ABD: A Beautiful Day
Halloween 2015 (Edit V2)
Although we have been working diligently to get back online, our artists have continued to develop content as if nothing happened. We generally plan three(3) months in advance, and we have even longer term goals in mind. With that being said, I've posted an update on Twitter & Facebook about our upcoming Halloween event for the year.
To pass the time until Wednesday, here are relevant links if you wish to participate:
Official Halloween Suggestion Board
Edit V1: Here's a video I've made about the process of what has happened in the games development so far. I think it turned out okay, little lengthy but theres just so much to talk about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-LAFyxdmrU
Thank You!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
9/4/2015 - Dev Blog: Launch Info, Current Events & A Word From Boris.
EDIT: V3 9/5/2015 11:25 AM:
Hello everyone,
We aren't up yet, but over the next two-four week timeframe we will be adding the remaining functionality to the game, such as; resources, crafting, building, combat, etc.
****I will publish another announcement when we are live.****
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Launch Info
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V3: Looks like we missed our weekend goal, it came down to the wire but its just not gonna happen this weekend. I'm really sorry everyone, we're going to take Saturday as a rest day to take care of our bodies, and be back at it Sunday. Based off of what I am told, this is how next week is gonna' play out.
What to expect early next week (8th of Sept):
Alpha: Monday
Beta: Tuesday
Public Push: Tuesday-Wednesday
I've got this damn knot in my stomach, I'm really stressed out... This sucks, my last programmer did complete and total damage to my product. This is... There should be protections against people like this, it makes me wonder how the world even turns with bad people like that. No accountability, utterly enfuriating... My goodness, unbelievable sabotaging to my game. We're getting there but its just wildly upsetting...
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Current Events
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With all of that being said, here is a rough draft of the schedule we now have since we're back on track.
NOTE: These dates are subject to change, and may be finished earlier than expected. So if you see something thats scary far, don't worry, we might get lucky! Also, since we're back online and we will be expecting sales again, we will be looking to expand our Art Department so we can really pump the game full of as much content as you normally expect from a MMO. Although we're a team of elite unicorns, the volume of stuff ahead of us is pretty insanely big for just three people.
September 4th - October 2nd
-Resources
-Crafting
-Combat
-Building
-Economy
-Diplomacy
-Capital Cities
October 2nd - October 9th
-Tier 4: The Copper Age - 3,500-2,500 B.C.E.
-Heavy polishing: Clothing, Equipment, Items, Resources, etc.
-Gambling
-Bounties
-Alliances
-ABD Coins - DLC
October 9th - October 31st
-Stage II
-Environmental Overhaul
-Dynamic Lifecycles
-Family Trees
-Halloween Update (13th October - 31st October)
October 31st - November 31st
-Stage III
-Tier 5: The Second Stone Age - 2,500-2,300 B.C.E.
-Thanksgiving Update (November 15th - November 28th)
-The House of Boris: Alliance Kit - DLC
-Merchandising
November 31st - December 31st
-Christmas Update (December 1st - December 31st)
-Map Update / Overhaul
-More Music & SFX
-Full Soundtrack expected on: iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, and Pandora.
December 31st - January 31st
-Tier 6: The Bronze Age - 2,300-1,300 B.C.E.
-ABD: A Beautiful Day - Board Game
-ABD: A Beautiful Day - Card Game
-TBA
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A Word From Boris
----
I can't figure out how to give him permissions to make an announcement, so I'll relay this for him in this one. It's a long read, but if you're one of our dedicated players and you would like to understand our struggles then be sure to head on over and check it out.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/384920/discussions/0/527274088388678180/
----
Thank you!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
9/2/2015 - State of the Game
Hello Everybody,
So I've got some good news, and I've got some bad news.
Before I go into that, lets have a prologue:
PROLOGUE EDITED: 9/3/2015 - Nobody seems to care.
Now onto the Good/Bad news.
---
Good news:
-We should have something you can play by Saturday (9/5/2015) morning.
-You'll be able to walk around, explore, chat with each other, and enjoy the new environment effects as it was intended to begin with.
-If Jack can fix the entire game in such a short time, just imagine what's to come.
