Illuvium - Dev Blog #17

It’s been more than a year since the last dev blog, and while I would say that there have been other avenues for us to get out our progress updates (including launching Open Beta) I’ll take this one on the chin and say “my bad”. Originally we had a break as we were trying a new format of visual updates (which is definitely better than me rambling) but then I think at some point I justified it by saying that we’re a large team, filled with people all doing important work, so what gives me the right to speak for everyone?

But at the end of the day, that was just an excuse. The fact is that we were working very hard, and it’s tough to be going through all that and then formally report that to the community as well. Sometimes you just want a break.

You didn’t sign up for us to have breaks, though. So, we owe it to you to find a way to get the work done AND ensure you are informed. So I’m sorry for that, and going forward we will find a way to strike a balance. I’ll be talking inside the community to work out what it is that you want from our communication.

This blog is mostly a look at the public beta launch. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? I’ll also end with our plans for the future, as that is definitely the most exciting part.

Sometimes, you work on something for so long that the finish line almost feels mythical. Some distant land always over the next horizon. Illuvium has been like that. It’s our own fault, of course. With hindsight, it is clear that we extended beyond our reach and took on too much. Better game directors than me would no doubt have seen this early and cut back on the scope. However, what is missing from that criticism is that we set out to be a project owned and run by a DAO. That means all of you are effectively our bosses. When your boss is the person playing the game you’re building, you don’t want to disappoint them. Of course, we still ended up doing that, with significant delays being the main issue. But from our talks with the council and the community, it was clear that postponement was preferable to cutting features.

So we delayed, and we built. And there is no doubt that we have built a lot. We’ve built things that nobody else is building, which is often the hardest because you have no point of reference. The art in the game is no doubt of the highest quality, but it also puts strains on other departments where suddenly realism becomes expected. Just think about the animations in Minecraft as an example. They are simple, but nobody minds because it matches the overall aesthetic. We don’t have the luxury of building simplistic things with our art aesthetic. That doesn’t mean later on we won’t look at building games with different art styles. But it does mean for now it takes more time.

Having multiple games that connect to each other also put massive strains on the team. Many people work on multiple things at the same time, and it’s not easy. You have to jump from context to context throughout the day, and it takes time to get your bearings. It is especially difficult for new hires. People outside can criticise as much as they want, but criticising the work ethic of the team is not fair.

The final point, which I’m honestly not sure if we got right or wrong, was sticking to the release date. It was always going to be rushed, and oh boy, did we rush, but missing another deadline would have also been fairly catastrophic. Plus it wasn’t fair on the core contributors. They did everything they could, working weekends and late nights to get the game out. To push it back again would simply be to say “sorry but you need to crunch for another month”.

Many of us on the team are perfectionists. I don’t think we’re ever going to be ‘happy’ with the game, no matter how much we improve it. Because there’s always more to do. More ways to improve it. On a personal note, this idea of ‘not being good enough’ is something that I have struggled with my entire life. This blog is about the game, so I’ll leave it there, but I just want to give some context as to why we stuck with the date.

The positive side of this is that it allowed us better focus. We scrapped things that weren’t essential and started to streamline the workflow a lot more. This definitely increased productivity and is something we will continue with going forward. Fewer tasks…but done right. And even though we knew there were feature gaps, we made the decision to launch.

Please note that we are not saying we foresaw all the bugs. We definitely didn’t, and that’s on us. When you test internally, it’s always hard to work out how that will scale. Some of the issues were beyond our control, but IMX worked with us to fix those asap. And the team has been steadily ploughing through the rest. We’re definitely more stable now, and while I can’t guarantee that your next run will be bug free, I can guarantee you that the team are at a point where the backlog is much smaller, so any remaining issues will be dealt with swiftly.

The other point I’d like to bring up is the nature of releasing a beta. When releasing a single game, I think it’s a lot simpler for people to see the issues, but still appreciate the overall flow. It’s much clearer to know what things will look like in the future. Unfortunately for us, we’ve always believed in building an emergent world. That is, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. But when it’s not finished, it might actually be the opposite. We have systems that only really work well once the whole thing is there and functional. When they aren’t fully finished, or connected, they tend to feel sparse.

For example, a big feature in ILV: Zero is that you get to supply real value to the people who want to play the game. This is pretty novel. But if there isn’t enough demand for what you’ve got, it can be frustrating. And then any other issues just stick out more. There’s lots of things like this in Illuvium, where people are only really going to see the fulfilment of the potential once all the connections are there.

The art in the game not being optimised well enough also hurt. People want a smooth experience, and no amount of high quality graphics is going to fix that. It’s like watching a movie at the IMAX… but the sound is out of sync. We don’t want our graphics to be a net negative because they really are fantastic.

