Life at an underground game company.
Posts tagged Forums
Fifty.
01 year ago
I have been quite busy as of late. Between resume vetting, working on some web re-organization and generally taking some time to regroup….I have barely had time to do much anything else. When I get busy, the blog goes silent. That’s going to change a bit as time goes on. More of the crew here at Double Cluepon will begin writing posts here and there. Nova, our CR Vixen will also be getting in here soon to keep things rolling, and keep things tidy.
So, for the fiftieth post, I just wanted to give you some updates as to what is going down here at Double Cluepon.
While we will be mostly interviewing this week, having collected a massive number of resume’s last week…it’s still not too late to submit a resume and portfolio to us. We have gotten so many folks sending us credentials it’s very overwhelming. We wish we could bring all of them in, but we just do not have the resources. However, one of the things we are considering is some kind of intern program. We think it might be helpful to some of these folks to still hang around a game studio. Especially an indie studio.
- WireWorks, our first game, fared much better than we initially hoped.
It sounds weird, but all of us felt WireWorks had a chance to not do as well as it did. We never expected it to hit four stars. (The version of WireWorks that is going into Emerald Kingdom will be far more polished) Despite that, it did a lot better than we hoped. It came out of the gate, and for our first ever product, it beat the Average, hovering around 3 stars, or just under. Not bad for our first try! Especially in a world of hundreds of thousands of flash games. We learned a great deal from its reception. We also learned where we failed, and what needs improvement. We are already putting some of these things into new policies as we move forward with Emerald Kingdom. Even so, everyone we spoke to directly in some way loved WireWorks, and we are quite proud of our debut product.
- We are currently working on revamping our web presence.
Be on the lookout, we are in the process of putting together a new unified web presence, with a uniform interface so things are easier to navigate. We are doing this now, while we have some time during the spin down of WireWorks development, and during our star search for a new artist.
- We have opened our forums, and have also posted some details about some major features you will find in Emerald Kingdom.
You can find our forums here. More to the point…the forums are the place to mingle and hobnob with us folks at Double Cluepon. We read them all the time, and may from time to time answer direct questions. If you want to get more direct with us about Emerald Kingdom…the forums are the place to do so.
- Twin Perennial is now in production.
We do not have a release date for the debut. However what we can tell you is this: the story outline is done, the script production cycle is now been started, and it is in full production. What is Twin Perennial? It’s a web comic which is based on the characters and world of Emerald Kingdom. While many of the main characters will appear, it will “key” in on two very important major characters. The sisters Paranoia and Confusia. Twin Perennial will serve to introduce the world, concepts and characters of Emerald Kingdom. We have not mentioned her in awhile, mainly cause she has been busy with her own gigs in addition to helping to develop the strip…but you should definitely check out Joan Varitek. You should also check out her etsy store. We love Joan. Greatly. In that platonic kind of kindred type of love. Not the prison type of love. Also, banana’s.
So, in closing…things are busy, yes. Not as busy as they are going to get very soon. I really want to see some of the kids walking around the world already.
Ja Mata!
Full Speed Ahead:Emerald Kingdom
01 year ago
With WireWorks out in the wild, the time has come to move full speed ahead on our main objective: Emerald Kingdom. Doing a persistent, multiplayer world with new features not found in every other MMORPG has always been our primary goal. WireWorks was necessary to help us get our bearings, and figure out workflow, process and design. While we are still learning new things in these regards, WireWorks has gone a long way to solidifying how we work as a group.
That being said, we have a couple official announcements. We are beginning to build some infrastructure on the emeraldkingdom.com domain:
- The main site, www.emeraldkingdom.com is up, active and operational.
There is not much there at the moment. Mainly links of interest for now. We are working on applying a uniform styling and UI across emeraldkingdom.com, as well as doublecluepon.com. However, it is a place you should bookmark, and keep tabs on.
- We have opened up the Emerald Kingdom forums for public use.
It may seem like a jump of the gun, but the bottom line is development, while already brisk and moving quickly, is about to get another shot in the arm. That said, we want to start opening up a bit more, and being more discussion oriented. Another reason is, as WireWorks will be a part of Emerald Kingdom, we will be offering support for it there.
We also want to continue in our tradition of being “open” about how and why we do things, letting people who follow us have a window into our designs and work. While we cannot be everything to everyone, we want to stay true to our mission: creating things which do not suck, and eating our own dog food. We realize we could just disappear for months on end and then show back up when we have something in the can. To a lot of game developers, this may be the norm. For us, we see that from our perspective as leaving out the most important part of the equation: the players.
