Launching NFTs don't require your smart contract
On WAX, anyone can launch NFTs directly in the Atomicasset smart contract. There are multiple user interface tools to help with this process, the most used ones are Atomichub.io and Neftyblocks.com. There are existing contracts to use for sales, implementation on your own website, packs and much more.
Since majority of projects use Atomicassets, we will continue from here on out focusing on that NFT standard.
WAX NFT standards allow for both immutable and mutable data fields. Meaning some of the information is immutable, and some is mutable. What this means is that while asset ID, name, rarity etc can be immutable, meaning can not be changed. You can also add a field like "level", which is mutable, meaning, it can be changed later by the collection owner. This allows for a bunch of really neat things such as getting experience, building onto an NFT or leveling. Really good for memberships, games and much more.
Collection name
Collection name is probably the most important aspect you have. You may choose any collection name as long as it is 12 characters long (a-z, 1-5). This is true for most people, as there is also a feature on WAX to bid for premium accounts, which essentially is account names shorter than 12 characters. This is why you will be able to find collections that have shorter names, like anyo.b1, alien.worlds and so forth.
The collection name is the "brand" of the NFT collection, perhaps it's the artists name, game name, company name or similar to that. This piece of information is highly important as it's a super easy way to verify a collection or NFT before you buy it.
The collection name is immutable and can not be changed later.
Schema
NFT schema is the type of NFT you intend to create. This is a great tool to separate different type of NFTs, perhaps "art", "land", "packs", "weapons", "memberships", "shoes" or "gear" can be schemas in a collection. This helps marketplaces and other tools to filter the NFTs in your collection which enables users to more easily browse for what they want. Properly thinking through this process will help you long-term. Schemas also describe which attributes will be added as fields on the templates under the schema. Attributes can be fields for numbers, text, images, videos etc. You can name the attribute however you want, although there are a few recommended ones that are automagically added into filtering by most marketplaces. This can be:
- img - For images e.g. png, gif, jpeg
- video - For video files, mp4 etc
- rarity, variation, quality, type, shard - If your NFTs have rarities or these attributes
- artist - if you have different artists for your work
- If the schema is called "packs", atomichub will create filter for names
Schemas are immutable and can not be changed later. However, you can add attributes to be included in a schema, but not remove them.
Templates
Although, you are not required to use a template, you are highly recommended to do so. Almost all tools use the template to filter data such as sales, supply and more.
Templates is what you use if you intend to create multiple copies of the same design, and/or want to properly show that it's a locked and limited design of a 1/1, or 10 copies etc.
For example, a template can be "big packs", for a project that intend to sell packs of NFTs. Then everyone will easily see the full supply of them.
Using templates adds a lot of neat features for filtering and querying data, finding price, holders, supply, which overall creates a much better experience for the users.
Some collections use templates differently, which makes it harder for users to track sale price.
Summary
When you create NFTs on WAX, make sure you think through what your collection name is, so it represents your project. Pick good schemas (you can have multiple), and use templates.
Play with the ability to use mutable and immutable information, you can do a lot of fun things with them.