So here we are, at the wrap-up time of Decksplash’s Free Week experiment. It has been quite a nail-biting ride for the team, watching numbers climbing, players having fun, maths, wagers and predictions around the studio done. In the end, we fell short of the 100,000 players we set ourselves as a goal.
It’s not all tears, though… The Free Week proved what we suspected at the start: Decksplash is a good game, evidenced by its 79-86 Steam score throughout the week. The players who experienced the game liked it, but in the end there just wasn’t enough of them to guarantee a healthy online community and keep the game’s matchmaking alive for the long run.
The lesson to take home is that, though not the best, this outcome is a good one for everyone involved: its players won’t spend money on a game that
won’t survive the long haul, the team can move on to a new Bossa project with a sense of closure having done their best with Decksplash, and we tried a new way of validating a multiplayer game. Should we have cancelled the game without this experiment, a ‘what if’ would always be there in the back of our minds.
All in all, we create hundreds of games every year during our monthly game jams, the vast majority of them failing to even being shown to the players. Decksplash just went further than the rest before teaching us a thing or two, enabling us to go forth with yet another piece of the creative puzzle we put together every day
So from all of us here in the Decksplash team, Thank you for your support and we’ll see you on our next big adventure!
Love Decksplash.
x
Halfway there!
We thought it would be good to take this time at the 50k mark to recap some of the amazing accomplishments that you’ve managed to do so far in this Free Week!
Check out the video below to see a couple of interesting stats!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqI2aH-AXc
We’ve also got an AMA happening at 5PM GMT over on the iAMA subreddit. Come by to ask us some question and get them answered by our team!
We look forward to seeing you there. Click me to visit the Subreddit
There have been extreme reactions to the news of the Free Week from players with comments ranging from the great, the good, the bad and the ugly. We’re glad that Decksplash has captured people's attentions regardless of what side of the fence you fall on and we’re finally here!
The Splash N’ Grab meter is the best way to keep up to date with our progress in this free week. Be sure to keep checking it out on our website and the Free Week Steam page to see where we are at.
Remember, we’re looking for that golden number of 100k over the course of the Free Week. To remind yourself why we’ve chosen 100k as our target, watch this video by The voice of Decksplash, Malford. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghKs8JeKJbs
If you wanna help out, we’ve listed a couple of helpful things you can do below!
Tell your friends – Get them playing!
Tell the World – Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, everywhere you can post!
Make Videos, Fan-Art and Livestream!
Scream from the top of the tallest building!
Start a petition and get your local government to discuss the game
Now stop reading this and get in game! Splash you on the other side!
You asked us why? Here's our answer.
Why? seems to be the question most of you’ve been asking in response to our upcoming ‘Splash n’ Grab’ weekend, so we’ve put together the following video with Malford to answer exactly that: WHY we’re doing what we’re doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghKs8JeKJbs
We at Bossa have seen way too many multiplayer games released without a large enough community to support them, ultimately resulting in a disappointing player experience: dead servers, a lack of dev support, and a dwindling community that eventually fades away to nothing. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to us, and so we’re attempting to do things differently.
Right now, Decksplash has an awesome community, and without them, the game wouldn’t be what it is today -- FACT -- But while dedicated, they’re a relatively small group and we simply don’t know if there’s sufficient demand for the game outside of them.
So we’re leaving it in your capable hands! If we cannot get 100K players to play the game - 100% FREE OF CHARGE! - then that tells us that we probably won’t have enough people at the end of this, who actually intend to pay for the game, and help keep the community thriving.
We could always release the game anyway, for a quick cash injection, but that’s just not the Bossa way, and never will be. It wouldn’t do the game justice. It wouldn’t do the studio justice. And most importantly, it wouldn’t do the community justice.
So, if you really want make this game a reality, then you know what to do! And that’s the entire point of this exercise - we simply gotta to know if you guys want this. We’ve got the Splash n’ Grab meter prepped and ready to gauge interest, and will be updating it in near-real-time. This is an incredibly exciting period for both us and the community behind Decksplash, and we can’t wait to see what happens!
The free week kicks off on the 2nd of November, so mark it in your diary and make Decksplash happen!
On board?
The biggest Decksplash news of ALL TIME!
We’re launching the Splash n’ Grab Free Week!
What's a Splash N' Grab? It’s simple:
Get In.
Splash Big
Get the Game Released
The Free Week starts the 2nd of November, lasting until the 10th and here’s the plot twist: if 100,000 people total play Decksplash during that time... then you know what we'll do? RELEASE THE GAME. (We’re serious)
Some say we’re mad to do it - Maybe we’ve fallen off our decks one too many times. Who knows?! But we’ve made the decision and it’s time to get this Splash N’ Grab on the go! If we hit that magic 100k, Early Access launch WILL happen on the last day (November 10th), however if we don’t have enough players, then it’s R.I.P Decksplash. You can keep track of the progress during this insane venture by watching the Splash N' Grab meter on the Decksplash Homepage as it updates in NEAR-REALTIME!
We’ll update the meter as we hit the milestones, so you can be as hyped about it as we are.
___________
Can I do anything to help?!
There is always a way for you to help and this is your chance to make ALL of Decksplash’s dreams come true!
