Welcome to our very first actual devblog. We spoke a little bit last week about the scheduling and different plans for different parts of our web presence, but… here we are, actually talking about stuff getting done! So let’s dive right in:
The last week has primarily been working on laying down the infrastructure that the project needs. First, we had a concept for the world and a design for the world map itself, then we set about populating it with some great information and history, and finally, converting it into something that we can pass off to the different parts of the design team and say, “Make THIS.” So now, with all of the crunchy background parts in place and having an actual foundation laid out to build the rest of the game upon, we can resume the march toward a playable demo of the world, giving players a chance to jump into a social and light adventuring area where they can see a little bit about the game itself, read up on some of Haze’s lore, and actually start fleshing out character ideas. I’m not exactly hopeful that we can still hit the 1 August target for the demo, but that’s definitely our target, and we’re going to keep pushing for it. While I’m extremely excited to put something into your hands as soon as possible, I’d much rather present you with something that works, rather than something that we’ll have to update and patch in a week. “Measure Twice, Cut Once,” as they say.
With that coming along, we’ll be getting our hosting information posted up sooner rather than later, and we can start getting people connected to the game and making sure that the network side of things is looking good. All of our main assets are already loaded up, but we’re waiting on one last package of scripting tools to come along. While it has no fixed release date, progress looks pretty good and we believe it should be available by the end of the year. What’s that mean in English? We might see the first playable version of the game a full quarter early.
Going into the next week, we’ll be hammering down pretty hard on getting the world built and populated in the game’s starting zones, getting them linked together, and getting lore written and loaded into in-game books so you can start plumbing Haze’s mysteries. We’ll also be looking to recruit some additional design staff now that the foundation’s laid down, so we can speed up the overworld areas and make a land you can explore. Additionally, we’ll be working on getting the website cleaned up and a little more user-friendly, and we’re hunting for artists, so–all of that early-project logistical stuff, in addition to actually getting this thing spun up to speed. Nothing super glamorous right now, but there’s a hell of a lot of potential to really dial this baby up to 11 in a hurry.
If you haven’t already, take a look at our Facebook page on the right sidebar for more off-the cuff news and discussion about the world’s lore, and keep an eye out there (or here) for news about when the design livestreams will start, where you can jump in and chat with me, and whoever else we can wrangle up from the design team on Twitch, live, while we are actually building out the world for your amusement! That’s all we’ve got for the moment, so it’s time to stop talking about it, and get back to doing it! See you next week!