Status update — Summer 2018
Oh hey there! It’s been a while. It’s summer here in Berlin, and while we’re having fun working on the game, most of us are also taking some well deserved breaks in one form or another; vacations, staycations, or entertaining friends and family who all love to visit Berlin in the summer — not that we’re complaining!
For that reason, progress on the game has been a little slower than usual. But that’s not to say that nothing’s happened since our last update. Let’s summarise those updates below.
Interface design
Interface design has started and already progressed significantly. Above you can see a selection of interface elements that our designer Adam has been working on. We’re all really excited with what he’s come up with so far, and excited to start implementing it. There are plenty more layouts to go, but the speed of progress so far has already exceeded expectations.
Story
Kerstin has been busy laying out the story for the game. It takes place over two acts; the first focussing on the team behind the AI, responsible for guiding it through its formative years, while the second focusses on the AI itself, as it start to develop a personality and story of its own. It’s a complicated process, as the players choices in the game often results in the story veering off into different directions, so mapping out all these forks and their consequences is no easy feat. Luckily, she’s up to the task, and what we’ve already seen excites us about what’s still to come.
Balancing
Sandra has been working on an initial set of numbers to be assigned to the different game elements. Using algorithms—and a lot of fiddling around in spreadsheets— she’s been able to generate values that should result in an enthralling experience for players as they endeavour to develop their AI. There will be a whole lot more to do when the theory meets reality, but for now we have something to work with in our prototype that is starting to resemble the real thing.
Development
Our digital prototype has progressed from a quick and dirty Unity clicker into HTML and Javascript. It’s not been quick, but it’s certainly not dirty, with the code built from the ground up to provide a solid foundation as development progresses. We’re building the front-end on the Vue.js framework, which is really well thought out and makes the development process a real pleasure. Using Sandra’s numbers, we’ve been able to reproduce our clickable process in a form that is starting to represent what our players will be soon be playing.
Budget and Timeline
One of the biggest challenges facing cryptocurrencies at the moment is the volatility in exchange rates. Unfortunately Dash isn’t immune to this phenomenon, and hasn’t been spared the continued drop in value in the crypto market since its highs in December of 2017. Consequently neither have we, seeing the value of our budget reduced to less than half of what it was when it was granted back in February 2018. So far it hasn’t impacted us too much, but it has meant that we’ve slowed things down to make the funds we do have last a little longer, in the hopes that the value of Dash will rebound in the coming months.
So what does this mean for the game? I’ll be straight up with you—we’re behind our original schedule, and not just a little bit. One of the hard lessons I’ve already learnt is that sticking to development schedules is hard enough in the best of circumstances. For this reason we’re no longer providing such specific dates for our milestones. But when it comes down to it, our latest estimate for our launch is moved into 2019. We’re committed to making the best game we’re capable of, and the fact is this is going to take us more time.
What’s next?
Interface design, Story, Balancing and Development will continue over the next months. We’ll be sure to provide updates here, but we’ve also set up a page on our website, which we’ll also periodically update as we progress through the roadmap.
As you’ll notice we have a working title: BRAINS (Get it? 😉). The emphasis there is definitely on “working”, but we were sick of calling it “Dash Game”. Don’t get too attached to it, but at least it gets a a little closer to representing the concept of the game.
As always thanks for following along. Until next time!
