How to create an NFT collection [Guildeline]

Today everyone who is even slightly interested in blockchain technologies knows about non-fungible token. Blockchain technology began to popularize with the appearance of Bitcoin in 2009 and further gradual growth of people’s interest in cryptocurrencies. During the years the industry has experienced incredible bursts of hype and stagnation (crypto winter).

Recently, there has begun another boost on the topic. In particular, it’s connected with the popularity of various tokens, including NFTs that became useful in the creation of blockchain applications, games, and other decentralized platforms.

A non-fungible token or NFT (ERC-721 standard on Ethereum blockchain) is one of the types of tokens used in blockchain protocols. The key difference between NFT and other tokens is the uniqueness of each token and the ability to use it as a unique identifier for any digital asset.

That’s why it became so popular among digital art creators and collectors. The first ones create digital art or digitize their works and transform them into non-fungible token format. The second ones are engaged in collecting assets, which in their opinion or market trends, the demand is growing. This article is focused more on the first part of the community – those who create digital assets, publish and sell them to the other part of the community.

NFT assets are usually distributed as a collection – a number of crypto assets united by a common idea, visual style, or purpose. A collection can include one, several, or thousands of assets, combined into a single group, the idea, and the purpose of further use.

Brainstorming a high-level concept for NFT assets is where any collection project should start. Assets should be part of a project, solution, platform, or ecosystem that will solve problems for end-users, business areas, or some group of people. The higher the demand for the solution may be in the future, the higher the value of non-fungible token assets will be, and the higher the demand for them will be at the beginning and at the stage of sales. Overall, NF tokens are a kind of pass to the functionality and capabilities of the solution which they are associated with. The access is provided as a premium club membership or the ability to receive specific content, to open extra functionality etc.

However, many NFT creators build their projects just for fun, hype, or other short-term goals. Such projects also can exist and develop with sufficient and correct marketing. If you want to explore popular NFT games that are making waves in the industry, take a look at our list of top games to pay attention to

The creator of the NFT collection has no limitations in visual style. There are some market trends in the visual aspect of the assets being created, but they don’t prevent the creator from choosing his own unique style for the collection.

So NFT assets can be designed in 2D or 3D graphics. The visual part can rather be related to the idea and goals of the collection. Using the example of many assets that give collectors access to additional content played through a mobile or web application. These assets are created in 3D graphics and can be used as GLB models within compatible ecosystems.

The key step in creating a lot of unique assets is to develop an algorithm that can generate unique combinations from the designed assets.

For example, the collection creator has made 10 assets, each has 5 parts. The next task is to mix assets’ parts together to create unique combinations. This is not done manually. The algorithm is developed to mix assets and generate unique combinations.

In this example, the total number of unique varieties can be calculated using a formula: 10⁵ = 100,000 unique assets.

The complication is achieved by the injection of rarity items. Rarer parts increase the value of the final asset.

After creating an assets collection, the author chooses a blockchain on which his future NFT collection will be created. It is worth clarifying that at this step the creator does not yet have NFTs. Assets will appear after they are created (minted) on a selected blockchain. There are many options when choosing a blockchain, and the final decision usually depends on several key factors:

• The goals of assets and their usability for end-users;
• The commission for NFT creation and trading operations. This factor is often the most critical since each blockchain takes its own commission for operations and the creators choose the blockchain on which this commission is minimal (or optimal according to their business model);
• The volume of the market and audience size. The choice of blockchain depends on its popularity among users and the number of activities within the blockchain.

There are two general approaches for NFT assets distribution:

• a public marketplace with ready-to-use tools;
• a custom marketplace that needs to be developed and deployed for collections.

In the first case, public marketplaces (OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, Mintbase etc.) are ready-made platforms for publishing assets available to everyone. Users create (mint), publish and sell their NFTs to everyone. The choice of the marketplace directly depends on the blockchain on which the collection is planned to be distributed. Since each marketplace is developed on a specific blockchain, it supports its tokens. Some marketplaces support multiple blockchains and their tokens. Public marketplaces are convenient because they have a ready-made set of functionality for creating and selling NFT assets. There is also a large audience that knows and trusts these sites.

In the second case, a custom marketplace is an application development that is built by the blockchain, web, and back-end developers. For a custom marketplace, it is necessary to develop a web front-end, back-end, and smart contracts on the blockchain, which is planned for use. Custom solutions are convenient for complex ecosystems and large projects that include many components.

Smart contracts

In the case of developing your own marketplace, besides web and backend development, it is necessary to develop smart contracts that will regulate the economy of crypto assets. Smart contracts are a set of algorithms responsible for minting and trading operations (transactions) of NFTs within a marketplace. Smart contracts are stored and executed on the blockchain, chosen as the main one for the marketplace.

It is a good practice to publish smart contracts on open sources (websites), which any user can visit and see the algorithms of smart contracts. This increases the audience’s confidence in the marketplace.

This part of the project is also quite specific since the marketing channels in the blockchain and, in particular, in the NFT community are slightly different from the classic approach.

Twitter, Discord, and Telegram are primarily used for communication with the audience. Twitter is good for advertising, Discord for the interaction with the community. Telegram is quite specific, as it contains a lot of viral ads, fake users, and unnecessary spam, but it is also good if used correctly.

In terms of websites, there are many options for connecting with your audience. There are public platforms for announcements, news about new NFT collections, pre-sales, and more.

Also, influencers are in great demand – public people who have been in the industry for a long time and have a large audience of followers. They collaborate to help promote NFT collections. There are also many options for collaborating with influencers and the channels they use, and here it is necessary to study each person individually. Information about such people is available on the Internet.

Overall, it’s base information to be studied upon creating the crypto asset collections. Furthermore, you need to immerse yourself in the topic, understand your goals, come up with an idea, create and release a collection. Today it is quite simple and there are a lot of assets have already been created. So the creators are looking for more and more sophisticated methods and tools for creating NFTs and attracting an audience. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write to us.