Elementyle

Well, this is embarrassing.. it’s been quite a while since the last game update or blog post, again…

There is still work being done on this project, however it has been much slower than I want. I’ve had a lot going on, and this being a “side-gig” for me that is more of a moderately expensive hobby has fallen behind from where I wish it was.

I have however, gotten a bit more serious the past few weeks. Along with some other projects that are entirely unrelated, I’ve gotten a business set up to be the holding entity for all my development projects including Elementyle. I am still working through a ton of different processes and slowly migrating things and consolidating where possible to get this tangled mess into a neat organization. It’s going to take time, and unfortunately is consuming hours upon hours of my time, focus, and money.

With all of that said, development is still ongoing. A lot of work has been done in the deep recesses of the back-end of the server, namely:

• Fixing and automating the deployment process.
• Addressing some back-end configuration issues.
• Adding new monitoring processes.
• Correcting code-base inconsistencies.
• Automated mock testing for game modules.
• And a myriad of other changes and fixes.

All-in-all, my priority has been on stability, extensibility, and consistency for everything back-end related. There are some changes being worked on for the client as well. While continuing to iron out the issues with match metrics and how players will be able to see and track performance, I’m also working on robust controller support. There’s still a long way to go with some of these changes, but most of the menu navigation prior to game play has been tested and working almost as expected. Part of my concern with spending too much time getting controller support fully implemented is the piece selection process radically changing in the future as there are plans to move from static pieces to “pieces as items” i.e. variable stats for pieces with unique effect modifiers.

There are still some things I want to truly solidify before pushing the 0.2.1 version out to the public server. Match statistics is one of the top priorities, but I also want to formalize the roll-down, update/upgrade, and roll-up process for server changes. I want this to be something the client is informed about, with a managed process to minimize manual intervention and issues in redeployment.

I’m also weighing the idea of removing the Core and Extended set tiers and simply moving to a game structure where Signature pieces are considered baseline for all games. The motivation for this is that Signature pieces do two core things for the game:

• Create an incentive for defensive play.
• Speed up the game by reducing total number of moves per game on average.

The whole idea behind Signature pieces was to create a piece your opponent is looking to capture and you are looking to defend, which is not really attained with other pieces you can just place another copy of when destroyed. I’ll continue to evaluate and possibly move towards this but not sure this will make it into 0.2.1.

There are plenty of other ideas I have for making the client experience better based on some feedback I received previously. Adding animations and more visual acuity to actions is creeping up the priority list for example. Getting more stats and more information at a quick glance is also high priority, as there are a lot of things to keep track of that don’t really have an indication or mechanism to do so currently.

As for when this update can be expected, I am honestly hoping for mid to late November. I’ve missed a couple updates and really just need to keep getting things out. Game and server stability updates are great and all but it doesn’t really do much to push the game forward. Hopefully soon there will be some more content updates and things to do and accomplish in the game. Once match statistics are working correctly, things like achievements, item drops, and customization options all become significantly easier to implement and support.

I look forward to continuing work on this project. It’s been years in the making now, but it still has a long way to go before it’s anywhere near completed (if that’s even possible). With so many things going on and new things being juggled, it’s been difficult to keep up with the pace I want. I will get this into a comfortable stride and make sure reasonable progress updates are pushed out with regular frequency. Expect patch notes to be released in the next few days / couple weeks for all the changes that will be hitting live servers.