Podcast Ep16: Preparing for Steam

 Key of the Exiles, NEStalgia, Patches
Nov 262013
 

It’s been a long, long time since we’ve recorded a podcast, but part of our goal as we move development ahead at full throttle is to increase the frequency of blog posts and updates about what’s going on behind the scenes.

NEStalgia Official Podcast

Click the image to check out the Podcast on iTunes. We can also be found in the iOS Podcast App, just search ‘Silk Games NEStalgia’

Today’s podcast is a meaty one, clocking in at 42 minutes. On this episode of the podcast Balzack and I discuss the Pre-Steam Fundraiser, details of the Steam launch, an ordered priority list of what’s next for the game in terms of short-term updates, and some branded new information about the content expansion. We also preview one of the new music tracks that was recently composed for the game.

If you have questions or feedback about the podcast then please leave us a comment on this blog post. It’s really up to you guys as to whether or not we keep doing these podcasts – if you’re interested in hearing more podcasts on a more regular basis then let us know.

NEStalgia Pre-Steam Fundraiser

 NEStalgia, Site News
Nov 222013
 

8bitcoinAmid all of the craziness of trying to get the game ready for Steam, one of the road blocks that I’m currently running into is a shortage of available funds for development. Part of that stems from putting aside projects that actually pay the bills in order to work on NEStalgia (which doesn’t yet pay the bills)… but also because there are a lot of pre-release expenses piling up.

Many of you have been incredibly generous with donations to our cause in the form of gift subscriptions or the purchase of custom guild capes in the past. I’m always receiving requests from players who are interested in paying for other types of vanity items, but I didn’t want things to get micro-transactiony.

So, in what will hopefully be a win-win for everybody involved, I’m going to offer several different types of new vanity items, customization options, etc. for a very limited time. By “very limited time” I mean just a couple weeks, and that it will be the only time I’m ever going to do this. It is essentially a Kickstarter campaign, and if you want to make your mark on the game before it hits Steam, then now is your chance.

halloweenpack itemname maskpack

Like the custom guild capes that we’ve offered before, none of the stuff on sale here is going to give anyone a gameplay advantage. Players who don’t donate during this fundraising campaign won’t be negatively impacted in any way (though they will see some new masks/dyes/costumes on other players that aren’t yet accessible).

I’ve come up with the usual list of Kickstarter-esque donation options, but if you think of a cool option that isn’t on this list, then please share it in the comments. I’ve re-purposed the Put NEStalgia On Steam website for use in this fundraising campaign, so simply go to PutNEStalgiaOnSteam.com to check it out the list:

Put NEStalgia On Steam .com

Every donation helps and is greatly appreciated. Anyone who donates during this fundraising campaign will have their name permanently placed on a list of contributors in the game, and will be given full access to the eventual Key of the Exiles closed beta test.

The NEStalgia Pre-Steam Fundraiser starts right now and will end December 4th. As I said above, I won’t be extending this campaign nor offering anything like it ever again. Because we don’t have any sort of micro-transaction mechanism in the game, all of these items will need to be distributed manually, which we’ll work to do as quickly as possible. Thanks everyone!

v1.67.3 Patch and More Steam News

 NEStalgia, Patches
Nov 202013
 

The  v1.67.3 update went live on all servers earlier today. This patch added a couple cool features (overworld hotkeys!) and streamlined the game’s interface a bit.  All of these changes are related to NEStalgia’s upcoming launch on Steam as we scramble to get the game ready for wide-scale distribution.

The new v1.67.3 Interface

The new v1.67.3 Interface

About that Steam launch… Here is a small taste of what’s been going on behind the scenes for the past couple months:

  • Spiff (tenkuu) addressed a mountain of backlogged NEStalgia bug reports (among lots of other things).
  • Tom and Lummox JR of BYOND have been working to integrate the Steam API into the BYOND engine, and to provide us with some new features to aid in the release.
  • Mikau has been helping to code a new version of the standalone client that will allow players to filter and search the potentially large lists of diverse servers that we might see.
  • Balzack has completely taken over community management and customer service duties (emails sent to team@silkgames.com now actually get replied to!), and has been recruiting and training a bunch of new moderators to handle the influx from the Steam launch.
  • We’ve had composers both new and old working on composing many new original music tracks for the game. Every single piece of music in the game has been remixed, and many of the less impressive tracks have been outright replaced. I can’t wait for all of you to hear the new music (it should be going live within a week).
  • I’ve been managing all of this stuff and working on small updates like v1.67.3 as well as the Key of the Exiles expansion content.

I know that many of you  aren’t planning to return until the Key of the Exiles expansion releases (which is exactly what I’d be waiting for as well). Although Key of the Exiles will not be finished in time for the initial Steam launch, it will be posted as a free update to the game as soon as it is ready. What will be happening, however, are some major changes to our distribution model. As I mentioned in the last blog post, players are going to be able to host their own private single player or multiplayer servers, as well as their own large-scale dedicated servers. All of that will be on top of a large line up of “Official” dedicated servers hosted and maintained by Silk Games.

v1.67.3 Overworld Hotkeys v1.67.3 Achievements

One big change that is going to take effect today is that subscriptions are now $15 flat. We’re doing away with the term “subscription” in general – from this point forward you’ve either purchased the game, or you haven’t. Anyone who has a previous time-based subscription (6 months or 1 year) that had time left on it as of the date of this post has had their subscription automatically upgraded.

Our hope is to release the new standalone version of the game that players can host themselves within a week. That will give us a bit of time to test it and get your feedback before we launch on Steam. As far as the Steam launch itself goes, we don’t yet have a specific date nailed down. We’re pushing hard for early December, so we’ll see if the Valve Gods smile favorably upon us.

A beta build of the new standalone client...

A beta build of the new standalone client…

Tomorrow I’ll be back with another blog post to talk about something big that all of you can help us with as we ramp up for the Steam release. Thank you so much for all of your support so far – we’ll continue working hard to deliver.