GoIO Post-Mortem – Part IV: Through the Storm
Releasing a game that we’ve worked on for over 2 years should be a cause for joy and celebration. For us, it turned out to be the biggest crisis we’ve ever faced. Leading up to release, positive and supportive articles, previews, and videos by journalists and casters gave the game some momentum. Our Kickstarter backers and alpha players were also incredible at helping us test, fix issues, and get the word out. Later in beta (when people could pre-order) and when the game went live, it reached #2 in Indie and #7 overall on Steam. I took a screenshot and savored for a brief moment. Then disaster struck, literally. Survival was once again on the line. (more…)
Weekly Progress Report 5/30/2014
Friday is here and it means we get to tell you about our week and hang out with you on Twitch! This week will also have a special guest, Dan from the Rob and Dan show, who is excited to talk about the Hephaestus tournament. The new premier Guns of Icarus event happening this weekend!
As always catch us at twitch.tv/gunsoficarus to talk to us live, ask questions, and press us for details of upcoming features.
Team weekly breakdown after the jump (more…)
A free item and an explanation.
We wanted to reach out and let everyone know what has been happening recently with some server and lag issues.
There are three issues and we wanted to let you know exactly what we’re experiencing and how that affects what you’re experiencing.
The first and most drastic was our server hosting situation. For the past two weekends Softlayer, the hosting company that we use, have experienced outbursts that have caused issues (such as game drops and disconnects, slow time, games not starting) that have ruined complete matches. These issues were one off issues and they did not persist. Once we discovered them, we’ve been taking them offline and getting our hosting company to fix them asap. While we do not directly control these servers, we deeply apologize and we are talking to the hosting company demanding better for you, our players.
The second is a scattering of bugs from hit markers not appearing to teleporting or not respawning while falling off the ship. These are bugs on our end and we are 100% focused on squashing these asap.
The third is a fps drop caused by flamethrowers. As flamethrowers became more in use after the last update, the fps drops caused by flamethrowers were more glaring. This is something we’ve seen crop up and know many players have experienced. We want to make sure you know this is something we are looking to optimize so our players do not suffer from avoidable fps drops.
We deeply apologize that many players’ first experiences of Guns of Icarus had to be marred by these issues and apologize to our vets who wanted a simple and fun weekend of dirigible demolition.
As always we will do our best to give you the best game experience possible and if we fail that we will be as open and honest about the reason why. Also, we want to do something about the trouble we’ve caused. So for every player who signs into Guns of Icarus before next Monday will receive a free Revolutionary costume, both male and female. If you already bought the revolutionary costume, please send an email to GreyT@musegames.com and request any other item we sell in the store.
GoIO Post-Mortem – Part III: Lessons from Two Kickstarters
With the publisher’s insistence that we worked in secrecy and that they would eventually be in charge of player interaction, when we left the publisher, no one knew about what we were doing. We had 15 facebook followers who were basically us, family, and friends. The problem of how to get the word out was obvious, but more importantly, we had no way of getting enough people to help us test and give feedback. With a set of mechanics and a demand for teamwork that hadn’t quite been tried before, we wanted people to help us test as early in our development as possible. With the struggle to get the word out we turned to Kickstarter. (more…)
Weekly Progress Report 5/16/2014
Hey everyone,
With all the new videos and the sale we’ve got a bunch of new players and we’re really excited to have you here! Every Friday we post up what the team has been working on both for the Guns of Icarus Online you’re playing now and Co-Op mode a massive expansion that will add many new features including PvE combat.
To talk to us live join us at twitch .tv/gunsoficarus at 3 pm eastern, 7 GMT, and ask us any and all questions you can think of!
Follow the jump to see what the team’s been working on. (more…)