Update 0.5.3 - TL;DR

New spell: Shock
Matchmaking is closed for now
Fewer people working on Spellsworn
More financial freedom
Focus on increasing player base

Hello everybody!

This time I have some good and bad news for you.
But first of all the change log for Version 0.5.3

• NEW SPELL: Shock
  Send a burst of lightning in a straight line in front of you. Shocking the first thing it hits.
• Added effects for upgraded spells:
  [list]
• Damaging Ground
• Dimension Gate
• Chakram
• Chainhook
• Fireball
• Frostbolt
• Lockdown
• Time Anchor
  

Added Environment hit effects

Removed Halloween decorations

Closed Matchmaking temporarily (see below)

[/list]

The status of Frogsong:

We feel we should update you on who is currently working on the game more or less full time.
There is Me (Anders), Zacho, and our lovely interns Martin and Mighty. Both of whom will have flown the nest a little bit after January.
The other three are currently outsourced to other companies in order to secure funding for Frogsong and Spellsworn.

The bad news this entails is that there will mostly be us two working on Spellsworn until its completion.
This means we will have to cut some non-vital content for the complete game, or postpone the release of the final product.
We have thought long and well about this and decided to narrow down our scope and try to deliver things that got cut as free updates later.
The GOOD NEWS is that we don't need to worry about making money while we are finishing Spellsworn, and that is a HUGE weight off our shoulders.

We hope you understand and agree that this is the right decision to take.

Matchmaking closed for now

We decided to close the servers and disable the matchmaking, and we should explain why:
First there are lots of bugs hidden within that system, with servers not responding, throwing errors at players,
and generally acting up. Secondly it is a dent in our current budget, and thirdly we feel that currently it goes faster to find a game using custom games, than matchmaking.

This combined with the lack of raw manpower we want to shift focus to gameplay and match summary and things like that before
we go back to looking at the matchmaking. If you don't agree, please let us know!

The Future of Spellsworn

This year is full of challenges to overcome.
The biggest one is to get more active players, because without opponents there really is no game.
To combat this I am planning to make regular play-dates where I play the game with you on a regular basis.
More on this later.

I know this sounds dark, but it really isn't. We're still on track to finish the game, and most of the features we've cut is in the "could be nice to have"-category.
Secondly, since half the studio is outsourced, we're bringing in enough funds to extend the production if we need to!
This means more time for testing, and more time for the player-base to grow before release!


Thanks for reading this huge wall of text!
See you on the arena!

/Anders
Frogsong Studios

[ 2016-01-15 10:05:54 CET ] [Original Post]