So it's started! For the first time since several months, fresh eyes have seen the game. Quite some bugs have already been found too but nothing really hard to fix.
The more you work on something, the more you get buried by it, having a hard time to get back a little to see the big picture and revisit systems you implemented at the beginning. That's why beta is so critical. You need some help to point you the obvious that you're not able to see anymore.
Tonight, I'd like to be able to fix the current list of bugs that have been found which include players being able to pick props in zone where they shouldn't be able, putting buildings in mines and the chest that doesn't show all items in it. More are on my to-do list and considering there's nothing really big, it should be possible to get all of this into tonight's update.
On another note, I filled a request to upgrade a bit the memory of the server. I guess it should be filled around the beginning of the week. More memory should mean better speed. It's only this week-end that I learned that VPS can't access virtual memory so I was stuck with 416 MB which was borderline with SQL running.
In the best of world I'd have 1 server for the web site and forums, another for SQL and another for the game server but well, maybe one day.
And some good news... I should receive the new art for the characters this evening or tomorrow! Can't wait to put this in place as the artist did a really good job.
So to all testers, keep up the good work and thanks for your help!
Monday, May 5, 2008
The critical beta phase
Friday, May 2, 2008
Looking for more beta testers
Things are going well and the game is in a playable state with enough "content" to test all systems in a more official way.
So I'm looking for people that would like to join the closed beta to help test everything and give me feedback on what might be essential to add to get an enjoyable play experience.
There's still stuff in development like players' rankings, the art for characters still has to be changed and documentation to be written but it's ready to get more people.
So if you're interested, send me an email at publicationsdumensonge [at] gmail [dot] com
I'll let few people in at first and more as time goes depending on the requests I receive. I'll write back to selected people probably on sunday this week with instructions.
Closed beta will go on as long as necessary. Testers need to be patient as I won't give any ETA for now.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Do you golem?
"The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities, & performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little.. but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, & their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, & show how she works in her hiding places.. they have discovered how the blood circulates, & the nature of the air we breathe, & they have acquired new & almost unlimited powers"
A bit more than 9 months later, here's the name of the game: Golemizer
Finding a name was probably one of the hardest thing in this project (well, beside having to code with a machine I should have thrown out the window a long time ago...). It's not as fancy as Chasing Tortoise but I feel it sums up well what the game is about.
Players will play the role of mad scientists experimenting with life and mechanic to create creatures roaming the world, spreading chaos on their path: Golems
The main aspect of the game is crafting. Crafting golems, houses, furniture and such. The second aspect of the game is the ongoing war between the creatures created by players.
Once a golem is created, it will roam the world and do as it wants, even when it's creator is offline. However, when players are online, golems can also be used as pets, allowing involvement of players in combat.
While all the mechanic allowing players to get into direct combat with weapons is part of the framework, I decided to let this aspect for now, a day still having only 24 hours in it. I'm keeping this for after release, allowing players to play characters à la Van Helsing.
That's not much info for now but more in the next days/weeks.
Oh and I'll probably be looking for more beta testers in a not so distant futur so stay tuned!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Silent blog means busy working
A lot of small stuff being done like adding items, creating new skills to craft them, expanding the world, adding NPCs, ...
The most important is probably the "Welcome" zone for new players. I want to get a solid 10 minutes of play/exploration that will help new players to figure what the game is about. After those 10 minutes, they should know enough to start enjoying the game.
It means building an in-game tutorial (short and not telling too much) but also making sure the place where new players will appear have enough stuff around for them to get started. This means basic skills trainers, mine, trees to cut and a non-risky combat experience. I recently added roads to lead players to points of interest instead of letting them loose in the wild.
Once this part is done, I'll probably have enough stuff to invite more testers. I'd like to finish the intro zone this week so I can shift gears and reach my "end of spring" objective for release.
Till then, here's a small excerpt from the skills tree:
- Carpenter (apprentice)
----- Wood basket
----- Bench
----- Table
----- Wood module (small)
----------Wood module (medium)
---------------Wood module (large)
----- Carpenter (intermediate)
---------- Kitchen counter
---------- Carpenter (expert)
--------------- Architect (apprentice)
-------------------- Small houses
-------------------- Architect (intermediate)
------------------------- Medium houses
------------------------- Pub
------------------------- Architect (expert)
------------------------------ Big houses
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Beta screenshot - New buildings
The last beta update pushed a lot of new data for new buildings. As mentioned before, all buildings will be crafted by players.
So far, there's 3 small houses models, 1 medium and 2 large. More are to come but I'll keep them for later. This update expanded the number of zone types available to add more buildings so it will be much faster to add new ones.
Here's the screenshot of the starting zone for now (click to zoom). There's even a cute bunny hopping around:
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