as the larger puzzle is still unsolved, but a few pieces of it have been found. The big most obvious piece was the Konami code functionality that lead to a keyword. There are a few layers to this, and I will leave it up to you to find them.

TECH STACK

REQUIREMENTS

The NFT should be interactive
- The NFT should be able to be viewed on mobile and desktop
- This involved a lot of testing and tweaking to get the physics to work on both mobile and desktop
The game cabinet format gave me the abilty to add a themed mobile controller via the touch screen

FLAVOR DATA

The flavor data that drove the interactive menu

[
  {
    "name": "Alexander Cyr",
    "aka": "Bigcat",
    "flavorText": "\"(Groan)\" - Tina from Bob's Burgers",
    "flavorTextAlt1": "What? I didn't break it. I was just testing its durability. - Happy Gilmore",
    "flavorTextAlt2": "Nani?",
    "flavorTextAlt3": "\"Who\u2019s better at math than a robot? They're made of math!\" - Gene Belcher",
    "color": ["#009999"],
    "game": "Banjo Kazooie",
    "animal": "CatDog",
    "music": "rock",
    "notesFromJmo": "Wen CSS Masterclass"
  },
  {
    "name": "Alvaro Montero",
    "flavorText": "Impossible is nothing",
    "color": ["#9400D3", "#4B0082", "#0000FF", "#00FF00", "#FFFF00", "#FF7F00", "#FF0000"],
    "game": "Dragon Slayer",
    "animal": "both",
    "music": "techno",
    "notesFromJmo": "Most of the team did not know I was making this NFT. I asked for everyone's favorite color. Alvaro said rainbow... Ask and you shall receive, my friend"
  },
  {
    "name": "Andrea Raymond",
    "flavorText": "I'm bad at quotes! Here is a boring one but I'm sticking with it: \"Credibility is a basic survival tool\" - Rebecca Solnit ",
    "color": ["#99B0AB"],
    "game": "Wonder Boy",
    "animal": "Cat person",
    "music": "This is hard, let's say 90s hip hop"
  },
  {
    "name": "Annie Nguyen",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": ["#1c482b"],
    "game": "Super Mario!",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Pop"
  },
  {
    "name": "Antoine Bonnin",
    "flavorText": "\"To understand is to perceive patterns.\" Isaiah Berlin",
    "color": ["#512078"],
    "game": "Space Invaders",
    "animal": "Neither (own a dog tho)",
    "music": "Funk"
  },
  {
    "name": "Ben Unknown",
    "flavorText": "Jawn",
    "color": ["#228C22"],
    "game": "Mortal Kombat",
    "animal": "Cat person",
    "music": "Hip hop"
  },
  {
    "name": "Brandon Jenniges",
    "flavorText": "\"Steve Holt!\" - Steve Holt",
    "color": ["#78E8F0"],
    "game": "POKEMON GOLD",
    "animal": "CAT",
    "music": "HIP-HOP/RAP"
  },
  {
    "name": "Caden McBride",
    "flavorText": "Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing",
    "color": ["#08a04b"],
    "game": "Star Wars",
    "animal": "Dog person",
    "music": "Everything"
  },
  {
    "name": "Chris Bell",
    "flavorText": "Mess with the best, die like the rest.",
    "color": ["Grey"],
    "game": "Earthbound",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Hip hop",
    "notesFromJmo": "On top of it!"
  },
  {
    "name": "David Nicholson",
    "flavorText": "never gonna give you up",
    "color": ["#5FBF50"],
    "game": "Lemmings",
    "animal": "gerbil",
    "music": "",
    "notesFromJmo": "OG all the way"
  },
  {
    "name": "David Weisiger",
    "flavorText": "\u201cThrough the unknown, we\u2019ll find the new\u201d - Charles Baudelaire",
    "color": ["#bd93f9"],
    "game": "Goemon's Great Adventure",
    "animal": "",
    "music": "EDM"
  },
  {
    "name": "Emily Switzer",
    "flavorText": "mono = one / rail = rail",
    "color": ["#6577fd"],
    "game": "Mario Kart",
    "animal": "Doggo",
    "music": "dance / pop",
    "notesFromJmo": "Does amazing impressions"
  },
  {
    "name": "George Muresan",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": ["blue"],
    "game": "Sonic",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Ricks"
  },
  {
    "name": "Griffin Park",
    "flavorText": "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And\u2014which is more\u2014you'll be a Man, my son! - Rudyard Kipling",
    "color": ["#ff4500"],
    "game": "1943: The Battle of Midway",
    "animal": "Dogg",
    "music": "Hip Hop (preferably 90's)"
  },
  {
    "name": "Jacob Taylor",
    "flavorText": "Fear is the mind-killer",
    "color": ["#9053ff"],
    "game": "Championship Sprint",
    "animal": "Cat",
    "music": "I feel like genres are all kinda fluid now and I can't answer this without excluding so much of what is my \"favorite\"... that being said, electronic. Because Daft Punk",
    "notesFromJmo": "Briskets."
  },
  {
    "name": "Jason Morano",
    "aka": "JMO",
    "flavorText": "\"If You Ain't First, You're Last!\" - Ricky Bobby,",
