Introducing Timeline Game

March 23rd, 2023

Timeline Game has been a big project, and somehow introducing it properly has been one of the biggest challenges. I’ve tried a few times to write all the pertinent details out in one post and I can’t do it. There’s too much to say. I’ve put it through GPT-4 a few times to try and do it justice but even that comes short.

So I’ll put the straight facts about Timeline Game as an NFT Collection, as an art collection, and as a game - then I’ll include a few links to what are the first of many writings about TLG. Even despite my efforts to make this a short post, it is still pretty long - sorry!

I hope the game and art will speak for itself ultimately, because it can be difficult to really write about your own work. The complexity of this set and what is to come make that a necessity to some extent, but I want to leave plenty of details for people to discover for themselves, too. So without further exposition --

What is Timeline Game?

Violet House’s second core collection, following our first: water mililys.

Timeline Game is an NFT collection of 109 unique card designs, spread out into 3388 trading card NFTs, with each card design supplied depending on their rarity:

35 Commons (44 supply each, 1540 total)
32 Uncommons (33 supply each, 1056 total)
30 Rares (22 supply each, 660 total)
12 Hyper Rares (11 supply each, 132 total)

As an Art NFT collection, Timeline Game is a synthesis of AI art and traditional art in trading card game style.

As a game, it is playable virtually today on Table Top Simulator and the Steam Workshop. You don’t need to be a holder to play, but you do need to have access to Table Top Simulator on Steam, which regularly goes on sale for $10 USD. It is normally $20 USD. At the time of this writing, the game is on sale in the Steam store for a few more hours at $10 USD.

It is also playable at home by printing out the cards. The game has a set of rules to orient new players and has been tested + balanced for months.

There are a lot of unique elements in the mix with Timeline Game. I won’t say we’re the first to do all of these things, but we are “one of, if not the first” to do and be the following things:

Playable card game to use primarily AI art
Playable card game to use both AI art and traditional art forms
Release as a fully copylefted card game under the Viral Public License - I.E. anyone can make a timeline game collection, use our assets and/or IP
Playable card game to use the digital timeline as inspiration - as the loose setting for a fantasy world
Definitely the first playable card game featuring Miladys and other CC0 NFT collections
- This may be the most significant, as Remilia have created very fertile soil around their collections. That is to say it seems likely that a number of games will be tapping their IP by way of the Viral Public License. Timeline Game is the first to show what a card game featuring Milady/CC0 NFTs in a new context looks like.
NFT trading card collection to not have a supply in the tens of thousands - though this could change if people release their own variations
To release unique assets for our card templates and encourage others to build upon our foundation, which we will be doing in the coming weeks and months

There’s a lot more to say about the game, themes, characters and so on. I’ll keep it brief here:

I had been wanting to make an NFT card game style collection for a while. NFTs, to me, are basically trading cards. The initial idea of the setting for the world of Timeline Game comes from Crufro’s miladys vs apes clip.

Not only did I take inspiration from Milady as concept and community, but also from Charlotte Fang, who regularly mentions the concept of manifestation. A lot of the game is about the principle of manifestation and ways that things can manifest when translated to a new context. This ties into the game’s main resource with which cards are played being called “posts”, rather than a fantasy-style resource such as energy or mana. Posts come from cards based on posters, which are included in our Steam Mod but are not in the NFT collection.

In some cases, the manifestation of a concept in the world of Timeline Game is cut and dry, for example in a card such as “Delete” - pictured below.

DELETE, an Uncommon card from Timeline Game: Apes vs Miladys

Delete is inverted: In our world, you delete your own posts. In Timeline Game, you delete someone else’s manifestations.

The principle of inverting a concept, or distorting/reflecting it if you prefer, is used regularly.

The Ape Kingdom in Timeline Game is a version of the Bored Ape Yacht Club that is interesting, rather than boring. It’s falling into degeneracy, but it still has redeeming qualities. The challenge was to make an Apes faction that could be compelling to players and collectors. These aren’t the only factions in Timeline Game, but they are the two primary factions within the core Apes vs Miladys set, which is the foundation for Timeline Game.

Miladys as a faction were reflected more faithfully when ported into the world of Timeline game, sometimes 1:1, sometimes with little shifts.

The Elemental Miladys are an example of channeling spirituality in an elemental form through Milady. Miladys have already become elemental through multiple collections / Auras, spring miauras, water mililys - even Schizoposters. These are a different manifestation of that, taking elemental milady in a neo-chibi, anime-style direction.

In other cases, inversion is leaned on much more heavily and to greater effect. Remilio Royal Knight is an inverted manifestation.

Rather than one of the 10k Remilios, the Remilio Royal Knight is an inversion of Radbro - which is itself a “reflection of a reflection of a reflection” of Remilio. It’s not quite - but something analogous to putting text into Google translate and then translating the output back to the original language. You won’t always get the same thing you put in originally.

The Radical Spirit Card and Fembro cards are another inversion (or distortion/reflection if you prefer) on Radbro/Remilio.

BRG is another example of this. In reality; a music/art collective - in Timeline Game: a tight, cohesive soccer team. This isn’t that much of a change materially, despite what it may seem like. Art collectives are like a team, often with a unique style (playstyle) - and their rosters change just like a team. Art collectives can have stars and they can have fans - just like sports teams.

This theme of manifesting something “different” albeit heavily inspired from the source material was used in the creation of many cards in this collection.

In this sense, the world of Timeline Game is almost an upside-down world - like looking at a reflection in a mirror. By seeing the opposite of what something is, or simply looking at it in a different light - we can learn more about what it actually is.

On the other hand, the set has a substantial share of things copied and represented directly. The straight-up Miladys of Milady Village for example. The Milady Village card is based on Milady Village. There are Miladys and other CC0 nfts placed directly in, occasionally with minimal or no changes.

There’s a lot more, too. Clay art, unique AI art, meme art - the list goes on.

Vinculum Redemptio (V Rare), C. Fang (V Rare) and Synchronized Crying (Uncommon)

By now it should be clear, Timeline Game is trying to be a lot of things. Something new, yet familiar. An art collection that stands by itself - but also functions as a game. A game that is fun on its own - but also is simple enough to be a base layer for others to build on. And hopefully, interesting enough that people will want to build on it, and collect it.

That was all a tricky needle to thread. I’m proud of the end product and especially the future, knowing a foundation is now in place for Timeline Game and our releases to come.

I’ll write more about much of what I’ve mentioned here in the future. For now, there are some more posts to check out if you like, and a link to play Timeline Game through the Steam Workshop Mod: