Community Update #4
Hey there Survivors,
It's been a minute since the last community update, so let's jump right in.
The rebuild launch sucked. I dropped the ball hard on the launch of the rebuild. I absolutely should have waited until the game was at full parity with Legacy before launching it. There's no way to make losing content feel good, period, and I should have considered that way more when making the decision to launch it.
My main reasoning for going forward with the launch before it was at full parity was just trying to be honest on the store page with what the game is going to be. New and existing players weren't reading news and updates, so they weren't really aware that the entire game was in progress to be changed, and I was trying to avoid that as much as possible. It isn't and never was my intention to deceive or confuse the amazing players of DeadPoly.
In truth, I also vastly underestimated how big of a deal it would be perceived as to have to select the Legacy version to not play the rebuild. It takes far longer to write a scathing review about the game 'removing' content even though Legacy is still readily and easily available than it does to just swap to the Legacy beta option and keep playing Legacy. The majority of the players leaving negative reviews saying I should bring back Legacy don't seem to acknowledge (or care I guess?) that it's still available.
Hindsight is much easier to see the faults in my decisions. If I could change the release, I would for sure have waited until Garden City was finished and all of the items from Legacy were back in, but what's done is done at this point. Reverting the store page and default version back to Legacy isn't going to magically reverse the huge negative review count that the rebuild has caused, and then I'd be back to feeling like I was deceiving players anyway.
There were pros and cons to all possible ways to release a completely rebuilt game in place of the existing one. Some players suggested I should have made a new store page for the rebuild, but to me, that might come off as if I'm trying to make people buy a new game when Legacy was never finished, which isn't my intention at all. The entire purpose of the rebuild is providing all of you with the best game possible, and I still firmly believe the rebuild is a better game in every way except the map size and missing items.
I cannot thank the patience many of you have shown with this whole process enough. The decision to rebuild the entire game from scratch wasn't taken lightly. I knew it was going to take a long time to get back to the raw content amount of Legacy, and that the interim period was probably going to be a bit brutal. I completely understand why players who aren't reading what's in the works might think the game was dead because it wasn't getting the weekly updates like it used to.
Now that I'm rapidly approaching the point of being able to push content updates more regularly, I am super happy with where the game is at and how bright the future is. To me, the game just feels leagues better. All of the new systems feel much closer to what I've always wanted the game to play like, without losing the fun aspects of Legacy.
Yes, the map is far too small. I am working constantly on getting Garden City updated and brought back in to the game. It is the top priority right now. ASAP.
All of the items from Legacy are being brought back in. This is mostly just data entry at this point, and I'm chipping away at it every update. Still a solo dev, never enough time in the day, right? Haha.
Plans for 2024?
Contrary to the word on the streets, DeadPoly is nowhere near dead. There's still so much more on the horizon, and I'm still as eager and excited as I was the day the game released to keep pushing forward with all of you towards the full release and beyond.
Also, friendly reminder that Legacy is still playable for players who aren't enjoying the rebuild yet!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
It's been a minute since the last community update, so let's jump right in.
The rebuild launch sucked. I dropped the ball hard on the launch of the rebuild. I absolutely should have waited until the game was at full parity with Legacy before launching it. There's no way to make losing content feel good, period, and I should have considered that way more when making the decision to launch it.
My main reasoning for going forward with the launch before it was at full parity was just trying to be honest on the store page with what the game is going to be. New and existing players weren't reading news and updates, so they weren't really aware that the entire game was in progress to be changed, and I was trying to avoid that as much as possible. It isn't and never was my intention to deceive or confuse the amazing players of DeadPoly.
In truth, I also vastly underestimated how big of a deal it would be perceived as to have to select the Legacy version to not play the rebuild. It takes far longer to write a scathing review about the game 'removing' content even though Legacy is still readily and easily available than it does to just swap to the Legacy beta option and keep playing Legacy. The majority of the players leaving negative reviews saying I should bring back Legacy don't seem to acknowledge (or care I guess?) that it's still available.
Hindsight is much easier to see the faults in my decisions. If I could change the release, I would for sure have waited until Garden City was finished and all of the items from Legacy were back in, but what's done is done at this point. Reverting the store page and default version back to Legacy isn't going to magically reverse the huge negative review count that the rebuild has caused, and then I'd be back to feeling like I was deceiving players anyway.
There were pros and cons to all possible ways to release a completely rebuilt game in place of the existing one. Some players suggested I should have made a new store page for the rebuild, but to me, that might come off as if I'm trying to make people buy a new game when Legacy was never finished, which isn't my intention at all. The entire purpose of the rebuild is providing all of you with the best game possible, and I still firmly believe the rebuild is a better game in every way except the map size and missing items.
I cannot thank the patience many of you have shown with this whole process enough. The decision to rebuild the entire game from scratch wasn't taken lightly. I knew it was going to take a long time to get back to the raw content amount of Legacy, and that the interim period was probably going to be a bit brutal. I completely understand why players who aren't reading what's in the works might think the game was dead because it wasn't getting the weekly updates like it used to.
Now that I'm rapidly approaching the point of being able to push content updates more regularly, I am super happy with where the game is at and how bright the future is. To me, the game just feels leagues better. All of the new systems feel much closer to what I've always wanted the game to play like, without losing the fun aspects of Legacy.
Yes, the map is far too small. I am working constantly on getting Garden City updated and brought back in to the game. It is the top priority right now. ASAP.
All of the items from Legacy are being brought back in. This is mostly just data entry at this point, and I'm chipping away at it every update. Still a solo dev, never enough time in the day, right? Haha.
Plans for 2024?
- Official servers
- Dedicated server files for community servers
- Garden City Map reintroduction
- 2 additional maps added
- More items, always more items!
- Finally adding the actual zombie models instead of just having recolored players
- Non-zombie AI like raiders, scavengers, etc
- More bunkers, puzzles, questing, factions, and content in general
- Proximity VOIP
- Emote system for dancing, waving, pointing, gestures, etc
- Continued systems development for things like farming, electricity, fishing, and more
- Team expansion to finally get more hands involved with the game and increase development speed and scope
- and, as always, stay tuned for more!
Contrary to the word on the streets, DeadPoly is nowhere near dead. There's still so much more on the horizon, and I'm still as eager and excited as I was the day the game released to keep pushing forward with all of you towards the full release and beyond.
Also, friendly reminder that Legacy is still playable for players who aren't enjoying the rebuild yet!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]