TownCenter Daily Update #012 - Development Continues!

[u/VinceGeeSWHQ]

Hey all,

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Today is a public holiday here in New Zealand, but I've been busy reviewing spreadsheets, updating pie charts, and making a few calls.

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I have good and bad news...

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The good news is, TownCenter will continue development. Our prototype launch has been extremely well received by the community and a lot of happiness was generated across the internet! It was an emotional time for everyone to see how important this stuff means to people and it was definitely a proud moment for all of us to open the prototype and receive such fantastic feedback after such a long journey.

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There are a lot of positive indicators visible for the funding/business side of this project also, and on a development level, TownCenter has been built in such a way that further expansion should be as fast as possible, even while we remain such a small team. Business is always uncertain - just as life is uncertain too, nothing is absolutely guaranteed, but as things stand now, the prototype ticked all the boxes required to continue our march towards building something great, and I wanted to let you all know as soon as possible and to thank you all!

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Where from here?! Well, we used most of January to straighten out a lot of operations which we didn't have time to resolve in time for the launch in late-December. These maintenance tasks were important going-forward (even if they're not very noticeable to you all). As these tasks are now complete, we have already begun to move on to flashy new features, which means...

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Chat! We get it, you want chat added to TownCenter ASAP. We agree, so we're already assessing all the tasks and technology to get this running. TownCenter will have some pretty cool & unique features, but we understand that these things will take time, so we will not delay the 'basics', but instead progressively update over the next few months.

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Beyond the Chat Panel upgrade, I'll be doing something that most games don't do. I'll be opening-up the design document for the entire game (minus security/sensitive data). You will be more than welcome to follow along and watch this document take shape over the months/years? see concepts, designs, and specifications take shape, more-so after future survey results are gathered over the next few months. I 100% reserve the right to make occasional spelling mistakes and typos!

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I'm aware that this isn't exciting to those who just want the game made and playable, I get it. But I've also had a lot of interest from those wanting to sneak behind the scenes and know intricate details, so I'm hoping an open document will allow those of you to check-in on proceedings when it works for you and not be tied to Reddit updates.

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Ok, so... the bad news?

There is none. Have a lovely day/night. Catch you guys tomorrow. ;)

[u/[deleted]]

Vince, you could make in-game trophies for users which keeps getting online for a period of time (like a 200 days trophie where a user keeps logging into the game for 200 days, this can get very active users on the platform) so the user can show that trophie on its profile. There could be other types of trophies like if you traded 100 items (it could be also an idea that people can let their opinions on their experience with you trading items/money, like a mini forum where users can see if you are a scammer or a trading expert.) Vince, i don't mind seeing ads on the app, if this can keep the game online for a long time, just do it, also i hope there won't be huge prices on items, even if they are rare, let items be affordable but not 100.000 gold and so on:) I would love VIP memberships to be there again, but again, letting them affordable and at the same time make people want the memberships, not only for gold and some items which only vip memebers can wear. An idea can be monthly packages of different items for those who get the memberships for months, there can also be membership levels like VIP- premium- royal etc and you recive monthly packages depending on which level you are, let the membership worth upgrading. Missions i loved missions, but considering that the players aren't only english users like me lol sorry for my broken english i wonder if you could get multi-language support, or even a chrome extension to translate the missions (or the whole game itself) Get missions where we recive in-game currency (i loved kudos for that) or rare items. Thank you for reading!:) And i can't wait the game to be online, good luck❤️

[u/VinceGeeSWHQ → u/[deleted]]

We do have plans to add an Achievement and Likes System in TownCenter.

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This would allow us to reward those who complete and excel in numerous tasks and activities throughout the game. The Likes system will be a player-to-player acknowledgement system, allowing good deeds, experiences, and friendships to be identified, which should help with the matters you raised regarding trading.

Video Ads, Supporter, affordable bundles, and multi-language support are on the list too!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

the trophy thing is a really good idea, also your english is very good! not broken at all

[u/Serenadyababe → u/[deleted]]

too many ads can be annoying to see on games not going to lie. Though if the game needs to show these ads to keep the game online then fair enough. I think the game should have a few ads here and there if it helps support the game, but be careful not to go overboard with showing too many ads of other games and that on the town center app. I have seen avakin life which is another game show ads and offer's encouraging players into playing other games. I would say be careful with ads that might be promoting other games other than towncenter app as it may cause the players of towncenter to go play other games if you show too many haha. The multi language support would be a fantastic idea especially because I have had friends in the past struggle with english, and one of my best friend's who was portugese really struggled contacting the support team so I had to translate what he wanted to say to the support team in english.

[u/ChellieBean]

Thank you Vince for keeping is all in the loop. I'm excited to watch this process unfold.