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Dev log 5 - The November update
Hey VPeople!
TLDR: Next version won't be out this year. Some ideas have either changed or solidified. Payments are no longer recurring by default.
So here's the news since you last heard from me. I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist. Spent some time unable to to type. I'm mostly recovered now, but it'll be another 8-10 months until I'm 100%. Never underestimate my clumsiness.
When I wasn't able to type for a few weeks, I had some time to step back and rethink everything.
I realized I was about to make a lot of mistakes, that if I kept on my path I would eventually get bogged down by complexity. A mistake that VP has suffered from too many times already. So I made the hard choice to delete everything I had built, and start from scratch. I've been racing home every day for the past few weeks just to work on the new project because it feels 100x better already. The downside is it will delay the release. Originally I was hoping for the end of 2019. That definitely won't happen now.
Here's some of my current plan:
Different worlds
Problem 1: Integrating old VP with new VP will be very difficult. But wiping everything will leave many people (understandably) upset.
Solution: Other games have multiple 'Servers' that you can join. VP might be similar.
Remember, the current broken version won't be going away for a while. Instead I'll make something like beta.virtualpups.com. It might have just one server that automatically wipes every 30 days. When it resets, it will integrate any updates I've been working on, so I can rapidly make changes and constantly move forward without fear of breaking what you have. After enough cycles of this, when it's really stable, I'll create a permanent server, plus a legacy server where you can bring in dogs from the old version. THAT is when beta ends and the old version will shut down. I'll keep backups of everything just in case.
In the very distant future, it might be possible to let players create their own server with their own rules etc. Any interest in that?
Problem 2: I've spoken about many fancy features I want to add... but adding them to an existing game is either hard, or impossible.
Solution: Another benefit of my grand do-over. I was planning to release something minimalistic and just improve it over time. Instead, there's going to be a lot of new stuff in the very first beta release. Including dog jobs, items, kennel design, genetics, etc.
Speaking of genetics...
Problem 3: Breeding has always been a favourite aspect of the game, but often one of the biggest sources of pain.
Solution: Underneath breeding is a genetics system (actually what I'm working on this week). You won't even notice it unless you go digging. It will be a grand puzzle, so vast and complex that it may never be solved in full. But for those brave or crazy enough to put the time in, the rewards are potentially endless. If you *did* crack it fully, you could push it so far that you could create bipedal dogs, or ones that grow gills and dominate swimming challenges... But for every action is a consequence, so be careful.
Now I don't expect everyone to like playing with genetics. In fact... I expect 99% of you to hate it. It's there for pragmatic reasons, not to be fun. It allows me to smoothly run simulations (i.e. if a player does xyz, how long would it take to breed a line with traits a, b, and c). It will let me introduce genetic disorders, diseases, weird private breeds, absolutely anything else... but without messing up game balance. So this is mostly for me, not you. But you will have access to it if you really want. Let me know if you want to know more. There will be secrets I take to my grave, and facts I'll share freely :-P
As a safety net, dogs will help you out in subtle ways; e.g. two dog might be extremely attracted to each other for seemingly no reason. They're probably a great genetic match. Or they might be extremely unattracted to each other (or relatives). Maybe not a great idea to breed them. Just sayin'.
OH! By the way, dogs can make friends with other dogs. Not really relevant to anything else, but I just remembered I did that. They get bonuses for spending time together
Problem 4: Kennels are confusing
What's a kennel? Your account? Or a place where you keep dogs?
Answer: Depends on the version of the game. Next version will be different again. Sorry. But it should be very clear how it works once you see it.
When you sign up, you create an account that has a kennel by default. Dogs sleep in kennels
If you feel like micro-managing it, you can create different rooms in your kennel. You can take a turn for the whole kennel, or just for one room. You can move dogs around quickly, and in bulk. You can put items in rooms to give bonuses. You can assemble teams of dogs that compliment each other with their different strengths and weaknesses. Or heck, you could host events in a room to save money and customize it. It's a sandbox, you get to do what you want.
The whole time, you will have fine grain control over things like who can see or do what
I could probably keep going, but it's getting late and this is getting long.
