Development Status Update


Hi Everyone. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve posted much in the way of news or updates, and I wanted to check in real quick and bring you all up to date with what’s been going on.Among other things, E3 was last week in Los Angeles (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, one of the bigger gaming-related conference), and I was out there, briefly demoing the game on the OUYA and speaking to business partners. It was a useful trip, and while I can’t talk about most of the business discussions (under Non-Disclosure Agreements), I can say that we unexpectedly received a Gamestick device as well, and will most likely be supporting that, as Vendetta Online should “just work” on it out of the box (the Gamestick is an Android-on-console device, similar to the OUYA).I’ll drop a quick mention that we received an Oculus Rift not long before I headed to LA, and we already have a simple prototype of the game that can be played on the VR headset. Our current implementation is far from elegant, but we do intend to release support for this system after we’ve improved our UI experience a little. If you have a Rift devkit, or plan on buying the retail version, keep an eye out for the VO support; it’ll hopefully happen in the not-too-distant future.We’ve also been intensely busy in development. We had some opportunities come up in the last couple of months, to do some development for outside parties that will also help the game in various ways, particularly in graphics optimization. These opportunities provide chunks of funding that will allow us some extra time to take on larger development tasks. These funds are quite helpful, because the big gameplay development cycles tend to also have a large associated burn rate on funds.To look at this another way, I’m still targeting the same set of Kickstarter goals that I laid out in the videos back in January, but with a modified timeline, funded by a handful of brief external development deals. The result has slowed visible game development for a little while, but the payoff allows us to then focus much more intently on some of the “Big Gameplay Goals” that we know are going to take some time. In my world, “money” and “development time” are interchangeable; and since I don’t have a zillion dollar Kickstarter or other windfalls, I have to juggle other opportunities to let us evolve Vendetta Online into the experience of our dreams.We are planning some meaningful gameplay changes for the near future. There has been quite the clamoring on the forums for enhancements to capship usage, allowing Trident owners to switch to controlling turrets and such. We’ve certainly heard that loud and clear.Dynamically Conquerable Stations can expect to see continued tinkering. The turret sizes need to be increased, along with some potential gameplay improvements like a countdown at the final do