4/1/2018 - devlog
With Michi still locked in the engine room, Julian was able to confirm some exhibition events, and Martin finally started working on a whole new feature, arguably the single most important addition to the core gameplay: Corporations.
Martin
Great news! I started working on Corporations this week! Corporations will be the first actual game play feature we're adding in a long time. For the past few months, our focus lied on the basic core features of the game that were and are being tested in our closed alpha test - things like production, transport, trade etc. While that was in progress, I spent a lot of time adding "bells & whistles" required for general comfort and usability, like the notification feature I had been working on for the past weeks.
Now that we're rather confident that the technical base for our core features is complete and working, we're switching focus to the fun stuff again. Things that will eventually form the mid- and end-game content of the game and - arguably - will make it (even more) fun to play!
Michi (molp)
I am still locked in the engine room, tinkering on the refactoring I described last week. But there is progress to report: Last week I finished the server part of the location refactoring and now moved on to do the client part. The development velocity has dropped a bit since the client is written in JavaScript (a weakly typed language), which makes these kinds of refactorings harder. But enough with the techno-mumbo-jumbo, back to work.
Julian (Mjeno)
Over the past few weeks, I sent out applications for exhibiting Prosperous Universe on different events. I'm happy to say that two of them are confirmed now: Quo Vadis (April 24th-25th), the annual games business event in Berlin, and Games/Bavaria Vernissage (May 4th), a small but fun games exhibition in Munich. There is no entry fee for the latter, so come and meet us there if you're in the area!
Apart from event planning, I spent this week reorganizing player feedback on the forum and continuing to stalk members of the press. The former was becoming more and more urgent, with feedback to our alpha test piling up throughout several forum threads. Players now have access to a list of requests for changes and features made by the community. Concerning press research, I got to say I was surprised how easily I could to find out more or less private things about people merely based on their name. It was handy, but also discomforting. On a more positive note, I was happy to see how many people seem to play and enjoy simulator games.
Last but not least, there's a new tutorial video. It deals with our most sci-fi subject yet: space travel!
As always: we'd love to hear what you think: join us on the forums!
Happy trading!