    "color": ["Special01"],
    "game": "Tetris",
    "animal": "Dog? Doge, dogie, doggg. Dog. It's dog. But also cats. Animals. I like animals",
    "music": "All of it",
    "notesFromJmo": "Created this NFT. Also, if I did not put a notes from JMO on a user, it is because I just need to know them a littler better. I am one of the newest members of the team. I am simply riding the wake of all the hard work, long hours, and dedication all these people have put into this project. I hope you all enjoy this NFT. This NFT if for you."
  },
  {
    "name": "Jason Tezanos",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": [""],
    "game": "",
    "animal": "",
    "music": "",
    "notesFromJmo": "OJ (Original Jason)"
  },
  {
    "name": "Jeremy Lozano",
    "flavorText": "fasho I feel it, I'm cool w/ defaults yadieeeg",
    "notesFromJmo": "I dig this dudes chilled out nature"
  },
  {
    "name": "Jeffery Walsh",
    "flavorText": "Get a hobby",
    "color": ["#008080"],
    "game": "pac man",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Country",
    "notesFromJmo": "I know about the thing.."
  },
  {
    "name": "Kevia Cloud",
    "flavorText": "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exup\xe9ry",
    "color": ["purple"],
    "game": "Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara",
    "animal": "Woof",
    "music": "Techno"
  },
  {
    "name": "Kevin Huang",
    "aka": "Kev",
    "flavorText": "Real G's move in silence like lasagna - Dwayne Carter",
    "color": ["#663a82"],
    "game": "Contra",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Rhythm 'n' Blues"
  },
  {
    "name": "Kris Steigerwald",
    "flavorText": "Chop wood, carry water",
    "color": ["#76afa4"],
    "game": "Galaga",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "Indie Folk"
  },
  {
    "name": "Malin Lindvall",
    "flavorText": "\"Forever is composed of nows.\" - Emily Dickinson",
    "color": ["#088F8F"],
    "game": "Tetris",
    "animal": "Dog!",
    "music": "Funk",
    "notesFromJmo": "Thanks for buying my Pup NFT!"
  },
  {
    "name": "Matt Finestone",
    "flavorText": "ETH is money",
    "color": ["Special02"],
    "game": "duck hunter",
    "animal": "Dog",
    "music": "electronica",
    "notesFromJmo": "Thank you Matt for letting me just run with this. It has been fun creating and learning the tech we use."
  },
  {
    "name": "Nadia Bernhardt",
    "flavorText": "memento vivere",
    "color": ["#FFD700"],
    "game": "Overcooked",
    "animal": "Cat in sheep's clothing",
    "music": "Pop. are you trying to find the answers to my password recovery questions?",
    "notesFromJmo": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "extraNoteFromJmo": "Google it"
  },
  {
    "name": "Richard Moorhead",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": [""],
    "game": "",
    "animal": "",
    "music": ""
  },
  {
    "name": "Robbie Speed",
    "flavorText": "\"Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do\" - Major Tom",
    "color": ["#ff4488"],
    "game": "Space Invaders",
    "animal": "How dare you make me choose",
    "music": "Rock",
    "notesFromJmo": "This guy is a beast"
  },
  {
    "name": "Ramona Jenny",
    "flavorText": "All things wave",
    "color": ["white"],
    "game": "I don't play games, I code them",
    "animal": "bird person, if not, dog",
    "music": "mostly I listen to soundtracks like the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. so whatever that is."
  },
  {
    "name": "Ryan Kagy",
    "flavorText": "\"Cause we were born for this\" - The Score",
    "color": ["#8b2323"],
    "game": "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask",
    "animal": "I have 6 cats and 0 dogs",
    "music": "Pop",
    "notesFromJmo": "Senpai"
  },
  {
    "name": "Ryan Van Valkenburg",
    "aka": "RYRY",
    "flavorText": "Fortune favors the brave",
    "color": ["#9aa297"],
    "game": "Biker Mice from Mars",
    "animal": "Doggos",
    "music": "HxC",
    "notesFromJmo": "Wen."
  },
  {
    "name": "Syed Ibrahim",
    "aka": "Spike",
    "flavorText": "Deez Nutz",
    "color": ["#002b05", "green"],
    "game": "MK3",
    "animal": "",
    "music": "Hip hop",
    "notesFromJmo": "UX god"
  },
  {
    "name": "Taylor Jackson",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": [""],
    "game": "",
    "animal": "",
    "music": ""
  },
  {
    "name": "Tyler Manser",
    "flavorText": "",
    "color": ["#228B22"],
    "game": "TMNT: Lost in Time",
    "animal": "Dog person",
    "music": "EDM"
  },
  {
    "name": "Victor Lindvall",
    "flavorText": "skrt skrt ha - kodak black",
    "color": ["#ffd1dc"],
    "game": "Guitar Hero III",
    "animal": "imadoggg",
    "music": "boogie funk",
    "notesFromJmo": "Backgrounds for days!"
  }
]