Example worlds
Eight worlds worked out in full: the invitation to send, the settings to type in, the moment the paths meet, and how each one ends.
The hard part of a is not the software. It is deciding what a moment means, how many there should be, and how the thing ends. These eight worlds answer those questions in full, so you can copy one instead of inventing from nothing.
How to read an example#
Each page is a plan, not an essay. They all carry the same six parts, in the same order:
- The invitation. The actual message you could send. If you cannot write a good invitation, the world is not ready.
- The settings. A table of the numbers to type into the creation form: paths, duration in blocks, steps per path, title.
- What a contribution means. The protocol stores small numbers. The invitation decides what they stand for: a sowing, a set, a chord, a memory.
- The meeting. Which paths meet, when, and what the two people are agreeing to.
- The ending. Who closes what, in what order, and what happens if nobody does.
- The journey. What a week in that world feels like from the inside.
Read the invitation and the ending first. Those two decide whether people take part.
The limits every example respects#
Four numbers are fixed by the protocol and cannot be argued with:
| Setting | Allowed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paths | 1 to 8 | Chosen once, at creation |
| Duration | 144 to 52,560 blocks | About 1 to 365 days |
| Steps per path | 1 to 512 | Counted per path, not per world |
| Held in each path | 1,000 satoshis | Released when the path is completed |
Duration is counted in blocks, not days. Roughly 144 blocks is a day, 1,008 is a week, 4,320 is a month. Blocks arrive faster or slower than that, so the end of a world is a , never a date on a calendar. Plan around the height, and let the date float.
The eight worlds#
A festival history Five stages, five paths, and four meetings on the closing night.
A musical composition Four voices over a month, where a meeting is two players signing one chord.
A community time capsule One path per year of a group's life, held for a year and opened out loud.
A museum exhibition Visitors shape a bounded work across the run of a show, at one staffed station.
An artist and an audience One path belongs to the artist, the rest to the people answering back.
Changing one to fit you#
Take an example and change one thing at a time. Fewer paths make a quieter world. A shorter duration makes people act. A lower step limit makes each moment count, because once a path reaches its limit the only move left is to complete it.
Two changes are worth thinking about hardest. The first is the ending: a world that nobody closes does not finish, it expires when the duration runs out. The second is the meeting, which is the only place two paths touch. Read when paths meet before you promise one in an invitation.