Lately I started to provide more insight to the playerbase on what we actually are doing when working on the game. We thought to turn this into a more consistent procedure. From now on, I will try to produce such a report every 2 weeks. In this way, you will all be more informed in what to expect. The expected dates for producing such a report, will be 1st and 15th of every month. I will try to be consistent with this.
Here is the outline of what I will present to you today:
-Main Game Development: Plantations
-Goroum - Market Prices
-Critical Downtime we experienced
-Few days development break
-Current development reality
-Playerbase growth
-How you can help
-Next Bi-Weekly Report
Main Game Development
We are currently working on Plantations. The main problem we had to solve was the interface we will use. We are at a period where we are revising our approach to the game and interface means more than it meant in the past. Since we do have in mind to improve the interface gradually, a new major feature should set the pace to it. We have at large decided this and this was a very hard task.
The next major issue we had, was whether or not we will incorporate positioning at the feature. When you are creating a strategic feature, positioning element can play the greatest part. We ended up that since Plantations management is a PvE (player vs Environment feature) we should not include positions in it as it will end up repetitive and a contest on who experiments most (in short time) or who has access to best guides (in long term). This is not really how we want the game to evolve. Since Plantations supply chain and Plantation delivery stage are PvP features, it is fair to keep the PvE aspect of them less intensive.
These two important decisions, give us now the final details we wanted to proceed with the rest of code development. We expect to finish it this week. This does not mean that the feature will be released next week. However, you should expect it sooner or later. There will be no notices on the actual release day.
Goroum - Market prices
Goroum is running out of food fast. The prices update failed on the regular update, we had to manually re-issue it today. Hopefully it will run normally automatically. If not, we will again run it manually. Sooner or later the automatic update will work. It's not a big deal.
The big deal is that Goroum is running out of food. Some might still buy at 8 gc (when Chalkos sells it as low as 3 gc) so unless Plantations come fast, this means that Goroum may run out of food. We will not artificially update the warehouse. We have never done this and we cannot do this. This is a world, a simulated world. We cannot interfere in such basic issues. Goroum may well run out of food.
What was up to us, we did it; we changed the price model. I do not know if this will prove enough for Goroum but it will surely prove a bless for trading in the long run. If you look at the whole picture, you will see a new reality emerging. It seems much more balanced than before. Surely, this feature will provide the basis for all the new features that are coming to PG in the near future.
Critical Downtime we experienced
Earlier this month, we experienced a server error that led to a few hours of downtime. We even had some login issues for some players after the event. These were all dealt on time. We were online when this happened after all. I can only remember only one similar event throughout all these years; it was August, summer time and we were not online. We restored the game within an hour. At that case, we brought no responsibility. At this case, we had some part in it.
The important part is that it is past now. Such cases may come at anytime, although rarely.
Few days development break
There was Easter time for us and we took 4 days off. During this time, we only checked the game for major events and we responded queries. Easter time in Greece is the orthodox one and takes place after the Catholic one. This also means that I am a bit outdated on the forums, not only because of the break but also due to my own focus to different game tasks.
Current development reality
There are 2 major issues that affect our development right now.
The first one is something we have neglected in the past. This is game marketing. A few months ago I told you that one of our sources of new players does not exist anymore. I was referring to Google Chrome store where had (still have) a top rating there with hundreds of reviews (check them here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... iews?hl=en ), most of them positive (a few butt hurt ones cannot be avoided). This happened because Chrome store is now only available to chrome OS users, which are not that many.
We had to replace this source. Although Chrome Store was not our only source, it was an important one as this source was free. We have done some advertising campaigns and tried to promote the game elsewhere but there has been nothing considerable. This is a pressing issue and we will need to do more work at this front. We estimate that we need around 50 new users daily to ensure long term growth. Right now, free users are around 10, daily. This needs to be rectified and it will consume a lot more of our development time in the future. We can get thousands of users with paid advertising but the problem is that most of them go in vain. The game is so advanced right now and in the same time so complicated for newbies that you cannot hope to keep anyone here in the long term that does not receive proper instruction from an existing player. This is why mass advertising is not an option. We will make up to the 50 new users per day however, with paid advertising but the costs even for such small numbers are a big burden for the financial state of our game.
