Table of Contents:
-Progression with Characters.
-Update.
-Upcoming Updates.
-Synopsis
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Progression with Characters
----
Boris has been doing some really exceptional work, not only with characters but structures as well, including new animations and all sorts of stuff.
Here is an overview of all the new units in ABD: A Beautiful Day
These characters span a young toddler, to an elderly man and woman. The first two rows are Homo-Sapiens, the back two rows are the Neanderthals. When a man and a woman "Sleep" in the same shelter, and if they're not related, there is a possibility that the woman will become "Pregnant". Now I know what you're thinking, and no, we don't portray the acts required to conceive, we are simply hinting at the natural process. This system will work the same for wildlife as well. A child appears after a predetermined duration, and you as the player must protect the child until it grows to adulthood.
Standard Public Servers:
Pregnancy: 270 Days In-Game = 45 Real-Life Hours.
Child to Adulthood Duration: 144 Days In-Game = 24 Real-Life Hours.
Realism Public Servers:
Pregnancy Duration: 270 Days In-Game = 45 Real-Life Hours.
Child to Adulthood Duration: 4032 Days In-Game = 672 Real-Life Hours. (28 Days)
As these units age, they will survive as long as they are kept alive by the player via sustenance requirements and security. Although not many will survive to die of natural causes, it will technically be possible. The introduction of actual women and children into a strategy MMO is a first, so we plant the realism flag in the gaming industry on this one. So woo-hoo, world record baby! Here are some more screens:
I'm nicknaming this guy, "Dreamy Jesus" - dudes a stud huh??!
Here's how well the normal maps are translating onto our low poly meshes, it really shows off super well in tests.
Our animation catalog of 800+ custom animations will work smoothly with each iteration. In addition to these animations, as the children grow to adulthood and the adults grow to an elderly state, both the animations change as well as the blend shapes between versions. In laymen's terms, you can time-lapse a gradual, natural progressive aging cycle without any jumps or changes in the character between versions. Sick, huh?
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Update
----
Our last update was for Halloween, which in light of the rebuilding process it was pretty mild in comparison to other games. We noticed a huge problem with the core of the game in relativity to its future development of other features, so we had to take a full month setting it up correctly. It was a pretty hard thing to do, to wait four weeks without pushing updates. It looks like this won't happen again, but it was a really awkward thing to try to tell everyone. I was going to list what was all involved with the update, but it is well over a thousand characters, so blah... Just envision a big wall of technical speak and we'll call it a day. Right now we are tackling some minor bugs before we do our next update, which mind you does not include (as I said above) these new characters; that's a future update item which I will list below. Actually, I will list a couple things:
-Building is fixed.
-Harvesting is fixed.
-Movement Speed increased.
-Water has been re-enabled (was off due to a super weird Unity issue).
-FPS Lag is actively being addressed, but as an EA title we will obviously fluctuate.
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Future Updates
----
The upcoming articles, which may or may not be developed in this order, are as follows:
This list covers roughly the next two months, so if you're the impatient type check back in January. We will certainly need some sales to keep developing soon, so if you like what you see and want us to succeed, grab yourself a copy of the game! Oh, speaking of copies, we are also going to be releasing ABD: Legacy Edition on November 20th. Legacy is an edition for ABD which includes all future DLC & Expansions, priced at $60 it will really help us develop at a faster rate and be a quarter of the cost of the expansions we have planned for 2016 alone.
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Synopsis
----
Overall it has been a great couple of weeks, the game is really coming together and we're so very excited to bring this to you. Definitely drop on by and give us some love, just keep in mind we are Early Access and not a huge company with thousands of employees and a million dollar budget. We will, however, be here to talk with you about the game until our lungs get sore. So yeah, love you all, see you ingame!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Steam Store: Store.steampowered.com
2015 Halloween Sale -25%
Hello Everyone!
We are participating in the 2015 Halloween Sale here on Steam, giving a 25% discount for new players! Tell your friends, and have them tell their friends, and lets populate the game heavily this holiday!
