Year 2 Retrospective
It’s been two years…
…since we started discussing various ideas of what we’d like to see in an MMO during our livestreams, and acting on these ideas. It was pretty loose in those first months, but we consider Sept. 2020 a decent enough anniversary marker.
Year 1
The ideas came together pretty naturally, and there were a number of consistent themes throughout the discussions.
Having worked on both EverQuest and a number of smaller, niche MMOs, the idea of putting together a “proof of concept” with a small team didn’t seem that unreasonable. I’ve worked at a couple of companies that started in a similar manner.
This is especially the case when considering modern tools, the wealth of knowledge I was seeing in the MMO emulator communities, and our goal to keep things humble and familiar.
During this time, a few of us started talking more behind the scenes.
Nick, who came to the streams in search of PlanetSide info/history (having worked on a PS emulator himself), immediately proved to be both highly knowledgeable of the MMO space and very motivated to start assembling the ideas we were discussing.
Buny, who was the first moderator for my streams, had a pile of fun takes on lore and made the initial worldbuilding discussions a lot of fun.
Secrets introduced us to a programmer named Ali, who was known within the emulator scene, and things clicked immediately.
Design discussions and work on foundational tech began from nearly the first DMs within Discord. Some of the clips in the video above are from work that happened within days of us meeting.
We decided to continue the conversation that was started with the community during the Twitch streams by showing our work as we went.
That way, the community would be a consistent part of the process we started together, rather than just something a marketing team invokes later, when it’s time to hype the game.
This proved to be both fun, hugely insightful, and good for attracting more team members to the project over time.
We vetted our ideas and work behind the scenes with a few experienced MMO designers and programmers as we went. That way we not only confirmed decisions we were making early, but built our confidence while setting up our foundation.
During this first year, we had a few people pop onto the team to assist with different specifics, but the timing wasn’t right, and we maintained a tiny crew of 4-5 people going into Year 2.
Art, cash, etc…
We made everything from scratch in an effort to avoid looking like we were assembling an “asset-flip” project or using smoke and mirrors to prep for early crowdfunding.
Plus, since we were streaming everything as we went, we wanted things to look as obviously “placeholder’y” as possible.
That way, when we iterated through the art style, it would show in our work — and it would be obvious that it’s “ours” and heading the direction of what we envisioned for the final product.
This also made it easier for people like Ali and me to create simple art assets (RIP Capsule Critters), since our team lacked artists at the time.
We commissioned art from freelancers to help iterate on our art style, while we stayed focused on tech, tools, and design.
The rest of our cash has been spent on legal costs, software licenses, and monthly services for the most part (like this website, Slack, hosting, etc).
This means that we’ve been able to fund the project completely out of pocket for the last two years. This amounts to just over $20,000 to date.
We could have likely been way more diligent with our time, spent more, pushed harder, etc… in Year 1 (or at least, I know I could have), but as long as the community and team are happy with our pace and the results, we’re not in a rush.
It’s my belief that really special products aren’t so much created, as they are willed into being.
And as we found going into Year 2, a big part of timing is “time.”
Year 2
As we entered “Year 2” (Aug/Sept. 2021) we decided we needed to add at least one more person on the tech side to help Ali, and get a “real 3D artist” on board (despite our brilliantly animated capsules). So, we posted a notice on our website and Discord.
As mentioned above, the time that we spent streaming and building our community led to enough visibility that we had a surprising number of applications for both roles.
It was a huge compliment, and we were very impressed by the quality of folks that were (and still are) interested in helping out.
This is especially the case, given that we’re all volunteering our time (and a bit of cash) to build the Proof of Concept.
We ultimately decided to bring on two programmers (Gary & John) and two artists (Connor & Harrison). Hamad was already working with us on worldbuilding and lore by that time. And shortly afterward, we added Alexander, who had reached out to us with some really brilliant concept art.
We’ve since added Robert for audio and music, Keith on the programming (and video editing) side, and William doing animations.
In each case, we’ve been lucky to find someone that’s passionate about the genre, the classic MMO era, and the game we’re making. And, because we’ve been able to take our time, the team has been able to get to know each other and gel.
Building a team takes time. This is often underestimated.
Our new folks ramped up amazingly fast, and the velocity of our work quickly accelerated as we entered 2022 (as you can see in the videos on YouTube and the contents of our monthly updates).
We’re now closing out Year 2 and looking ahead to the next year.
There’s still a ton of work to do, but nothing has been a major surprise or hurdle to date.
Even bigger technical refactorings have happened relatively invisibly behind the scenes, allowing us to maintain a playable build from Day 1, and keep the streams going.
Moving ahead, our focus is on:
finishing out our core systems
trickling in external playtesters to gain tech & other insights, while fleshing out support services
continuing iteration on tooling, while adding content
building out design & art content
working on even more content
using the insights gathered from the above to solidify our “definition of done” for POC
play the shit out of our game
…and if everything is looking good, and you all are hyped on what we’re making…
move into Phase 2
In closing
I know that was a lot of words. Thanks for reading this far.
But, I mean, we did provide a video…
If you spot a typo, let Nick know. I’ll be camping the next two weeks.
It’s been an incredibly fast 2 years, but it’s felt uncommonly productive and special.
Hell, seeing some of the old art while making the video, is already nostalgia inducing (RIP Capsule Critters).
There’s no way we’re going to get things right the first time, each time. But one of the massive benefits of streaming our progress and being open with you, is that we’re constantly getting feedback.
You’ve been an incredible force multiplier.
The project was started with this communication in mind, and we’ve built our development approach with it in mind. We’ve been listening to you, since before this was even a project. We’ve got our vision for what this will be, but it’s been massive to get your feedback in real time.
We’re looking forward to seeing you in our streams and Discord.
Thanks for being a part of this!