Other than downloading and participating yourself, we need you to be making a real noise about the game, so here’s the short list of danktivities you can take part in:
Tell your friends - get them playing!
Tell the World - Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Everywhere you can post!
Make Videos, Fan-Art and Livestream!
Scream from the top of the tallest building
Start a petition and get your local government to discuss the game
The truth is ANYTHING you do is going to make Decksplash get closer to release, so don’t feel limited to the list above, get creative!
___________
We Like to Give!
During the Free Week, All players will be pleased to hear that all your loot, levels and coins will be carried across to the full version of the game as a reward.
Aim high and if you reach the top of the leaderboard, finding yourself looking down on those around you with a total to rival the devs, enjoy the smug feeling that comes with being King Of The Deck.
And for this one week only, you’ll be able to unlock and keep the Eirik board set, giving you a unique part of Decksplash history that no one else will be able to get.
You help get 100K people playing, you help get the game get released and we will bow down to you; forever remembered as a champion among mortals!
___________
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Head over to the Free Week page RIGHT NOW to add the game to your Wishlist!
This will notify you when the game is available to be played during the Splasn N’ Grab Free Week!
Since you're here, sign-up to the newsletter and check out our latest trailer, created with the community to bring… Something no other studio has shown before! (We’re pretty Proud)
In-fact, here’s the trailer for your viewing convenience!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eifRRayJg
Community Highlight and Freeskate!
Hey Splashers!
We’ve been hard at work this week and we’ve got all sorts of tasty goodness for you to check out!
We’ve decided to celebrate some of the amazing content that you’ve been producing on the official Discord channel, which you can find over on the newest blog!
This week’s also got a brand new mode for you to sink your teeth into!
With Free skate you'll be able to train on your favorite maps while you search for an online game, filling in those precious seconds with the training to make you rise to the top.
With that we hope you enjoy what we’ve got for you this week!
All hands on Deck!
Team Decksplash
xoxo
A New Page - How Refreshing!
Hey splashers!
We've been chipping away at our massive to-do list and have finally had the opportunity to update our steam page with some nice new pictures, some new flavor text and we even managed to get you a new trailer!
This week the heart of our blog has been written by the head of the art department here at Bossa, who talks about the directions that the art-style of the game went in before nailing the visual flair that we now associate with the game!
So no matter if you're an artist or an avid gamer, check it out to be enlighted!
That's all from us this week, keep your eyes peeled for more updates and we'll see you next friday!
All hands on deck!
Love The Decksplash Team
xoxo
The Splashzone
Hey Splashers!
We've had a crazy week of work and we've got a couple of goodies to show off, although don't just take my word for it. Check out this sneak peak!
That's got you!
If you want to read more about lootboxes, head over to our blog to read more on that and our weekly gaming sessions!
We've also been hard at work getting our email system sorted
We're proud to announce that we've got UNLIMITED POWER and weekly emails starting today. If you're on our emailing list, you should have already received one welcoming you to the Splashzone.
I hope you're ready for us to keep ramping it up, because this train isn't slowing down anytime soon!
Don't forget, you've got the weekly gaming sessions today at 10:00 PST / 13:00 EST / 18:00 BST.
All hands on deck!
Love The Decksplash Team
xoxo
Blogs, Features and More News!
Hey Splashers!
How are we all doing?
We're doing fantastic and are hyped to bring you some juicy news!
It's been awhile since we've posted on here, so we've got a lot to catch up on. Let's start from the top.
BLOGS!
That's right, We're now doing weekly blogs on the Decksplash website over on the Blog Page!
We've had four insightful posts so far and there's plenty more to come as we aim to make weekly blogs our goal for the foreseeable future.
Any time you're looking to get up to scratch with the latest in Decksplash news make sure to check there first as you'll likely find it there!
Although if you feel like a weekly blog ISN'T fast enough, We've now got an official Discord!
If you want to hang out with Devs or take part in our WEEKLY gaming sessions on Decksplash, you can head over there to hang out with like minded people and get involved with the development of the game itself!
We've also got a few new things for you to try out in this upcoming gaming session!
New Board Designs - We've got a bunch of new Grip Tape board designs for you to play with in this session!
Map Revamp! - The map previously known as Octagonal has been smoothed out and is thusly named "Notagonal"
Announcer Text - The announcer now has visual callouts as well to accompany the usual audio ones.
Redrum Redrum - The Rails on Observatory have now been made red to make them easier to spot.
GET TO THA LZ - The Landing Zone has updated assets showing what state it’s in, so you always know when to hit it up for extra combo multipliers.
Menu Secret - Looking at the main menu in this playtest will give you some insight on what to expect soon!
Hopefully that has gotten you hungry for more!
Remember, the Discord is the place to be if you're wanting to jump in on these weekly gaming sessions.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Bossa Out!
Decksplash Alpha 2.01 Patch Notes
Please make sure you update your game on Steam. After you update, if you check Properties > Local Files at the bottom you should see the Current Content BuildID: 1818374
Small update to fix and improve a few things!
Renamed main menu items for clarity.
Fixed an issue that was prematurely loading players into a Challenge level instead of the next Training level.
