I have some news for you about how developing goes
We had some break due en exams on studies, but now we are developing Arenas with double power
I want to give you some information about what we finished lately and our thought about the project.
Extended skill matching - completed
We have finally completed one of the core functions of the project - skill matching. It was a very hard part to complete since we had to decide what should our primary goal in match making is: should we primary focus on the time of matching or the skill of players. Should we wait a little longer to have matches with players on similar level or focus on fast players matching. Skill matching is a very important part of our engine. To increase the enjoy of the game, we need to place players in the matches with players on the similar level, however, this process can't last too long. You don't want to wait 5 minutes for a game or play a game with someone who is a way better then you or someone who just started playing arenas. We had to find a way to balance it. After a brainstorming with other developers of the project, we found a perfect way to go. We decided to create an algorithm which primmary goal will be finding a match for players on the most possible accurate skill level, however during the process, if it can't find a match on the similar skill-level, it will start matching a players on less accurate level, on the end it will simply match any eight available players.
Skill matching - what did we have to take care of?
Skill matching would be easy to project and program if we had only single players in the matching queue. However, this is a team game and we have to allow full teams or duos (2 players) to join the queue. That's right! You will be able to play a game with your friends in the same team
We think that players who plays with a partner or full team will present a higher skill level. Mostly such players will communicate with each other using a voice programm like skype, team speak, ventrilo or simply will sit near each other. Because of that their actions will be more coordinated which will significantly higher their skill-level as a team. We decided to prioritize matching teams with other teams. If you play with your partner or a team you will mostly find yourself in a match against other team rather then four players who don't really know each other.
Runes - should we implement autopicking them?
We want to create a game which will be very dynamic. As you propably know, there will be some spawns of the runes on the map, which will force players to move around them and fight. If one team decides to not go to the primary spot, which is in the middle of the map and where the most powerful runes spawns, then the second team will gain advantage - they've just picked a free powerful rune without losing a hp/mana. We asked ourselves a question. Should we keep Tibia like picking items (drag&drop) or should we enable autopicking runes when you stand on them. We decided that auto-picking will be best possible way. Why?
You move on the map using combination of WSAD and you have your mouse pointed on your teammate/opponent to eventually shoot a rune. You don't keep your mouse-pointer on yourself. If we would decide to keep a tibia-like picking, a player would have to move the mouse-pointer on themselves to drap&drop rune to his backpack, then move it back to the right for him position - usually on the part of the map where simply something happens. It takes precious seconds. We decided that we should mainly focus players on fighting. Autopicking is also more dynamic. However, we will keep drag&dropping runes from ground - it may be used as a skill. Imagine a situation where you run for a very important rune with your opponent. You know that he will be faster on the spot where rune spawns, so you decide to prevent it by drag&dropping it instead of waiting some miliseconds to pick them. If your oppenents decides to not drag&drop it to the position where he will securely pick it, then he will lose it.
This function may sometimes decide about winning or losing a game - we will definitely keep it in game
What are we working currentle on, and when the beta-tests will begin?
We are currently working on profession/class chosing. On arenas you simply create a character and you decide before a game what profession/class you want to play. We wanted to run beta-tests last weekend however, we decided that this functionality is a must-be in a beta tests. We are having plans to run it in the middle of a next week. Of course I will inform you about it and I will post here on otland some beta testing keys which will allow you to create an account and test Arenas
Here are some sneak previews:
I decided to write something about our thoughts how to build a new game. How to build a successful game. Game developers may find it interesting to read because I bring up developing and mental subjects on the board. I find these informations very valuable. Have fun reading
Game types - a path from casual to pro player
Arenas will be a new game. You may have some PVP experience which will make you a better players since the beginning, however you will have to get to know this game. It's mechanisms, how to play to be unkillable machine, how to co-operate with teammates. We had to ask ourselves a question, what makes a game a sucessful one? Lets take a look on football. What makes it fun to watch for us but not for our girlfriends? We have all played it. We are all casual players, we play from time to time on different skill level. From us, from casual players, a pro players borns. Pro players - a players who mastered a game, from whom we copy our movements, a players who we observe to work on our own skill. We love football cause the rules are simply and it's fun to play. We don't need a material gratification to play it, we play it cause we all love this feeling when you score a goal or play as a defender and perfectly guard your gate.
There are always two types of players: casual and pro players. As a casual player you play for fun, you play because you love a game. You don't have to be the best, you simply love it. Playing it makes you happy. You are starting to spend more and more time on the game. You mastered some movements, you know when you can initiate a fight, what rune combo to use to get a kill, how to move across the map. You started looking into your opponents minds. You can estimate your opponents agression level, you can predict his movements and adapt to your opponents playstyle to use it against him. Congratulations. You are now a PRO player. You will play against a players like you. A small mistake may decide about winning or losing a game. You will find it sometimes frustrating however, becoming the best player in the world will keep popping in your mind. You will ocassionaly play a games with pro players on lower levels or casual players. You will see a huge gap between your and their skilllevel, about how you treat this game, and how they do it. Of course you will have a great results against such players but... you will find it boring. You will want to play against the best players possible. You will start having first fans, people who wants to learn from you, who wants you to teach them. You will start becoming a friends with people like you. Normal guys who loves playing and competiting. Competition - it's a keyword for a pro player. Welcome to the pro-players madness. Something which keeps us in a game and can't let us leave it. The game became a lifestyle. I write it as a programmer who understands it, as a player who is addicted to moba games, a half-professional dota player (vice-championship in my country) and former top200 LOL player. This experience helped me to understand our own mental mechanisms beyond what we do. This also helped us to create a best possible environment for casual and pro players.
We will seperate pro players from casual ones. Casual players will be rewarded for simply playing a game. On arenas you start on 1 level, you can get up to 15 levels which gives you more opportunities. This is a "casual" time. In this time as a game-developer you can't punish your players for playing a game. You can only award them for trying. If they lose, you award them less, if they win, you award them more. You have to understand that you can't discourage them - they may quit your game then! When they advance to the highest possible level, they may keep being a casual players or move one step forward and start playing on professional level. They can start playing ranked games. This level awards you for winning a games but punishes you for losing them. Of course we are talking about your ELO rating which will be increased when you win and lowered when you lose a game. Since professional players loves competition this is something perfect for them.
You may find in our project a lot of similarities to League of Legends. I find this game the most user-friendly game ever. They created a game on unbelievable high level and merged the greatest ideas from all other games. A synonymous word for League of Legends is perfection. If you want to create something good, you have to learn from the best.
