NISM is an Augmented Reality (AR) mobile game poised to combine Web 2 and Web 3 game players across the globe in a way no other game has. Upon reading through this document, you will understand the methods and why I am choosing the route I am, in having this game constructed. NISM is a game built by gamers – for gamers. It is being designed and developed to maintain a very high level of fun for all ages, from 8 to 108. Anything from adventuring to PvP battling, training your ‘NISMs’ to dressing them up or even decorating your house, the gamer in you will find a niche for boundless fun to be had.
Hello! I am Justin LaFountain, aka ‘Witty’, aka ‘X40L1N’, and I also answer to other names in various circles out there in cyberspace and the physical realm. I am the designer and creator of NISM. Around my favorite blockchain, my username is 
Before we get into the gaming aspect, let the reason be known why I do anything. It’s building blocks. It’s the future. You see, I am a father. I was a single parent for over a decade before remarrying and having a second round of children. I came from literally nothing and my parents still seem to struggle to make ends meet sometimes. I vowed I would never allow myself to live that way and was going to do everything in my life to make sure that all generations, including and succeeding my own, would have every resource available to them. And so, here I am.
I have a strong marketing background, having been on several global teams promoting ground-breaking technologies. Some of those included Bitcoin wallets and the now ever popular telemedicine apps. It taught me that it isn’t what you’re selling the people will buy, but how much they believe in you and your mission. My current mission is to build one of the best games you’ll see in your lifetime.
NISM, itself, is being built and attached to the vastly scalable Hive blockchain. I chose this one in particular because of the immutability and it just being so flexible with its possibilities. I’ve seen and helped to give rise to numerous games there already. I did a widely popular reading of the Flesh Golem lore and was penciled in to be the voice of the Lord of Darkness for Splinterlands. I was also his voice on a 6-month long ad-lib radio show where we did skits promoting the new characters. I can also lay claim to some of the largest sales in Splinterlands history topping over $200,000 USD worth of cards and assets and that figure is still climbing to this day.
I also have experience with other chains, like Ethereum, where I delved deeply into a game called Gods Unchained. That was crazy fun. I also made a little money on both Axie Infinity and Pegaxy. I sold several properties and cruised around Upland for a while. I even have current pursuits on other less popular blockchains. I’m always looking for something fun.
But I also have a massive ‘other side of the coin’ story starting somewhere in the 80’s with Nintendo. I did play Atari, but I didn’t own one. I got the occasional quarter to play an arcade game, but that was limited until my twenties when I was on my own. I did, however, have access to computers at a young age and pushed several games to their limits. Games like Pool of Radiance, Ultima, Wizardry, and countless D&D adaptations.
That was what I played until I was gifted a Nintendo and then my gaming interest really went into overdrive. I loved the Final Fantasy legacy and Dragon Warrior games. As technology progressed, so did I, creating clans and capturing trophies in Call of Duty and ultimately moved into the mobile aspect of gaming playing things like RAID, League of Legends, and Clash of Clans.
There was one game though, that I played – and still do – called Pokémon. I played the original RED version on what was to be the first mobile gaming device – the Gameboy. From there, gaming took on a whole new life. It brought me to YuGiOh and Digimon – all three of which I had a great collection of physical assets, mainly cards, until a fire claimed them all the summer of 2022. But Pokémon has always stayed inside me. When Ruby and Sapphire came out, I got both and as the years passed – Pokémon Go was released, and I fell in love all over again.
THAT, I still play. I love the raising of the ‘pets’ genre as it gives role playing an element like no other. And so, all the games mentioned prior each have some kind of influence on NISM. I’ve wanted to create my own game for as long as I can remember and really took it seriously when Splinterlands was being introduced. Though many told me it couldn’t be done, I maintained the notion it could and eventually ran into someone else that believes it can.
Throughout my Hive growth, I have personally invested and helped to seed multiple blockchain games – Splinterlands included. Most recently, I came across a developer and gamer whose passion rivaled my own and I saw in them a huge heart. I went all in, even while they were building their own games. Their ambition, desire and expertise are unmatched compared to anyone else I have personally met. With our partnership, NISM was finally born.