For those of you who read this and are thinking of buying it, by purchasing ABD: A Beautiful Day you are supporting the development team so we can continue developing on Early Access! We're a little rough around the edges, but we are rapidly moving through development, and a very active dev team! Weekly patches, big improvements, and a wild list of features are inbound! If you aren't satisfied with the gameplay right now, hold off on getting a refund because we are adding new features daily, and theres a big chance the reason you are refunding will be fixed/changed/patched in a week or two! Grab it now while its cheap, and Happy Halloween!!!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Steam Store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/384920/
10/28/2015 - Halloween Update is LIVE!
Hello Everyone!
Today is Update-Day! Jack is going to be doing some minor touches, and posting in the forum with the change log once the update is live. Once he does, I will update this announcement with the full list. This update will be available on the Beta build before we push it to Live, we need to get some testing and feedback while we develop more.
I will be available for discussions ALL day today and tomorrow in the Chat room for ABD: A Beautiful Day. If you have questions about the game, need help trouble shooting, want to report bugs, or just want to talk to a Dev feel free to drop in!
To play the Halloween Update:
--------------------------------------------
1.) In Library, Right-Click on ABD: A Beautiful Day and select, "Properties".
2.) In the pop-up, on the second tab from the right called, "BETAS" select that, and in the drop down menu where it says, "Select the beta you would like to opt into:" select, "beta -".
3.) Then close the properties window.
4.) After a minute or so, your library will updat ABD: A Beautiful Day and show, "ABD: A Beautiful Day [beta]"
5.) Select, Play!
Update Table of Contents:
--------------------------------------
1.) Halloween Update
2.) Changelog
3.) Upcoming Features
4.) Synopsis
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Halloween Update
----
As I've mentioned in previous announcements, this Halloween is going to be a little dry due to the setback with Allen's betrayal. However, this update marks the point where we were at launch, except this time around, its actually real and stable code. We will also be adding the rest of the Halloween content on Friday.
-Structures have a Halloween Theme!
-Props can be placed, and yes, the spooky kind!
-Halloween Fog
-A Signed Notebook from RedBubble for whoever finds the monster!
Although the functionality is limited, and we didn't get around to crafting just yet, there is still Harvesting and Building, among many other changes, fixes, and updates. In addition to being a milestone for the game, the system (which is mainly behind the scenes) is prepped for handling all the new features and functionality we've been talking about since IndieGoGo and Steam Greenlight. The framework is really solid, and this puppy is ready to take on what we want to throw at it. I want to apologize for the delay, but the framework is nearing completion and we're onto the good stuff now!
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Changelog
----
Here is a thread Boris posted pertaining to the Halloween Update, so head on over to see the latest info: http://steamcommunity.com/app/384920/discussions/1/496879865896950349/
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Upcoming Features
----
Originally I was going to list what we have planned, but between the upcoming fixes from user reports in the Beta branch and incorporating the AI system, the end of the week is going to be pretty busy. We will however be posting regular updates, and in much greater interval.
The reason behind this month long stint (without an update) was due to the foundation to be restructured in a better way to handle future features. I doubt heavily that there will be another time where we wait so long without making an update again, it was pretty torturous for us to wait so long... Thankfully, Jack has done an amazing job and the wait is over!
----
Synopsis
----
I can't apologize enough for making you all wait so long, but what we needed to do was very important. The month of November is really going to be impressive, so buckle up!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
----
LIVE Edit: 10/29/2015 12:00 E.U.
We are tracking an issue with harvesting, but this should be addressed Friday. We are also going to be patching over all this stuff to an AI structure that we were planning after this update. This update shows you the functionality and premise behind what has been worked on so far. Although some of this has functionality issues, this should be improved upon and current problems will dissapear starting Friday through next week as we plug everything in.
Dev Blog 10/23/2015 - Game Update V1 & Future Content
Hello Everyone,
It has been a hectic week, and to top it off it appears there is some growing hostility within the community. It's been a month since we've updated, and there are specific reason(s) for this; let me detail them.
