Happy Thanksgivings to fellow Canadians, and sorry Monday is rolling around to the rest of the world who return to work tomorrow...(Canadian or not, it's not like me or Jay get days off)
It has been one of the most exhausting weeks this year, over the last week...but let me start by answering the question many of you keep asking:
"When is Match 3 going to end" / "When is the next event being released?"
We have a few touch-ups, few minor fixes as testing continues, and the final prep/release. I may have forgot that this weekend was Thanksgiving in my expectation of the event release, but if you hop into the discord test team, you'll be able to full well see the progress from there. There isn't the utmost rush on our end with the event, or we'd have slopped it together last week. Tuesday should be the finalization of it all, the release will simply be the first possible day thereafter for a focused patch release.
A couple points about this event release:
Working non-stop on IOU and feeling little progression towards the (prior to announced) road-map or the community desires has been a bit crippling for long-term players, and my enthusiasm. Admittedly, while I use the excuse of waiting on art-house assets (because I didn't want to invest time into using temporary assets just to redo them AGAIN after all this rehaul), it is effectively my fault for making the dumbest decision i've made with the development, and a huge flaw for my timeline expectations of the asset development from them. I have confronted the publisher involved with the push of going the route of the art-house in that I will not be relying on the art-house for future system development, and will be moving forward regardless. This was a poor political choice as far as a year ago.
Working to find alternatives to develop while 'waiting' has been against all logic, and I'm turning that around starting the release of this patch.
While time is sometimes needed to press on other issues (Immediate Bug fixes, backend additions/fixes, etc), the survey system will provide you the power to ensure our primary focus is towards one of several desires within our capabilities.
I'll be very excited to see what the results become from the new development survey system! Tell me what you want, what you really really want... (Yes I just quoted Spice Girls)
Cheers,
Ray
It has been one of the most exhausting weeks this year, over the last week...but let me start by answering the question many of you keep asking:
"When is Match 3 going to end" / "When is the next event being released?"
We have a few touch-ups, few minor fixes as testing continues, and the final prep/release. I may have forgot that this weekend was Thanksgiving in my expectation of the event release, but if you hop into the discord test team, you'll be able to full well see the progress from there. There isn't the utmost rush on our end with the event, or we'd have slopped it together last week. Tuesday should be the finalization of it all, the release will simply be the first possible day thereafter for a focused patch release.
A couple points about this event release:
- It will be the last 'new' event we release for a long while. We will be focusing instead on new systems or rehauls judged upon the community votes.
- This upcoming patch will not 'just' be the event. Jay is more focused onto the event with the server-side portions, while I'm mostly the client-side with less involvement in it overall. This has given my time to save the days of development that this event has been delayed.
- The Queued Click System - Queue your clicks ahead for server-side no-delay processing
- Survey System - This was going to be developed a few days after the event release...instead, it's ready to go for the patch...you'll be able to vote the same day we have stability on the patch.
- Major balance changes for pre-inferno players
- A few fixes that I caught the time for
- No longer excusing delays on asset creation from the art-house to not develop new major systems.
- Reviewing the time spent by the team through pure analysis to see where we can improve and optimize the time we spend for an improved effort, dissolving time invested in areas that could be better spent. (In the works)
- Giving the community a stronger unified voice with the ability to vote on what we focus primarily on through development. (Included in survey system)
- Bringing back community competitions and getting the community involved in fun activities. (Coming Soon)
- Becoming more consistent in how interaction is offered to the community:
- Better community discussions (Listat came up with a process I purely enjoyed - once a month?)
- Consistent development blogs (Compared to the past...once a week on Sunday - Already providing)
- Stronger community involvement (TBD likely in the next ComDisc)
- Cutting the cloth away from / Confronting negative users who have nothing to offer but negative criticism and hailing the opposite (No sense in providing constant attention to this. I have always tried to be responsive but it's getting a little too childish sometimes with unrealistic response expectations & abuse of our efforts)
- Working to find a smooth process to rewarding testers for the assistance they offer. The volunteered time is appreciated to the point that I feel pretty bad for not having something in place for this yet (Alice and I have discussed this. Needs to be discussed further for consistent policies)
- Responding to social activity (forums, chat, etc) in a more organized manner (This will be focused a lot better after I review the Time Analysis over the next while)
Working non-stop on IOU and feeling little progression towards the (prior to announced) road-map or the community desires has been a bit crippling for long-term players, and my enthusiasm. Admittedly, while I use the excuse of waiting on art-house assets (because I didn't want to invest time into using temporary assets just to redo them AGAIN after all this rehaul), it is effectively my fault for making the dumbest decision i've made with the development, and a huge flaw for my timeline expectations of the asset development from them. I have confronted the publisher involved with the push of going the route of the art-house in that I will not be relying on the art-house for future system development, and will be moving forward regardless. This was a poor political choice as far as a year ago.
Working to find alternatives to develop while 'waiting' has been against all logic, and I'm turning that around starting the release of this patch.
While time is sometimes needed to press on other issues (Immediate Bug fixes, backend additions/fixes, etc), the survey system will provide you the power to ensure our primary focus is towards one of several desires within our capabilities.
I'll be very excited to see what the results become from the new development survey system! Tell me what you want, what you really really want... (Yes I just quoted Spice Girls)
Cheers,
Ray