INTERVIEW: Derek Hanson -Doctor And Founder Of NERDY NUGGETS And ETH WALKERS
What up, gang,
I am so stoked that I can share this interview with Dr. Derek Hanson with you. He is the Head of Pediatric Neuro-oncology at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital. He also founded Nerdy Nuggets, whose primary purpose is to raise funds for cancer research. It is fantastic to see how NFTs can help raise money for a good cause.
I met Derek because I licensed my ape for his new project - ETH Walkers. It looks so dope, and the art is lit. I don’t wanna spoil more out of this interview.
LFG🚀
Have fun
WAGMI
Dr. Derek Hanson
Nerdy Nuggets [Website, Twitter, Discord]
ETH Walkers [Website, Twitter, Discord]
What is your background, and how did you get into NFTs?
I am a pediatric oncologist in my "real life", but have always been interested in art, sports, and technology. I launched a sports blog network start-up during my medical training as a way to make some extra money and was able to grow that into a successful business.
In late 2016, I accepted two Bitcoin as a payment from a client. At the time, they were worth about $600 each, and I quickly converted them to cash. A few months later, those two Bitcoin had 5x'ed and were now worth over $3,000. Rather than wallow in regret, I started learning about cryptocurrency.
When the NFT boom started earlier this year, I saw a lot of similarities to when I launched my sports blog business in the early Web 2.0 days. I knew that this was a space ripe for growth and one that I could really pour my creativity into.
How did you come up with the idea for Nerdy Nuggets as a charity project?
I had been toying around with the idea to launch an NFT project for a while, but life kept getting in the way. Finally, it was my two sons who made me roll up my sleeves and put a plan into action. I had been teaching them about crypto and NFTs and found a story about the 12-year-old who launched the Weird Whales project. The two of them got really excited and asked if they could create their own project.
They ultimately decided to create a chicken nugget-themed project because what 10 and 7-year-old boys don't love nuggets? Once it was clear that this was going to be a real project, we talked about finding a way to give back through our NFTs. With me being a pediatric oncologist, donating to pediatric cancer charities was something that hit close to home.
What was the biggest challenge to coming out with your first NFT project?
If I had to go at this completely alone, the coding would definitely be the part that would trip me up the most. However, I was able to find our developer, Max, pretty early in the process, and he's handled all of that. As far as what I've personally had to handle, I think that marketing an NFT project can be extremely difficult.
With so many new projects launching every day, grabbing (and keeping) people's attention is a real challenge. It's a daily grind, and a lot of times, you can feel like you're spinning your wheels and getting nowhere. However, if you stick with it, day in and day out, and you have a good project, it is possible to grow a really solid community.
Where did you find your team members?
I found our contract developer, Max, in the Boring Bananas Discord. It was total luck as he was the first dev that I reached out to, and he happened to be both amazing and willing to come on board. Our Web3 Developer, Chase, is Max's brother, and our Story Architect, Matt, is my cousin, so being related to good people certainly helps! I have known Stephen, our artist, for over a decade, as he would do a lot of graphic design for my sports blog network. Once I knew that I wanted to get serious with NFTs, Stephen was my first call to head the art department.
What would be your advice to new people developing their first project?
NFTs are not an easy way to get rich-quick. Anything that successful projects make is EARNED. You need to know how to code, how to create compelling art, how to market, and how to manage a community. You need to be organized and have a plan, but also be flexible and adjust to bumps that come up in the road. It takes laser focus and dedication to grind every single day in order to make a project successful. It can be a lot of fun - I love doing this! - but there is nothing easy about this!
How did you come up with the idea for ETH Walkers, and what is it?
While working on Nerdy Nuggets, I knew that I wanted to come up with a really innovative project as my next serious step into the NFT space. I had this concept of an NFT that wasn't static but could potentially change over time. After talking things through with Matt, the idea of a zombie apocalypse-themed project with NFTs that could turn from human to zombie seemed like the perfect fit for this type of concept. Once I confirmed with Max that something like this was technically possible, the ideas came pouring out.
Ultimately, we are looking to provide our ETH Walker community with a unique game experience and, together, tell the story of a small town fighting for its survival. Players will mint human NFT characters to play in our game. Players will be able to name their character and create a backstory that will live as part of their NFT's metadata. At the start of the game, 60 Zombie Bored Apes will burst onto the scene and begin "biting" the human players. Once bitten, human characters will turn into human zombies, who will then go on and bite additional human players until there are only a few human survivors left. The goal is to survive and be one of the final 100 humans remaining in the game. Along the way, players will make daily decisions about what part of the town to explore, whether to hunt for resources and weapons or to steal them from other players. There will be factions to join and mysteries to solve. The decisions you make and the company you keep will determine whether your character lives or forever walks the earth as one of the undead...
Who is on your team, and who did the art?
When you factor in our 60 Bored Zombie Apes, we have a fairly large team! However, we have five core members of our team.
Stephen Slesinski - Lead Artist, who happens to be the Illustration Director for FX's Archer
Derek Hanson - Project Manager
Matthew Carpenter - Story Architect
Max Houser - Contract and Game Developer
Chase Houser - Web3 Developer
What makes your project unique?
We are looking to make a project that goes far beyond a profile picture. The social game that we have planned for the community is going to be really rich and strategic while still being easy to play. While we certainly want to bring long-term value to our community and are doing things to ensure our mints are a worthwhile investment, we are primarily concerned with delivering a fantastic experience during the gameplay.
Of course, the NFTs that change daily are also something that really makes our project stand out and will be a ton of fun!
What are your future plans with ETH walkers?
We are really leaning into the storytelling aspect of the project and are planning for this game to be the first chapter in a multi-season saga. We plan to launch Season 2 within a few months of this first game finishing. Thanks to the massive amount of artwork that Stephen has generated already, a lot of which can be repurposed for future seasons, we should be able to have a fairly quick turn-around from season to season.
Following the completion of the game, we will also be launching a utility token for the project. Season 1 zombies will be able to be staked and generate this token for users. The tokens can be redeemed for free mints, as well as other in-game benefits such as weapons, clothing, and more! We hope that these benefits will drive demand for our tokens and allow zombie staking to be a lucrative benefit for our initial minters.
When is the mint, and what are the first steps on the roadmap?
Minting begins on 12/21 with our first whitelist for Nerdy Nuggets holders. On 12/22 we will launch our second whitelist for Bored Ape Yacht Club holders. Our public mint will go live on 12/23.
We plan to do an instant reveal so that everyone will be able to see their characters and start creating their backstory in preparation for the game. We are aiming to launch our social RPG game on January 3rd, 2022.
Wow. This interview is packed. I am really grateful for this opportunity. It shows you what is happening behind the scene of creating a new project.
Thank you, Derek and gl🚀
WAGMI
Bored Ape Gang