Again, nobody put a gun to our heads and said “build this” so it’s on us for these failings. And in this case I want to say specifically me. The team holds no blame in here. But we can only learn from our mistakes and continue to improve, which we are doing.

We are going to stick with the existing plan, which is as follows:

Fix bugs and optimise
Build promised features
Lower costs and increase revenue
Build the new features which take us to a non Beta state
Build new games

We’re already starting on the new features, and I’ll go into detail on a game by game basis for those that want to skip to the game(s) that interest them.

While ILV: Beyond was not part of open beta launch, it’s still worth noting that we have a new wave dropping soon, which looks gorgeous. I still think we have to make some updates for Set 2, to increase the fun factor and make our workflows more efficient, but for now, we’re sticking with it and think you’ll love the new releases.

And for those with land plots, yeah… you’ll take a cut, which was always the plan.

Note: There are some longer term ideas we are floating for Beyond to integrate it into the existing ecosystem in really exciting ways, including some unlockable rewards. They will require IIPs but look out for some discussions on this.

As above, we’re looking for more and more ways to provide value to landholders. ILV: Zero is the smallest game, and has the smallest team. We definitely underestimated how long it would take to build, and I think it’s an absolutely fair criticism to say that we didn’t build it fast enough. It definitely relied a bit too much on Johnny, and as he started to step away from his role on that team (because he had more work to do as CTO) it lost some momentum. Plus I cannot overstate how much extra work was added simply because of the fact that land holders get to share in the revenues from the other games. This was always my vision for the game. Something that could evolve into an economy like Eve Online. Had we disconnected it from the rest of the ecosystem, things would be easier, but a little bit duller (in my opinion).

Going forward, there are really only two main focuses:

Add more features that are fun, but provide value for landholders
Move to a more sustainable and flexible 3d version

ILV:Z in 3d might sound amazing on paper but just to be clear this will probably be a trade off. You won’t have the print quality renders, but you’ll also get more VFX and animations. It will also help when we decide to build extra features that could include Rangers visiting their plots.

Giving back to landholders is important, but don’t expect these to be crazy new features that almost make it a new game. We have a new game designer who is fantastic and will drive that project forward, but until we can stabilise things, the main focus is on giving value, such as training gyms which will increase the demand from Overworld players to use your services.

Only after that will we start to look at major enhancements, such as vastly increasing the fun of the build pipeline (think Factorio) or integrating crafting with Zero (to really build that connection between the two games) or using plots as a place for people to set up a home.

ILV: Overworld is the game that gives you, the Ranger, an identity. It’s where you can find a sense of belonging and know your place in our universe. At least, that has always been the goal. And that’s the major thrust of what we plan for this game. In a nutshell, our focuses are:

Massively improve the social aspect
Make runs more fun, with a stronger sense of progress
Connect you with the world through the lore
Give ways for you to have fun without doing runs

On the social side of things, the main additions are multiplayer in Sanctum Mesa, where you can really talk with people face to face. This, when combined with chat, emotes, and guilds, will make it feel more alive. We’re also doing a massive optimisation pass, so that the game runs much smoother on a much wider range of systems. This will allow new players to join who currently can’t, and it will allow existing players to have a better experience.

Runs will become more fun and interactive once we get combat into the game. It really does add to the experience and will help you bond with your Illuvials and start thinking of them as friends. We also didn’t do a very good job of giving you ways to progress. Levelling your Illuvials will be far more important in the future (which will give the minnows more of an edge), plus we plan on giving ways to permanently improve your Ranger and select a path for them that fits your personality.

New quests and content are being added all the time so that you can really start to live in the world and feel like you understand it. Being confused about what is going on might be more realistic for the situation our Rangers find themselves in, but without a way to get unconfused, it’s not that fun. There is a lot of back story (and future lore that you will play through) still to be revealed. It was not prioritised, because we had to get the game as stable and secure as possible.

Right now, the only content is to go on runs. The next steps are to let you blow off steam in ways that aren’t tied to the run itself. Some might look at this as ‘a different game’ but really it’s just an extension of Overworld that gives utility for your assets, much like Arena.

Note: there has been a lot of criticism that the game is very ‘pay to play’, and it’s been eye opening to see that mindset. The initial pitch for Overworld (at least the first core feature) was “Imagine if buying Pokemon cards gave you access to the game?”. When looked at from the perspective of buying a pack of cards and then getting a game thrown in for free, it’s good value. But most gamers don’t look at it that way. And that’s fair. We have to learn from that. Hence all the features on the way.