The second one is the necessity of a new major feature. We can discern fatigue of some players that can turn into repetitive gamelay and can potentially drive off the game regular players. A new major feature is needed to keep interest high. Again, I have warned about this in a prior post, in a more general outline. The imminent effects of this necessity is that development right now is less community-driven in order to save time. Most of the topics I started about new features are final and will become a game element in a faster manner than it did before.
These 2 issues will head towards a common solution point with Plantations implementation. Plantations will take the game to version 2. This will be advertised and hopefully we will be able to drive back some of the past PG players. If the feature is good enough to renew their interest, we can even double the current amount of daily players.
Playerbase growth
Despite the 2 handicaps I described above, the daily active playerbase currently is maintained at an acceptable rate and around 20% less than it peak. This is not a big number though and is a healthy number is you take in mind that we are above our average by 20%. This mostly means that we have a new average, which is 20% better than the last one. It is the peak that we want to conquer.
This is our minimum objective that we will try to achieve with Plantations and version 2. A further 20% increase in average playerbase. The first days of the new feature will also point out which our realistic chances are. A lot will depend in how successful our email campaign goes. There are problems with mail delivery (some do not get delivered, others end up in spam folders) and these rarely produce expected results. However, since a lot of the recipients that are of interest to us are past users with lots of experience in the game, we believe that a difference will be made.
How you can help
At every case, we will need to also attract completely new players. The best source for them is the current playerbase. We are big enough to support this.
There are many games out there. Some are good games. Not all games out there are crap. The majority is crap though. You can drive your friends here that play these crap games for their salvation first and foremost and later to your own experience improvement. To your defense of PG, when discussing it with a friend, here are all the counterarguments to common assaults:
-No graphics.
Books have no graphics. Still, many who have read a book when they watch it in a movie, they still prefer the book. You only have to make the start and read your first book. In our case, try this game.
-Not millions of users.
No game with millions of users can provide the community this game provides. Why do you want to play against millions of people when you will get to interact with less than you will interact with here?
-I like to win against millions.
There are 2 truths when you try to win against millions:
1)Among the millions, you will find a lot of uncontrolled players that want to win with any means possible; scripting/milking/no life. This makes the game less enjoyable from day one and as time passes, it results in frustrating gameplay. Accounts or real players that turn the game into work. It pauses to be a game. These players or their feeders occupy the first spots.
2)The game is tainted. It advertises millions but most probably it has a few thousands and even more probably they have divided the thousands to servers that have less players than PG has. Servers of 50 or 100 is a common number. You may find a few servers of 500 or a bit more, depending of the game nature. Still, PG can compete to all these and come out on top in matters of massively multiplayer gaming.
Here are some highlights, that you can call for:
-No pay 2 win
This is very important. You can pay to climb up faster but it is about skill. I have 3 top examples of players (I cannot name them - you all know them) that have not spend a penny here and are all top players (they are actually bad examples, I will never mention their names but they exist
)-Excellent Community
You can make friends here. More friends that you will make in Facebook or any other game. The social part of the game can be great. Beyond the social part, you can take part in the community. This community will only get better in the future, I can see it. It is obvious. We are still an evolving community.
-In depth gameplay allows you to compete no matter your time at hand
This is one great strength PG has, that is often discarded or not taken in mind at all. In PG, you have the ability to define your playstyle according to the time you have to play this game and still be competitive. This is a HUGE feat. Credits can help you accomplish any style, that's a plus for someone that lacks the time but has the desire.
-Excellent administration
I take this from what players tell but it also meets my own experience as a player. I always despised lack of communication. This was one of the things we wanted to care about with PG.
Well, the list is inexhaustible. You surely get the point that PG not only is one of the best games but can also claim this against anyone that receives this fact with disbelief
Next Bi-Weekly Report
For the next Bi-Weekly report, I want to establish some stable topics that will be featured every time:
1)Main Development
Here, we will list which is the main scope of our work.
2)Recent Developments
At this topic, we will list recent developments or we will specifically address a recent one that requires attention.
3)Playerbase Growth
Here we will provide some insight about how the playerbase growth fares.
4)How you can help
Here we will identify possible areas where the playerbase can help.
Next Bi-Weekly update is scheduled for May 2