ABD: A Beautiful Day is an enormously expansive game, encompassing such a vast paradigm to be a basic platform for displaying the last hundred thousand years of human expansion. To build such an organism is a tremendous feat, requiring both the beginning functionality and the end functionality. To do this responsibly, we have to design the platform basics in a way that can contain the end-game content structure in mind. Let me give you an example:
Tier 1 Human Warrior: 100,000 B.C.E. - A brutish mug that swings a club and can perform basic stone tool creation.
Tier 38 Cosmic Infantry: 2762 C.E. - A well informed, incredibly adaptable multi-function Infantry Soldier capable of deploying in both Gravity Based Environments (GBE) and Zero Gravity Environments (ZGE).
The structure behind each of these units posess the same fundamental basics, and unless we want to break the game half way through the tiers, requiring a month or more of a setback, we have to plan ahead. By doing this, we can stride through the development of the game without running into major issues, as well as making a more all encompassing experience. In the end, it will pay off heavily for the setbacks that have delayed us so far. Right now, this doesn't really help the average player get back into the game.
The upcoming update, which we will be continuing to internally test through the weekend, is a large part of the fundamental basics mentioned above. Everything is looking pretty good, so we will probably do the update early in the week perhaps on Monday or Tuesday.
----
What will this update have? If you've read the last announcement, you know there will be a LOT. It appears as though basic crafting is making its way in too, which leaves you with:
Aside from the only recorded kill since launch (courtesy of yours truly) the remaining core function is Combat. After we push this update, Combat is the next priority item. Once Combat is in, we have the basic pillars of any standard RTS out there, except we are only a percentage or two in!! While you guys are enjoying building your empires and mutilating eachother by next weekend, we will be pumping the game full of content as time progresses.
What does this mean right now? I will be putting some screenshots up on Twitter this weekend so you can get a glimpse at what the update will include. I can finally say that we are out of the woods, this has been such a crazy ordeal and we are finally to a point where we can deliver the long awaited experience you've all been waiting for. It looks like we will have made a lot of our landmarks we wanted to achieve by November, which is going to make the month of November a pretty exciting month. Both for player involvement ingame, as well as whats to come.
I will make a follow up announcement with specific notes Jack wants to include, we'll tag it as patch notes, and be watching pretty intently very early next week. I can't wait to see the glow of campfires in the distance again!!
-Robert
Dev Blog: 10/17/2015 - Upcoming Week
Hello Everyone,
This week has been very productive, and I’m excited to talk about a few things.
Over the past three weeks, we’ve been greatly detailing and outlining future features as well as increasing the framework capacity ten fold. Here is a breakdown of improvements, additions, and changes made over this timeframe.
Game Assets
3D:
-Overhaul of Humanoid Units.
-Overhaul of Structures.
-Overhaul of Equipment.
Animations:
-Animations for structures have been revisited, which will give you a very fresh, top of the line visual appeal.
-Characters: An improved, more capable Animation system for Unit & Character actions.
User Interface: The entire UI has been overhauled, with our new permanent solution to UI, we can vastly improve readability and seamlessly incorporate a ton of new functionality.
Modules
General:
-Tips, Error Notification, Active Status, and States have been incorporated for easier readability.
Persistence:
-Syncing.
-You’ll log in and out, being in the same place as you left (unless you’re dead).
-Your stuff will stay there, round the clock.
Chat:
-Chat fixes and upgrades have been made.
Spawning:
-Spawning has been fixed, and greatly improved upon.
UI:
-Permanent UI Solution, completely scalable all the way from adding languages to easily adding new resources, items, flora, etc. The whole spectrum was improved upon, and it is now capable of receiving and transmitting just about anything we can imagine.
Tasking:
-This is the early stages of tasking, but the framework is ready to take new components. Tasking will be updated on a regular basis.
Inventory:
-Inventory framework is complete, and further functionality pertaining to other components of gameplay are ready to take new direction. This is the early stages of inventory, and it will be updated regularly.
