🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello, everyone, and my apologies for not keeping everyone informed on 
what's been going on with DragonSpires the last few months.  But before I 
start, let me just briefly summarize what DragonSpires is, for everyone 
who may be reading about it for the first time in this post.  I'd also 
like to note that while I've crossposted this announcement to a number of 
groups, I've directed the followups into rec.games.mud.misc, so continued 
discussions won't take up any more space in other groups.

**************************************************************************

DragonSpires is a multiplayer game that combines the best features (I hope!) 
of Ultima-style games and the Internet muds.  Using custom client 
software for PC compatibles together with a custom server running on the 
net, it has high quality art, music and sound effects, while allowing 
players from all over the world to interact with each other in real time.
(Versions for other platforms than PC may be developed eventually, please 
don't ask when or even if at this time.)

Since the first alpha version went up on the net last October, we've had 
over 2200 characters registered, with people trying the game from every 
continent except Antarctica.  It's been mentioned in Computer Gaming 
World magazine, and should be listed in next month's issue of Wired in 
the Net Surf column.

DragonSpires is being developed by a team of computer game industry 
veterans.  Myself (Dr. Cat), Jeff Dee, and 'Manda Dee.  In the past, we've 
worked on such well known products as Ultima, Masters of Orion, Villains 
and Vigilantes, and Dungeons and Dragons.  We intend to eventually 
develop DragonSpires into a commercial product that we can support 
ourselves financially with as we continue to enhance it.  But for now 
it's available totally free to anyone on the net that wants to try it.

The front end software is available at ftp.eden.com in pub/dspire.  There 
are also a couple of .gif files there with sample screens & art.  WWW 
users can point their browsers to http://www.realtime.net/~gauntlet.  
Please note that the game is FAR from finished, and there aren't many 
things to do there yet.  I *will* keep adding to it as time goes on, but 
it's likely to take a while before it's a fully functional, exciting 
environment.

**************************************************************************

Ok, on to the announcements.  First of all, to show everyone that I'm 
back to working on the game (really!), I've put in a minor new feature.  
Every night, at 7PM and 10PM Eastern Standard Time, there will be a 
small, automated parade down the main street of the town.  It's not the 
most amazing thing in the world, but I hope it will amuse people.  Also, 
since there is now a scheduled event, while the game is still small I'm 
hoping that this will enable people to find others online.  Showing up 
for one of the two parades will likely be a good time to find people 
around you can chat with, try the color shop or the arena, etc.

Now, as to what's been going on the last few months!  I managed to come 
VERY close to getting a contract to fund the rest of the development of 
the game.  I had narrowed things down to two companies I was talking to, 
and actually visited both of their headquarters - one on the east coast, 
one on the west.  One of them had decided they wanted to sign a deal, and 
only needed approval from their parent company.  They also had host and 
client libraries they could provide me to convert my code over to run 
under.  These libraries already had built in error correction and other 
desirable features I haven't implemented on my own yet, and would have 
made it much easier for me to add SLIP support for the many PC owners who 
can't play the current version of the game.  Unfortunately, I decided to 
hold back on developing new features until I was able to get copies of 
these libraries and port over the current code - and of course, that 
never happened.

What BOTH companies ended up telling me was that they have too many 
projects going right now, and not enough people to handle it all.  One of 
them is just starting to expand from 25 employees to 77, having gotten 
approval for the budget to do that!  They told me that they would like to 
sign the game when they're through expanding, which will be in about 7 
months.  That's nice, but I am out of money NOW.  I've since contacted a 
few other companies, some of which have said they'd like to talk to me 
"soon".  Which means, essentially, at the Computer Game Developer's 
Conference April.  Hardly "soon" enough to put bread on the table.

So.  It looks like I'll be taking a job soon, making somebody else's 
games again as I have for the majority of my 13 years in the industry.  
I've considered some other possibilities, like selling shares in the 
game's profits to the general public, but that doesn't seem like a real 
strong alternative to me.  Please understand that this does NOT mean I am 
giving up on DragonSpires - only delaying it.  And I WILL continue to add 
to the game in my spare time while doing whatever job I take.  Two of the 
companies I've talked to about programming work have expressed strong 
interest in developing DragonSpires as an in-house project after I finish 
the work they need to hire me for right at the moment.

I am going to shift my focus, regardless of how things go.  The first 
couple of months, I was trying to get new features into the game as 
quickly as I could, so people would have new things to get excited 
about.  Now I'm going to work for a while on some larger scale elements 
of the server, rather than little things I can add quick.  Right now I'm 
starting on the message system.  Chat and email should follow shortly.  I 
also want to move to the multi-process architecture that I feel is the 
BEST way to get the game to support multiple maps.  I could do this in a 
quick-and-dirty fashion under the current server architecture, but I 
would end up throwing away all that code and writing it the better way 
later anyhow.  This way will take a little longer for people to see 
exciting developments, but uses up less of my programming time in the 
long run.

Once I have support for multiple maps, I intend to clean up the world 
editor a little and put it out there for people to experiment with.  
User-made parts of the game world are one of the big sources of appeal in 
the muds out there, and I want to be in a position to incorporate some of 
the better maps our players make, to give people a forum to show off 
their own creativity.  Once our world is bigger and more varied, THEN 
I'll probably get in some of the monsters our more bloodthirsty players 
keep clamoring for.  :X)

Note that the answer to the Frequently (constantly!) Asked Question of 
"When will feature XXX be done?" is ALWAYS "I don't know."  Which is 
short for "I don't know and if I guess I'm almost certain to be wrong as 
game programmers always are and then you might get upset with me for 
misleading you."  Also note that I reserve the right to change my mind at 
ANY time about what order I'm going to do things in, or what features I'm 
going to add.  And frequently do.

I hope this answers most of the questions that have arisen in people's 
minds about the status of the game.  As always, most bug reports and 
questions should go to gaun...@bga.com.  Offers of large amounts of 
cash, chocolate, or cute stuffed dragon toys should go to c...@eden.com.
And public discussions go in rec.games.mud.misc - at least until I get 
those DragonSpires message boards working.

See you all at the parades!

                                    -- Dr. Cat


***********************************************************************
   Dr. Cat / Dragons's Eye Productions    **  Come play DragonSpires!
********************************************  ftp.eden.com pub/dspire
 (Dragonspires is a graphic mud for PCs.) **  has everything you need!