Bad news:
-It will take 2-4 weeks (roughly) to fix the mechanics of the game.
---
Being back online is going to be a huge relief. On one hand, it was really upsetting to get scammed by somebody working on a Steam game, not to mention a game thats free for Veterans as a "thank you for your sacrifice" so thats pretty hugely lame of Steve. On the other hand, Jack fixed the server architecture framework in a week where we were told from others it would take at least two months. So instead of two months plus 2-4 weeks+, we're gonna be live again really soon.
For Friday:
The game will be back up again around Friday in the early morning hours of Saturday U.S. time, or probably around 11AM in France/Germany/UK time zones for our European players. This has been a huge ordeal, lots of drama, lots of madness, but we're coming out of the smoke and approaching a big item. There's a ton of new art stuff, but this is already a hugely long read so I'm going to leave that for another time. Thank you everyone for your patience, and I'll see you in the game Saturday!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
8/30/2015 - Sunday Update
Still trucking away at the fixes. We are getting close, and by Tuesday-Wednesday (1st-2nd) range we will have a really good idea on what the timelines will be looking like here. I am very confident that not only will we have this back up soon, but that it will be remarkably stronger than before. I am quite excited about our future, even though this hiccup has been a disaster I am most certain that you all will very much enjoy what we're about to show you. In the end, I just have to thank the heavens that Jack came in and saved the day.
Again, we sincerely apologize for our launch disaster, and we will continue to keep you all up to date as often as possible. If anything, we will provide you with something to read or see every couple of days, but honestly it wont be that much longer.
Thanks again!
P.S. No matter how large we get, we will certainly continue to interact with the public as much and as often as possible. I always got a tingle when I was able to talk to someone influential, such as developers or GM's, and I'd like to make that experience more possible; especially killing us on the battlefield!!
Small update on server progress and cleanup.
Still on schedule, will have a lot of new information Monday-Tuesday range, probably along the lines of going back up around the end of next week to the following week, this is a lot of work. The new architecture is solid, the progress that has been made is remarkable, things are going very well. I'm just checking in because people seem to be getting pissed, and rightfully so, but I wanted to clarify. This is going to be a big improvement on what you guys have seen previously.
In all fairness, we did list that the first two weeks were going to be problematic times for us to stabilize out. So, for everyone who has gotten pissed that they bought it and its not working, its ALL over this page. From the community hub, news section, official announcements, the games description, and aside from making meme's out of my own screenshots I litterally can't do anymore to highlight this fact.
Will go live as soon as we can, we're very close!!
Timeframe roughly between 4th-11th, probably won't be that bad. Just understand that the last programmer left a huge mess for us, but the cleanup is going rather well.
Something something asteroid set back evolution. We're back to monkeys. But monkeys smarter this time. Will be back to human in no time.
8/27/2015 - Official Community DLC Suggestions Inquiry
As we continue to get the game back up and running, we've been spending quite a bit of time further polishing the art of ABD: A Beautiful Day. Right now is your time to spark up some heated discussions about how, what, and where you want to see the game go. Once we are back up and running, we will be developing features faster than we can create assets for them. What does that mean? We expand our team to handle it! A big part of the game will be players hanging out and interacting with eachother, what better way to perk that interaction level up by ramping up customization.
I've created and pinned a thread in the, "Suggestions" forum titled, "Official - "Clothing / Cosmetic / Structure / Object" - DLC Suggestions". Here, you have a chance to really push the art direction of the game. Definitely have as much fun as possible, and remember our promise to fold the game to your combined will! We're here for you, and we'll be watching closely!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtewSF1jqHRmdrP-uEDQ76Q/about?view_as=public
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-beautiful-day
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Dev Blog 8/24/2015 - The next two weeks.
Robert here, got a very special announcement! Not only are we back on track, but things are looking better than ever!
We had anticipated major problems with our programmer, so we brought in a super-jedi-guru after making backups of the code for weeks, and he's officially onboard to tackle ABD and get us back online. Actually, we've been anticipating this for quite some time, but have been quietly addressing it until we could make neccessary changes internally. Launch week was really sad for us, we were SO excited to get people in ABD after such a long time in development. Turning that frown over, here is the epic breakthrough's we've been making.
