State of the Studio (Jan 2022)
The last studio update was in October 2020. Since then I've had a daughter (a year old now ♥), launched my multiplayer open-world roleplaying game (URPG) into alpha and announced the rebirth of The Black Crown Project.
So far, fifty people have signed up to play URPG. I'm very happy with the reception and retention. There's been some impressive RP that makes me want the "RP accolades" feature just so I can ⭐ it.
Most of my development time has been spent in GAM3, Tinydark's proprietary game engine. We've seen huge systems added this year, the biggest being crafting: which was, start to finish, the most complex feature I've made in my entire web development career. UI work was done mostly for custom input elements; the game still very much looks like a website. I ran a huge performance audit to ensure we can handle at least 5,000 active characters. I'm going to try to get better about externalizing my work via the roadmap, but patch notes are extensive on our Discord.
In February 2021, I announced that I'll be bringing The Black Crown Project back online in 2022. Little has been done since then, as planned, but I have decided on a name for my iteration of the game. It will be titled Black Crown: Exhumed.
I've also had to take on some agency work in the past half-year; both for money and experience. It's been good to break out of my comfort zone, but dual-wielding agency work and Tinydark has been a challenge.
Of Web Games and Microstudios
I'll preface this with my vision for the studio and where I think the web (browser) game scene is right now. Web technology has improved and we're seeing that bear fruit in some newer games' interfaces. We've been able to publish our games to app stores and Steam for a while now, but not too many games have. The ability to write a single version of a game and have it appear anywhere with access to a browser is a huge strength of web games, and I hope to see more a trend toward "progressive web apps" in our scene.
I've been lazy this year with discovering other browser games, but I'd like to point to World Seed and Prosperous Universe as good examples of the level of polish every web game should strive for. There is always the legendary Fallen London as well, who have made some big updates this year, including to their engine. See the PBBG subreddit for more.
When I think of where I want Tinydark to be in the future, I imagine game experiences that are suitable for quick check-ins, but also longer, fullscreen play sessions. They look like games, not websites. UI elements animate as they do in videogames, and we have ambient tracks and some UI sound effects. I want the player to feel like it's sensible to spend 15+ minutes just immersed in the game as they would be in a traditional videogame.
It will not be easy and despite how much I burn the candle at both ends, things always take longer than I expect, both for feature creep and implementation. But for once in this fourteen-year adventure, I know I'm heading in the right direction. It has always been my dream to live off my work, to be able to commit 50-60 hours a week to making games. The next two games I'm releasing will bring me closer to that.
Now let's get into the fun stuff.
Here is the Tinydark Roadmap.
In 2021, I resolved that Black Crown: Exhumed would be released in 2022. I expected that even if URPG wasn't released, we'd be in open beta and I'd collect feedback while producing BCE. Unfortunately URPG is just not close enough to stage a worthwhile open beta by Black Crown time, especially considering I'll be dismantling The Orbium. So, here's what the next year will look like, chronologically. Further detail is available on the roadmap.
(Now) Wrap up some URPG dev, open the engine to volunteers.
(Feb -> March) Migrate away from theorbium.com, rebuilding tinydark.com to host it. No more "Orbium accounts," everything is simply under your Tinydark account.
(March -> June) Work on as much URPG as possible. I expect combat to be in, and to be able to delve to Depth 6 to fight the strongest monsters in the mine, before I move on.
(June -> October) Build and release Black Crown: Exhumed. This will bring with it many engine upgrades that were on URPG's ToDo list.
(Beyond) BCE's really a done deal once it's released. I expect minor support requests at first then for it to be quiet thereafter. I'll head back to a full focus on getting URPG in open beta: more details under its section.
I should note my wife and I are, ahem, family planning and hope to expect a new baby by the year's end. We'll definitely be living that newborn baby life again before URPG's open beta and things will slow down around that time. It doesn't matter how ready URPG is for open beta; we must get through that time first.
Bless 2017-Vael's heart; he was so inspired by Twinoid and imagined that in the coming years, he'd have a whole library of arcadey games driven by GAM3's rapid content generation. In reality, 2022-Vael recognizes he just likes to make cool things and we probably didn't need a mini-social-network to link people's games together. The world is not suited for smaller titles; I cannot think of any of my favorite games as anything less than robust experiences, so it was a poor vision for the studio.
In March, anyone with an email and any installed game (including TBCP's archive) will receive an email notifying them of a migration of all games from theorbium.com to hub.tinydark.com. It will simply be known as the "Tinydark Hub" and will serve as it does now: a game library with some surprisingly functioning social features.
tinydark.com will move to some newer technology and you'll log in there, or through any game's front page. I'll also get Single Sign On working properly across the network: logging into URPG will log you into Hub and any other game you have installed.
