The Early Pre-Alpha

General
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Hello Untold Dawn followers!

We’ve had a productive discussion among our staff and we’re excited to share our proposal with you.

Our focus is and has been on getting a core game loop. Catching up to some of the big games in the genre, many of them have decades of headstart over us. It would be impossible in a short term period to attempt to code all that they have to offer, especially without testing. However, by focusing on the core of what makes the experience fun, we can try to build from there and expand on it, bringing novel ideas to the table.

We believe the core game loop is: Explore, Gather, Fight, Profit, Socialize.

Explore: Go on expeditions outside of the home hub, figure out the world outside.
Gather: Mine for materials and resources. This is done.
Fight: The rarer materials will be in areas with hostile mobs.
Profit: Using the CrushOS, sell this for profit.
Socialize: Rent spaces, create groups, associate for expeditions, etc.

Our vision is for the game both on an OOC and IC manner is to evolve significantly over the coming years, potentially resembling a bustling colony city with diverse roles and occupations.

Following our latest discussion, we’re thinking of focusing on a few remaining core features and set aside others to open Untold Dawn for a limited roleplay period of up to one month for feedback.

We believe that if we make basic combat and hostile NPCs, and potentially our oxygen deprivation idea to limit time outside, we could create an experience where players must venture out to profit, rent spaces with said profit, and engage in roleplay. While this may not be a fully-fledged roleplay experience, it could be enjoyable and provide valuable feedback. Your characters will persist for future gameplay, becoming part of the initial storyline of those who first awoke from cryogenic sleep. Consider it as an initial chargen with the possibility of setting up a storyline for the next time we open up.

Please note, we might ship with several features common in other RPIs that are not yet available in our game to be able to get that vision done. This trial period will help us identify what needs polishing and what should be prioritized for improvement.

With this plan, we could get this done before the end of 2024, opening this limited pre-alpha. Access to the game would likely be based on application and for a limited amount of players; this would not be the formal launch we have in store for the future.

If you played LabMUD, the experience might be similar to what they had over there.

We would love to hear from you, either here or in our Discord, about this idea, any concerns you might have or suggestions!

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I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, it’s something some mainstream games do that seems to work well for them. On the other, it’s kind of a tease. Yet, we all know that without testing, there will be bugs. So it seems to me that it is either dealt with on this kind of basis, or all at once upon launch.

My sticking point is this. Say there’s a shooty killy game that hits beta for a week or two. You play it and it’s fun. Yeah, it kinda sucks when the beta is over, but there are a billion other shooty killy things to take its place until the new shiny comes out. You’ll still be wanting the new shiny, but you can still hop on and get your shooty killy fix. There really isn’t a MUD out here that does what UD is doing though. So when it gets taken away, there is nothing to take its place. Not the end of the world, but something to think about perhaps.

That new game will be out sometime within the near future though. Whereas, at the beginning of 2024, the story was that we’d have a playable game within a few weeks to a month. Now, as deep as things have gotten, it might be another 2 years. So if I’m allowed into a pre-alpha sometime in 2024, then it ends and the game doesn’t launch until sometime in late 2026, my interest may have waned by then.

You know a game lands well when it releases when its hype train is still in full force. If you try to build the hype too early, it’ll fizzle out by the time you’re ready to launch. Developers don’t want a rough launch, but even if that’s the way it goes, so long as the issues are being fixed and they’re treating their community/customers right, they’ll stick around.

With all that said, I’m not criticizing the initially optimistic few weeks to a month thing. Game development is a weird field, and no one enters it without making a few mistakes. I personally think the hype train got started way too early with the Discord chatter and the Reddit posts, but as the saying goes, “If you build it, they will come”. Maybe not in droves as likely would have been if the release were on track, but word of mouth is compelling. Quality will always win over quantity, so if the result is an enjoyable game, people will find their way here.

I do have a counter-proposal though. And it’s one that Cogg is still doing I believe. Have your pre-alpha, take a month or two to fix things that are too unwieldy to work on while players still roam, make improvements, and re-open under a long-term beta.

Several things lead me to this way of thinking. First, show me an active MUD that is, “finished”. As in, there haven’t been any code changes in at least a year, no new areas built, no existing areas overhauled, etc. Maybe there are a few, but I haven’t come across them. Secondly, as complex as this game’s systems are going to be, you really don’t want to be opening up multiple player testing sessions, but testing still needs to be done. Under a beta, the expectation is that there are likely to be bugs, and if you play under these conditions, you understand that you might get hit with something nasty. Playing means more testing though, so it’s possible to get those core mechanics working well, then move onto feature expansions.

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Thank you so much for your thoughts! They are quite appreciated as is the support you have given us all this time.

I think more than anything, we wanted to have a presence and be recalled as an rpi under development. Naturally, when we were in Evennia, we thought we were close to our goal. It definitely shouldnt have been talked of as if we were releasing soon.

I do not think we will stay closed for too long. The codebase we have is sturdy and this initial round of testing would tell us what we need to fix next.

Personally, I prefer to keep the game open, even if the features might only allow it to be a MUSH with ambitions to become a MUD, but I think this first initial batch of testing will also teach us what we need moderation wise.

So I do think the plan is what you outlined, unless the experience is so jarring that it requires overwhelming revamps. But i think whats most likely is well get spammed with feedback and take a short time to address it before opening it for play.

That said, the first approach will likely be more akin to what LabMUD was.