Development continues on alpha4, it is getting pretty close now, although (as usual) I think it is a bit behind schedule at this point. I can't promise that it will be any great thing, but it will be really nice to see a cohesive game come out of all of this development after so long. The redesign project has given the game an immense amount of clarity and focus and has helped a lot.

Onto the progress. The mining section, which is the first of the 4 spheres of gameplay that I am working on for alpha4, is still not quite complete, however I have put it on hold to work on the other spheres for a while. I think the mining mechanics and skills, are probably as complex as they will be at this time, the only thing left to finish up there is creating the rest of the zone. Since there is no "respawning" in CDO, at least not the traditional respawning you are used to seeing, I need to make sure the mine is big enough that players don't storm through and get all of the resources and then be left with nothing to do.

However, I would rather have all 4 sections half complete than to have only 1 section mostly complete. Each section of gameplay plays off of each other in the economy, so they are all extremely important to have in the game. If necessary, expanding the mine can be something that happens post-release.

So I have moved onto the second sphere of gameplay - hunting. The zone for hunting is much simpler than the mine, mostly because I don't have to deal with a pesky ceiling. The zone in which hunting takes place in is more or less complete at this point; although it is lacking in graphical polish, that is something that can be fixed at a later point. The npc ai, which is easily the most important part of hunting, is currently under production. The basics of the ai are extremely simple, but should allow for a variety of behaviors, making tracking the animals fun and rewarding.

You might think that the combat engine would be the most important part of the hunting gameplay, however, this is not the case. For hunting is not about grinding out 50 kills, or trying to maximize your dps, or make sure your armor is strong enough to be able to withstand a bear clawing your face 500 times without breaking the skin. Hunting is about stalking your prey and outwitting it to either get a kill you can be proud of, or to capture a useful animal that can be put to good use.

On paper the AI seems flexible enough and easy enough to code that I don't foresee too many problems. With luck I will be able to move on to farming before too long.

Then again, the problems you don't foresee tend to be the worst...

Hello again, welcome to this week's development update. I hope you enjoy following along and hearing more details about what we are actually working on, now that there is something that we actually are doing. It's a pleasure to be able to do these updates and actually have something to say!

There is some bad news - while we were planning on spending 2 weeks on each feature in order to make sure alpha 4 was finished by September, it turns out that 2 weeks just isn't enough time to do a polished job on each section. We are aiming for something slightly more polished and complete than our previous tests, where every system is fleshed out and fun, and each feature complements the others.

At the 2 week mark, mining was fun, but far from complete. Nearly all of the planned features for the mining section were not even implemented yet. So the new plan is to spend 3 weeks on each section of the game, which puts the release sometime around October.

It is possible that the other sections are going to take less time, as development rythm picks up, and I make things easier to test, but the safest bet is that each section will take at least 3 weeks. This is one week to develop the core systems, one week to expand upon them, and one week to polish it up.

On to the good news! This is week 3 of mining, so the polish is starting to arrive. There are still a few days left before the deadline, which is good because there are still quite a few items missing, but it is coming along. My first attempt at level design was a semi failure - I ended up with a large section, but the whole thing was boring and easy to get lost. I am now redoing the whole stage from scratch, and it looks a little better.

The biggest addition of the week is the brand new skill system, where skills are treated like items, allowing you to mix and match them. The skills all apply to various mining operations, generally lowering the chances of bad things happening or making the process a little faster. This somewhat goes against my vision of "simulate, don't roll dice," as nearly all of mining is handled with dice rolls, but it's a start. The simulation is something to work towards. Still, even in this basic stage, it is a lot of fun to try to cut down the various rock types while switching out skills, and hoping that the rock doesn't blow up in your face!

Here are some screens of the new caves. You have to carry a torch, it's dark in there. And who knows what could happen if you go walking around in the dark? To make matters worse, your battery-operated torch doesn't exactly last long. Make sure to charge it up before you go too deep into the unknown depths...

Design
Progress has been made on the design, with some of the sketchy areas being filled in with more detail, and some of the undefined area being defined. There are still some major problem spots gameplay wise, but I am honing in on it.

The civilizations, cities, npcs, races, etc are still very loose. Only a few concrete examples of these things exist. I have general area names, some stylistic ideas, and some random ideas for story, but I am keeping things open.

Here is a view of the in-progress map. Note that the white area is not water.


I also have a 3d render but it looked pretty bad, so I held off on it.

For races, I am waffling between a few things. On the one hand, I would like to have humans only. It would be interesting from a world perspective, and from what I've seen humans are one of the most common choices in games that have many to offer. Do I have enough resources to have fully fleshed out races, and make all of the animations and body parts etc for all of them? Probably not.

I do know however that I am not going to be going with the cute animal crossing style that this project started with. The design goals are mostly the same, and it's not going to be going for blood in your face dark grit super realistic design, but the animal heads just don't fit.

Development
We also have started the next development phase, which is taking the design and making a concerted effort to release an alpha 4 that contains some substance to it. We have picked a decent sized area of the map to set the alpha 4 test in, and chosen which game systems to develop and test.