A big part of continuing this “Open” methodology is the Emerald Kingdom forums. Later today, I will be starting a thread which will outline some of the basic features being planned for Emerald Kingdom v1.0. If you want to know what the plan is, and where we are taking this…the forums will be the first place you should look. But we want you to do more than look. We want you to poke Double Cluepon. We want you to ask questions, make suggestions, and take up our invitation to look through the window into what we are doing.
Next stop on this train is Emerald Kingdom.
All aboard.
Double Cluepon Announces: Official Licensee for Webcomic and Related Merchandise
02 years ago
The ink has dried!
Joan Varitek (web/blog/deviantart/twitter) has signed an exclusive licensing contract with Double Cluepon Software. She is a highly talented artist and illustrator, and she will be producing a web-comic based on the story and characters of Emerald Kingdom. In addition, we will be promoting her work in general, (because, her regular non Double Cluepon work is freaking awesome too! ) and she will be cross promoting Emerald Kingdom and it’s associated games.
The web comic will cover the topic of Confusia and Paranoia. Two of the major NPC’s. She will also be producing a one off comic story, which will allow the players to get into Emerald Kingdom’s rich story and characters. It will be from there that you will start to learn about Kerix, and Avatea….Beatrice and Phenix. It will let you get to know The Sprites, because after all…you will be playing in a world where they live. You will also have the opportunity to get information from the comics that may lead you to interesting things within the game. That’s right: by reading the comic, you can get game information and clues to activities not available elsewhere.
But Joan is more than just a one trick pony. She will also be producing anything from prints to books based on the licensed IP. So be on the lookout for it. She has our full support, and we have every confidence in her ability to do great things with our kids. She “gets it”, and is on board all the way…we selected her because she meshed so well with our people…and her style is simply awesome. We can’t wait to see our Emerald Kingdom family start to come alive at the stroke of her pen.
So, be sure to check out and bookmark her sites. She is an official licensee, and official promoter for Double Cluepon. Thus: she is an official channel of information. You can see her announcement here.
Joan Varitek:
Website: http://www.joanvaritek.com
Deviant Art Page: http://calliope52.deviantart.com/
Blog: http://pinkopigtails.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pinkopigtails
Now, onto other news:
Wire Works Screenshot.
The name of the first quickplay has been chosen: Wire Works. It’s about 75% complete, and will be coming soon to a screen near you. You will want to be careful when playing it, or you may be liable to make Elphie angry:
Angry Elphie is Angry.
Needless to say, this is not something you will want. Yay for negative reinforcement. Wire Works should be hitting internal alpha testing in a few weeks. Once it’s tested, and ready for release, it will be posted on emeraldkingdom.com, which is having the final touches put on it before being published.
Some of the things you will see on emeraldkingdom.com:
- Forums will be opened to the public.
- Official Releases.
- Beta Sign up.
- Some of the comic content alluded to earlier.
- We will be releasing a feature list at that time. (Although, we would like to get it out sooner.)
Needless to say, we have been busy little cluepon dispensers. So, keep an eye out. There is plenty more to come. We have only just started lighting things up. This week, all the conceptual art will be completed. As we complete artwork, some of it will be posted. So, keep a keen eye out for artwork.
Community is important.
02 years ago
Community is one of the key elements in any released game. A solid community where players participate to do things such as help out others, and keep track of the little bits of history here and there, not to mention report bugs…well, there really is no substitute for that. One of the things I have been investing some serious time in is designing the key bits that will help tie a strong community together. Forums, Policies, etc.
One of the things I am hell bent on doing in the next few months, is putting a community manager into place. Someone who be the first impression for all the people who come to eat at our establishment. This person will not be a nursemaid, or a tyrant…it will be someone who helps us help you. By keeping the community rolling, and being a buffer and more importantly a pass through for information. The developers, the artist, the writers…they all need user input. But it has to be filtered to some effect. If it was not, we will spend all our time answering questions in a forum, and not enough time working on the game itself.
One of the big things we will be looking for is user participation. We want to create a system where vets can help (not school) new folks. We want a system that hopefully sets a baseline for respectful interaction. I know, we are asking for alot. But, while I do not think we can achieve a utopia…I do believe we can achieve a pretty peaceful and respectful community without a lot of fuss. There are plenty of examples out there, of communities that operate like this.
So, look for more community elements coming. We are working hard to bring them into place. Because by establishing a good and solid community, Emerald Kingdom, and in turn, Double Cluepon will be around for years to come. =)
