Steamcore
Steamcore Sunset, and the Future of November Games
An update today regarding the future of November Games.
In 2022 we set out to create a brand new platform, and a multiplayer game that perfectly demonstrated what we see as the future of gaming and streaming, and I am immensely proud of what this small team made in a matter of months. By all accounts, we should not have succeeded. But against all odds, we nailed it.
Some of you may know that we had a shared go-to-market plan for Steamcore with Twitch, that included launch support and promotion. The agreement would bring masses of players, streamers, and developers into the fold.
This support never came through.
Regardless, for the past year we've been tuning Echelon to meet the needs of the industry, and taken private meetings regarding bringing Echelon to new platforms. Those discussions are very positive and ongoing, and we're hopeful that you will be soon able to enjoy mainstream Echelon-enabled games.
As part of our strategic plan, we will be delisting Steamcore from the Steam store and indefinitely shutting down its servers. This decision allows us to reallocate resources into the continued development of Echelon and new game prototypes that do not require the extensive multiplayer infrastructure and marketing efforts of an MMOFPS like Steamcore.
While Steamcore's chapter is closing, November Games is just getting started. We're deeply grateful for your support and enthusiasm, and we’re excited about the future innovations we’re working on. Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for being part of our journey.
Thanks for being here with us.
Strategic Shift at November Games
We're announcing that Steamcore servers will be temporarily offline. As an Early Access game designed to showcase the incredible capabilities of Echelon, Steamcore exceeded our expectations, achieving its purpose splendidly without any monetization or marketing.
Exciting times are ahead for November Games! We're undergoing a strategic restructuring, fueled by key alliances and partnerships that have been in the works secretly over the past year. This evolution marks a significant leap forward for us.
Thank you for your support and understanding. Stay tuned for more updates!
Best,
The November Games Team
Made in NZ!!!
We've been hard at work behind the scenes optimizing Echelon to deliver you rewards, and to bring the power of Play To Partner to other indie games.
Today is the first day of the Made in NZ Steam sale and we're proud to be a part of it.
The mission of November Games is to bring Echelon to games around the world, starting here in NZ. Hope you enjoy Steamcore during this sale, and have some great encounters with other players. Please tag us in your social media posts, and we'll be watching Twitch to see streams of our game!
Lots of love from NZ,
Kenny
Echelon / Optimization Update!
We're very excited about this update and can't wait for you to try it.
OPTIMIZATION!
One of the highest rated reviews of our game is a malicious review that accuses us of using our game for crypto mining. It's devastating and demoralizing to the hardworking men and women who have poured their heart and soul into this game.
But, we can't get discouraged. We have to take every piece of feedback, no matter the intention, and strive to improve the game and the community. So this update has a ton of optimization, and we feel that everyone will have a much better experience with this patch.
Thanks for giving our game a play!
Major Refactor to Random Matchmaking
Big update!
So what we've learned from two weeks of Early Access is just how important it is to give new players a chance to warm up to the experience. We've been observing that new players being thrown into the mix against experienced and geared players can be super tilting. On top of that, the likelihood of encountering the same players after a battle after you've lost, even as an experience player, has made even our highest playtime community members rage quit . Something had to change.
There's a lot that goes into making a game like Steamcore, and one of the most difficult parts to get right is onboarding new players, and making sure there is a good balance of action and learning. We don't think the mixture has been quite right so far. Previous to this update, we prioritized bringing players together; the idea was, better to have continuous encounters rather than feel like you are alone in the game. This is a pre-release mentality and doesn't serve when there's even a handful of players in the ecosystem. What quickly happens is players will emerge from an encounter victorious and then have a massive advantage over that opponent when you inevitably meet them again.
We've changed this matchmaking behavior to greatly weight player's XP level when travelling. Simply put, until you are on even footing XP and skill tree-wise with another player, you won't be encountering them until you perhaps return home to your home planet. In general though, most of the action in the game will take place on third-party planets and where there will be now a distinctly different feeling to the battles. Namely, you should never feel horribly outgunned on the drop.
Please let us know how you like the changes in the discord channel!
Happy Patch day!
- Joining and leaving armies has been refactored to be much more stable.
- Army UI's for dying, rejoining players has been fixed
- Army UI's for late joining players has been fixed
- Fixed a bug pertaining to logging on and having a broken leaderboard
- Fixed a bug getting empty name in the killfeed
- Removed unnecessary keybinds
- Removed 100 hype from PhenomHype's channel. He's now just Phenom.
We have one of the most attentive developer discords on earth - come in and help us improve the game!!!
Bug fixes and army stability
More updates coming all the time - tell your mammy and your pappy!