DRAFT - not published. Working whitepaper, open to iteration.
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ZABAL Gamez - Whitepaper (draft v0.3)
ZABAL Gamez
The ZAO's three-month Farcaster-native builder onboarding event. Free to join. Ship something real in public with a ZAO mentor embedded as your teammate. Earn Respect (the ZAO's soulbound merit currency), get an on-chain collectible, and build for a real 100+ member community.
The problem: builders stay isolated
Builders want to ship fast and get real feedback. Existing hackathons are one-weekend vanity events with no lasting community. Traditional grants are slow and solo. ZABAL Gamez solves this: it's a structured, recurring event where builders come in, work alongside mentors from The ZAO, ship real artifacts for a real ecosystem, and join a community that keeps compounding.
The ZAO is a decentralized impact network built on contribution, not tokens.[7] When you build at ZABAL Gamez, your work is measured by Respect (soulbound, earned through the Fractal governance system) and validated by peers. You get a Hats Protocol credential proving you shipped here. More importantly, you join a network of creators building music, governance, and tooling infrastructure for the open web.
Three tracks, three months, real stakes
ZABAL Gamez is a free, Farcaster-native onboarding event for The ZAO ecosystem. Anyone is welcome. Three parallel tracks let builders with different strengths step in together:
- Artist track Musical and visual builds - instruments, visuals, interactive art, music tooling.
- Builder track Developer and aspiring-coder builds - smart contracts, agents, dApps, infrastructure.
- Creator track Media, distribution, and content builds - documentation, streams, education, curation.
The audience is the ZAO community itself - over 100 active members shipping Respect weekly[1]. Your artifact lands in front of people who understand the stakes and can actually use what you built. Not a leaderboard you forget.
June: workshops | July: open build | August: Finals
Recorded Far-Hack-style sessions covering ZAO governance, Respect and the Fractal system, ZOLs (contribution credits), and the ecosystem tools. Instructors: ZAO teachers and ecosystem partners including Empire Builder team, Bonfire (knowledge graph), POIDH (prediction market bounties), and Juke (music tooling).[4] Watchable live or async at zabalgamez.com/recordings. Topics rotate: first half workshop-style (deep dives), second half panel-style (Q&A with tool builders).
Public submission window (Month 2 of the event). Goal for 2026: 200 distinct builders, multiple submissions per person. The bar is concrete: live URL + open-source GitHub repo + 60-second demo video + a cast to the /zabal Farcaster channel. Partial and work-in-progress drafts count - there is no perfection penalty. Every submission that clears the bar earns Respect to the builder(s). Mentors watch rolling submissions, offer feedback, and begin mentor-builder pair formation.
Mentor-and-builder pairs lock. All finalists receive a shared prompt and a 72-hour window split into three phases: 24h build (mentor embedded as teammate), 24h promote (ZAO amplifies all finalist builds), 24h vote (ZAO members vote via Fractal governance, 1-person-1-vote). A live reveal stream closes the event. Every finalist is paid in USDC on a tiered scale; additionally, all finalists (July builders who earned Respect + August finalists) receive a Hats Protocol role NFT on Base as a universal "I shipped at ZABAL Gamez" credential.
How to submit and build
Entry
Register on the site (/enter) with a wallet and a GitHub repo. Season 1 signups and collectible issuance ran through Magnetiq[9] (app.magnetiq.xyz), the all-in-one event platform; that partnership has since been retired.
Mentors
Mentors are an open, public roster - not a fixed selection committee. Each mentor defines the builder archetype they want to work with and pairs with an open-submission builder from the cohort. Mentors receive a Hats Protocol "ZAO Mentor" role on Base. This is a signal of trust and reputation within The ZAO.
Submissions
July builds are tracked on a public GitHub-backed board. Bonfire[10] (a distributed knowledge graph at bonfires.ai) serves as the system of record - every submission is indexed and queryable, both by agents (for automated judging) and by humans (for browsing). The Bonfire integration lets builders push progress updates to GitHub and have them automatically surfaced in a knowledge-graph layer that judges can reason over. This moves the evaluation from "best guess" to "evidence-based."