Finally, with the upgrade of tinydark.com will come a more intuitive feed for our tweets and blog posts. Each game will get its own Twitter account and we'll just pull from there.
Nothing has changed for the game since the announcement, other than the name. It's right to rebrand it as something new, and Exhumed was the perfect word: the Project was effectively buried, and I'm bringing it back mostly intact. I think the author, Robert Sherman, would prefer it to return in an offline capacity, but it is not yet possible for me to do so.
My target is October, and poetically, Halloween at the latest. Detailed on the roadmap, you can see the game needs a few things in order to be remade in its original form, and GAM3 can afford it some upgrades. Aside from monetization -- $10 to remove the action limit and unlock all previously "nex-locked" content -- it crucially will require a proper singleplayer mode for the engine, with which you can start playing immediately upon visiting the front page or installing the app, and choose to make an account later to save your progress. This is the default registration method for all Tinydark singleplayer games.
Given the uncertain timeline for URPG's ultimate release, I'm happy to be releasing a game this year. Bean Grower was the last game I released, and that was nearly four years ago. Exhumed will be my attempt at a fully realized "Steam-ready" game both in presentation and technology, so some big UI and animation work will be done for the engine. It's also a good opportunity to knock out some drudgery the engine will need.
My lofty goal for Untitled Roleplaying Game is 10,000 Daily Active Users. I don't assume I'll get that and I'd be happy with only 1,000, but I am building and designing for it nonetheless. In order to reach that goal, I have to make sure the product is in a very good place from the start, and that I have a game people want to financially support, so that I can take that support and put it towards the game.
When I talk about a high level of polish, of sound and ambient tracks that reflect the place you're in, it's because my intention is for people to boot up URPG and spend time immersed in their characters, even if they aren't roleplaying. I want there to be a reason to play each race multiple times, and for the game to become an "evergreen game," one that doesn't end after you run out of content.
If the support is there, I can see myself developing it for many years post-release. That's permanent content, features, "living stories," everything. I believe in what I'm making and that's why I'm willing to spend the 1,000s of hours it will take to complete the game. I'm banking a lot on the value of multiplayer roleplay and I wouldn't want to see URPG exist without it.
So, my estimates were stupidly off. Here's what I can guarantee: we will have an open beta in 2023. What will that look like? Customizable (bespoke) items will be possible, we'll have tile-based map travel supporting the z axis, player targeting, six races with fleshed out lore, and an island full of content. See the roadmap for more.
Will there be a wipe? Technically, no. The beta will take place on an island big enough to space six racial home cities far enough part that they're more than a two-day trip from each other. Like in the final release, traveling towards the center of the island will be dangerous. The game's balance will reflect an honest attempt at the numbers: item weight, resource gathering, perks.
As we near release, the world will decay at an accelerated rate for a few weeks and then freeze in time (characters will pass gracefully). The items and buildings will decay as much as they normally would under those conditions and the "open beta island" will become an explorable island of ruins in the final version of the game, accessible via ship. Any content made for the open beta will be squarely on that island except for the home cities, which will migrate to their rightful places on the main continent.
Of your alpha characters: the world will be complete wiped but you're free to channel the spirit of them, canon, into any open beta characters. I don't expect open beta to last more than a year. I will try my best to release URPG in 2023, but the only way I can imagine that happening is if I get some volunteers to help implement content. On the subject...
I hope this long studio update was satisfactory. It's been a long road and will continue to be so, but at the end of it I will have reanimated Black Crown, released this incredibly ambitious roleplaying game, and will be sitting on a mountain of tech with which to build content and other games in the future.
Now, I'm not burnt out, but I am constantly developing at a high speed. I write this on a week that I've had to set aside just to catch up on real-life and digital chores because I was hellbent on getting crafting out at the level of quality that I wanted, as soon as possible, so I could be free to do so.
I've been solo for fourteen years and here I sit on a game engine which, without writing any new code, can spawn entirely new mechanics with ease, and I'm doing it all alone. I could use some help. Regretfully, at this time, I can't offer more than free game time/premium currency and my gratitude, but you'll be fully and permanently credited in anything you do. You'll share ownership of anything you make. You'll get access to the special volunteer server.
If you're interested in contributing writing, art, content, maintaining a wiki, or even being a moderator: let me know. You can find me on the Tinydark discord or mail me at [email protected]
Thanks for reading,
Vael Victus
