Chronicles of the Principii

Developers' Journal

Steady Progress

Posted on: February 14th, 2013 by T'nara the Wise

Sorry we haven’t posted a blog for a while, but the truth is, we’ve just been nose to the grindstone. So rather than say nothing at all, leaving you wondering if we’re just twiddling our thumbs, here’s a quick update.

Val and John are working on the village of Animata. It’s a steampunk-y place, and will be the setting of our next video on assembling and animating objects we call “artefactums.” Among other things, they can be used as the “breadcrumb” sources you saw in the world-building video.

We posted one screenshot of the Animata skyline earlier this week, and we’ll post a few more before we release the video. As you will see, it has a very different aesthetic than the other villages you’ve seen so far. It has a grungier, Victorian industrial feel. It is still beautiful, just in a different way.

Gordon has been working on some user interface features, so you lovely mages don’t have to put up with the developer-y interface Val and John have been dealing with. I’ve been bulletproofing the network message handling–the stuff that lets you watch other people doing magic.

And both Gordon and I have had to deal with some particularly tricky bugs this week. How crazy is it that showing some special effects would cause the code to crash when you do a particular sequence of steps an hour later?

We’ve also been working with our attorney on the terms of service and privacy policy. We can’t really move on to alpha without it.

Our web developer has installed the software to run our alpha questionnaire. We still have to get the questions in there, and generate the invitations, but it’s a step forward.

And finally, we need to migrate our mailing list to new service. Back in December, when all you folks started flocking to us and signing up for our mailing lists, we maxed out our allowed outgoing messages. I contacted our hosting service, and they bumped us up to the maximum they ever allow, and we’ve been OK for a while. But guess what? If just ten more people sign up, we’ll be maxed out again! Hence, the new service that will allow us to continue to grow.

Well that’s it for now. Nose back to the grindstone!

28 Responses

  1. Mage1 says:

    Fantastic news, can`t wait really so looking forward to some magic.

  2. Talia says:

    Is that all you’ve been doing?? That’s nothing!!

    Seriously though, we all know how much work goes into creating a masterpiece and I promise we are all fairly patient people. So don’t worry about keeping us up to date too much hun, we’ll wait in the corner quietly until you tell us that its our turn to make the magic.

    On the other hand, it is nice that you continue to keep in contact with your potential gamers. You seem to be the kinds of people who try to go the extra mile and thats a rare and special quality.

    [settles back into chosen corner and switches to pause mode]

  3. Breezy_Meadow says:

    Thank you so much for the update. It all sounds so magical!
    Happy Valentines Day

  4. Mage1 says:

    I forgot to say ,Happy Valentine to each and every one of you creating and reading.

  5. Miss_Melody_The _Temptress says:

    Thanks for the update. Happy Valentines day to you all.

  6. PANsy_the_Wallflower says:

    It’s getting closer and closer, thanks for the update and Happy <3 Day all! ^_^

  7. ElleD says:

    Thanks for keeping us posted! Happy Valentine’s Day!

  8. Lucy66 says:

    Great news! Thanks for emailing as well.

    Keep the good work up, and take care your noses do not get flat sitting too close to the grindstone. 🙂

  9. Brib Annie says:

    Thank you for the update! Try not to completely grind off your noses or you may never finish. Happy Valentines Day!

  10. Carole B Newby (Crumpet) says:

    Yeah…can’t wait…..MAGIC HERE WE COME !

  11. Ray Newby (mAAd_scientist) says:

    Looking forward to MORE…keep up the good work!

  12. Cats1524 says:

    Thank you!

  13. ~Alice~ says:

    Thank you so much for the update!

  14. Oh gosh, I absolutely cannot wait! I love hearing insight into the development aspect of things, being a developer myself. Thank you for keeping us in the know, and being so open with us! =)

  15. Rainy the Pluvious says:

    HaZaaa! Don’t forget to break once in a while!!! 🙂

  16. Sitheil says:

    Thank you so much for the update! I hope you guys take breaks to do fun stuff periodically. Remember the old saying “all work and no play..” Don’t worry, we’ll all be here waiting.

  17. Mal'akh says:

    Thank you for the update. 😀

  18. Skarlet_the_Jaded says:

    I have been my normal lurky self…and I am soooo excited to see that our time to gather is looming closer!!

    *steps back into shadow and waits*

  19. Neon Tetra says:

    Are all of us crazy Glitches making you work too hard? We are all patiently thumb twiddling in anticipation, but seriously, ….eat something, take a break put your feet up for a few minutes!We’ll be here.

  20. Ann DramaDuh says:

    Thank you for the update! But I do so wish I could visualize every task you named. Oh, well. I can’t visualize what you’re up to, and you can’t taste this delicious blueberry muffin I’m eating! Hah!

  21. PriscillaParsley says:

    Can you feel all the glitchy people breathing down your neck? 🙂

  22. Lula says:

    Thanks for the update – I am very much looking forward to seeing the results of all this insanely hard work!

  23. Baybi_Mage says:

    Love the updates!

  24. caley dunn says:

    This is exciting. I love Steampunk. *twitches* Is that Spring I see ahead?

  25. Mneme the Ephemeral says:

    *Open* *Open* *Open*

    Thank you for the update 🙂

  26. Mage says:

    Thankyou for the update.

  27. Ashley says:

    I do love that you update us, but we pretty much know that you guys are doing things other than just sitting there with a whole bunch of work to be done. We get that it will take time. But then again, it is nice to have reassurance. I cannot wait!!! 🙂 so excited!!!

  28. Louann says:

    Oh I can’t wait! I am so excited. Even if I don’t make the cut for Alpha I have got my eye out on this one. I have such High Hopes that this one is the one I have been looking for.