Actions:
-This is a big one, the basis for all interactability throughout the entirety of ABD. This system was much more complex than originally anticipated, but the wait has paid off.
Buildings:
-You’ll be able to build structures, as well as interact through Actions, Inventory, Tasking, and Functionality.
-Future items for Buildings include things like Containers, Add-ons, and further functionality I’m not going to talk about yet.
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Next Week’s Update
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As the title says, next week’s update will include the above listed changes and then some. We plan on introducing a few other features and modules as well. The plan is for us to test the crap out of the current build, and release it later in the week. I don’t care if it's ready by Tuesday, we’re going to be testing this until it's solid enough to be a functional state for everyone to enjoy more than a couple minutes. This update is going to be very “Atmospheric” in the sense of sitting around a campfire, gathering a few things, and being on your way to starting your villages.
Although this is a very big, very exciting update, I want to fully elaborate on the fact that there are still a HUGE number of modules that we haven’t made yet, and if I were to give a timeframe to have the rest completed I would say by the 1st of the year. Will this happen? Very likely, within a couple of weeks as it is we’re already approaching on some major content that’ll add some vastly interactable functionality. Until we get to Tiers & Technology (See “What’s Next” in the section below) we will primarily be focusing on finishing the overall framework for modules before moving forward in tier progression. In short, this means that you’ll be cavemen for a little bit, which is primarily the reason you’ve bought the game anyway so enjoy it while it lasts!
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What Happens Next?
----
The remainder of the game needs to get made, improved upon, and functionality has to be incorporated. We’ve really been pushing, and a couple of corners have been cut to get us back online. This was my idea because of the utter disaster slash sabotage that Allen did at launch back in the middle of August. As we develop through the rest of the game, we’ll slowly be removing those shortcuts in parallel with us creating further content for the game.
Whats in:
This is a vague, rough list of items that have been introduced during the past three weeks; not to mention what was listed above. There are some things I’m forgetting I’m sure, such a huge leap of progress has been made while we focus on content creation versus anything else.
This list is a progression timeline in order (anticipated order) of implementation through major updates. Each major update, or (module) function per week, with additions and minor upgrades at the middle point of the week. Some components will take more than a week, others may take less than a week, but for the most part long stints without a game update are behind us. So woot woot, don’t mind me if I dip into the Whiskey to celebrate it.
Halloween is going to be a little underdressed, but I would rather we have major functionality of the game than characters and events. We’ll still have a Halloween atmosphere, and some items have been added to give you the feeling of the holiday, but most of the concepts we were using will have to wait until next year. Seeing as Halloween is the first Holiday for ABD: A Beautiful Day, we will ABSOLUTELY go totally crazy for next Halloween.
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Holidays
----
As you know, in MMO’s a Holiday is a pretty big deal. It is unfortunate that we weren’t able to develop Halloween like we wanted to with Allen's sabotage. In the end, we have fully recovered from him, and the upcoming Holidays will be remarkable. With the systems we’re adding for Halloween, you’ll see similar items for Thanksgiving. For Christmas, we’ll be closer to the end of our stint with basic mechanics and the possibilities will fully reveal themselves; to us, as well as our players. Christmas is going to be pretty spectacular, and I’m utterly excited about showing that concept off.
Stay tuned for information and visuals on Twitter & Facebook.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD: A Beautiful Day
Dev Blog 10/11/2015 - The Coming Week, Weeks, & Months (V1)
Hello Everyone,
It's been a very strange week, lots of interesting things happening. I wanted to hop on here and give everyone an update since it's been over ten days since my last update. I was talking about having an update last week but there were certain things that needed to happen. Thankfully, these things did happen and we're very much on a roll.
What happened?!
We needed a way to categorize and implement the features I always dreamed of, and Jack is making this happen and THEN some. It means our development speed will be fast, and the quality of the work is really starting to show. We've been trying to get us back to the way things were at Launch, as well as prepare the game for future functionality and that's been quite difficult. I think we're all going to let out a huge sigh of relief very soon.
