Illuvium Dev Blog - Dec 2022

Intro

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to tackle the new year. We at the Illuvium team took a short break to recharge, but we're now back in full swing and excited for what's to come.

December was a monumental month for us, with the successful release of Illuvium: Overworld. We received valuable feedback from the community, which we will use to improve and finalise the game in the upcoming beta release.

We're also hard at work on Illuvium: Zero, which is set to release on 6th Jan. [edit: Another successful launch!] And we're making progress on Illuvitars and hope to show you a demo before it's released to the public.

We've also gained traction with some big partners and feel momentum is building. We know we can create something truly amazing with the community's support. Thank you for your continued positivity and motivation. It means a lot to us. Here's to a great year ahead!

Illuvium: Zero

We're excited to report that we've reached our first major game development milestone. We're proud to say that we've completed everything required for the Private Alpha and are excited about the launch this month. We've set up the build pipelines for PC, Mac, and Android and are getting ready for the Private Alpha Go Live. We've also fine-tuned the data values for Season 0 Private Alpha, and we're looking forward to receiving feedback from testers and making further iterations to the game. Overall, it's been a productive and rewarding journey starting from a mini-game, and we can't wait to share more updates with you as we develop.

Highlights

• Private Alpha UIs are feature complete.

• Private Alpha Art Assets are feature complete.

• Private Alpha Core Game features are complete.

• Backend complete in support of the Private Alpha Go Live.

• Build pipelines made ready for PC, Mac, and Android.

• Season 0 Private Alpha Data Values tuned (expecting feedback from testers and further iteration).

Illuvium: Overworld

The team were blown away by the reception of Overworld. Lost in all the preparation for its recent release was some time to sit back and reflect on what we accomplished. But we can’t rest on our laurels, and we are already preparing the next beta by focusing on bug fixing, polishing, and new features. In addition, we've started with backend integration and implemented updated movements of interactive plants. It's great to see "Overworld" finally released, and we hope players enjoy the game.

Highlights

• Bug fixing, polishing, and getting ready for launch.

• Setting up mechanisms for data seeding during deployments.

• Updated Capture Formula in the backend.

• Starting with Backend integration.

• Implementing and updating the movements of Interactive plants.

• Audio Volumes update and SFX optimisation.

Illuvium: Arena

Ascendant mode, our PvP mode for Arena, remains the primary focus of our work, and we’ve spent a lot of time optimising various aspects of the game. We've also been addressing tech debt to allow for faster development in the future, including updates to the simulation, changes to the effect system, ability activation triggers, and profiling to identify areas of high computation. In addition, we've been focused on game balancing, data version updates, and tech art optimisation. We're working towards delivering PB3, a feature-complete but not fully polished version of the open beta. Overall, we're making good progress and are excited to share updates with you as we continue to develop.

Highlights

• Game Mode:

  • Ascendant: Implemented web sockets for p2p connection.

  • Ascendant: Handling reconnecting scenario.

  • Survival: Implement camera strafing.

• Simulation:

  • Effect System should not automatically add attack damage.

  • Ability Activation Trigger updates (consolidating old fields and adding new triggers, namely OnEnergyFull, OnDealDamage, OnTakeDamage).

  • Profiling (checking what part of the sim takes the most computation).

  • Implementing Attachable Zones.

  • Add EffectPackage.UseAccuracy.

  • Sub Ability Movement Lock.

  • Displacement Type: Throw.

• Refactoring:

  • Moving the level to make it part of the instance rather than part of the type data.

  • Reusing JSON files.

• Others:

  • Patching solution Research.

  • Game balancing and Data Version Update: 15.1.0.

  • Tech Art Optimisation - Minor Sim and Visualisation fixes.

Illuvium Website

This month, we've primarily focused on other areas of development and have only done work on the website as required by those areas. This work has included clearing out tech debt, such as documentation, using modular UI components, and creating an updated design system based on customer feedback. While our primary focus has been elsewhere, we've still made significant updates to the Illuvium Website.

Highlights

• Clearing out tech debt, including:

  • Documentation

  • UI component library.

  • Feedback/support in the creation of the design system.

• Migrating Video Assets to Vimeo.

• General Imagery & Banner updates.

• Overworld Marketing Landing Page.

• Zero Marketing Landing Page.

• Learn about wallets - education content.

• Removal of Captcha for Wallet-based interactions.

