We’re aware there’s been a few rumblings across the forums and on our various social network sites that you don’t feel you’re being kept up to date with how development is coming along, and we’re taking steps to address those concerns.
Hopefully, this post’ll explain what we’ve been up to, and why you haven’t been falling over bits of game just yet.
Firstly, game development involves writing a lot of code. It’s an essential part of the development, but unfortunately, it’s not very interesting or pretty to look at, and doesn’t make for particularly interesting screenshots.
It took us several weeks to secure the 3D software, and it was only last week that we got the repository license to store the art and code assets. Again, this.. doesn’t make for a great screenshot. We’ve also spent a lot of time focusing on the infrastructure, the underlying systems and pipelines - but again, not really the sort of thing you can screenshot and post, and unlikely to send everyone into raptures of excitement.
So why not more information and screenshots? Well, the license for the game engine we’re using come attached to a very strong NDA, which limits us in what we actually can discuss in a developers diary, and means we have a few additional hoops we need to jump through before we can show you any of the pretty things that we’ve been working on.
So, in the meantime, what’re we going to do to feed your need for information about the game?
Well, we’re looking to host regular Livestreams event with Joerden_Leigh, so you can check out the incredible talents of our art team.
We’ve also taken notes of your comments that you’d like to know more about the development of the game in our updates, and as the last few updates have hopefully shown, we’ve taken that on board and are working to create more ‘state of the game’ style updates, from various different departments.
We’re also hoping be publish a frequent round-up of what all the departments have been doing - we hope this’ll give you a vague idea of what all the departments are up to, from the obvious choices of art and tech, to the ones working quietly in the background, like the business, finance and marketing teams
We’re also considering running a regular interview/ama/Q&A sessions with some of our team members - if that’s something you’d be interested in - please let us know if you think it’d be a good idea.
We use our social media sites to share our updates, but also to chat and have some fun with our community, but in the future, we’re looking to use them more and more to ask you questions about what you want in the game, and finding out the things that are most important to you - if you’re not signed up to our social media sites, you can find us on Facebook, (www.facebook.com/missingworldsmedia), Twitter (@mworldsmedia) and on G+.
We’ve been posting a number of updates over at Kickstarter.com - although following your comments, we’re now going to be making sure the updates are posted here /first/.
Rather than repost everything that’s gone up, and pushing some of our more recent updates down the list and into oblivion, here’s a handy guide to what you might’ve missed. Handily arranged in date and category order - this is every update we’ve done since the New Year.
State of the game updates:
A little on what we got up to after the Kickstarter ended, and a look at Houdini with one of our artists: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/714260
An update from the art team, on what they’ve been up to and how they’re getting on with their new tools: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/745463
Composition shed some light on where they are in the game creation process, and how our lore gets set in stone: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/752634
Sharing some lore:
Our Gabbie Cabbie shares a little insight on the festive season in Titan City: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/708671
The cabbie is back, spending Saturday in the park: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/726148
Released on Superbowl Sunday, this is all about Titan City’s best Sportsing people: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/735326
Perks, and our Shorty Award nomination:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/734159
Important information about a Kickstarter security breach:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/749109
More about our Shorty Award nomination:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/752322
You might not have known that we also do a weekly roundup of the hottest posts on our forums, which you can find on our blog at http://tppdevblog.blogspot.com. It’s great for if you don’t have the time to check out every post or topic of conversation in our forums, or if you just swing by once in a while.
I know it’s frustrating having to wait for things, and we’re sorry we’re not in a position to show you what we’ve been doing - as soon as we can, we will.
MMOs take a long, long time to make, and we’re working on things as hard as we can. We won’t always have awesome things to show you, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not working on it behind the scenes.
In the meantime, thanks for your patience, and your understanding.
Chris 'Warcabbit' Hare, Rae, and the rest of the Missing Worlds Media team.