Hello again! Been quite some time since the last update, so I thought I'd try and throw down something new and special to celebrate the end of 2016.
With the forthcoming update, the Daily Dungeon Server has been completely rewritten. So let's go over what this means for the gameplay.
Ghosts
Now when you venture into the daily dungeon, you'll see ghosts of all other players currently connected to the dungeon on your floor. This is purely cosmetic, but it provides a nice level of interactivity to remove the feeling of loneliness. I want players to feel connected and capable of helping each other out, so ghosting is just the start of enhanced multiplayer features that'll be added into the game.
File Uploading
To help expand on the idea of players playing together, there's a new "Network Drive" tab on the file browser. This allows you to see any file that another user has uploaded to the Daily Dungeon server for others to adventure through. The server keeps track of the filename, filesize, and who uploaded it (by their steam name or tombstone alias).
Files don't actually get uploaded, only their metadata that's used for generating dungeons. This makes uploading dungeons and downloading them incredibly fast, clocking in at an average of less than 5kb responses.
Files uploaded by players will expire at midnight when a new daily dungeon is created, no more than 48hr after upload. This will prevent the drive from getting too cluttered.
Deploying your own server
The server code is available on github and is pretty easy to run. Just get the python dependencies through pip, and execute
python dungeon.py
By default the http port will be 8080, and tcp port 8081. You can edit the python file to change these values.
If you want other people to connect, the address and port mappings are configurable in the network tab of the Settings Pane.
General Bugfixes
I've gone through and hunted down some bugs too while I was at it. Boss fights should be a lot more stable now, and Braving should actually work.
Github
In case you haven't been following the tumblr where I discuss future plans, gameplay ideas, and general business with the game, I've been putting a lot of stuff under a github organization. On there you can grab the source code of the game from before I started integrating with Steam. You can also find the new domain for the official website, the Server code, and the new location for the issue tracker.
Future Plans
The new planned update for StoryMode will not be content oriented, but instead will be Content Manager oriented. I'm starting to run out of ideas for content and features, which means I'm finally reaching that point where I can feel safe about wrapping up early access and going full launch (of course after some more bugs are ironed out).
As such, I feel it's best for me to start leaving some more things to the community. On github you can see the start of me learning React and building up an Electron application. Once this application is done, modding the assets of StoryMode will be a breeze and less error-prone than editing the files directly. I'm hoping this becomes as much a tool valuable for you as it will be for me!
Last Note
I'd also like to mention I'll be walking around at MAGFest this weekend (Jan 5-8th). I won't be presenting in the MIVS, as I chose not to apply this year because I have other obligations that'd prevent me from manning the booth the whole time. However, if you see me or get a hold of one of my business cards, contact me on twitter and I'll send you a free key, my treat!
The patch and public server updates will both be pushed before the first day of MAGFest. Have fun, and be safe and considerate!
