Game Development: Every Little... + Development Thoughts
Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:32 amWe've been developing, and here're some new things:
"Send home" can no longer be used in combat
Small animals can now be dropped in water
Player corpses can now be carried and destroyed.
Symbolic, but better than nothing.
---------------------------------------------------------
As has been previously revealed here, Paradox has generously decided to give us free hands in the future development of Salem, and in light of that it seems prudent to say a few words about the present and future states of it. Thus.
I would be lying if I said that there wasn't at least a slight sense of disappointment on our part with Salem's relative non-performance of late in terms of user numbers and whatnot (and obviously that feeling comes with a fair amount of self-criticism) but rather than brood on that and beat ourselves up over it, we'd much prefer to focus now on the things about our new-found position that we do find to be positive, the bottom line of which is that all outside pressure on us to deliver anything in particular is now off, which -- considering how we follow the user graphs much like anyone else -- feels like a relief. We strongly feel that this freer vantage point leaves us in a vastly better position than previously to judge where development on the game is actually needed, and where the game in its present state fails to entertain. It also allows us to actually go back and revisit older implementations with fresh eyes, something that we under the previous regimes have found difficult to do, as reasoning freely about older implementations may lead to conclusions that may in turn come to imply development time spent on rewrites of already existing content and relatively long stretches of time without visible and immediate improvement of the game.
There are a number of systems in the present state of Salem that we have begun to entertain quite serious doubts about, perhaps chiefly so the gluttony system, but also to some extent the farming system and the foraging and consumption paradigms in general. For lack of a better word the game lacks a bit of a pulse in the minute-to-minute gameplay experience(which I guess could be considered the definition of being dead) and that is not as it should be.
Our present conclusion is that we need to rethink the gluttony system before we do anything else, as essentially the entirety of the rest of the game hinges on it. (The basic problem we see with the system is, by the by, not that it is too complex or deep, but rather the opposite. The system rewards you heavily for spamming a single optimal food type, and that makes all other food types useless, boring and uninteresting, basically.) Thus that is, quite simply, precisely what we intend to do.
It is too early for us to speculate in other and more weighty administrative questions (map resets and whatnot), but I will say that we at this point want to keep all options on the table. Our only focus at this point is what we believe to be the best interest of the game's long term health and survival, and that is precisely the goal toward which we will continue to work.
As we always have.
Meaningful updates may be infrequent for a while, but we have an ambition to at least mark some sense of our presence with little micro updates and fixes.
(As for the forums, all "admins" will be removed, and I'll be looking over the present mod list and forum rules. If the mods make you cry in the future, you may now appeal to me, but please don't.)
I think that was all...
Enjoy! Long live Salem!
"Send home" can no longer be used in combat
Small animals can now be dropped in water
Player corpses can now be carried and destroyed.
Symbolic, but better than nothing.
---------------------------------------------------------
As has been previously revealed here, Paradox has generously decided to give us free hands in the future development of Salem, and in light of that it seems prudent to say a few words about the present and future states of it. Thus.
I would be lying if I said that there wasn't at least a slight sense of disappointment on our part with Salem's relative non-performance of late in terms of user numbers and whatnot (and obviously that feeling comes with a fair amount of self-criticism) but rather than brood on that and beat ourselves up over it, we'd much prefer to focus now on the things about our new-found position that we do find to be positive, the bottom line of which is that all outside pressure on us to deliver anything in particular is now off, which -- considering how we follow the user graphs much like anyone else -- feels like a relief. We strongly feel that this freer vantage point leaves us in a vastly better position than previously to judge where development on the game is actually needed, and where the game in its present state fails to entertain. It also allows us to actually go back and revisit older implementations with fresh eyes, something that we under the previous regimes have found difficult to do, as reasoning freely about older implementations may lead to conclusions that may in turn come to imply development time spent on rewrites of already existing content and relatively long stretches of time without visible and immediate improvement of the game.
There are a number of systems in the present state of Salem that we have begun to entertain quite serious doubts about, perhaps chiefly so the gluttony system, but also to some extent the farming system and the foraging and consumption paradigms in general. For lack of a better word the game lacks a bit of a pulse in the minute-to-minute gameplay experience(which I guess could be considered the definition of being dead) and that is not as it should be.
Our present conclusion is that we need to rethink the gluttony system before we do anything else, as essentially the entirety of the rest of the game hinges on it. (The basic problem we see with the system is, by the by, not that it is too complex or deep, but rather the opposite. The system rewards you heavily for spamming a single optimal food type, and that makes all other food types useless, boring and uninteresting, basically.) Thus that is, quite simply, precisely what we intend to do.
It is too early for us to speculate in other and more weighty administrative questions (map resets and whatnot), but I will say that we at this point want to keep all options on the table. Our only focus at this point is what we believe to be the best interest of the game's long term health and survival, and that is precisely the goal toward which we will continue to work.
As we always have.
Meaningful updates may be infrequent for a while, but we have an ambition to at least mark some sense of our presence with little micro updates and fixes.
(As for the forums, all "admins" will be removed, and I'll be looking over the present mod list and forum rules. If the mods make you cry in the future, you may now appeal to me, but please don't.)
I think that was all...
Enjoy! Long live Salem!