Optional tools
Empire Builder (leaderboard and token infrastructure) and Clanker (token launcher) are available but entirely optional. Builders can prototype mechanics in a tokenless Empire first, then add token rewards later if it makes sense. This is the best practice: ship the game mechanics first, add economic incentives after you know what you're building.
The submission bar
Live URL + open-source repo + 60s demo + cast on /zabal. That's it. No deck required, no video production, no marketing. Just proof you shipped something real in public.
Respect, credentials, and USDC
Respect
Every July builder who clears the submission bar earns Respect - The ZAO's soulbound contribution currency. Respect is non-tradable; it represents merit and governance weight. Accumulated Respect gives you voting power in ZAO decisions. The system runs on The Fractal (an on-chain governance mechanism adapted from Eden DAO), where contributions are voted on asynchronously, weekly, and ranked by peer consensus. More Respect = stronger voice in what The ZAO builds next.
NFT credential
All finalists (July builders + August Finals participants) receive a Hats Protocol collectible on Base. This is a universal "I shipped at ZABAL Gamez" credential - verifiable on-chain, non-transferable (soulbound), and recognized across the Web3 ecosystem. Builders can add it to their portfolio, use it in future grant applications, or just keep it as proof they shipped.
August Finals prizes
Finalists compete for a USDC prize pool distributed on a tiered scale. Example distribution (assuming 8 finalists): 1st place $150, 2nd $100, 3rd $75, 4th-8th $35 each. Every finalist walks away paid. Voting is Respect-weighted, ensuring that ZAO contributors who've proven themselves have more say in who wins.
Partnerships and integrations
All-in-one event platform (magnetiq.io). Partnership retired 2026. Handled the Season 1 signup flow, collectible issuance, and the brand portal. The partnership was retired in 2026.
Distributed knowledge graph (bonfires.ai). Surfaces every build as a queryable, ranked artifact. Agents can use Bonfire to evaluate submissions against a rubric. Builders can update Bonfire via GitHub commits, creating a live record of progress from "initial commit" through "ship."
Leaderboard and on-chain incentive infrastructure. Builders can use Empire to track scores, distribute rewards, and even tokenize their game. Not required - many July submissions work fine without it.
Token launcher on Base. Builders can use Clanker to launch a reward token for their game if they want. Example: a ZABAL Gamez finalist launches a token for their music game and does an airdrop to ZABAL Gamez supporters.
Open-source Calendly alternative. Hosts the ZABAL Gamez workshop slot-booking system at cal.com/bettercallzaal/zabal-games-workshop-slot[11]. Builders can sign up for 1-on-1 mentorship slots during June.
Stream-to-multiple-platforms tool[12] (restream.io). ZABAL Gamez workshops and Finals stream simultaneously to multiple platforms (Twitch, YouTube, Farcaster, etc.) via Restream.
Event platform. ZAO calendar and workshop scheduling via luma.com/zao[13]. Used for calendar integration and reminder emails.
Front door for builders, parallel to WaveWarZ
The ZAO has two front doors: ZABAL Gamez (for builders) and WaveWarZ (for players and music fans). Both funnel into the same community. Fans arrive at WaveWarZ, play, and become contributors with Respect. Builders arrive at ZABAL Gamez, ship, and become contributors with Respect. Both paths are equally valued. The goal is a self-reinforcing network: more contributors = better tooling = better games = more players = more contributors.
ZABAL Gamez specifically onboards technical builders into an ecosystem that values open source, governance, and transparent contribution. The June workshops teach Respect and Fractal governance explicitly, so builders understand they're not just winning a prize - they're joining a DAO-like structure with real decision-making power.