-The server architecture is AAA quality.
-The new development and asset pipeline is perfect.
-The game will have an Alpha/Beta build you can participate in.
-The scale of ABD will now ramp up to promised levels.
-The UI has been upgraded.
-The game components have all been activated.
-The humans have been revamped.
-The map is finished.
-The environment system is working.
-Bugs will be handled without players having to lift a finger!
On the flip side, its going to take the better portion of this week to get this all set up. Our last programmer created quite a mess in there, things were tied together and being pulled from his personal website, not to mention he spent most of his time writing code to be bounced from his server to ours thinking we never had posession of it. Was he trying to get paid while he made his own game? Was he trying to steal ABD? These are questions I can't answer, and if any of you reached out to him prior to this announcement, please do not contact him under any circumstance. Really scary stuff, you just never know with people. But again, we still have everything, and we are going to be showing some incredible progress very soon.
In light of the issues being pushed back (Remember: worst case scenario, probably wont be that long) to the 4th of September, I am extending the offer to everyone who purchased the game from Launch until the 4th a Legacy upgrade. So if you've bought the game from August 14th - September 4th, even if we finish early and get things running before then, you'll get a Legacy edition of ABD. To find more information on what a Legacy edition is, head a few announcements back where I detail it.
Thank you everyone, and I'm very excited to show you what the real ABD looks like. When I have info, I'll post another announcement. In the mean time, join the ABD Group Chat if you have questions, comments, or concerns.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtewSF1jqHRmdrP-uEDQ76Q/about?view_as=public
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-beautiful-day
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
8/22/15 - State of the Game - Official Announcement!
Prologue:
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This week has been crazy! Our launch has to of been one of the most rocky, upsetting, and wild rides in the recorded history of Steam Early Access. If there was an award for "most rocky launch" then we would win hands down. What's great about games is that we can include, and that we will include, various easter eggs along the way to memorialize such events. Rest assured, our launch players will LOVE our upcoming Easter-Eggs!
8/22/15 - State of the Game
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With such a low budget indie crew, we weren't exactly given the capability of delivering in the beginning. Although these server bugs and crashes are a blessing in disguise, it still hurt us. What's great though, is that we're not giving up and that big things are coming. We've got a perminant solution underway, but there is some good and bad news that comes with it. I'm going to list the good news first because it truly is good news.
Good News:
-The community has done their part ten fold.
-The community has found the issue which we are addressing rapidly.
-Vastly improved server architecture.
-Vastly improved game capability.
-We will deliver on our promise to stabilize the game within two weeks.
-ABD: A Beautiful Day is going to be taken to a much higher level.
Bad News:
-It will take a minimum of a full week to solve the issue.
With the bad news being said, I'd like to ask everyone that they should probably check in with us no earlier than then 28th of August or the 4th of September and we will be fully operational. We will still be around in the group chat to answer questions, but this is as far as I can actually tell you whats going on at the moment. We will be making another announcement on Monday detailing our plans, so check in on Monday if you're one of the die hard gamers. Upon this brief, week long stint the solution is both very top notch and comprehensive. This is an AAA fix to an Indie problem, and I can't quite possibly explain how excited I am about it.
Summary
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Again, I want to thank such an AWESOME community for hanging in there with us through thick and thin, with so many hours dedicated to helping and being a truely amazing playerbase. Launching on Steam has been the most incredible experience of my career, and we aren't going anywhere! See you guys on Monday when we post a thorough explanation of what we're doing, otherwise see you next Friday!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtewSF1jqHRmdrP-uEDQ76Q/about?view_as=public
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-beautiful-day
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
PS: Throughout this next week, at some point in time here, we will have an "Alpha/Beta Build" setup so that players who wish to help us with testing parameters. Once we have this option available we'll make another announcement. How will you get access to this? You have to go into your Steam > Settings > Account and Opt to participate in the Beta. This isn't available yet, but it will be soon.
Whats the Alpha/Beta Build? Similar to other games, there is the "public" and "test" server system. By testing features out in a test environment, we can easily make changes that will then be distributed to the live server once they are solid. Again, we will let you know when this is an available feature sometime next week.
Want to help ABD: A Beautiful Day become a trending topic?
