Dear Community,
It has been quite some time since you last officially heard from us. For this, we would like to extend our apologies and provide an explanation.
We are a very small team, and over the past few months, we have faced numerous obstacles that we had to overcome. These include legal disputes regarding MCS and HGS, a fire at our server provider leading to the loss of our entire project repositories, personal and health issues, as well as family-related breaks and academic commitments.
Nevertheless, within our means, we have continued to work on MCS and develop concepts. We have restructured our organization, optimized workflows, and further refined many concepts.
This has taken a lot of time and effort, which is why we decided to limit our social media presence to focus more on the development of our Mushroom Collector Simulator.
Today, we are finally able to give you an overview of the first upcoming changes to MCS.
Changes
- We have transitioned our project to Unreal Engine 5.3 to achieve even better performance, including the ability to support significantly larger maps, more detailed objects, improved graphics, and more.
- Instead of relying on specific asset packages from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, we have developed many things from scratch, making our code more modular for future feature expansions.
- A significant change is that the game will initially not feature multiplayer or co-op modes. This will be added in a free update after the initial release. The reason for this decision is that, at our current development capacity, postponing the release date significantly for a multiplayer feature would not align with the majority of players' desire for an earlier release in the single-player mode.
- "PSAlgo" may sound unusual but it isn't. It is our internally developed system that may seem unspectacular at first glance (German: Pilz-Spawn-Algorithmus / English: Mushroom Spawn Algorithm).
- As you may notice, it sounds much cooler in German than "MSAlgo," a real tongue-twister.
- This powerful tool is currently the main focus of our development, alongside the inventory system. It forms the core of our unique selling point and is the holy grail of our vision. This tool enables near-perfect mushroom spawning based on realistically accurate criteria and conditions. This ensures that a mushroom will only appear where and when it would in real life.
- Factors like season, region, recent weather, soil moisture, soil pH, existing mycelium in the vicinity, tree and plant species nearby, and many other parameters contribute to an almost perfect gaming experience.
- Despite the fun of the game, it has always been important to us to be realistic and educational.
- This means that if someone knows that in real life, a Lactarius deliciosus grows next to a pine tree under certain conditions X, Y, and Z, they are likely to find that mushroom in their in-game session when those conditions are met.
I believe I have conveyed how proud we are of this tool, and it brings me joy every day to work on this masterpiece.
Monetization
- We have revised our monetization plans. MCS will be released for approximately €20
- The Early Access price will be around €15
- The game will be supported and updated over an extended period (subject to certain conditions and metrics)
- In addition to technical improvements and events, there will be periodic DLCs, typically priced between €5 and €10, depending on their scope
- Currently in the conceptualization phase is our subscription service, which, according to the current concept, will offer:
- Creation and publication of custom areas (players will have the ability to design maps to their liking, populate them with trees, and more)
- Downloading and visiting other players' custom maps
- Monthly cosmetic content
- A reasonable XP bonus
It was important to us to ensure that despite introducing a subscription, there are no pay-to-win elements. Therefore, we are being cautious with the bonuses that such a subscription would provide.
That concludes our Developer Diary for September 2023.
We thank you for your support and wish everyone a pleasant mushroom season (if applicable).
*1 Disclaimer: As we are still in an early development and conceptual phase, all information is subject to change or may be discarded at any time.
*2 MCS Community Discord Server
*3 We are still looking for team members in various areas on a voluntary basis with the possibility of a profit-sharing agreement. If you are interested, feel free to send an unsolicited application to [email protected] or respond to our job posting in our Discord Job-Forum.