What is OUAT?
Once Upon a Time is a collection of 5,000 randomized hero stories generated and stored on-chain. Each OUAT contains the written tale of a character that goes through different ordeals. It has a description, a setting, an event that changes everything, a couple of incidents, a climax, and an end.
OUAT is an experiment heavily inspired by the Loot project—we just did something a bit different. The stories are inspired by classic tales of heroes, movies and books from our childhood, and comics.
How is a OUAT formed?
OUATs are formed loosely using the Story Spine (attributed to Pixar, and used as an improv exercise.) Depending of the OUAT, the main character can feel like the classical hero, the unwilling hero, tragic hero, or even a superhero.
The gender of the hero is omitted and the story uses they/them, their pronouns when referring to the main character.
All stories begin with Once upon a time, then it's composed with these parts,
- The portrait, made out of an adjective, character, and description.
- A setting made out of a routine, frustration, or aspiration.
- An event in which everything changes.
- Two ordeals, which our hero has to deal with. One that affects them directly and one that affects their surroundings.
- The Climax, in which our hero conquers their fears.
- The Villain, the baddie in the story, has an adjective and description.
- The resolution, the end of our story
OUATs read something like this,
Once upon a time, there was a ______ who always ______. Every day, _____. But one day, ______.Because of that, ______and ______. Until finally, ______ and ______.
Where's the art?
All visuals, graphic art, and other details are removed so that you and the community interpret them. The importance is put on the ideas, on the hero's journey. A OUAT is just a prompt to create all the circumstances and the universe around it.
How can I use OUATs?
You can use these stories in any way you want—a comic, a book, a play, a game, a song... whatever. You don't have to ask permission to use a OUAT. Where a story is taken and how it transforms is up to you.
Take OUATs as prompts, and feel free to change any detail you don't like or add the parts you think are missing. We even encourage you to collaborate with other OUATs to create characters of the same universe. Perhaps a OUAT could be used as the story of a sidekick or a villain (don't villains usually think they're the good ones?)
Who is behind this project?
The stories were written by Pablo Stanley and coded by Zack T. But, OUAT is an unaudited project. How this grows and is used is really up to the community. You can join Discord or follow Twitter to discuss.
What's the price?
OUATs are free to mint, and there are no royalties on secondary sales. You just pay for gas.