NISM is an AR (Augmented Reality) game where you are a character that has the ability to understand other orgaNISMs via a device that was invented and is worn by your avatar. (Full storyline and events can be found on our blog pages, website (under construction) or read about in the game as they are released.) This device is crucial to learn about while playing the game as most of the interaction outside of adventuring and exploring will be done through it.
You will encounter and may interact with NISMs in various ways. You can make friends with them, capture them, leave them be, or simply kick their butts and harvest materials or gain experience. All of which will affect the way your game unfolds.
Upon acquiring NISMs, you will have the opportunity to level them up along with your character by doing various tasks that also earn other in game assets. You can battle other players, NPCs and even go on quests as they are introduced.
I would call it a ‘monster trainer’, but I do not look at them as monsters. They are NISMs. They grow in the game just as you do. Your bonds with them can strengthen or be weakened. Their maturity levels will rise and eventually, under the proper circumstances, you might even be able to breed a few and have babies.
NISM is presenting a truly innovative approach to gaming that has been slowly created for over half of a decade.
You’ll notice mention of both traditional ‘Web 2’ games and the more modernized ‘Web 3’ games. But what does that even mean? Did we skip Web 1? Let’s take a quick look at the evolution of our current form of internet and where we are heading.
The concept of the internet was conceived in the late fifties and expanded upon by multiple minds to achieve the stable world wide web that some of you were probably first introduced to in the mid 90’s. It was more focused on content delivery and designed with corporations’ interests. It was very static, clunky and didn’t have much in the way of moving parts. Some sites that may ring a bell that ushered in Web 2 are Yahoo and MySpace. This was the era of the dot com.
This is the current norm many of you have grown accustomed to using. This version introduced social and mobile media allowing you to instantly connect with people across the world in real time. The speeds are still increasing and the size of data that can be sent is quite astounding. YouTube and Facebook have become giants in this internet mutation, along with sites and engines like Google and Amazon.
Like it or not, this is the emerging new ‘semantic’, highly mobile, world-wide web. Powerful transformations are happening with the assistance of artificial intelligence and the concept of blockchain technology. Both of which are giving rise to full ownership of your content and media. I bet you didn’t know that Facebook owns everything you put on there. I bet you didn’t know that YouTube is cashing in heavily on you just watching videos. Your security and privacy are being returned with Web 3.
Let it be known, this is a Web 2 game that is harnessing some of the incredible capabilities that Web 3 has brought to the technological table. One way we are doing this is by attaching various aspects of it to the Hive blockchain for scalability. This also provides the users with protection against any accidental loss of in game assets. Further worth mentioning, is that the Hive blockchain is extremely flexible and able to handle massive quantities of data, allowing us to utilize and pursue our Web 2 visualization of the project.
Here are some quick interesting facts about gaming and in particular, mobile gaming. We are optimizing NISM to be a mobile game for several reasons, some of which, are because of the stats here:
This casual game will have a little something for everyone. True, one can grind and grind and become more powerful and influential in the game, we won’t stop you! All the while, we will be maintaining a high fun factor, as it is being designed to cater to virtually any age of gamer. There will be multiple facets of the game that some will play more than others, and there are several ways that you can be more than just casual and play with your friends! Here are some of the things planned to exist within the NISM world you will experience:
In this game, you will be focusing on acquiring (mostly) NISMs. These are organisms that you can befriend or capture (for the most part – other actions exist within the game) and add to your PIM. They will be listed in alphabetical order and a player should be able to modify their display based on ‘HAVE’ (do not want to say owned, as it might hurt a NISM's feelings), ‘NAME’, ‘TYPE’ or ‘REGION’.
Default sorting will be alphabetical then followed by type and region. If the Full game has been purchased, the player should be able to choose the order of categorization. One may want to see type, region and then an alphabetical list. If one has acquired a NISM at some point (regardless if they still do), it will have the full specs whereas if they have not, it will only give limited information about them. One may want to see region then alphabetical and then type. User experience has been considered throughout the creation of this game.
