2020 Vision Of the Secret Neighbor
The holidays must be a time of slowed activities for most companies in the game industry, but for us, it was a time to ramp up the production efforts on the latest Secret Neighbor’s patch. Because your excitement is our top priority.
Looking back, it was a wonderful year we spent together. We released two alphas, one beta, and the Secret Neighbor v1.0 along with 8 patches. Needless to say, your help along the way was crucial. We took into consideration each and every one of your reviews. For many reasons, we do not always quickly apply what we acknowledge from your feedback. But rest assured, we're not forgetting anything, and this article goes on to our New Year’s resolutions. Or should I say the roadmap for the upcoming year? And since this list is based on your demands I’ll start with the most important ones. Here we go.
As I said at the beginning, it was a great year for all of us but next year looks even more exciting to me. Thank you for being such an amazing community and see you in 2020!
Looking back, it was a wonderful year we spent together. We released two alphas, one beta, and the Secret Neighbor v1.0 along with 8 patches. Needless to say, your help along the way was crucial. We took into consideration each and every one of your reviews. For many reasons, we do not always quickly apply what we acknowledge from your feedback. But rest assured, we're not forgetting anything, and this article goes on to our New Year’s resolutions. Or should I say the roadmap for the upcoming year? And since this list is based on your demands I’ll start with the most important ones. Here we go.
- The fight against cheating. We know how frustrating it is to see someone cheating in your game and ruining all the fun. We want you to know that we've tried various approaches to prevent the cheaters’ activity, and some solutions seem to be effective enough in combating the cheaters. The majority of these changes are scheduled for Q1, 2020.
- More content from creators to players. Since Secret Neighbor’s release, many of you have expressed their concern with regard to the lack of content. Considering this we pushed for the development of level/mod editor. This awesome tool will allow you to create your own levels and mods. Every one of you will be able to create unique new content and share it with the players around the world. So, the level/mod editor is #2 on our priority list, and the first iteration is scheduled for Q1, 2020. Besides this, new classes, items, abilities, and outfits are on the way.
- Better communication between players ==> better gameplay. Many of you expressed dissatisfaction with how comms work in Secret Neighbor. We assume the lack of simple communication tools for supporting and cheering up your teammates generates unnecessary tension in “Quick game”. We're pleased to announce the new emoji system, which is designed to help players show mutual kindness and sympathy for the sake of peace and fun.
Also, good communication can generate tonnes of unforgettable moments shared with your teammates. We believe the new ping system will facilitate the exchange of information between players, such as keys/doors location, locks color, Neighbor’s location, etc.
For the advanced players who used to spend a bunch of hours playing custom games together with friends, we’ll introduce some good tools for building small communities and picking the best players based on their rating and region. The rating system will allow you to uprate good mates and downrate the impolite or useless players. The dynamic nature of this rating will prompt the new players to achieve good karma and play in a “good league” which is a billion times better than playing with haters and trolls. ETA: Q1 - Q2, 2020. - Quality of life improvements. We believe that the sky's the limit and we’ve put together a long list of very important things we’re going to implement in 2020. Here are just a few of them: controller support, more advanced settings for Custom game, better tutorial part, new fun modes/events, etc. ETA: Q1 - Q3, 2020.
- More progression for competitive players. We’ll be introducing various tracked statistics, which will allow players to compete against each other as well as against their own personal best results. With the new progression system, you will be able to translate your gameplay and communication skills into numbers. You can share these metrics with your mates, family members, and random people for the sake of swag. ETA: Q1 - Q2, 2020.
- There is never enough optimization. This year we optimized the game a bunch, but still looking forward to providing each and every one of you with the best FPS and graphics possible. ETA: Q1 - Q4, 2020.
- New platforms. All I can say is that our schedule for 2020 is closely connected to some new platforms ;)
As I said at the beginning, it was a great year for all of us but next year looks even more exciting to me. Thank you for being such an amazing community and see you in 2020!