Deepworld Development Diary

We've had a wild ride. Together, we've built a truly unique experience over the years. Six whole years, to be exact! But as all things must end, so must Deepworld.

Last year, we put hundreds of hours of work into giving Deepworld new life. We launched on Android and drastically improved the PC experience. We released a number of server updates including daily challenges, minigames, and more. Unfortunately, we were unable to sustain any real growth. That leaves us today with a game that is no longer profitable, and one we are hard pressed to support given our full-time jobs.

We respect our community, so we want to give Deepworld a proper goodbye. With our remaining funds, we can operate the game and forums until the end of August, at which point both will shut down permanently.

Q&A

Could Deepworld have been saved somehow?

That's a difficult question to answer. The mobile game landscape has changed a lot since we started Deepworld. Most successful online games these days have gigantic marketing budgets and take years to see a profit. As a pair of developers with full-time jobs (and little cash to burn on advertising), it's basically impossible for Bytebin to compete with those other games, even if we were to continue releasing new content like we did last year.

Will there be a way to run private servers after the shutdown?

No. Unfortunately, Deepworld's server architecture is prohibitively complex (and old). It involves several different server applications running on different cloud providers, all properly configured to work together, all of which costs a lot of money.

Will there be a way to play Deepworld offline after the shutdown?

No. Since Deepworld uses a network pipeline for nearly all of its dynamics, creating an offline mode would involve a complete rewrite, and that is not a time commitment we can make.

What will happen to our worlds?

We plan to provide a way to access world data, and hopefully even images, after the shutdown. I will keep you posted on the progress.

What will happen to the forums?

The forums are expensive, so it's necessary for us to shut them down. However, we can obtain an archive of all the images uploaded, so we hope to provide a way for the many amazing Screenshots of the Day to live on into eternity :)

Is there another place we can chat?

I think this is as good a time as any to plug the Discord channel as a place to stay in touch! Link here: https://discord.gg/eBPGd3W

Also, if we ever have any official Deepworld news to put out in the future, you'll always find it first at our Twitter account. Link here: https://twitter.com/deepworldgame

Can we get refunds?

No. Unfortunately, our funds are very limited and keeping the game alive through August is all we can do. Like any online business, purchases made in Deepworld are governed by the terms of service, and those terms dictate that the business may not last forever. If it provides any solace, your purchases are the only reason we are able to continue operating for three more months. As it stands, it would be better financially for us to shutdown without warning, but we prefer to give Deepworld and its players a proper sendoff.

Is anything interesting going to happen in the next three months?

Absolutely! Since we're riding off into the sunset, we might as well do it with a bang. Expect bigger worlds, more brains, cheaper stuff, and probably a bunch of other random shenanigans.

Will the crown store still be available?

Yes, and we will be heavily discounting items as we get closer to shutdown. Any contributions you make will be greatly appreciated by the devs, since we still have work to do in order to make sure world data is available post-shutdown, etc.

Final Thoughts

Recently, we added Daily Challenges to Deepworld - a fun new way to spend the day in competition! However, we know that competition by itself is always a little bit more compelling when there is recognition of your awesomeness.

So in addition to our leaderboards (which will soon show all previous daily challenges as well), we are adding legit prizes into the mix, starting with these glorious TROPHIES!

That’s right, each day the winner of the daily challenge will win a TALL TROPHY (the middle one) with an onyx gem. The runners-up will receive ruby, sapphire, and brass tall trophies, respectively. Secondly, a good chunk of participants will win a SMALL TROPHY (something like the top 10% of competitors -- exact numbers yet to be determined).

As for the BIG-ASS TROPHY on the right, well, we haven’t quite decided what that will involve yet, but it’s going to change based on the week or month. More on that later!

Oh and one more thing -- trophies can’t be traded, and they can’t be stolen! Just like the Brass Throne, these puppies are yours to show off and yours alone. There ain’t no posers in Deepworld when it comes to lean, mean, competition.

There have always been many uncraftable items in Deepworld, including accessories, protectors, world machines, and more. They just seemed a little too complex to be crafted with a straightforward recipe like other items.

Fortunately, we thought long and hard and decided we should Craft Them With Science! I mean, science is what makes the impossible possible, right?