TLDR: Next version won't be out this year. Some ideas have either changed or solidified. Payments are no longer recurring by default.
So here's the news since you last heard from me. I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist. Spent some time unable to to type. I'm mostly recovered now, but it'll be another 8-10 months until I'm 100%. Never underestimate my clumsiness.
When I wasn't able to type for a few weeks, I had some time to step back and rethink everything.
I realized I was about to make a lot of mistakes, that if I kept on my path I would eventually get bogged down by complexity. A mistake that VP has suffered from too many times already. So I made the hard choice to delete everything I had built, and start from scratch. I've been racing home every day for the past few weeks just to work on the new project because it feels 100x better already. The downside is it will delay the release. Originally I was hoping for the end of 2019. That definitely won't happen now.
Here's some of my current plan:
Different worlds
Problem 1: Integrating old VP with new VP will be very difficult. But wiping everything will leave many people (understandably) upset.
Solution: Other games have multiple 'Servers' that you can join. VP might be similar.
Remember, the current broken version won't be going away for a while. Instead I'll make something like beta.virtualpups.com. It might have just one server that automatically wipes every 30 days. When it resets, it will integrate any updates I've been working on, so I can rapidly make changes and constantly move forward without fear of breaking what you have. After enough cycles of this, when it's really stable, I'll create a permanent server, plus a legacy server where you can bring in dogs from the old version. THAT is when beta ends and the old version will shut down. I'll keep backups of everything just in case.
In the very distant future, it might be possible to let players create their own server with their own rules etc. Any interest in that?
Problem 2: I've spoken about many fancy features I want to add... but adding them to an existing game is either hard, or impossible.
Solution: Another benefit of my grand do-over. I was planning to release something minimalistic and just improve it over time. Instead, there's going to be a lot of new stuff in the very first beta release. Including dog jobs, items, kennel design, genetics, etc.
Speaking of genetics...
Problem 3: Breeding has always been a favourite aspect of the game, but often one of the biggest sources of pain.
Solution: Underneath breeding is a genetics system (actually what I'm working on this week). You won't even notice it unless you go digging. It will be a grand puzzle, so vast and complex that it may never be solved in full. But for those brave or crazy enough to put the time in, the rewards are potentially endless. If you *did* crack it fully, you could push it so far that you could create bipedal dogs, or ones that grow gills and dominate swimming challenges... But for every action is a consequence, so be careful.
Now I don't expect everyone to like playing with genetics. In fact... I expect 99% of you to hate it. It's there for pragmatic reasons, not to be fun. It allows me to smoothly run simulations (i.e. if a player does xyz, how long would it take to breed a line with traits a, b, and c). It will let me introduce genetic disorders, diseases, weird private breeds, absolutely anything else... but without messing up game balance. So this is mostly for me, not you. But you will have access to it if you really want. Let me know if you want to know more. There will be secrets I take to my grave, and facts I'll share freely :-P
As a safety net, dogs will help you out in subtle ways; e.g. two dog might be extremely attracted to each other for seemingly no reason. They're probably a great genetic match. Or they might be extremely unattracted to each other (or relatives). Maybe not a great idea to breed them. Just sayin'.
OH! By the way, dogs can make friends with other dogs. Not really relevant to anything else, but I just remembered I did that. They get bonuses for spending time together
Problem 4: Kennels are confusing
What's a kennel? Your account? Or a place where you keep dogs?
Answer: Depends on the version of the game. Next version will be different again. Sorry. But it should be very clear how it works once you see it.
When you sign up, you create an account that has a kennel by default. Dogs sleep in kennels
If you feel like micro-managing it, you can create different rooms in your kennel. You can take a turn for the whole kennel, or just for one room. You can move dogs around quickly, and in bulk. You can put items in rooms to give bonuses. You can assemble teams of dogs that compliment each other with their different strengths and weaknesses. Or heck, you could host events in a room to save money and customize it. It's a sandbox, you get to do what you want.
The whole time, you will have fine grain control over things like who can see or do what
I could probably keep going, but it's getting late and this is getting long.
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