On one hand, sadly, you guys and gals haven't (nor have I) been able to play the way Boris and I had intended in August. On the other hand, October is going to be a month where we're going to blow your minds. The planned features and functionality for this month are incredible, and the stuff that's being talked about for November and December make it hard not to spill the beans because of how awesome it is. I'll keep my composure though, I don't want to give Boris a heart attack.
I'll post a (V2) update in the headline when we release an update this week with patch notes, as well as include what we are planning on adding next. Inbetween updates, I'll add (V2, V3, V4) etc to the headline with mini-updates. As usual, we will send our closed test to the Beta branch, and then to the Public/Normal server once we hammer out any strange bugs.
Prepare yourself for the update this week!
-Robert
PS: In anticipation of these new MAJOR developments for ABD, I've been putting together some stuff for our official store on RedBubble. Obviously nobody wants to buy any T-Shirts or Coffee Mugs for a game that doesn't work, but people might be interested when things get back on track. With that being said, if you're interested, head on over to our RedBubble store and check out the new artwork. Some of that stuff gives you a hint on the new UI Art style that we've decided to go with.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/gagamaggotent
I've ordered a bunch of stuff (I swear this stores going to make me go broke) and I'll post pictures on Twitter then link it here once they arrive.
Dev Blog 9/29/2015 - A Long Couple Weeks - V2
Hello Everyone,
V2: We would have updated today, but we ran into a few snags and found some better ways to work a couple systems. I'm sorry we weren't able to do an update, but itll be well worth the wait. Like I said below, October is going to be amazing. We're looking at early next week to do the push, which will have a much higher frequency to follow.
V1: I haven't made an announcement in a while, so I wanted to let everyone know we're still alive.
October is going to be a busy, yet fruitful month for us. We are finalizing a lot of the network framework, and preparing the back end of the game to handle the upcoming gameplay features. We were hoping to have a lot of things plugged in last Friday the 25th, but we found a few things that were a little shaky, so we decided to spend some extra time improving the stability. By doing so, we've been able to prepare a lot more than we imagined, so this is a very good thing for ABD.
What we are doing is very rare, and incredibly difficult to achieve on a scale that is unprecedented. I would rather we spend a little extra time and get things perfect, versus sending you something that isn't rock solid. I am very sorry that it has taken so long, but I assure you the wait will be worth it. With the framework being nearly complete, ABD is about to come to life as we move from stability to functionality implementation. So thankfully, the wait is nearly over for gameplay!
The UI has also been given quite a bit of consideration, as well as the environment and animations. On a side note with the UI, we have restructured it in a way that can be translated into a huge number of languages. It isn't quite a high priority right now, but I would like to ask the community if they would be willing to translate the game to their native language. Make a comment below if you are interested in translating for ABD, and I'll get in touch with you; your name will go in the credits of course.
We are finishing up the last two weeks of work, and we will be doing a push a little later this week on the Beta branch, and if all goes well it'll be live on the public branch. I'll be posting an inclusive update on what's involved in the update, as well as what's planned to go in next. We will start doing weekly announcements that start with major updates, and edit the announcements with "V1, V2, V3, etc" bug reports or events that pop up throughout the week; then posting another announcement with the following content release. This way, nobody has to search around for issues or upcoming concepts it'll all be in one place. Please still use the forums, just make sure to post in the correct branch.
Again, I'm very sorry it has taken so long, but I am absolutely thrilled to see your reactions in the coming weeks. This is truly going to get rather interesting, and I can barely contain myself from spilling all the beans! Boris and Jack would kill me... So in the interest of self preservation, I must remain quiet... ..For now.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer for ABD: A Beautiful Day
www.gagamaggotent.com
PS: It is possible that we will be having a really famous developer working with us, but it is highly dependent on sales. He has shown a huge level of interest, which coincides with the passion you guys and gals have for ABD, so this is pretty exciting to get noticed like that. Once the time comes I'll name drop, but until then I feel it would be jumping the gun. Either way, it's a huge compliment to our team.
