I’ve watched every season of Survivor. A super fan of sorts. As Onchain Summer was announced, I had a crazy idea: what if I created a Survivor inspired game that was played completely on Farcaster?

I started thinking about this back when @cassie did a Hunger Games when group direct casts were launched. Each day half the group was voted out. I made it to the Final Four in one of those games. It was fun and a shared experience with some casters I didn’t know well. A bit of a bonding moment.

When Crypto the Game launched, I realized that there might be many people who would enjoy a similar game in the Farcaster ecosystem. So I designed a basic framework and recruited 16 players (mostly Farcaster frens) and shared the idea with them:

·       2 tribes of 8 (16 players total); each tribe with a group chat (your island); if you are “CastOut” you’re removed from the GC

·       2 challenges each week that are built on or have a connection to Farcaster

·       Votes occurring during GM Farcaster: CastOut edition on Tuesdays/Thursdays and announced on the live stream

·       The Halving after the 3rd challenge cutting down to 7 players (merge/the jury)

·       Ending June 27, with the winner receiving 100k $degen; runner up 10k $degen

·       Some challenges would also have “rewards” ($degen from the prize wallet)

·       Bracket Game to extend the fun beyond the players

·       And YES there would be hidden immunity idols

I also let them know that “there is a social layer to the game BUT keep it fun! Remember – you still have to “see” these frens on FC after it’s all over so keep it civil.”

And 16 very busy people – many founders, all Farcaster OGs – agreed to be my beta testers. On June 3, I officially launched CastOut and I could not possibly have anticipated just how fun this would be.

Survivors ready?

The game started with two tribes – wowow and mole (yes, leaning into OG Farcaster memes) battling in a custom created Yoink! Game (thanks @horsefacts) that lasted 24 hours. If you’re not familiar, Yoink! is an in-frame capture the flag game. Each tribe would try to steal it from the other, the goal being to hold it for the most time in the 24 hour period. I knew I had selected some competitive folks. I underestimated just how competitive, many setting alarms and giving up sleep to ensure that they won. Mole tribe took the first win.

As with Survivor, the tribe that won, got immunity. The other tribe had to vote someone off their island. So wowow had to cast out the first player. (sorry @jacek)

Then onto a meme challenge – with your tribe, create a meme. Whichever meme got the most likes, won immunity.  Since meme lord @nonlinear was on the wowow tribe, they definitely had an advantage and it played out as expected. Mole had a good showing but had to cast someone out. (bye @briang)

From there, it was Speedtracer, a fun game where you trace a racetrack as fast as you can. @sammy created a custom Farcaster arch track and each player was given enough eth on Base to mint their scores and get on the leaderboard. This challenge had both tribe and individual elements. Speedtracer had just incorporated Farcaster leaderboards which made it extra fun. (the track is still available to play: https://www.speedtracer.xyz/154)

This challenge was the halving – half the players were voted out. Whichever tribe had a player at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the game would have to vote off fewer players. The top players on each tribe had individual immunity. And seven players left the game, leaving seven to continue on in an individual game. (thanks for playing @dylsteck.eth @yb @ivy @brennen.eth @rileybeans @ispeaknerd.eth and @nonlinear.eth)

The next 4 challenges were Hot Potato (frame game), create a Ponder survey, Boregon Trail (frame game) and Super Dunk (frame game). The remaining seven players – @ted @heavygweit @christin @grace @cameron @adrienne and @toadyhawk.eth – were all fierce competitors and they went hard.

In the end there were two (@adrienne and @toadyhawk) and just like in Survivor, the jury they had voted off, determined the winner. The jury voted for the dedicated and impressive gameplay of Toady and he became the sole survivor of CastOut season zero (the beta).

Yes, this was definitely a fun game! And /bracket provided a great way for those on the sidelines to get some skin in the game and the CastOut streams gave the audience a glimpse into what was happening behind the scenes. CastOut even had its first superfan (thanks @jayce!). And some of the games allowed for others to play along or even help their favorite CastOut players win a challenge. (memes, Ponder survey and Super Dunk could all help your favorite win; for Yoink! Speedtracer and Boregon Trail, there was an opportunity to win a prize for those outside of the CastOut players)

So what did I learn?

The game went better than I could have hoped and engaged both the players and the audience watching along. For the tribe challenges, the players got the added benefit of working with and getting to know other casters better.

I knew that incorporating Bracket Game was a good idea but it exceeded my expectations. This drove attention from some who likely wouldn’t have even noticed the game or watched otherwise.

We had strong viewer numbers for all the live streams and an active chat where some of the players would interact along with those watching along. They were invested.

But one of the main goals was to see how many projects/apps/frames/builders from the Farcaster ecosystem I could incorporate and show off. It also turned out to be a great way to load test some of these games that normally don’t get that heavy level of play.  

Here are the projects/businesses that were incorporated into CastOut:

-        @warpcast (obviously)

-        @unlonely for streaming (on Base)

-        @zora NFT drops  (on Base)

-        @base for NFTs, $degen prize, /unlonely etc

-        $degen for the prize pool (from my personal airdrop)

-        @bracketgame for interactive play  (on Base, $degen prize)

-        @hypersub – GM Farcaster subscribers were gifted /bracketgame packs (on Base)

-        @framedl and @poap for one of the hidden immunity idols

-        @yoink by @horsefacts (1st challenge, frame game)

-        /memes channel (2nd challenge)

-        @speedtracer by @sammy (3rd challenge, on Base)

-        @hotpotato by @nbragg (4th challenge, frame game)

-        @ponder /survey (5th challenge)

-        @theboregontrail by @breadcat using $bored (6th challenge, frame game on Base)

-        @pinatacloud – premiere partner and creator of Super Dunk game (7th challenge, frame game)

-        Minisweeper by @playmini for tie breaker (frame game)

-        @snickerdoodle frame to promote CastOut finale

-        @bountycaster for the prize bounty

-        @paragraph for this recap

-        Voting using @deform by @unhappiimochii

-        @automod in the /castout channel

-        @neynar and @airstack and likely others I’m not even aware of in the background for many of the frames and apps

The tribe has spoken

CastOut ended yesterday with a final tribal council of sorts and revealed Toady as the winner live on the GM Farcaster CastOut edition. So the questions start – wen next season?

I need a bit of time to reflect, a brief vacation and some time to iterate but we’ll definitely run it back, likely in August. And this will be just the first of many competition games/shows.

If this all sounds fun to you, follow the /castout channel and look for the opportunity to apply. If you missed it, you can find all the CastOut streams in the CastOut playlist on the GM Farcaster’s channel on YouTube or on Zora.

And as I said in the all the trailers:

Are you ready OutWit, OutPlay and OutCast anon?