Vessels To Launch New PFP Project Called ‘GEN-0’

Foreword

I’m not going to lie, I got slightly overwhelmed by all of the generative NFT PFP projects that came out in the last couple of months. As is the case with all new and exciting creations, some will rise to the top and others will fall to the wayside.

A few of these projects are top-notch and will continue to have a strong following and will continue to evolve in the months to come. Others were so-so and may be relegated to the far reaches of web 3.0.

With that out of the way, I am super excited for a couple of upcoming generative efforts from a couple of my favorite Tezos based NFT projects. These projects deserve special mention, in my opinion.

The people behind these projects have exhibited unfaltering dedication, commitment, hard work, vision, creativity, and talent.

As a caveat, I am an active collector in both of these projects. However, these articles are not meant to artificially prop up any particular project, they are meant to highlight just a sample of many exceptionally promising initiatives that are evolving in the Tezos community.

GEN-0

One of the best known Tezos based NFT projects, Vessels is about to reveal an exciting and ambitious new generative project called GEN-0. (learn more about Vessels here).

With seemingly inexhaustible creative talent and vision, Vessels creator, Jake Gumbleton, forges forward with a story that seems to have a life of its own, as if demanding to be revealed.

The Vessels universe also has one of the most active, dedicated and supportive fan bases (see the Vessels Discord community and Twitter account). GEN-0 is set to further expand the sci-fi/fantasy Vessels universe and is absolutely brimming with tales yet to be told.

Imagine being a teenager on an alien planet. The first generation born on a foriegn world after the tattered remains of humanity is forced to leave the exhausted remains of planet earth.

The context of Vessels is so fascinating with a fertile mixture of advanced human and alien technology, fantastic magical/mystical powers, bizarre creatures, a rough and tumble mix of hardened to the core human survivors.

Angst, turmoil, uncertainty, displacement. Knowing that your predecessors destroyed your ancestral home through greed and shortsightedness.

Does one identify with the old world or with a strange and mysterious new found home? Pour some liquid hydrogen on the bonfire, my friends, GEN-0 is taking teenage catastrophe to an entirely new level.

Hi Jake, thanks so much for meeting with me in this virtual setting to discuss the upcoming release of GEN-0! Please tell us a bit about the project.

An eclectic kaleidoscope: alien cultists, scifi loving tech heads, old earth culture pilfering retronauts and flamboyant gang members. All rascals, hooligans and delinquents.

GEN-0 is a generative pfp project on the Tezos blockchain focused on teenagers living in the Vessels space colony. The youth of the colony exist devoid of any culture to call their own- they never knew Old Earth and have little to no aesthetic cultural identity as the offspring of pioneer colonists.

They steal their fashion like magpies from anything they like- all of Old Earth’s cultural history can be ransacked alongside shiny new things from their new alien home and all it has to offer.

GEN-0 is part of a wider long term project, Vessels, a Green NFT driven world building project. At its core is a graphic novel which deals with the central story arc but as a community we have been expanding the world over the last 8 months through characters, stories, vehicles, creatures and lore.

Gen-0 allows us to flesh out the Vessels colony with thousands of background characters to add interest, identity and depth to the world we are building.

With the project’s strong emphasis on community engagement there is opportunity to integrate these characters into the colony and even the narrative of the story we are telling.

How many GEN-0 characters will be created?

5000, with a mint price of 15 tezos each.

How do you plan to launch the project?

A Tiered Sale:

1) Vessels OG Sale (3 days before reveal): Curated List of OGs*; max 15 mints per person

2) Vessels Holders Presale (2 days before reveal): Any Vessels NFT holder (excluding OGs) on Snapshot Date; max 5 mints per wallet

3) Public Sale (1 day before reveal): Everyone; 5 mints per wallet

Where will you be minting?

 We are going to mint on the Versum platform.  

Sounds awesome! Honestly, I don’t know much about Versum? Can you tell me a bit about the platform and why you chose to use it?

We have followed the platform’s development for some time and love their ambition and quality- really excited about the potential of them crafting a best in class NFT POS platform.

 The GEN-0 characters that I’ve seen so far have so many variations, more than some other similar projects – how did you do it?

I wanted a really broad set for Gen-0 to reflect the cultural variation of the teenagers.  I took an early decision to aim at a single androgynous body type that everything else can work with and then set out to make as much fun stuff as possible.

I guess the main ingredient is that I drew LOTS of things:)

The notion of identity is certainly a predominant theme for younger people, in general. For the first generation born on an alien planet, the quest for identity takes on an entirely new dimension. An absolute gold mine for story telling! Why did you choose this particular angle for the project?

I had this idea years ago in the early stages of Vessel’s main story.  It just popped into my head one day and I have been quietly obsessed with it ever since:) 

I just find it so engaging- when you look at something like the culture surrounding Harajuku in the 90’s and the cultural fashion culture that arose there and extrapolate that out to teenagers in space with no ties back to old earth it is just such a rich aesthetic vein to mine!

I also love how this interplays with the idea of the metaverse in our own world.  There are really interesting parallels between the sandbox the metaverse provides and the cultural potential of these dislocated teens.

Dislocated teens! I love it! So awesome!

Yes so excited about this idea, been waiting for the right moment to employ it for years and here we are at last!

What type of timeline are you looking at to do the release?

We are releasing crossover pieces from other inspiring projects these last weeks which is always great for spreading awareness of the Vessels project and so much fun for me to do.

We will also be auctioning off the very last of the Vessels Season 2 pieces- The last 5 of this series are set to be special!   Alongside this we are running both fan fiction and art competitions to let people win gen-0 mints and presale spots. 

We will also be raffling off presale spots and running mint giveaways with key partners and friends.  We are offering two tiers of presale on Gen-0 too- the standard one is really accessible- owning ANY Vessels piece before the snapshot gets you a spot. 

We have a premium tier for longer term Vessel holders and collectors who hold more Vessels pieces.  People are welcome to try and amass enough pieces to get on to this tier too- it has been lovely seeing new people jump into the community and love it these last weeks during the run up to Gen-0

Thanks so much Jake for taking the time to discuss Gen-0 with me! We are really excited for the launch!