So far so good…

The closed beta went very well! You discovered some issues (nothing horrible) that will help us improve the game.

If you missed the beta and would like a chance to play the game before release, please sign up when we announce upcoming sessions on Twitter and Slack. To see the most recent version of the game in action, check out the replay from HasHe  on Twitch TV.

Here are some raw statistics about the Beta Session (duration: 3h15):

The European server had:

• 24 accounts created ( 7 backers )
• 18 game played against AI
• 12 match in One vs One

US server:

• 10 accounts created ( 3 backers )
• 8 game played against AI
• 10 game played One vs One

Here are the main issues you reported. We’ll work on fixes for each of them.

• A few players reported problems connecting to the patcher. The primary cause was that the patch server is in France and the players were far away. In a few weeks, we will deploy several patch servers around the world. This should fix the problem for everyone.
• Some players reported random disconnections, particularly during loading. It doesn’t happen often. We know how to fix this issue, but this one will take a bit longer, (see roadmap).
• One player experienced graphics issues with an entity “jumping”. This is probably due to the network latency, and the reconciliation between the game(client) and the server. The network fix should take care of this one, as well.
• A dozen “invisible” issues. These are issues that weren’t visible to users. However, we saw them in various reports and logs. For the most part, they were minor issues with (almost) no impact on the game. We will fix them along the way.

To summarize… For a first beta went really well. Thank you so much for helping us! Everything worked most of the time. None of the issues were dramatic, and we should be able to fix them soon.

More beta sessions

We are scheduling other beta testing sessions. To get announcements and invitations, follow us on Twitter & Slack.

Network rework

As expected, there were some issues with the network. One cause was the library that manages the network. It made sense when we built it a year ago. We knew it would need to be redesigned, but decided not to replace it right before the first beta so we could work more on the gameplay and graphics.

With that behind us, it’s time refine all aspects of the game, starting with the network.

This iteration is complex and will significant testing to ensure that it is robust for the next beta. So, the next version of the game probably won’t be available for several weeks. This iteration should provide a solid foundation that will improve the scalability and gameplay experience for larger numbers of users.

Server management

This first beta showed us opportunities to improve on our server management, monitoring, bug reporting, and statistics. These improvements won’t be directly visible to players, but will help us manage the infrastructure as we scale up the size and number of servers. In particular, this work will help us grab usage statistics (e.g., the use of a skill or build order) so we can make quick adjustments to balance the game.

To summarize… The next (big) update is focused on building out the technical foundation. It will take some time, but it needs to be done now, at this stage of development.  Until that update is available, all current sessions will use version 0.1.1. We will also add more game content and space-candy to the next version!