So with that, we introduce you to the Science System:

Craft near special steam-activated Crafting Machines to enable the recipes of new, science-powered items

Loot/trade for Blueprints to unlock specific item recipes

Upgrade your Science skill to lessen the possibility of crafting failure, which can lead to lost ingredients, brain invasions, or worse!

As a bonus, we’re happy to introduce three new animated crafting machines which will aid in the crafting of dozens of new items:

The Lathe, Power Loom, and the Miller. Each one requires steam and animates when connected to a steam vent. Only connected machines work towards your crafting requirements!

As for the blueprints, we’ll have plenty - and shiny new paining frames to represent the level of the blueprint. For example, a brass blueprint will let you make a 1st level accessory, whereas diamond and onyx frames allow for the 2nd and 3rd level accessories. Get ready to hunt down a whole lot of blueprints! (Or trade for them, naturally!)

The Space Biome makes for fun new adventuring, but it still needs some new stuff to dig up! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. For our initial launch of the biome, we’ve got these excellent shiny new items for you to find!

First, our new space-only ore, PLATINUM! Brilliant and even more precious than diamond, this rare ore will allow you to upgrade your onyx pick to the all-new PLATINUM PICKAXE. This new pick has the same strength as your onyx pick, but with 100% more swagger (and coming soon, some cool new bonus effects!)

We know you’re craving some spacey loot, too, which is why we’re upgrading your astronomy collection with a beautiful MARS and MOON globe to compliment your earth globe! These items will only be lootable in the space biome, so be sure to hunt down those dungeons!

Finally, we all know Deepworld loves its collections of Eight (stuffies, mounted heads, etc.) So why then are there only four crystals?? It’s time to round out your crystal collection with the all new WHITE, GREEN, YELLOW, and RAINBOW CRYSTALS. 

One of the these crystals will be found exclusively in Space, and we’re still thinking about where to generate the other ones. But you’ll be able to find them all soon, we promise! Well, “soon” is a relative term. That rainbow crystal isn’t going to make itself known very often. May the best miner find it first!

We are delighted to announce our all-new game Lunar Lockdown to the world! Battle hundreds of other players on the moon while collecting energy, upgrading your tank, and building outposts. Hop in to an ongoing King of the Hill match or queue up for a lively team battle!

Lunar Lockdown was initially sketched out two years ago, with development work commencing about a year ago. We have built an all-new online server engine from the ground up using Go, a robust and highly scalable software language. Likewise, our game client is all-new and tightly integrated with the server, allowing for rapid development of new features. It’s built on Unity with portability in mind, so we can quickly build for every platform - including WebGL!

The game and engine are still very much in development. We’re working with placeholder graphics and untested game concepts, but we’re just about ready to start exploring what’s fun and what’s not! The best part of game development is seeing what strikes a chord with players, so we want to get players into the game as soon as possible.

We will be posting updates in the Deepworld forums for now, but you can also be sure to follow the action at our Lunar Lockdown twitter account:

https://twitter.com/lunarlockdown

Space. The final frontier. Arriving in Deepworld just in time for the 2017 holiday season!

The brains aren’t content with just lording over earth – they’ve found their way into outer space to amass an interplanetary army. But humanity isn’t going to let that happen without a fight. Head to the Space Biome to battle the brains in a new frontier!

Experience a new biome with all-new dungeons, resources, and loot

Navigate in low-gravity

Watch out for supernova bursts that will cook you INSTANTLY!

Fight and harvest new mobs

There was a lot of behind the scenes work on Deepworld the past few months, and we know that isn’t very exciting. But we’re hoping that we can move forward now with actual new items and goodies, and a fresh round of marketing to bring Deepworld back into the popular consciousness.

So what have we been up to?

We're now current with App Store requirements, including IPv6 support, meaning that we are again pushing regular updates to the App Store.

We fought and defeated a nasty authentication bug that caused users to log in as other users. We think it was originally due to an unanticipated database power outage at our server host. But now we’re on the latest, greatest version of our database, and everything has been running smoothly - and correctly - since then.

What’s next?

We have a bunch of new hats, some new items (advanced turrets, fossils, and more), and some new quests to launch in the next few weeks. And the long-dormant android memory unit will be usable with the next server update.

We are preparing for a regular schedule of new art and item releases for the summer and fall.

We have begun a new round of Facebook marketing to bring new players in!

