I Am The Walrus

Well, over the past 2 weeks we've been hard at work rolling out new features and designs for our hardcore and casual games, in an attempt to alleviate the problems we've seen so far. We've been concentrating on trying to drive the connection between the casual and the hardcore players, and make each care about each other. This is the driving factor of what is at the heart of this project; we need to make our players care about each other.

Alpha 2 managed to give us a lot of good data, by telling us what was working an what wasn't. The patch system, for example, was incredibly popular. At the same time though, it wasn't driving the connection; as a result, we've more tightly integrated the hardcore and the casual player's dependence on each to try to encourage more of a connection. Patches are now tied both to the current city the band is in, and to a weekly allotment that the hardcore player can assign. The patches also will now give the band bonuses in the hardcore game, which will be displayed on the patch screen. Now, the patches will have endogenous value, and require both communication and coordination between players to achieve maximum effect.

We've also added forums, and have been furiously working on the wall/message board system within the world, so that bands can chat with each other, as well as chatting with other bands. After all, without a method of communication, there is no way for a community to form.

Anyway, we've added a lot more in in prep for the Alpha 3, but I'm getting tired. Hopefully we won't be killed responding to all the feedback we're going to get once we unleash our world upon our next round of guests. Alpha 3 goes out some time later today; I'm going to collapse now.

I'm Looking Through You

A lot of work has been going into the UI for CasualCore. Edmundo & Joe have been working to give the entire web site a UI overhaul, as our current testing has shown that guests can't understand key features of our site. Henry and I have been working on various elements of the hardcore game, to make sure that players are not overwhelmed by the game, and can actually play it. Chris, Andy, and Charles have also been working to improve feedback on a lot of the other interaction methods, by adding more feedback to casual games and to avatar customization. By making it easier to explore the world we're trying to create, we're hoping that our guests, especially the casual players, will care more about this experience.

So far, this work has already seemed to bear some fruit, as various members of the team have found their casual players to be more communicative. We've finally had a number of players using the wall to communicate with their hardcore players, instead of bugging them in the hallways of the building. Hopefully, this means that when we launch alpha 3 to a wider audience, communication between people who don't already know each other will happen.