Dev Diary 22 :: 2016 :: August

[Ray]

Winter is Coming Summer is really flying by here...but we have some things coming up!


UI & Asset Rehaul
The art for the backgrounds/monsters has really been taking a long time, but the quality I think speaks for itself....


Final Stages for these:



Almost Final Stages:


Draft Stage:




Here's a sample of the beta production:




UI Rehaul
Finally getting some acceleration in terms of swapping out many of the windows with the new UI style. Consider the new windows to be a first phase, as i'll be getting the artist to clean them up (I'm doing them with a UI kit for now). I expect that we'll have most of the new UI done by September.

We're looking at bringing chat back but i'll be waiting for the arthouse to come up with a clean design for that. I've come up with a draft idea that I think is ideal. I'm excited for this as it would bring global chat to the game and make things feel a little more lively for those not on Kong or unaware of the Discord Community.




Lineage System
We are probably going to have this enabled in testing next week. 

Central Node System
We designed a central node system a little while back but haven't had a chance to really jump on it. The central node system features those big central nodes, being an alternative upgrade system using a new currency that will be added into the game for upgrading entire branches within the upgrade map. I'm aiming to have testing for this next week as well.

Bingo
We have had a couple hiccups in draft setups for this system that required changing the way everything worked in it....switching the bingo games from being server-based, to session-based, now to being a global game that is procedurally generated for little to no moderation required on our end. We have some cool rewarding ideas to go with Bingo coming up. No ETA, but as testers have seen there is already an icon in the battle window which we've used for minor testing, so it is definitely moving along

New Event
Jay really wanted to do a more strategical event this time around but at the last second I felt a switch turn on about going a retro-rpg route. I don't have much to spoil as it's quite a toss-up right now between ideas. I am expecting a very new event, and new gameplay style for said event next month.

Expedition Rehaul
People are asking about this every day, and all I can say is we have some great ideas backing it, just stay tuned please.

Fishing
We know about the issues pertaining to the costs for upgrades. We will be looking at balancing the later costs this month as well. Sorry for the delays on that!
Also - Fish Horn addition has been delayed. End of the month or mid next month.

Leeching
I understand the want by the community for this, and I even support to it a (very) minor degree. However we are looking at ways to diminish such crazy gains early on (130-250) from being carried so quickly. I still intend to support higher gains if you want to carry friends/guildmates, but not at the current pace it is occurring.

Vacation
I'm quite burnt out from everything (not just IOU, just this crazy, ridiculous MURPHY'S LAW year). I haven't had a vacation in years and wake up every single morning to work or some kind of drama (again, not just IOU) before I even get a chance at a coffee. I'm looking forward to waking up and just having a coffee, going outside and then realizing i'm very hung over.

Regardless of the time I spend developing IOU, I feel like my efficiency has diminished, and I allocate a lot of that to the fact that I haven't had a chance to clear my brain cache in a long time.

That being said i'll be taking a vacation between September 5-11th (just a quick week) for a good reset.

I have a feeling i'll be a hell of a lot more efficient after my sun-burnt return, especially with all the major systems, rehaul, publishing, etc this year.

During the time I am gone, the rest of the team should be prepared to keep things in check.

Other Things
There's a lot more I want to get into, but this is it for now. Lets get through the next week and catch up on more for the next blog.

Cheers,
Ray