We know it’s been quiet around Deepworld, but we’re hoping these changes - enabled by our long winter of fixing a whole bunch of boring stuff - will help make the game lively again.

Hi folks! It’s been a bit quiet since our holiday release, so we thought we’d give an update to what’s coming down the pipe for Deepworld in 2017.

Our biggest hope is to get an Android release out. We’ve been working on that sporadically for years now - as you can imagine, it’s quite an effort while working part-time and having to maintain an existing version of the codebase. But we think it will be worth it, as it will open up a whole new segment of users.

We also have loads of new content in the works - and even some that is already integrated and ready to go!

So what’s the holdup? Unfortunately, some behind-the-scenes issues are keeping us from updating our App Store build. Each year the App Store adds new regulations and code requirements, and right before the holidays we got bit with a really annoying one (supporting IPv6, if you’re curious). That means we have to spend time working on fixes, rather than content and Android releases. But that’s the reality of maintaining online games. Or really any software :D

Whew! 2016 was a busy summer for the team, but it’s time to get back to some Deepworlding now that things have settled down a bit! First up, we’ve got some new building blocks headed your way. These were all requested by our lovely community a while back, and we’re pleased to bring them to you now!

First up, the new winner of “simplest building block” for all your construction needs: Earth Blocks! Merely dig around for some dirt and you’ll have your ingredients. Great for quick structures when normal earth blocks just won’t cut it.

Joining those blocks is Wooden Scaffolding. Sometimes metal just doesn’t give you the warmth you need!

Of course, your dirt and scaffold house needs a roof. How about a fancy roof, to help brighten things up a bit? Introducing Brass Roofing, a selection of roofing to match the existing blocks, but with a nice shiny brassiness.

Finally, all that crafting and building is sure to make you tired. You’ll probably want a nice place to sit, so how about a brand new Park Bench! There’s enough room for your friends to join you, too.

Happy Holidays! It’s been a while since we talked about the future of Deepworld - turns out running an MMO while having (other) full-time jobs is kind of tough! But we’re finally finishing up some long-term updates, and new features (and fixes) are on the way.

Our goal for 2016 is simple - to keep a steady flow of new simple items (outfits, rares, and building blocks), and also release a major feature once a month. Oh, and get Windows and Android fixed up, of course!

For our first new major feature, we thought it would be best to give YOU some tools to keep the game interesting, since we’re not available as much as we used to be. That means minigames! A long time ago we created a “Deathmatch Obelisk” for organizing tracked combat matches, and it was pretty fun - but we never really finished it. So, that is first on our list - except instead of just deathmatches, we’re going to give you a bit more customization. You’ll be able to place a Minigame Obelisk and pick from a bunch of settings. Obviously round duration and range are key, but the real fun will be in picking how points are earned:

Player kills (optionally only a specific weapon)

Mob kills (optionally a specific mob)

Blocks mined (specific blocks - earth, crystals, etc.)

Goals reached (using a Goal Obelisk)

Switches switched

Other mechanics - please suggest on our forums!

We also want to do some “world minigames” - for example, worlds where jetpacks are suppressed, or the Minefield minigame we talked about a while back. Or a jetpack-suppressed Minefield! Good luck dodging those mines!

There are also some new items in store - stuff we have art already drawn for but never got around to implementing! First up are a batch of new turrets, including both new varieties (frost and electric) as well as larger and more powerful versions (mark IIs and mark IIIs). Take a look below - they’ll be in a dungeon near you after the next couple builds!

In many ways, this is the most exciting time in the history of Deepworld. We're on Steam, our long awaited quest system has launched, and we're even starting to alpha test on Android! Rest assured, Deepworld and its community will continue grow and get new features, new quests, and more - for a long time.

But in a few ways, this is also the toughest time. Like many indies, our company has struggled with money issues. Last year it became clear we couldn't afford to pay everyone a fair wage to continue working on Deepworld. Since then, our team has been reduced to one part-time developer (Mike), support (Lisa), and part-time marketing and infrastructure (Jason). Obviously that's not what we were hoping for, but we've done the best we can.

We want to be able to work on Deepworld full-time, and we want more revenue so we can spend it on more item art, biomes, and other new goodies. Consequently, we've been considering different ways to increase our revenue. We don't want to be exploitative like Candy Crush, and we can't just copy the business model from something like League of Legends; too large of a change might cause the whole thing to fall apart.

