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Last week we have managed to put together a working tutorial that has all planned features in place. Of course it was just a rough version that needs to be polished, but still, it was a significant part of the real working game.Tutorial was a serious milestone that we have been working on and off for the last year and now since it is somewhat done it's time to look further.
Therefore here at Enkord we sat down and brainstormed together a list of things that we have left to do in order to launch the closed alpha test. Here's how it looks like:
- Polish the Tutorial
- Polish the game interface (at least those part that will be heavily used in Tutorial and early stages of the game)
- Make visual battles look decent (currenty units fight very schematically)
- Make a downloader/updater which will handle automated game updates.
- Fix the marketplace and trade between players (we had this kinda working back in the days but now it's broken)
- Make the generated town location
- Set the proper stats to units, buildings, etc.
- Hero, his/her items, hero stats and perks, etc.
As you can see the list is not too short, but good thing is we have all of the points done at various progress stages. None of those have to be built from scratch.
And the most important question you are probably asking - when will be the launch date of the alpha test? I think it is realistic to say we will be able to manage all those outlined tasks this Fall. I can't say whether it will be September or November, but I guess it is a safe bet to say it has a good chance to be done in Autumn.
Being said that I would like to ask people who frequent here and waiting for the game - What kind of completion should be enough to let people in?
As you might guess, the alpha version will be far from completed game and experience you've used to get from original games. We will have two locations where tutorial will take place which will take about 2 hours to beat, but then you will be pretty much done with quests and on your own. Whether that be enough for start or should we wait until there will be more content? Are you ok to try the game when it is pretty much naked with most bells and whistles planned in the future updates? Or you prefer to wait until later where there will be enough content to warrant lengthy single-player experience like in original Totem Tribe / Totem Tribe Gold?
Please speak out and let us know what you think.
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Hi Lottie Leigh and welcome, Actually you are a bit mistaken. We are not making this game for everyone. Broadening the target audience, yes, but definitely not a game for everyone. Actually middle-aged women are probably our top priority part of the target audience. Not because this game will be exclusively for them, but because this part of the audience is the most sensitive. If we will make them feel comfortable in the game, the rest (including younger people you mentioned) will be fine too. The brilliant game is the game with proper learning curve - easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master. Most of the planned challenges are for the people who need them, casual players will have enough casual stuff for them. Ofcourse that's just the plan - only time will tell if it will be successful. But don't give up on us just yet :) |
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just asking how long will it e before the public can play |
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The brilliant game is the game with proper learning curve - easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master.
Ah, like chess and go.
I look forward to seeing the results of your efforts. Thinking about donating so that I can participate in your alpha test. I have limited play time these days, but am intriqued. Might make an interesting break from the drudgery of research! |
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Just don't set your hopes too high on alpha. The alpha version is just a proving ground where we will touch base with real people and see if our ideas stick, we might need to walk a long road afterwards to make it into the smooth experience. |
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Part 1: I agree with part of what Hadouken said. Showing it at an early stage for bug reports and things is great, but for those who want to simply see how the game feels wait for Beta or maybe a Pre-Game launch party if they have one. I think alpha should be no more than 50-100 testers total (more like 25 of the top people who give great feedback to the community to start with then add more as you see fit). If you set up guide lines on what you are currently working on (as listed above) that will help testers focus on what you need feedback on the most. If there are some major glitches, be sure to have a bug report button handy in game, and maybe an in-game comments/suggestions area as well. What I don't agree with Hadouken on is this -- If you have too many players who are inexperienced in what is needed of an Alpha Tester (especially those players just looking to see if they would like the play style) you will get a lot of people who complain and give little or no helpful comments to improve the game itself. and may even choose not to play the game when it goes live because they will think "i saw that in Alpha and is was not fun so I wont play it". And they will only think it is not fun because it isn't a fully finished game. Be very careful of who you let into Alpha Testing. Letting just anyone in or letting too many in will just bombard your crew with a lot of comments that might actually slow down your ability to fix the bugs and polish what is needed. Plus, if you do get that bogged down then the testers might start to think you are not listening to them and all their complaints, suggestions, bug reports, etc. They might think the developers are not listening or don't care. It is not an easy thing to be a Game Tester. It is hard to know what the developer needs to know, or how to say it so that the developer understands what the tester is seeing. Testers need to say things like: where the bug happened? when it happened? what you were doing when the glitch happened? does the glitch happen repeatedly each time you try to do a certain task, or does it only happen once in a while?, etc - just to name a few. And it can be very frustrating for a Tester to make a report and not see anything happen right away. You need testers that know your developers are real human beings that need to sleep and eat and talk a walk. Being a tester is more like a job, than play time. If you want the game to come out the very best, than as a tester you need to work hard along side the developers to make it happen. If you are lucky you will get a really great set of testers that can work well with the developers to make the whole experience fruitful.
I agree with An Angel completely! It is difficult being an alpha game tester, and personally I don't feel like I am good enough. I am content to wait. |
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I agree with An Angel completely! It is difficult being an alpha game tester, and personally I don't feel like I am good enough. I am content to wait.
That's fine. I think it is better to wait, that to rush and be disappointed. |
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not enough servers online 24/7....how the heck can I test it if I can't get into the game to play it? FIX THE SERVERS
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Yes, unfortunately there were more people that we expected and server does not have free space anymore. We will fix it on Monday. Sorry. |
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