Archive for the ‘State of the Game’ Category

State of the Game (Year 3)

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Metroplexity’s grown another year, giving us a good chance to review the last year and look forward on the year to come. I haven’t done a “State of the Game” in quite a while, but it’s nice to get something a little more concrete than the podcast.

Executive Summary (aka tl;dr)
I learned a lot of hard lessons about how to keep the content flowing in the last year. Hopefully those will bring us Oldtown, some quality events, a slate of Unearthly Items, and a constant flow of little content pieces between the big stuff.

Thoughts on Last Year
We had another good Halloween and Christmas, with the Virus Outbreak rounding out the events list. That seems like a good number of events, although I’d like to get a holiday in the “dry” part of the year.

Cybernetics went in, way ahead of schedule and rather low bug, which I’m really happy with.

One thing I think we really need to work on is the pace of content being released, especially the Unearthly Items. One of my big goals for the coming year is to get those on track. I’d like to see those coming through every month or at least every other month.

I’d also like to continue the trend of splitting time between tiny bits of content and whatever big project I’m working on. That should help a lot with the content flow problems we had towards the beginning of the year.

Thoughts on Next Year
So, we’re headed into the holiday season, so I’ll be putting some effort into that at first. I’m also gearing up for the Oldtown quest, which will probably be my biggest project for the year.

After about two years, I finally came up with the holiday I want to drop in to the “dry” season. Hopefully I’ll get to unveil that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a non-holiday world event as well, applying some of what we learned from the Virus Outbreak. That’s the first thing that’s jettisoned if we’re behind, however, so I don’t want to reveal too much and get people’s hopes up.

Beyond those things, unearthly items, and the small bits of content I want to slip in while we’re waiting for bigger releases… well, that comes up to about a year, I’d say. There’s so much other stuff I’d like to see, but we’ll see what I can sneak out in those bite-sized updates.

The other big thing for this year… maybe it doesn’t excite anyone else, but we’re planning to expand our Con presence, which I’m really stoked about. Last year we did Con on the Cob. This year we’re planning to do Origins, along with scouting out some other types of cons to see where folks might be interested.

Cheers!
Kinak

Posted in State of the Game

State of the Game (April 27th, 2009)

Monday, April 27th, 2009

I haven’t done one of these for about three months, so figured I should outline roughly where things are headed.

First off, we’ve grown into a pretty healthy user base and people seem to be enjoying themselves, which is definitely the important part. The server hasn’t started slowing down, that I’m aware of, or costing an arm and a leg. And we topped over 1000 encounters and 500 items in the database recently, which makes me smile.

Have three short term things that I’d like to clear up before the Survivor’s Quest:

  • Adding the rudiments of in-game networking, including interacting with the Auction House/Mall. This means item trading and starting to apply requirements on newer items.
  • Add another layer of PvP rewards. This means more vigilante encounters, more uses for old coins, and more hideout options mostly.
  • A revamp of the University Quest. Basically, the ganger route is going to have some more content added to it so it’s more equal in length to the normal route. Also, cash rewards from selling Eclipse will be scaled back \to be more in line with the street price of Eclipse for (a couple credits a tablet).

The Survivors quest is a the next leg in the main quest line. It’s a chance to really dig into the existing characters and areas, I’m looking forward to it.

When the Survivors quest goes in, I’m going to be handing out the first wave of Beta Reset awards, then changing the rules a bit (it’ll be a surprise). That’s a change from what I said earlier, but you should still have quite a bit of time to speed run in the current environment if you’d like.

After the Survivors quest I’m going to go through another batch of sidequests, small content improvements, and interface stuff like I’m doing right now. This is where the Asylum gets reopened post Dr. Amundsen.

Once we get that nice polish again, the OldTown quest is next. Might change the rules on the Beta Reset contest again, might not, but I’m thinking I’ll hand out another batch of prizes after each main quest line chunk.

Cheers!
Kinak

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State of the Game (January 15th)

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Just wanted to give everyone an update about where the game is and where it’s going, since it’s been a while.

What I’m up to:

  • Getting Gang Warfare (PvP) in is my first priority. It’s basically all in except half the rewards, but I’d obviously like to get those in. I’ll put out a full post explaining it when it goes in, because there’s a fair bit too it.
  • Next up is a pair of side quests. One is the scavenging quest I’ve mentioned before as a way of turning unneeded equipment into crafting ingredients and the other is a larger side quest on the order of the Ghoul quest.
  • Then we get the Survivors Quest. It’s the next step in the main quest after the Slags and branches pretty notably based on who, well, made it out alive from the University quest. People dying isn’t bad, I’ll note, just different. Hacking will get slipped in here along certain branches.
  • There’ll probably be some more side quests here, including the follow-up in the buried asylum.
  • After that, the Old Town quest will be coming in, which carries the choices from the Survivors Quest forward. Cybernetics will probably slot in during this.

There will be some more crafting sprinkling in there as well. On the long front, the chat pane will start doing something with Gang Warfare and will be slowly expanded into actual chat functions as needs demand it.

Cheers!
Kinak

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State of the Game – November 8th

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Just wanted to give an update of where we’re at as of now. Its been a few weeks since the last update, mostly because I’ve been distracted by the election. Now that’s over and I can get back to developing.

As such, I wanted to go over what’s in and what’s upcoming.

What’s in now?

  • The first three quests in the main quest line, including three areas and a whole bunch of subareas.
  • Areas (and people) reflect the changes brought about by these quests.
  • A bunch of skills, some granted by sidequests.
  • A whole lot of different Techniques, allowing a wide variety of tactics in combat.
  • Messages now allow credit, but not item, attachments.

What isn’t in?

  • Chat is still backburnered until demand increases. Feel free to use the Bug Report feature to request this or any other feature.
  • Usable skills are held back until I need them. I’d say expect these around the time of The Four quest (after the Slags).
  • Crafting, Hacking, and Cybernetics fall in the same boat as usable skills. Some of the groundwork for crafting will be in with the next wave of content, but it will be a bit before the game needs it.

What’s next?

  • The big thing that’s next is an alternate way to complete the University quest. It ties up a few loose ends in other subplots as well.
  • Updates to areas affected by the University quest.
  • The Slags quest is the next step in the main chain, but I’ll probably be putting in a side quest or two before then.

Cheers!
Kinak

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State of the Game (August 14th)

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

The word “Beta” gets thrown around a lot these days. To me, it just means that we’ve exited Alpha (in house testing, as it were), and are ready for open testing.

What that means for you is that you’ll get to help us build a great game as we roll out more features and content. If there’s anything you have problems with, or would like to see, feel free to bring it up here or use the bug report feature in game.

Here’s what’s in:

  • Combat, which is quite different from what you may be used to.
  • The contacts system.
  • Messaging for player to player communication.
  • Inventory, including a usable items and the effects of equipment. They’re not labeled yet, but I assure you they work behind the scenes.
  • Buffs from items.
  • Some fairly basic Skills and Techniques.
  • The entirety of the first quest, set in Southside Park and its environs. This includes two (2) different paths to completing it.
  • A whole lot of awesome art. (I can say its awesome because I didn’t make it so its not bragging.)

Here’s what’s not in:

  • Chat, at all. I’m not even faking chat yet.
  • Messages don’t allow players to attach credits or items.
  • Usable skills.
  • Cybernetics, Hacking, and Crafting.
  • And, the big one: the vast majority of the content.

What’s next:

The Docks quest is coming along nicely. Also, I plan to have items start proudly declaring their bonuses soon.

Cheers!
Kinak

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