So let's talk about some ideas, and you let us know what sounds good and what sounds terrible. All of these may come to pass, or none of them, but they're worth thinking about!

VIP status

First on the agenda is rewarding big spenders. We're able to keep the game alive - and free for many players - because a small portion of players spend a good chunk of change. That's basic economics for free-to-play games. (There's a never-ending debate over how ethical this system is, but we're not going to dive into that here. Without big spenders, there would be no Deepworld, so it's a moot point for us.)

We'd like to give some kind of VIP status to spenders. An Order with bonus perks seems an appropriate reward:

Buy premium, get honorary Order of the Sun status, 5% xp bonus, 1 daily raffle ticket

Spend $10, get iron Order of the Sun status, 10% xp bonus, 2 daily raffle tickets

Spend $25, get brass Order of the Sun status, 20% xp bonus, 3 daily raffle tickets, get a bonus small world

Spend $50, get sapphire Order of the Sun status, 30% xp bonus, 4 daily raffle tickets, get a bonus normal world

Spend $100, get ruby Order of the Sun status, 40% xp bonus, 5 daily raffle tickets, get a bonus large world

Spend $250, get ruby Order of the Sun status, 50% xp bonus, 6 daily raffle tickets, get something even cooler

Since we're still trying to offer the full game experience without payment if possible, so we could also offer the xp bonus based on the number of orders you belong to. Thus, if you were ranked in the Order of the Crow and Order of the Lion, you could have a 20% xp bonus (10% for each order). Or you could spend $25. Etc.

The raffle tickets would be for a daily drawing of crowns or private worlds, etc.

And yes, bonus worlds would be given retroactively to current big spenders :)

Buyable & Lootable Loot Crates

We could sell (and allow you to find) loot crates with a predetermined chance at rare loot. Many other games do this, but cap the amount you can buy to one per day (to keep people from buying infinite loot). The side benefit of this is that while it would introduce more items into the game economy and thus cause them to lose in-game value, the gained revenue would let us spend more money on NEW items and thus keep the economy level - but more interesting (because there would be more variety of rares).

Brass Loot Crate: A random loot item of good or better quality

Diamond Loot Crate: A random loot item of rare or better quality, with a 2% chance of very rare

Onyx Loot Crate: A random loot item of rare or better quality, with a 5% chance of very rare

Very Expensive Items

We've always been hesitant to add very expensive items to the shop, but it's nevertheless a common tactic to increase revenue in free-to-play games. We think it might be worth finally giving a shot. Do you have any ideas for powerful items that could be worth a very hefty price tag, but not too unbalanced?

In-Game Sponsorships

Our attempt at item sponsorships was not a success, but it might work better as an in-game purchase. Get your name on a new quest, add a name to the Android name rotation, advertise your private world to everyone, etc.

And Finally, a Teaser of What's to Come...

Whether or not we can realize our dream of staying full-time Deepworld developers, we still have many plans for the game. More revenue will just get us there faster. So we will leave you with this teaser of things to come: the mockups of our next biomes. Let's make them happen sooner than later!

Dropbox link with higher quality images:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fw19m2h2k7tyj7x/AACO9UJoJ3ez_4xeWa4KL-ZSa?dl=0

We're excited to announce our final Windows beta cycle! Version 3.1.0 is a HUGE improvement over the 3.0.x series and includes a complete GUI rewrite for better performance and interaction. It also features several gameplay fixes, with many more coming in the next couple weeks as we polish things up for our Steam launch.

Feel free to grab the new betas here (Mac users' feedback is very welcome, too - it's the same underlying code!) and head to our forums to discuss your feedback.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6pipgiergzawyne/AADQ02A2VGKZFoMvIdIc0wT8a?dl=0

In the post-apocalyptic wasteland, nothing brightens up a drab building like some colorful foliage! With the attention that gardening gets in Deepworld, we thought we should add some more plants, and with them, a new skill for the vegetation-inclined.

First, the flowers!

Awww, cute little bulbies. From top to bottom, left to right, we have:

Trumpet Flower

Bonsai Tree

Ghost Tree

Cactus Flower

Echinacea

Sunflower

Bird of Paradise

And when they grow up, they're tall and beautiful!