We've done really well dispite our terrible server issues! Since we're about to go back online within several hours, we could use some help getting exposure! Use the following techniques to help people find ABD!
Upvote this!
EDITED 8/21/15 6:38PM +2 GMT
Reddit seems to be butthurt more than IndieDB when it comes to posting, I've never been silenced quicker when talking about a Veteran program or other incentives. IndieDB has "archived" every post I've made in the last two months about dev blogs under "spam". Not sure why we're even on there anymore...
Use the hashtags:
#ABeautifulDay
#GAMEntVetsPlayFree
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/384920/
Follow us on Twitter, and retweet us!
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Like us on Facebook, and share us!
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I'll be posting an announcement once we have stabilized the server!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtewSF1jqHRmdrP-uEDQ76Q/about?view_as=public
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-beautiful-day
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Steam Store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/384920/
Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=462500400
Dev Blog - 8/21/2015 - Server Explanation, & LIVE this weekend.
As everyone knows, our server has been down for the better part of the entire time since launch. For a MMO, that's devastating, it's not like you guys can jump on single player and check things out! ABD: A Beautiful Day is a entirely PVP ran, operated, and conducted environment; meaning, there are no NPC AI (Non-Player Character Artificial Intelligence) for you to interact with so we haven't gone the single player route. Below is an explanation as to the problem, and the solutions we are faced with.
The networking architecture we were using showed promising capability of running the game, in fact, it actually DID run the game. As you can see in the stats below, this is how the game was running for a month going 24/7 at peak simulation pressure:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4l1pkwx3f52xdg3/DevBlog8_21_15_1.png?dl=0
For OVER a month actually, we had the game running on Steam for our internal testing purposes at peak capacity, yet ten minutes after we go live it dies off on us. In the graph, you can see the volume spikes of players joining, this was our testing periods with the community.
We found that through a reason who could not have anticipated or foreseen, our networking method was a land mine for us. With this being said, we are switching over to a rock solid solution that is much more common and widely used. Infact, it might actually support the post-Alpha volume of players per server instance! 200 players versus 10,000, that's just wild. Anyway, Allen and Dmitry (Our two programmers) are working on getting this issue swapped over to the new architecture as fast as we can. What does that involve?
Switching over to a new architecture involves breaking the ENTIRE game down, modifying various components to fit the new framework, then plugging features one after another into the new game structures. At the state of the game as of launch, I was very confident that things were going to go very smoothly. As of now, it appears we will have to take the next week to fully implement the higher-level components of the game. Which is great, because most of you won't survive past T1-T2 for at least a couple weeks, the games very hard. What does this mean though?
I am told we will be up and running TODAY! It won't be until later today (US EST), as we want to pack in as many of the existing features as possible into the new networking framework so that we are live for the whole weekend with as much content as we can. On a #sadface note, it looks like we will be taking the entire projected timeframe to squash these launch bugs and problematic hiccups. So next week we will still be squashing bugs, and then we can get back into asset creation and feature refinement.
As usual, we are available in the games Group Chat if you have questions, concerns, comments, or ideas. I'll be in there playing with you guys this weekend as well!
In other news:
Reactions for the little amount of time we all get in ABD these days were very positive, all around everyone seems quite excited. I logged the first recorded kill in the game, and the guy I killed was actually THE REASON why we were able to find the server error - so a huge round of applause for @Andrew everybody! Andrew is now famous, we will be making a statue in his honor to be found at the upcoming capital of the Homosapiens!
The environment has been improved significantly, capitals are coming, and we have new art inbound.
Lastly, we have hired another programmer this week and anticipate a couple more coming onboard over the next couple of weeks to help speed this all up. Once Dmitry decides to stay on, I will make a formal announcement to welcome him to the team.
As usual, a huge thanks to everyone for their amazing patience, respect, and interest in the game. I'm sorry this was such a long read, but this week has been very awkward for all of us, and to those just coming into the game, it's important there is a record of it.
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer - ABD
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtewSF1jqHRmdrP-uEDQ76Q/about?view_as=public
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-beautiful-day
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gagamaggotentertainment
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gam_ent
Steam Store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/384920/
Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=462500400