Hey everyone,

Some quick updates, I really have to get faster at writing these short updates. They always explode in size and take too much time..

The Site

Well I have worked a lot on getting a unity web player up and in the midst of every thing servers stopped responding :/

I am a big fan of logging now and all ways, so I have my site setup over at pingdom it checks response times and keeps track of up/down time, here is my public log. You don’t have to sign up and sorry for the name dropping, you can just use the tool on their site and it’s quite effective at finding culprits. Also I really like that I can quick check it at work without getting distracted.  As promised I’m trying to include more graphics to make the posts a little more interesting. Obviously I still need some practice :)

What I was working on before my site and host went down was S3 and CloudFront. S3 is amazons file storage and CloudFront is a Content Distribution Network(CDN). You have a main site and then a bunch of automatically updating mirror sites. When a user wants something they simply get it from the closest/best mirror, or what they call an edge location. Which honestly is a better name than “smart mirror”, but I hope it helps get the point across. This kind of technology just makes my inner nerd happy & satisfied.

Well not that anyone is playing the game yet or even knows about it, but I thought I might as well get it setup here using aws and luckily the login/sign-up worked just as before. Actually I hadn’t tried the sign-up, but hey it works. Now we just need a game! Currently there is absolutely no game mechanics or anything resembling.

In other news I have slightly adjusted the site size and gotten approved for Google AdSense. I really hope and dream that in the long haul it will help out with things like domains, hosting and data costs. If you have any preferences/ideas/comments when it comes to site size and/or commercials I’m all ears! I was thinking of keeping all ads completely/minimally out of the Play page and stick to the other pages and hopefully keep it simple and classy.

!The Game

Sorry! One of the reasons I have not been working as much on the game is because of work. 12h days and 50h weeks have totally sapped my energy. The worst part is almost that the products quality is not up to par in my opinion. And is then less likely to get the expansion and accompanying attention it deserves. I really hope it all works out in the end, but I do think it explains my heavy focus on web these last few weeks. I usually don’t love web stuff so I guess it’s not that bad that I have gotten a bunch of stuff done now instead of having to do it in the future.

Something game design related I have been bumping around my head is. Imagine to combatants approaching each other. They have classic rp Action/Movement points and initiative, but should a weapon with larger range ie. a spear make it possible to attack earlier because coming into range sooner or should all melee be the same and weapons with a greater range simply add to initiative. Does it make a difference? The first scenario seems like it would add a bigger chance of imbalance because you could theoretically have some one that’s impossible to get to because of their range. The second approach seems easier to balance, but maybe initiative is to simple a shortcut from round based games and should be cut…

Well this post exploded! In other news I’m going on a short vacation trip to Berlin with friends and bringing my new laptop, so maybe I will get some work done. At least when I get home I will be well rested and in great mood to get coding :D

Let’s end on a quote /usul

“The only way to start a blog is to pretend the audience is there, even if you think it’s zero. The truth is, your friends will come and read it. And then it’ll be your friends and some guy who lives in Cleveland.” – Jonathan Coulton, indie musician, Electronic Musician Magazine 08/2009

A new home, Dwarven Kingdoms

Dwarven Kingdoms has been chosen! the domain bought and all(2) of the old blog post moved here. This is the new and final foreseeable home for the game and I love it :D

I have been moulding over different names in my head for the past 6 months or so. Names like dwarf craft and Mine Dwarf! where long standing beta names, but where always to generic and didn’t really inspire anything in me; just a place holder and resembling dwarf fortress and mine craft to much. The name Dwarven Kingdoms has the possibility to be epic while not being over the top and with a added postfix episode name like Dwarven Kingdoms: A hero forgotten. It gives it a little depth and makes it less vague.

Look and feel.

5$ in the buzzword-jar for that one. I haven’t chosen a theme or migrated the old one because I hope I can get some help on the matter, from a friend that actually knows a thing or two about design and all that jazz.

A short list of pages I’d like for the site here:

Welcome!

The first place where new comers arrive, should contain all the basics. A trailer showing the game, a short explanation on getting started, learning more, and contributing.

Play.

A wide page with no widgets that contains the game. If you login to the site the game should check and auto login. So you can check remember me and just have a link and play the game, wham bam.

Forums.

A place for suggestions, bug reports and asynchronous banter. Forums are a must have for feedback.

Contributors.

A credits list of people and their contributions, probably also a hall of fame of great players, medals and so forth. Also the great family names of all the seasons

Blog.

A development blog containing my thoughts, ideas and a place to show case game related material. Also a place to collect thoughts from comments on what people think about my ideas and plans.

This is getting a little lengthy and I can’t quite figure out the best format for this bloggy stuff. I’ll sign off to get back to the game and promise that my next post will have some eye candy and less boring lengthy lists :)

Here are some sites I like and that I think will inspire me: RedKnightGames, Random, Basic. Any and all comments are welcome regarding anything :)

/PaulUsul