The Horticulture Skill ties into the new plants and gives some other cool perks:

Fancy bulbs will have different Horticulture skill level requirements. That Bonsai tree is only for advanced gardeners (just like real life)!

Using a spade, you'll be able to occasionally get a bulb back after mining a grown flower. A higher horticulture skill will increase your chances, as will using a diamond / onyx spade.

Fertilizer will also be recouped occasionally based on your horticulture skill

Finally, more plantlife will come along later this year - trimmable hedges, crawling ivy, and more. Your suggestions are also welcome!

Two other ramifications to adding this new skill:

The max natural skill level will be raised to 79 to accommodate 9 new skill points.

New players will have a smaller set of skills to upgrade at first - the core survival skills. Once they hit level 10 or so, all skills will be unlocked. We think this will help them decide how to progress early on. After all, you hardly need to upgrade Automata when you can't even craft some jerky. We gotta teach people to survive these dangerous lands!

Victorian style is quite gaudy by nature - that's part of what makes it so fun and warm (ever been to an old victorian house? So cozy feeling!) And one of the best, gaudiest things you see is the variety of lighting. With that in mind, we decided we had better add some beautiful new victorian lights! In addition to a fancier streetlight, there will be eight new fancy lamps coming to Deepworld. Some will be lootable, some craftable, but all will add a little sparkle to your home!

  Another category of items that was a little lacking is the music section. We've broadened it out with a few more items, and we hope to add actual interactivity (as in, play some sounds!) in the near future:

Finally, with the advent of diamond and onyx nets, we are adding five more butterflies so that there is additional incentive to get out there and use those nets!

Deepworld's backgrounds haven't changed since about 2012. Our minimalistic mountain silhouettes have served us well, but it's about time we splashed a little more color into these lovely biomes we call home.

We've been working on some new backgrounds for a while, and they're almost ready to ship! Let's take a look at the new hotness and get ready to truly appreciate the view aboveground:

Temperate biome in-game (alpha):

Temperate biome mockup:

Arctic biome mockup:

Desert biome mockup:

Hell biome mockup:

Brain biome mockup:

A whole bunch of new items are rolling out today!

New Tools

Diamond and onyx nets: get a better chance at capturing butterflies - and also large roaches now - with fancier nets.

Diamond and onyx hatchets

Wooden, diamond, and onyx canes - purely for Looking Good!

New Pistols

Steam, flame, and frost pistols are joining the gun club! Why add more pistols? Simple: when our beginner quests roll out, we want to have a nice progression of weapon upgrades, but avoid giving away too much heavy equipment right away. The cannons, therefore, have gotten a bit of an upgrade with this new update - you'll find that your cannons do more damage then ever!

Holiday Loots

Deepworld has a variety of machines - some useful, some still just decoration (engine *cough*), and they really go a long way in making the game feel steampunky and unique. With that in mind, and knowing that you guys crave a little extra power in your worlds, we've got some new World Machines to preview!

Each of these new machines will add some unique powers to the owner of a given world, and in many cases allow them to bestow those powers to members and visitors, as well. Their construction is a little more elaborate than your basic items:

Craft and place the base of the machine

Return to the machine each day with supplies to make progress on its construction. Other people can help, too, which will speed construction along faster.

Once construction is complete, the machine becomes operational.

Repeat this process to add on diamond and onyx components, which bestow additional powers.

That's the basic overview, so let's take a look at the first batch of machines:

HOLOGRAPH PROJECTOR

Copy your outfit and automatically apply it to visitors of your world

Allow certain outfit parts to still be customizable by visitors (e.g., everyone wears a santa outfit, but they can change their hat.)

GLOBAL GUN SUPPRESSOR

Suppress gunfire

Allow specific kinds of weapons to bypass suppression

Suppress turrets

MASS SPAWNER

Affect spawn rates and control whether more hostile or friendly mobs appear

Directly spawn large quantities of mobs

MASS TELEPORTER

Teleport directly to other players, or teleport them to your location

Mass teleport all players to a location

Deactivate natural teleporters in your world (so they can be moved or destroyed)

WEATHER GENERATOR

Change the time of day, precipitation, or acidity

Permanently set time of day, precipitation, or acidity

Create biome-specific weather effects