Dev Blog 9/18/2015 - Beta & Public Branch is LIVE, Game Update
Hello Everyone,
As the title says, our Beta & Public branches are now LIVE! So get in there, check it out, and enjoy the visuals!
Our first update last week had some really wonky issues, but those have been addressed ten fold. As we were able to stabilize the Server, Client, and Networking, what does this mean? It means that we have completed our objectives, and can now move back into creating functionality versus addressing stability.
Here is a rough outline of the functions we will be covering over the next 2-3 weeks:
-Action based Interaction with the Environment.
-Environmental upgrades. (Weather, Events, etc.)
-Resource Harvesting.
-Crafting.
-Building.
-AI.
-Combat
Mid October:
-Halloween.
-Multiple Language Support.
Late October:
TBA
These are the basic components of any game that are important to the overall experience of an interactive simulation. Along the way here, we are reconstructing the base of the game so that features much farther down the road will be easier to plug in. Overall we have reached our second milestone, and are well on our way to getting mechanics implemented. The next couple of weeks are going to be rather fascinating because up until now we haven't had a stable platform to work on, so it's a huge sigh of relief. Also, within the next couple of weeks things will be popping up left and right for you all to begin your civilizations.
I wanted to shout a HUGE thank you to our players for bearing with us, and although we had a rocky start, your patience and dedication is truly inspiring! At this point, I can honestly envision this game to be a Top 100 on Steam by the end of October, if not a Top 50. We've got a lot of stuff going on in the background that I can't quite talk about, but once we show it off I'm sure this is going to be a wild and unique experience for all of you.
Until next week,
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer for ABD
www.gagamaggotent.com
**NOTE**
We are a very small team, so the above list of items and the speed in which they are to be developed is heavily dependent on sales, revenue, and investment. Early Access is a chance for small indie developers like us to keep funding our product development.
**/END NOTE**
Note from Boris:
New patch pushed to all branches, we are aware of things that need fixing, I've listed them so far on McCoy's thread in the discussion hub. Link for this thread is: McCoy's Bug List
9/14/2015 - One Month Milestone, Game Update, Halloween.
Hello Everyone,
Edit: Timeline is delayed a day or two, but don't worry its coming.
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One Month Milestone:
------
We've survived our first month on Steam! Woohoo! Cheers everyone, and thanks for hanging in there! Since we've moved onto a better UI (User Interface) system I have taken down the ingame screenshots on the store page because the new visuals blow away those images. It's also a matter of consistency, so I'll be updating that sometime around Tuesday-Wednesday.
------
Game Update:
------
Jack has been plugging away at the game, and we've got some updates for you:
U.S. Timezones:
-Monday: Dev Alpha
-Tuesday: Beta Branch
-Tuesday/Wednesday: Live Branch
E.U. Timezones:
-Tuesday: Dev Alpha
-Wednesday: Beta Branch
-Thursday/Friday: Live Branch
Whats different?
-Bugs listed in the Bug Forum (#1-7) have been fixed.
-Environment features enabled.
-Environment overhaul.
-Server hasn't crashed in five days.
Long story short, this frees us up to get back to game functionality and mechanics, such as:
In roughly two weeks I can imagine we will have you guys and gals killing eachother and making your empires in no time. The server crashing, game instability, and problematic limitations are officially behind us!!!
I've updated the store page with last weeks work on my end, which should give you some insight into what about half of the features planned for what Halloween are going to be like. I wont be able to talk about the rest, Holiday's are my favorite times in MMO's so prepare yourself!
Our Submissions request on the forum didn't go so well, Tiby was the only one who participated. You still have a day to get in there and toss your ideas for a chance to get in the credits.
Once we have a steady platform with full functionality and options for actual gameplay, I was going to set up a merchandising platform so that when we do these contests and giveaways I can just put some swag in a box and ship it out same day. Also, it was brought to my attention that some of you are really digging Santa's Brother, so I've been setting up the art for that and the response has been really positive. Once I establish the actual merchandising pipeline, I'll post info about it. If you have ideas for what you would specifically like to see, don't be afraid to use our suggestion forum.
