Hello, everyone!
This is our game development team, working tirelessly every day with one goal in mind: to present a game that is comfortable and full of fun for our esteemed players. Today, I want to share a bit about our daily work routine and some of the interesting stories and challenges we've encountered.
Recently, every member of our team has been putting in their best efforts to refine the game, constantly adjusting details and polishing every aspect. Despite our hard work, we've received quite a few critiques, especially from those who think our game is an online game, which led to some negative reviews. When we saw these comments, we couldn’t help but laugh. Calling these comments “feedback and suggestions” is a bit of a stretch—they seem more like the hasty conclusions of children playing make-believe. We highly value player feedback, but in the face of these baseless criticisms, we find them rather amusing. These baseless conclusions, which we often share during our lunch breaks for a bit of team entertainment, have only strengthened our resolve to create a great game.
However, it’s worth mentioning that we’ve also received a lot of touching support. Many players believe in us and are confident that the game will get better after the Early Access phase. Not only do they support us, but they also provide very constructive suggestions to help us improve the gameplay. We want to sincerely thank these players who have silently encouraged and supported us. Whenever we receive these emails and comments, our team discusses them in detail and takes every suggestion seriously, striving to polish the game to make it even better.
But there are also some unfair reviewers who, after playing the game for less than 10 minutes, gave it a negative review simply because it’s a MMO game with in-app purchases. Seeing these reviews is both frustrating and amusing for us. The content is so dry and lacks any valuable reference to make the game more fun. To be honest, these reviews have become our "jokes" during breaks. Rather than suggestions, they seem more like venting with bias. But that’s okay, because it’s precisely these different voices that make us more determined to polish our game, knowing that there are always players out there who truly appreciate and support us.
Speaking of stories, I have to share one about our team. To ensure that the game updates on time, we often work late into the night. A few nights ago, the youngest member of our team, Zhang, was still coding away late into the night. Suddenly, he stood up, stretched, and jokingly said, "If this game doesn’t turn out well, I’ll eat my keyboard!" Everyone burst out laughing. But in that laughter, we also saw the determination in each other’s eyes.
We have a very young programmer in our team named Xiao Lin. He hasn't been with us for long, but he's always full of enthusiasm every day. His desk is always adorned with a map of his favorite game, covered with his own notes and annotations. Xiao Lin says that the map reminds him to always keep the players' experience in mind.
One late night, when everyone else on the team had already gone home, Xiao Lin was still at his desk, staring at that map in a daze. I asked him what he was thinking about, and he smiled and said, "I’m wondering if players will be able to feel our dedication when they see these details after entering the game."
Xiao Lin’s words touched all of us. In fact, every member of our team shares his sincerity, hoping to bring the best experience to each player. We believe that a game is not just entertainment; it's a journey, an adventure of the soul. And we, the developers, are the dream builders for your journey.
We firmly believe that with this level of passion and hard work, we will create a game that satisfies all our players. So, please believe in us—our team will continue to strive to present you with a fun and excellent game. We carefully listen to every valuable suggestion, and every bit of support from you is our driving force.
August 15th marks the delivery of our first update following the EA test, and everyone is quite busy. The office is buzzing with activity, with people standing up at their desks, loudly "greeting" each other (laughs). Everyone is feeling a bit anxious and conflicted, knowing that now that we've opened EA, we need to deliver something worthy to the players who trust us. Even if it's just making the game a tiny bit better before the deadline.
For example, the Q-version character performances that need to be polished for tomorrow. Our story designer, constantly running his fingers through his thinning hair, is tweaking actions and camera angles in the engine while muttering about how the animations need to be more detailed. This, of course, means our chubby animator is forced to get busy once again.
(The new boss shown in the picture will be added to the second chapter soon, so you’ll be able to see it shortly.)
The level designer is probably the busiest person these days. After all, tomorrow’s update requires adjustments to nearly all the monsters’ attack behaviors and skill logic, as well as the combinations of maps and monster spawns. With little time left, the only option is to work overtime to get everything done. Their desk is piled high with Red Bull cans, and it's probably best to keep some distance from them right now. After all, they’re likely to get a lot of criticism tomorrow, so their mood probably won’t be great…
(The picture shows the current state within the engine—not sure if you all are interested in that.)
Additionally, our artist has been working non-stop lately to adjust and refine the early details...
It seems that some of the players who gave negative reviews thought our game was made by AI. In reality, AI only assists us with some tasks; a lot of the details still require our artists to fill in by hand. It’s really not as simple as you might think.
Lastly, our programmers are very camera-shy, so none of them are willing to participate in the logs. Maybe next time, I’ll sneak a few photos or drag one over for a picture.
Tonight, everyone is working overtime again, trying to refine as much content as possible for tomorrow’s update. We don't want to waste our hard work, nor do we want to disappoint any of the players who have joined us in this Early Access journey.
(At this moment, the office is brightly lit.)
In the future, we might share more interesting content or let our story designer talk about the stories brewing in his mind. We could also have our artist share the process of bringing characters from concept to completion...
So, this is where our first development diary ends. We look forward to more communication with you next time!
See you soon!