The 1.8 Retrospect
Hi all. I hope you had a wonderful new year! I swear I only blinked once, and it’s already 2024. It’s been more than a year since our last update for the game, and this post is evidence that we are still alive and kicking. There are still a few things left to do, but we can finally see the finish line. We aren’t yet ready to release a date, but it shouldn’t be too long now!
Since the end of version 1.7.0, we’ve been unhappy with how the game was turning out. Slowly, it was becoming a project that was steering into inevitability. Content that was too easy early game, content that only benefited the top 1% of the player base, and content that was tedious or unfun to run - all of which exacerbated the issues. Player retention for our game was at an all-time low. Seven years ago, I started this project with one of my closest friends, and over time, our excitement significantly altered the scope of the game, leading to feature creep and a lack of clear vision. All this technical debt led to a fall in quality on all fronts, leading to massive developer demotivation. By then, I decided to postpone 1.8 and 2.0 because I knew the quality will not be what we’ve come to expect out of ourselves. After the release of 1.7, we decided to go back to the drawing board for a bit to determine what could be improved.
Fast forward to today, our group, now seven developers large, learned much about what makes gamers tick. We’ve reviewed our fundamentals and started again with a clean slate. There were a lot of things we couldn’t backpedal on now that we dug our own grave, so we did our best to fit as many improvements as possible within our scope.
For our community, I wanted to share some of our current progress for 1.8. I know seeing the lack of progress for so long has been frustrating. Long-time players know that it is not our first rodeo with long updates, and I’m well aware of the circumstances. That is my burden to bear alone. But I know I’m also lucky to have a community and development team so understanding and patient that allows me to make a game that I can audibly say I’m proud of. You all are truly amazing and are the reason we can continue to walk forward.
Here’s to a new year for all of us!
To start us off, the current town will be replaced with a newer rendition; larger and full of surprises to be found. Throughout your journey, you will befriend travellers to help rebuild what is left of civilization.
The new town contains many secrets. Stories and history are waiting to be uncovered.
One of PWNED’s most vocal feedback was its lack of any coherent story. We decided to revamp the game’s narrative entirely. There are now thousands of dialogue and written texts for those who want to experience proper worldbuilding and characterization, and we hope everyone can enjoy the newly written story!
We will be adding minigames starting in 1.8. Look forward to enjoying what we have to offer!
old players will know this reference
Simulated Battles got a full rehaul. Featuring pseudo-random maps, permanent upgrades, and modifiers that affect both players and enemies. Simulated Battles is a game mode where players must progress through an infinitely scaling dungeon that gets progressively more difficult as time goes on.
Combat and skill development got a major rehaul. Customize your skills by allocating your skill points to certain modifiers that affect your skills.
We have simplified the way gear upgrading works. Trophies can now also be upgraded.
Missions no longer have hard level requirements. You can now join them at any level with minor penalties.
Conclusion
I have been intentionally vague in my above posts. The reality is that there are a lot more things to discover on your own! I’ve showcased just a few examples, and rest assured, there will be plenty of challenges for the veterans as well! Whenever the update is ready, we will drop a trailer and update the official game page to reflect it. This is us saying “Hey, get ready!” So please look out for that!
Thank you, everyone, for an amazing year, and I look forward to whatever challenge we face next!
here’s a teaser of what’s to come after 1.8 that we’re excited about and have been cooking for a looooong while!