EDIT: Shillings, or "ABD Coins" are a part of DLC that is being configured. Once we get base mechanics and gameplay functionality back (2-3 weeks) we will incorporate Shillings before the contest is over. More info to follow in the coming weeks pertaining to Shillings, and no, it's not Pay-2-Win.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer for ABD: A Beautiful Day
www.gagamaggotent.com
Live Status - V2 Beta Branch
Hello Everyone,
V2 - We've moved the game to the Beta branch, and turned the live public build off. Here's how you can participate / play in Beta:
1.) Steam > Settings > Account: Opt for Beta's.
2.) Right-Click on ABD: A Beautiful Day.
3.) Properties.
4.) Beta Tab (2nd from the right)
5.) On the scroll bar, select "Beta".
6.) Click Ok.
7.) That should initiate a download process, and you'll be able to go right in.
8.) To revert to the default / public branch, repeat steps 2-6 and on step 5, move it from Beta to default.
We will be monitoring the data we recieve while Jack is taking a break, and address issues sometime Friday. If you run into major issues, head over to the Bug Forum and make a note about it.
*Note*
There are some really wonky issues going on with the camera, characters, and controls... This is like... Completely unplayable. LOL! At least with this build we'll be able to see if the server issues are solved, this stuff was made pretty darn fast so theres some definite issues. Nothing that can't be fixed rather quickly, though.
V1.5 - We're having problems with both the Steamworks settings, and Jack needs some time to recover from this long haul so we'll be back at it Friday/Saturday the 11th to the 12th. Right now hes pushing an update up, so it might work a little later, I just wanted to address that well ahead of anything else.
The really good news here, and the biggest thing to take away from this is that we had multiple users in the game and it didn't crash! So it works!!! We just have to get over the hurdle of the Steam SDK and we're golden.
I've also posted another Dev VideoBlog at the very bottom.
V1 -
What to expect: Our main priority right now is stabilizing the server and the client, so with the update quite a few features will be reduced, so fair warning while we do some extensive testing on client/server data. The server issues are a primary problem right now, once we hash those out we'll be in the clear. What does all that mean?
What you can do:
-100 Concurrent Players/Users Max.
-Walk Around.
-Explore.
-Chat.
What is disabled:
-Day/Night Cycle.
-Rivers(?)
-Lakes(?)
-Hunger/Thirst/Damage.
-Combat.
-Trading.
-Crafting.
-Building.
-Etc.
For the next few days we will be collecting data from players to see if there are any resonnating issues with the server/client, but from what we've seen this shouldn't cause any problems at all anymore. Think of this as a glimpse at the guts of the game versus a really gorgeous playfield. Over the next few weeks we will be rapidly adding features and mechanics that were previously available, so if you're not the (Tester) type this will feel a bit unfriendly. I imagine our environment system will get plugged in on the weekend with a few other items, it seems like we're really on a roll now. So whew, what a huge relief.
I want to thank everyone here for your patience, this has been BRUTAL! I couldn't be MORE impressed with the Steam community!
**NOTE** - We will not have active admins monitoring the server/chat/client, so if the following users log in (or anyone else for that matter) and start spewing racist/prejudice/harassing banter please let us know. The chat logs will show it all anyway, but I wanted to give you guys/gals a heads up of the crazy people we've encountered the last week or two:
-Doire
-Ron
-Lidytheman
-Razguul
-aTGames
Thank you again, and I look forward to seeing you all ingame! From this point on I'll be both ingame and in the chat group to answer questions, concerns, or anything else that might pop up; up to and including live tech support. Don't worry everyone, itll get a LOT prettier very soon, this is mostly a mass test.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
PS: For those of you who want a full run down and have about 20min to spare, I've done a video blog explaining everything that has happened over the last few weeks and more. You can find it:
