Closed beta up and running!

[:en]

 

Summary last week

Since 21st of June closed beta is now running! I faced a lot of expected and unexpected problems the last week 😀 My biggest learning was that apple takes several days to apply a beta build if its the first reviewed build :/ Because of this the iOS-Version was a bit later than expected, but in the end everything gone well and apple approved the build.

One major problem the last week was the stability of the server, there were some actions which caused the server to death. I was able to manage those bugs and we now got a much more stable server, but its still not bullet proof.
At this point i want to thank all the testers for reports and i hope you enjoy the game so far! Otherwise don’t hesitate to inform me 🙂

Actual untested areas or blocking content

At the moment there are several walls in game:

•  After completing the tutorial, there is also a prolog. You have to click on the right arrow to get to the prolog. I think its not present enough so many player haven’t seen it and just thought oh thats all and quit the game here :/
•  Since you are not able earn acorn points yet many players haven’t checked out challenge mode. You can pay the “Eur” price since we are in beta iOS will not charge anything. On Android i had to add all emails, so all emails i added will not be charged. If you click on the buy popup it should say “its a test buy and will not be charged” if not so please inform me! I also try to give everyone enough acorn points to test things!
•  Multiplayer this is the biggest untested area right now. We are not that many players in the beta right now, so i think its very difficult to get players for multiplayer or maybe nobody is interested right now in multiplayer?.

Upcoming changes

With all the gathered feedback i want to implement some new features in the next weeks:

• Portraits (The reward exists but you cannot actual change your portrait) – This feature was still on my list and i was unable to finish it before beta start.
• Profile Window (Same as portraits it is planned but i set the priority relative low)
• Arena (Was also a feature i wanted to implement before beta start, but time wasn’t enough)
• Campaigns for Sylvans and Vermin – Since everybody played through the tutorial and cleared out the prolog i think the campaigns are needed for more content
• Crafting – There will be a feature to salvage units if you have more than 3 of a kind. For the salvage you will get acorn points, which can be spend into new units. To get the whole system work, the units will get new categories and different prices. Of course you can also spend the points in arena, campaigns or challenge mode.
• Collectable Items – To get the combats / maps a bit more exciting i plan to give any unit a chance to drop an item on death. This items can be a healing sphere, criting /damage sphere or acorn points. To collect those items you will have to move on the field where they dropped. Healing sphere will heal your unit, criting / damage sphere will increase your units damage or crit chance.
• Rewarding – The last point on my list is the rewarding in the game. This means it should be more fun to play the game and to achieve this its always cool to receive cool rewards. They have to be more present and should generate a “want to have” feeling 🙂

Future prospects

I will try to implement the features written above in the next weeks and get every bug fixed which pops up in the server / android or iOS console. What’s then? Simple! We will extend the beta to open Beta and get more players to play with us, finding more bugs and getting more feedback. After that we have another look at the game state and can consider to release the game to actually earn some money :D. If the release is in preparation i also try to extend the game to steam and amazon underground as next step.

Feel free to comment![:de]

Summary last week

Since 21st of June closed beta is now running! I faced a lot of expected and unexpected problems the last week 😀 My biggest learning was that apple takes several days to apply a beta build if its the first reviewed build :/ Because of this the iOS-Version was a bit later than expected, but in the end everything gone well and apple approved the build.

One major problem the last week was the stability of the server, there were some actions which caused the server to death. I was able to manage those bugs and we now got a much more stable server, but its still not bullet proof.
At this point i want to thank all the testers for reports and i hope you enjoy the game so far! Otherwise don’t hesitate to inform me 🙂

Actual untested areas or blocking content

At the moment there are several walls in game:

•  After completing the tutorial, there is also a prolog. You have to click on the right arrow to get to the prolog. I think its not present enough so many player haven’t seen it and just thought oh thats all and quit the game here :/
•  Since you are not able earn acorn points yet many players haven’t checked out challenge mode. You can pay the “Eur” price since we are in beta iOS will not charge anything. On Android i had to add all emails, so all emails i added will not be charged. If you click on the buy popup it should say “its a test buy and will not be charged” if not so please inform me! I also try to give everyone enough acorn points to test things!
•  Multiplayer this is the biggest untested area right now. We are not that many players in the beta right now, so i think its very difficult to get players for multiplayer or maybe nobody is interested right now in multiplayer?.

Upcoming changes

With all the gathered feedback i want to implement some new features in the next weeks:

• Portraits (The reward exists but you cannot actual change your portrait) – This feature was still on my list and i was unable to finish it before beta start.
• Profile Window (Same as portraits it is planned but i set the priority relative low)
• Arena (Was also a feature i wanted to implement before beta start, but time wasn’t enough)
• Campaigns for Sylvans and Vermin – Since everybody played through the tutorial and cleared out the prolog i think the campaigns are needed for more content
• Crafting – There will be a feature to salvage units if you have more than 3 of a kind. For the salvage you will get acorn points, which can be spend into new units. To get the whole system work, the units will get new categories and different prices. Of course you can also spend the points in arena, campaigns or challenge mode.
• Collectable Items – To get the combats / maps a bit more exciting i plan to give any unit a chance to drop an item on death. This items can be a healing sphere, criting /damage sphere or acorn points. To collect those items you will have to move on the field where they dropped. Healing sphere will heal your unit, criting / damage sphere will increase your units damage or crit chance.
• Rewarding – The last point on my list is the rewarding in the game. This means it should be more fun to play the game and to achieve this its always cool to receive cool rewards. They have to be more present and should generate a “want to have” feeling 🙂

Future prospects

I will try to implement the features written above in the next weeks and get every bug fixed which pops up in the server / android or iOS console. What’s then? Simple! We will extend the beta to open Beta and get more players to play with us, finding more bugs and getting more feedback. After that we have another look at the game state and can consider to release the game to actually earn some money :D. If the release is in preparation i also try to extend the game to steam and amazon underground as next step.

Feel free to comment![:]