Probably the game with the least work required to get into a really good state, I still think there is a lot of cool things happening here that you will enjoy. The main focuses are:

Universal features:

The shared pool and shop having weapons and suits, for the Ranger to wear.
Drone Augments that alter your strategy
Item Forge
Leviathan mode with more importance to levelling and finding strong Traits
All the promised cosmetics

The point behind this is to make the different modes have a common core that allows people to quickly learn new things. If you start playing Survival (and let’s be honest, most people start with PVE) then your transition into Ascendant and Gauntlet will be smooth.

Note: If you started playing <redacted Overworld game mode> then we also think there will be a lot of commonalities to help ease you into the game. This is one of the benefits of an interconnected universe of games.

Building out the competitive scene

Leaderboards and Ratings for Gauntlet
A different way to progress in the new Survival Mode
Tournaments with prizepools

I’m a big fan of eSports, and have been since I was young. Kieran and I discussed building an eSports bar a year before starting Illuvium. So this is something I obviously want. But we need to get the game in a good state before we can do this. Don’t worry guys, the delays here are killing me more than they are you.

Finalise Gauntlet, including

Adding the universal features
Region selection, which changes the game
Competitive features (as above)
Better PVE Rounds

The last 15% is going to make all the difference. We hope to show you some new features very soon.

Overhaul Survival, including:

Adding the universal features
Rogue-like elements, such as perma boosts that you retain between runs
Infinite levels

Overhaul Ascendant*, including:

Adding the universal features
A simpler econ system
Faster games
Best 3 out of 5 for ranked

*I still think there is room for a slower paced, chess style game, but we have to focus on what is working right now.

There’s no doubt that this is undercooked. At least, that was the case at the time I started writing this blog. There are optimisations that will improve the feel massively. But the main boost is in the form of the repository part of the IlluviDex, where you can see all the details of everything in the game from Illuvials, Suits, and Weapons, to details on the regions themselves.

It’s a large undertaking but it’s worth the wait.

We’re also adding a new single digit number which gives you a very good understanding of how good the traits are for any Illuvial, Weapon, or Suit. This is a really good example of something where I needed to really listen to the feedback. When I was first asked about this, my honest reaction was that it was stupid. Because anyone who knows our system would know that in each game the traits can be different (as you’ll see soon enough in Overworld). So any number would only be relevant for a single game. And then it would get really messy. Do we make a number for every game? Do we constantly change the UI? No! The best thing to do is to just give people the traits and let them work it out.

That was my reaction, and it was wrong. People don’t have time. They want to know how good something is immediately, even if it’s a little misleading. A quick approximation is better for most people than lots of slow to read details. So if we have to do it, we have to do it. And I did it. It’s going to take about 4 days to refresh all the Illuvials, Suits, and Weapons in the system but the result will be a single number from 0-100% that is accurate in ALL games, before we even make them. No NFTs will have their traits changed by the refresh. I’ll go into details in the next blog. But thank you for those who complained (both internally and externally). It’s not good enough to say “your complaint is wrong”. Even if we don’t think it makes sense (in this case me), there is a complaint. And they are always valid. Something is causing a problem. And it’s up to us to figure out the issue and solve it.

I’d like to mention our onboarding system here, since I don’t have a better place for it. At the moment it is not good enough. We know. There are places where we dropped the ball, and other places where we don’t have the level of control we need to do what is required, but we are fixing both.

Anyone who thinks that we aren’t aware of the issues, or ignore advice, is simply wrong. In fact there have been many times we have changed things by listening to external advice even when we thought it would be an issue. Sometimes those suggestions turn out great, and sometimes they don’t. We try to collaborate as much as we can while balancing that with the sheer fact that any pivots slow things down. If we didn’t implement your idea, it might be simply because we didn’t have time. There are so many ideas I’ve had that I scrapped because we just didn’t have the time to do it.

And anyone who thinks we are going to shy away from building the game into something great, is equally wrong. As a team, we are very stubborn. We love this project. And we will make it as amazing as it can possibly be. I really feel like releasing an early version of the cinematic intro to show the difference between finished and unfinished. Illuvium is unfinished right now. And when we are done, we know you’ll be happy with it.

But most of all, I want to thank you all for your support, even the people hurling abuse and dragging our names. Passion is what will drive this project. That has been the key since the start. If you’re unhappy with us, let us know. If you’re happy with something, tell us that too.

In the end, we need to know where to focus. After all, you’re the ones shaping the project, and you deserve something great.

Illuvium - Dev Blog #17

August 2024

Open Beta Release

What “Beta” Means

Next Steps

Illuvium: Beyond

Illuvium: Zero

Illuvium: Overworld

Illuvium: Arena

IlluviDex

Final Thoughts