Happy New Years
(Yes, I did just 'assume' your new years identity as being happy since you're probably consuming alcohol)
This last couple weeks was such a clustershmuck for me personally, hence the lack of the dev-blog, and lack of more fixes in the last update as I just did not have time between being sick, holidays, dealing with more server stability issues, etc.
But as we are entering the new year I wanted to release today's patch, including the major graphic rehaul (will state reasons below) and this community event to test out our broadcasting system, along with collaboration features.
What's in store for 2017?
I think 2017 is the year to finalize things and get them done right. I suspect IOU will get its abundance of updates and roadmap progression this year, while next year and the following will be of adding content to existing features.
The intention of all new features/additions is to ensure they can be re-used and expanded upon in the long-run, so we aren't revamping old system repeatedly.
We'll be looking at significant publishing this year between ArmorGames, mobile (Android-Only probably for now), and setting up localization for going a little more global.
We also have a lot of design issues that need to be taken care of, for example what makes a new user engaged in a 2 year old game? It's fun but there's no sense in competing with the current designs.
Publishing
I'm publishing on ArmorGames later in January. It's official, and thanks to finally having the new graphics in, we can clean up some engagement issues along the way for new users.
I don't know whether IOU will do as well as it did on Kongregate or through iourpg, but whatever, it's new players. Works for me, and we've done our research on the engagement issues, and delayed publishing IOU further long enough.
I will slowly be setting up windows to work with multiple resolutions for multiple devices/mediums of access.
Auto-updating APK's should be setup before the middle of this year for testing, then we'll be publishing through Kongregate/Gamestop on the mobile market for about as big a push as you can get in the indie flash industry. Plenty of plans for optimizing things in a simple manner to make this work/possible.
Features
Expedition System Clearly the expeditions need to get done, like 2 weeks ago. We haven't been short of updates, but short of progress on this system is obvious. I'm finalizing the battle system for the AI battles to start, so you can begin performing the battles and upgrading your ship.
This system has a TON of room for expansion via resources, which we'll definitely be coming back to with future features.
Legendary System - The assets for this are for the most part done (just some icons). It shouldn't take long to duplicate the ascension-style upgrade system and add this one. Lets aim for Mid January for this.
Guild Rehaul - This is happening this year soon or later. Once voted upon we'll have a lengthy (or multiple) community discussions on how it will be accomplished. It's definitely a huge part of the game that needs a rehaul though to be able to expand anywhere with guilds.
Classes / Abilities - This will be happening this year as well. We have some ideas on how to accomplish this, but it will require discussions and significant testing. I would like the focus of party play for challenges to allow for strategy, not just pure DPS.
Challenges - This system is pretty clunky. I don't care to completely rehaul it (other than the window), however I would love to expand on it and make it a major source of the game's content, beyond challenge points, and more to receive resources for crafting. A daily limit for rewards is planned, but it would make repeating challenges and helping others have a more meaningful yield.
Battles - There's room for significant improvement on monster death, coin drop / collect / animation. It's not a massive engagement issue, but it wouldn't be a massive undertaking either. Simple effect changes that could go a long way for new and old users.
Black Screen - After being idle for a while. I think it might be necessary to black-screen. Removing all animations and significant processing and provide the player with simple 'Current Status' screen. I would actually like to set something like this up for additional devices, with minimal functionality allowing you to change zones, or perform daily tasks (fishing,woodcutting, expeditions, etc) without actually having to go INTO the game. Consider it a remote management system. This feature is however one that would sit at the end of the priority spectrum, but I do feel that it has its importance factor in the long-run.
Crafting / Gear / Avatars - I really don't know if I can squeeze in avatars AND crafting at the same time. That is just an insane undertaking. I feel perhaps setting up templatable avatars, and allowing users to setup who they are as a start is the best bet, then expanding with gear/crafting with visual consequences is the best way to go.
Pets - I think there's room for one more expansion on pets. Whether that's gear or something else. However that will likely not be a focus this year; instead the focus will be to allow users to select their pets look, instead of being bound to tiers. This will allow community created pet competitions, skins, and so forth.
Pet Upgrade Map - After discussing the simplification of this system, I'm actually considering against that, and simply allowing two parallel builds for pets: Arena-based, and Combat-Based. Arena based would be for pet arena build, and the Combat-Based would be for hunting in your party. No more having to reset to make pushes in arena, then back for hunting.
XSolla - I can't go into too much detail, but I proposed using this payment provider for non-kongregate sites as a means to be able to make purchases in a larger variety of ways, especially internationally. However I discovered something when testing it, where international conversions were....far from correct. I contacted some people and an investigation is going on. So far it's not looking good, but we'll see how things go in the coming weeks. I'm definitely looking out for users here by avoiding them until they (hopefully) resolve this conversion practice. I'd rather people wait on such purchases or not purchase at all, than support people getting scandalized by an extra 6-10% from conversion rates. I have morals, believe it or not.
That's it for now. I'm sure there's a ton more that could be mentioned here, but it's new years and I have been at this for countless hours already.
Happy New Years. Drive safe, especially if you drive drunk.