Not to leave you hanging, here are the game systems that will be included in one form or another:

• Hunting - outsmart animals for fun and profit
  
• Mining - brave the dangers and puzzles of the caves
  
• Farm - raise animals and crops
  
• Cook - everyone needs to eat, what would you do without cooks?
  
• Trade - trade with npcs or players for goods you may desire
  
• Skills - Without them, you will have a tough time of it
  
• Equipment/items - Gear up for action
  
• Quests/npcs - collect 'em all!
  

Those of you that have been following development very closely may notice that crafting is missing from this list. The main reason for this is that the area chosen for the current alpha test just isn't the most crafting centric area. The second reason is that the design for crafting is one of the least developed systems in the design. I have too many ideas for crafting and haven't picked one to flesh out yet.

Even without crafting, the list is a bit monstrous. But it can be done. I am dedicating two weeks maximum to each of the 4 trade skills, with the secondary systems that support those trade skills being developed when they are needed. The mining trade skill is about half complete after a week of development, so I am on schedule!

From here on until alpha 4 is finished, I will be posting weekly updates on what has been completed. Unless something goes horribly wrong, expect to see alpha 4 in September.

The design phase is going very well, much better than expected in fact! The design document is not a 500 page behemoth yet, but does at least sketch some of the game out. I will post some of this in two weeks. I have read that most games start with a design document, so to develop for 2 years and then write one is a bit odd. It does mean though, that when the design is completed, we can be much faster in putting our ideas into motion, because we have a really good starting framework to work in.

The design document itself is not that close to being finished of course. With a game as big as an mmo, this process takes a lot of time. Even with as clear of an idea as I have had about Crescent Dawn up till now, getting everything on paper and taking all of the details into consideration is no quick feat.

In addition to the design document, I am working on sketching the world out and making some maps. I am now very clear on where the game takes place, and if we have a desire to make a certain kind of area, I will know what portion of the map that area would fit into, and what kinds of things to include.

Just to get some statistics out there, Crescent Dawn will have 6 nationalities (perhaps races) which each have their own cities. Most races have one city only, as the world map is not actually that large, in real terms. In game terms however, it does cover a lot of space.

The largest city is fully fleshed out, and will consist of 11 zones. These zones are smaller than what you will find in other games, but all together it covers quite a lot of space. I am hard pressed to find another game with a city of this complexity. How well this translates to the actual game remains to be seen.

Going forward, I hope to provide some sketches or renders of what I have been working on in the next week or two. I am planning on finishing up the design process, at least as it regards to alpha4, in July, at which point development of alpha4 will resume.

I haven't yet solidified which city I will pick, but alpha4 will consist of one of the cities being fairly fleshed out, along with some of the surrounding area. I am thinking of using a planned game session model for alpha4 instead of leaving the server on, because it's so early this will let me interact with the few players better. I will try to schedule enough varied sessions that everyone who is interested will get enough chances.

I think further alphas will probably each focus on a new city as well.

Look for the alpha sometime in September, and I will continue to update progress here.

We are not dead. It may not be obvious due to the infrequency of posting, but this project is still alive, although it hangs in the balance by a couple steel threads. The last two "focus on a feature" articles have revealed at least some of the new things we want to try in Crescent Dawn, but they haven't given a clear picture of the actual game. I still plan on writing a few more "focus on a feature" articles. There are quests, combat, the social aspect, the economy, so many topics to discuss. But looking at each of those things really isn't going to convey what Crescent Dawn is.

There is a good reason we haven't so far been able to express what this game is all about. We don't know! I have finally realized this point, and when I realized it, it smacked me in the face like a wet fish. The primary reason alpha 4 is still not out after a year, is not a technical one. I have not wanted to released alpha 4 until we have a game, but I failed to realize that I don't know what that looks like at this point. Doogs has a hard time designing the world when we don't know anything about the world. I have a hard time designing features because I can't picture what it looks like. All we have are some ideals, some nice features we'd like, a decent technology base to build upon, and a severe lack of free time. We know what Crescent Dawn isn't, but not what it is.

It's time for a change.

So the game is currently undergoing a quite massive redesign process (or maybe just design process, we have done very little design up to this point). We are finding our way, clarifying goals, getting at the root of the matter, and doing tons of world building. When this is done, and we have a decent sketched out Crescent Dawn vision, we will clarify exactly what is going into alpha 4. And a lot of this new design and the alpha 4 laundry list will be revealed to you as soon as we know it. At that point we will also give a timeline for alpha 4.

The gears of Crescent Dawn have gotten rusty, so we have brought out the oil. (Crescent Dawn Online will have both gears and oil, but that's another topic.) We are fumbling around in the dark, so it's time to light a match. (Crescent dawn will have those too.) We have lost are way, and need to chart a course back to land. (Ditto.) If you have been following us, you have been scavenging on the smallest of scraps, but soon there will be a feast. (The feasts in Crescent Dawn Online will be a sight to behold.) Enough metaphors that sneakily reveal some of the future features of CDO.

We are building a foundation on which to build a great game. Ok so i suppose that could be related to the game too. Anyway, I believe that at the end of this, development will pick up, and soon enough people will actually be able to enter the world of Crescent Dawn again.