Dev Diary 2 :: 2014 :: Dec 8 - 31

[Ray]

Will be working on preparing everything mentioned in the last logs, along with adding anything else that appears necessary in the meantime for the January release. Nothing 'extra' between now and then will be added to my todo to ensure this release goes smoothly.

Bug fixes and necessity features until then

[Ray]

Unfortunately caught myself in a little pre-holiday contract outside of my projects. Updates have been going great, but will commence again after the weekend.

I think with just a few more smaller patches to clean things up, the game will be ready for a more public phase.

[Ray]

Just set up IOU for Kongregate, and contacted them with a request to jump into their private Beta system, which would bring the game to a very strong pre-public release stage. If they give a green light, the game will rocket forward in feedback and development, and if not....was worth a shot!

[Ray]

Game has become pretty stable. Will be working on the new Space Expedition and Ship Upgrade system this week. Should be another fun little addition to the game.

Will likely add it to the score / top rank system as well.

[Ray]

Space Expeditions / Ship Upgrades out. Linking these two features, and finding a way to implement it properly was quite time consuming. In my head I imagined something a bit easier to implement, but it's out and can only be expanded upon now.

I have a good little list of things I need to get going for the public alpha preparations. At this point unfortunately I sincerely doubt any new major systems like this to be implemented before the public release.

I'll finish up this list (and anything else testers come up with) and call it a good run, I think. This month has been absolute insanity and it's probably time to focus more on family and well-being 'til January.

That being said, I expect 2 more patches before the public January release:

0.09a - Tutorial/Notifications & fixes
0.10a - Balancing, cleanups, character wipe, and public alpha.

[Ray]

Releasing IOU 10 days early to a small sample from older communities. Will be pushing the game more publicly in January.

Sped up the game to a Beta status.

[Ray]

Working on new 'hunting' skills. I'm growing less fond of the skill count in the game, and even though the game is in early stages, feel like there needs to be a lot more options.

I want tears to shed in that there's just not enough currency for all the options :p

[Ray]

I'll be setting up an in-game 'poll' window soon to allow players to rate what they feel is a priority feature. Fixes will be done passively but major features I feel should be prioritized based on what you guys are looking for.

Also, i'll still be extremely busy and not around much until January - this was an early peek release (non publicized) before I can go back to full time after the holidays, but if I can i'll be releasing at least 1 more patch before then, potentially increasing the level cap early as well.

[Ray]

Come the first week of January, you can expect the cap to increase to 25...

By the end of January it should be increased to at LEAST 40 to get things rolling.

[Ray]

I've been spending a good amount of time hashing out the design for several of the new systems. That being said, I expect to have another gameplay system in the game within the week. Some of these systems are not the bigger ones, like the pet or guild arena, or space battles, but they'll definitely add a bit more spice to the game.