Where to go
- Main site zabalgamez.com (note: the Z; old zabalgames.com redirects here)
- Signup & collectibles Magnetiq, Season 1 (partnership retired 2026)
- Farcaster The /zabal channel; tag posts #zabalgamez
- Workshops & Finals stream zaoos.com/overlay/zabal-games (stream overlay with chat)
- Workshop recordings zabalgamez.com/recordings (all sessions available on-demand)
Season 1 is complete
June - workshops. Shipped on schedule, covering governance (Zaal), Respect and Fractal (Vlad), ZOLs and contribution accounting (team), ZAO OS architecture (ZAOOS lead), Claude Code (Anthropic), Empire Builder V3 (Empire team), and Bonfire knowledge graph (Plat0x/Carlos). 30-60 minutes each, all recorded and still on-demand.
July - open build. Submissions came in across all three tracks. Mentors matched with builders. Bonfire indexing went live, letting agents query submissions and rank them against evaluation rubrics.
August - Finals. The board closed on 2026-08-16 and six finalists were named, two per track. Head-to-head battles ran in a window opening 2026-08-24 and settling 2026-08-30.
- Artist dee-13 (@dee-13) and LadyrynNemesis (@n3m)
- Builder JohnDaWalka (@jdwalka) and Brandon (@ghostmintops)
- Creator Presdency.eth (@presdency) and uniquebeing404 (@uniquebeing404)
Prize structure per track: 100 USDC to the champion, 50 to the runner-up, plus a 50 USDC volume bonus shared across the six.
Final placements are not published yet. The season data still carries status: pending with every rank unset, so this paper does not name winners. When the results are settled they will appear on the Finals surfaces and here.
What's next: Season 2
Workshops, the open build phase, and the August Finals all ran. What is left is publishing the final placements and issuing the collectibles. The recordings stay up permanently.
Dates are not set. The shape is deliberately open, because the point of asking now is that Season 1 builders get to decide what changes. The one commitment carried over from the original plan: the most active builders from Season 1 become mentors in Season 2, so the network compounds instead of resetting.
Tracks, length, prize structure, judging, and whether the Finals stay curated or move to a vote are all genuinely undecided. Say so in the /zabal Farcaster channel and it will be read.
Honest unknowns
Will 200 distinct July builders actually materialize? July is early (as of July 9, we're just past the first week). The bar is low (URL + repo + demo + cast), so friction should be minimal, but community size is still growing.
How will Bonfire judging actually work in practice? The theory is sound - agents can rank submissions against a rubric using the knowledge graph. The test comes in August when finalists are voted on. If the Bonfire integration works as designed, voting becomes evidence-based rather than gut-feel.
Can tokenless Empire Builder prototyping sustain engagement? The pattern (tokenless first, add token later) is new. If builders feel like they're "missing out" by skipping the token layer during July, they might add unnecessary complexity. August will reveal whether this is the right order.
Get involved
Join Season 2. Season 1 has finished, so there is nothing to submit right now - but the roster for Season 2 is forming. Say you are in via the Farcaster /zabal channel, or at zabalgamez.com. If you shipped in Season 1, say so: active Season 1 builders are the mentor pool for Season 2.
Shape it. Season 2's tracks, length, prizes and judging are undecided on purpose. If something about Season 1 did not work - the three-track split, the 72-hour sprint, curated finalists rather than a vote - that feedback is wanted now, while it can still change the design. Post it in /zabal and tag it #zabalgamez.
Watch the recordings. Every Season 1 workshop is on-demand at zabalgamez.com/recordings - governance, Respect and Fractal, ZOLs, ZAO OS architecture, Claude Code, Empire Builder V3, and the Bonfire knowledge graph. They are the fastest way to understand the stack before Season 2 opens, and they do not expire.
As a mentor. Mentors are matched with builders and embedded as teammates through the Finals sprint, and receive a Hats Protocol mentor role on Base. Register interest in the /zabal channel - the Season 1 signup portal is retired and is not being replaced with a form until Season 2 dates are set.
As a tool builder. If you maintain something that could integrate - a client, an indexer, an agent framework - the integration slot is open between seasons, which is the easiest time to land one.