EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

April 04, 2012

Go East, Young Nightwraith

Nightwraith here, delivering you some delectable design notes on this week's EpicDuel release. The ED crew is short-staffed at the moment, as I will be attending PAX East, the premiere gaming convention on the East coast and hopefully having more fun than a barrel full of fun while absorbing secret learnings from the game industry's best and brightest. Expect incessant tweets from me about various awesome things throughout the weekend!

Upgrades

Titan is wading knee-deep through the game code, updating it to Flash CS5.5. We've mentioned this happening awhile back, I'm sure, but the game has finally reached the point where CS3 is simply too limited to allow us to make forward process in developing EpicDuel. Titan is quickly moving system by system to get the game to publish in Flashplayer 11, which will (hopefully) mean a smoother gameplay experience for everyone and allow us to  gear up to building the new features you guys really care about. 

Hunt for Mods

As the flow of mod applications has slowed, we've been able to catch up to just about all the  potential mod candidates.  The process has stalled a bit since I will be out of the lab with questionable internet connectivity until Monday.  For those who have received interviews, congratulations on making it that far in the process, and sorry the process has been drawn out as long as it has.    

Artist Livestream

Log in today at 4pm server time to AQW to see J6 draw a brand spanking new weapon in-game livestream art event! While you watch, send him suggestions by replying to Alina's Twitter account, @alina_ae! The item will be put into an AQW shop after the event so you can wield what J6 has crafted!

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks to see even more livestream events from AQW artists! EpicDuel will also be streaming on our Epic Livestream Channel throughout the following weeks as we ramp up for a mysterious summer event! Oooooo!

Mission

To give you guys some time to complete the Bionic Battalion Missions and slake the thirst of those eager for more, Cinderella has added several more missions to various NPCs across Delta V.  Their rewards are succulent, so seek them out, post-haste! (After the Friday update, that is!)

Hard Knocks

A few weeks ago we conducted a Livestream Q&A featuring the entire EpicDuel development staff, and the response was overwhelming.  We talked, sung, drew, and answered questions for 3 hours and still didn't get to all of your questions!  There was one question in particular that seems to strike a chord with some, and that question was concerning our college education and what recommendations we would make for aspiring game developers seeking to expand their minds.

Based on some e-mails we received from concerned players, I am afraid that we may have come off as unsupportive of higher education, but this could not be further from the truth. After all, without college, Titan and Nightwraith never would have met and there would be no EpicDuel. Nearly everyone at AE has some form of higher education, with several having attained or in the process of pursuing advanced degrees.  Many of our Moderators are also pursuing degrees.  Most positions at major game companies require at least a Bachelor's Degree.

What we were attempting to convey in our response to the questions about higher education was a reflection on our own experiences and the value we gleaned from our own respective degree programs.  In our experience, college coursework was only a part of a much broader skill set we needed to compile in order to begin work on a project like EpicDuel.  Hundreds of hours of outside training and cold experience were needed to get the game's art and code to what it is today.  To use a gaming metaphor, if life is an RPG, you will need to do a lot of grinding in addition to the main storyline quests in order to defeat the final boss easily.

The fact remains that the video game industry is very competitive, and one cannot rely on coursework alone to secure a job in the field.   There are also many for whom college is either inaccessible, or not the best learning environment.  We would not want to close the door on game design for those without financial resources or lackluster academic records.  While there are some universities that offer specific game design programs, many of these are either very expensive or so specific in their curriculum that switching majors if interests change is nearly impossible.  A good college education can be the foundation of a great career, but it is not a guarantee.

Again, it was not our intention to steer people away from higher education, and we are sorry if you interpreted our answer as such.  The Livestream event was meant to be unscripted and candid, so perhaps we could have measured our responses more carefully and made it more clear that we were speaking only from our own experiences, and not offering blanket advice for everyone in all circumstances.  Only human, and all that.  Education, like anything in life, will yield the most benefits to those who are actively engaged in its pursuit.

Tags: Nightwraith Missions pricing CS5 programming education