Cheers,
Ray
(Yes, I did just 'assume' your new years identity as being happy since you're probably consuming alcohol)
This last couple weeks was such a clustershmuck for me personally, hence the lack of the dev-blog, and lack of more fixes in the last update as I just did not have time between being sick, holidays, dealing with more server stability issues, etc.
But as we are entering the new year I wanted to release today's patch, including the major graphic rehaul (will state reasons below) and this community event to test out our broadcasting system, along with collaboration features.
What's in store for 2017?
I think 2017 is the year to finalize things and get them done right. I suspect IOU will get its abundance of updates and roadmap progression this year, while next year and the following will be of adding content to existing features.
The intention of all new features/additions is to ensure they can be re-used and expanded upon in the long-run, so we aren't revamping old system repeatedly.
We'll be looking at significant publishing this year between ArmorGames, mobile (Android-Only probably for now), and setting up localization for going a little more global.
We also have a lot of design issues that need to be taken care of, for example what makes a new user engaged in a 2 year old game? It's fun but there's no sense in competing with the current designs.
Publishing
I'm publishing on ArmorGames later in January. It's official, and thanks to finally having the new graphics in, we can clean up some engagement issues along the way for new users.
I don't know whether IOU will do as well as it did on Kongregate or through iourpg, but whatever, it's new players. Works for me, and we've done our research on the engagement issues, and delayed publishing IOU further long enough.
I will slowly be setting up windows to work with multiple resolutions for multiple devices/mediums of access.
Auto-updating APK's should be setup before the middle of this year for testing, then we'll be publishing through Kongregate/Gamestop on the mobile market for about as big a push as you can get in the indie flash industry. Plenty of plans for optimizing things in a simple manner to make this work/possible.
Features
Expedition System Clearly the expeditions need to get done, like 2 weeks ago. We haven't been short of updates, but short of progress on this system is obvious. I'm finalizing the battle system for the AI battles to start, so you can begin performing the battles and upgrading your ship.
This system has a TON of room for expansion via resources, which we'll definitely be coming back to with future features.
Legendary System - The assets for this are for the most part done (just some icons). It shouldn't take long to duplicate the ascension-style upgrade system and add this one. Lets aim for Mid January for this.
Guild Rehaul - This is happening this year soon or later. Once voted upon we'll have a lengthy (or multiple) community discussions on how it will be accomplished. It's definitely a huge part of the game that needs a rehaul though to be able to expand anywhere with guilds.
Classes / Abilities - This will be happening this year as well. We have some ideas on how to accomplish this, but it will require discussions and significant testing. I would like the focus of party play for challenges to allow for strategy, not just pure DPS.
Challenges - This system is pretty clunky. I don't care to completely rehaul it (other than the window), however I would love to expand on it and make it a major source of the game's content, beyond challenge points, and more to receive resources for crafting. A daily limit for rewards is planned, but it would make repeating challenges and helping others have a more meaningful yield.
Battles - There's room for significant improvement on monster death, coin drop / collect / animation. It's not a massive engagement issue, but it wouldn't be a massive undertaking either. Simple effect changes that could go a long way for new and old users.
Black Screen - After being idle for a while. I think it might be necessary to black-screen. Removing all animations and significant processing and provide the player with simple 'Current Status' screen. I would actually like to set something like this up for additional devices, with minimal functionality allowing you to change zones, or perform daily tasks (fishing,woodcutting, expeditions, etc) without actually having to go INTO the game. Consider it a remote management system. This feature is however one that would sit at the end of the priority spectrum, but I do feel that it has its importance factor in the long-run.
Crafting / Gear / Avatars - I really don't know if I can squeeze in avatars AND crafting at the same time. That is just an insane undertaking. I feel perhaps setting up templatable avatars, and allowing users to setup who they are as a start is the best bet, then expanding with gear/crafting with visual consequences is the best way to go.
Pets - I think there's room for one more expansion on pets. Whether that's gear or something else. However that will likely not be a focus this year; instead the focus will be to allow users to select their pets look, instead of being bound to tiers. This will allow community created pet competitions, skins, and so forth.
Pet Upgrade Map - After discussing the simplification of this system, I'm actually considering against that, and simply allowing two parallel builds for pets: Arena-based, and Combat-Based. Arena based would be for pet arena build, and the Combat-Based would be for hunting in your party. No more having to reset to make pushes in arena, then back for hunting.
XSolla - I can't go into too much detail, but I proposed using this payment provider for non-kongregate sites as a means to be able to make purchases in a larger variety of ways, especially internationally. However I discovered something when testing it, where international conversions were....far from correct. I contacted some people and an investigation is going on. So far it's not looking good, but we'll see how things go in the coming weeks. I'm definitely looking out for users here by avoiding them until they (hopefully) resolve this conversion practice. I'd rather people wait on such purchases or not purchase at all, than support people getting scandalized by an extra 6-10% from conversion rates. I have morals, believe it or not.
That's it for now. I'm sure there's a ton more that could be mentioned here, but it's new years and I have been at this for countless hours already.
Happy New Years. Drive safe, especially if you drive drunk.
Cheers,
Ray