Hello There!
It's time again for the 3 month development update post. One thing I want to note about these updates is that they are a minimum post cycle. Meaning, we will always post these more technical updates every 3 months, but if we have something interesting or exciting to share in the intervening time, we will do so.
Network Code Phase 3
The Phase 3 effort of the network code infrastructure was completed and released in 2024.27.1-Alpha. Phase 3 brought with it new capabilities, smaller data sets, and various performance improvements. While this update was a backwards in-compatible change, this should be the final network infrastructure change of that nature. Future performance improvements or data compression will be able to be done in a more efficient and staggered fashion.
Flash Conversion Tool
As we mentioned last post, we were finishing and testing the new Flash Conversion tool we had developed. The release of the updated Daily Spin in 2024.24.1-Alpha was the culmination of this work and the initial tool debugging process. We are now widely expanding the use of this tool internally.
UI Uplift Initiative
One of the things we are using the Flash Tool for is the UI Uplift Initiative (UIUI). UIUI is an effort to ensure that the game's UI is accurate to the original as well as designed with all of the features either implemented or easily implemented. We have already done the Loading Screens and are working on some of the critical portions of the system now such as the player's hot bar. We will share more in a follow up post in the next month or two.
Minigame Updates
The other thing we are working on with the Flash Tool are updates to some existing minigames. These updates are being done by some of our new Architects as a way to get them accustomed to using the tool and a way to clean up some of the parts of the game that could use an uplift but aren't too intertwined with the rest of the system. More on this in a future update.
Additional Architects
Last update post we mentioned that we were going to start bringing on new Architects. So far we have brought on 4, and plan to bring on more in the future. For now, and this is important, we are not reviewing any new applications. We are still ACCEPTING new applications (so please apply!), but at this time, we will not be reviewing them. There are some improvements we need to do to our onboarding and task assignment process to make it smoother and to allow for new Architects to get up to speed faster. This is something we discovered we are severely deficient in, but we are working to improve here.
Final Thoughts
For this period of time between this update and the next, we will be focusing on the onboarding improvements, UIUI, and some of the other systems designs that we need to get done. We hope to have more teaser-like posts to share in the gap between these updates.
July 12, 2024 by Wald Deliglide