Hi guys!

It has been a while since my last post here, and I wanted to reassure you. I have seen lots of people throwing "dead game" or stuff like that on the forum, and I wanted to ensure you that it's not the case at all.

So, I'm here to tell you what I think, what I'm doing, and what I expect from the next few months.

At the moment of course, the servers are empty and I am not very talkative by nature about what I'm doing (even if you can follow a bit on Trello) but this situation doesn't scare me. I prefer the game to be at low speed while it is not really functionnal, than spending time trying to bring people in knowing that they will probably be disappointed by the current issues and the lack of updates.

I have been working hard on H2o during the past six months even if I didn't release any update during this time, and, to be honest, even if I had some motivation failings sometimes, for personal matters. These are sorted now but I cannot hide it to you either, it happens I guess, but that's not the point of what I want to say here.
Actually, I figured out that, as I'm working alone, making small updates every month wasn't the good way for me to work efficiently on the game. I did that way during the first months that followed the release of the early access and it only allowed me to fix some little bugs and to add only a few gameplay oriented features.

To be more precise, I have spent a long time re-writing a huge part of the code.
Some of you had suggested it, the network communication I used was really messy and, let's say it, pretty bad. The hackers had open doors to go through and some network calls were even lost, constant spikes, lags...
I chose to spend the time it would take to switch for an autoritative server pattern, and I am at this moment very close to have a version ready for testing.

Well, that's something.
But with this update, I want to create something more, something worth the time it took, and I perfectly understand that it is very annoying to wait this long with almost no news or no thrilling pictures to turn the frustration into exaltation. But my position on this is that, it doesn't really matter how long it takes to have something good.
I think that if an update comes (even lately) and brings the whole game to the next level, everybody will be happy to enjoy a new experience, stabler and more fun.

Working on the code is pretty boring, even for me, because it doesn't make the game look very different, so far. But it was a necessary step if I wanted to really handle the current issues of the game.
Once this is completed and tested, I think I will spend some more time upgrading the gameplay itself and with this I can hope to show you real and exciting changes in the game.
As usual you can take a look at the trello page to know precisely what I can be talking about.

It is clear to me that H2o is, at this moment, very under-exploited.
So many amazing things could be done, and I want to bring it much more further than it is. It only takes time. Actually, I think you will agree with me if I say that... it takes too much time. And you're totally right to think so.

My current plan concerning the future of H2o is to be able to hire a team to work with me. I'm very confident that if we were something like 5 guys working actively on it (code, 3D modeling, level design and so on), this game could become a real blast, but at the moment I cannot afford it.
My goal is to reach this stage with the next few updates, and to achieve that, I needed to change my strategy, as I just told you, taking the time to make real changes.

Finally, I wanted to say that I am sorry for those who lost faith in the game, and therefore me. But the main point of this message is to say that.. I did not give up.
And I hope I will be able to make you enjoy H2o again in the near future.

Also, a big thank you to all the people that sent me encouraging messages during the past months, you were so many telling me to keep going, that you were waiting for me, that you loved the game and hoped to see it shining bright again, that I could take my time and make something good... And it really helped me to keep faith myself, and it kicked my ass up to work hard again. Everybody pushed me forward, motivated me, and I think it's for a good reason.
A last thank you to my four admins who never failed me, even during my lost times.

Love you guys.

I will be back for another news with more precise and exciting stuff to show you as soon as it is technically possible. During this time, just stay patient, I'm doing my best on this. The game has been good for many people once, there is no reason I could not do it again.
It's only a matter of time.

Take care guys, don't give up just like I do, and have a great day! :)


Remember you can follow the development and take part of it on Trello