Disclaimer:
The author is heavily invested in the financial products mentioned in this piece.
At the time of writing, the author is in fact the biggest stakeholder: https://he.dtools.dev/richlist/INK

me

I have been around since almost the beginning (of Hive).
I have seen many people come and go.
I have seen many projects come and go.
I am very sceptic of every new project and at times, I am very verbal about it.
Many people don't like me because of that.
I have never shilled any token sale.
The only case I invested more than a miniscule amount into any hive-engine token was when I bought into Splinterlands and that was when the party was over and I am looking at a heavy loss right now.
If you check my wallet, you can see that my scepticism served me well;
I am in fact so sceptical, that I never even invested in Hive (nor Steem) and even though we are experiencing quite the bear market, I am still holding a handsome amount of $ value today.

core team

The core team behind @CraftInk are the same people, who run @HiQ.magazine.
Here is a video of @smooms presenting HiQ on Hivefest 2022 Amsterdam, where I met him and the others in person.
Before that, I was hanging out in their Discord Server all the time and I do to this day.

I think it is fair to say that I know them well.
I know them as reliable, trustworthy people.

Their track record speaks for itself; they are able and willing to see a project through and stick to it even when times are hard.
For 5 years I have been telling them that @HiQ is running towards a dead-end and they kind of proved me wrong. Impressive.

@quekery

Mathhead.
Often times the voice of reason.
Gamer.

@smooms

Developer.
Meme expert and photoshop nerd.
Gamer.

@mary-me

The busy bee and heart and soul of HiQ.
Keeps it all together, except for her own purse.
Gamer noob, lol.

extended team

For @CraftInk, they invited more people to help them bring this idea to life.

@bubblegif

Graphic artist behind the @CraftInk assets.
We only had short contact, when I comissioned the assets for @weed.dispenser with her.
It was a pleasant experience and the work could not have been done any quicker.
She also provided assets for @HiQ for a long time.
I think her work speaks for itself.

@ravenmus1c

I don't know her or her work, only started following her yesterday.
She seems quite the professional and has already provided sounds for other Hive games.

thoughts on the team

I have extended experience in failing to create games.
The last one being officially canceled since today.
In my experience, everyone has ideas for games and can come up with a concept. Seeing things through and actually putting in the work is a totally different thing, though.

Out of all the games that have been proposed here on Hive, this is the first team I have confidence in from the very beginning.

the concept

Without going into detail, the scale of this project is another strong point;
I am not saying it lacks ambition, but they are keeping the scale manageable.
It's a battle style collectible trading card game, which is in itself a proven concept and reasonably easy to develop.

What I also like (a lot) is that it draws connections to real Hive authors, and on-chain events.
It is themed around the @HiQ, Hive, blogging and web.

Other games have little to no connection to Hive, be it content-wise or technically.
@CraftInk is heavily tied into what's going on, hip and relevant.

profit

When they proposed that I could become a card by holding their token in this competition, I made a rash decision and bought almost all of the first tranche of their token sale.
Honestly, with the second tranche being sold at twice the price, I could not really lose.
I mean, I could have picked those tokens up @0.01 HIVE/INK and then put them on a sell order for 0.01999 HIVE/INK and made a profit of 99.9%. Of course that would have still been a bet, but an exceptionally easy one to win.

Perhaps you need to look into the conditions of their sale to understand, but I am confident you can figure that out...

I have been holding these tokens for some days now and I don't really see myself selling them any time soon.

The only risk I see is them not finishing the game or increasing the supply and as explained above, I have no reason to doubt their commitment or integrity.

I have at this point bought my share and buying more tokens for myself would put unnecessary pressure (economically as well as personally) on the development of this project.

It is obvious, that I now have a vested interest, when promoting their project.
I still think it is a good time to get some of these tokens.

final thoughts

I hope my 10 (?) readers forgive me risking the integrity of my Hive account and this blog, by shilling this token. As mentioned above, I have never done anything like this before, in all my time here on chain.