IlluviDex

In December, we mainly focused on other areas of development and have only done limited work on the IlluviDex itself. The main exception to this has been in support of Illuvitars, our upcoming card-collecting game. While we have yet to make many changes to the illuviDex itself, we have been working to ensure that it can support and integrate with Illuvitars as needed. We hope to have more updates with you as soon as we continue to develop the illuviDex.

Highlights

• IlluviDex v2.1 Development works.

• Misc bug fixes to production IlluviDex.

• Binance Connect integration.

Illuvitars

In December, we made significant progress by completing the game's core features. This included the ability to purchase and load D1sks and access various social features such as the Launch Party (where you can see live data of what other collectors have unloaded from their D1sks). We also worked on the trade pages on the IlluviDex, which will allow customers to buy and sell Illuvitars after the sale. Additionally, we focused on analytics and metrics and made progress on the Album game, including the collection types, the ability to add Illuvitars to them, and the leaderboard system. I can’t stress enough just how significant this project is. But once you get your hands on it, you’ll see why we have spent the time to perfect it.

Highlights

• Unwrap D1SK Flow Complete.

• Purchase D1SK Flow Complete.

• Load D1SK Flow Complete.

• Launch Party Page Complete.

• Trade Pages Complete.

• Refactored filtering on the IlluviDex in preparation for Illuvitars.

• Launch Party Page APIs.

• Illuvitars Analytics/Metrics work.

• Work in progress on all the Collection Type views.

Play/Account

Not only have we updated the app in anticipation of future game releases, but we’ve also spent significant time planning how accounts will work long-term. It’s a complex beast because not many existing projects have such tight integration of wallet-only and email-only accounts, so we had to design a way to make them work together. I won’t bore you with the details because you won’t notice them when you’re done, but I will say that onboarding your less savvy friends to the Illuvium Universe won’t be very hard at all, and they won’t need to understand anything about the blockchain to begin.

Highlights

• Overworld Product Page + (FAQs , Support, Product Launch).

• Beta Registration Flow changes.

• Refactored the codebase to remove the previous Beta Registration flow in its entirety.

• Illuvium Zero Product Page + (FAQs, Support).

• Continued work on Play Account Areas, including Learn About Wallets, Link Wallet, Link Account, Password Management, Account Creation & Login Journeys.

• Minor system messages (copy updates).

• Database updates to support Beta Reg Flow.

• Support for Production Deployments across the board + features listed above.

• Product specifications are complete for the final version of the Account.

• Requirements in review.

Merchandise Store

We’re still putting the final touches on the Merch Store, including refining existing products and prioritising what we will go to market with. In the end, the product's quality will do the talking, and we can’t wait for you to see it.

Highlights

• Planning a presale for a high-quality Illuvium jacket.

• Development complete across Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile.

• Completed E2E testing, and feedback has been provided pending a final round of fixes.

• Shared Authentication & Single Sign-on are complete.

• BitPay, AfterPay, PayPal, and Stripe payment portal setups are WIP.

Launch Cinematic

You thought you could get me to leak, didn’t you…

Highlights

• Everything is on the down low.

General Updates

Marketing, Partnerships, and Influencers

The press for Overworld has been excellent, with 26 articles written about the game. We are proud to have achieved this level of coverage without a dedicated PR person, which has allowed us to save on costs. For the time being, our focus has shifted back to crypto influencers as we prepare for the game's mainstream release and wait for the market to recover. These influencers will be vital in helping us build buzz and anticipation for the game. We've signed three IP deals and are in talks with two more big ones. These deals will help to enhance the player experience and bring new and exciting content.

• We have reached 3,250,983 people through partner raffles for Private Beta giveaways to the community, with over 40 partner raffles running in December.

• Working on agreements with three of the top 10 e-sporting teams.

• 220k Sessions from 38k unique users from our Christmas Advent Calendar collaboration with Dequest. We've had 13533 People complete at least 1 Activity in the Advent Calendar. 

• Reached 350k Twitter followers in December 2022!

Customer Support

We are pleased to report that our customer support team has been hard at work, handling thousands of support tickets with excellent response times. We value the feedback and suggestions of our players, and these tickets have helped us to improve the game in countless ways. We are committed to providing top-notch support to our players and appreciate their patience and understanding as we work to resolve any issues they may be experiencing. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to continuing to serve you in the future.

• Average time to close: 5.3 hours.

• Average response time: 30 minutes.

• Customer satisfaction rate: 98%.

• Resolution rate: 90%.

• Daily Tickets Volume: 369.

Infrastructure

December saw the perfect opportunity to focus on a bit of housekeeping. We continued in the same stride as last month with another six sizeable Illuvium Cloud Platform updates. These improvements were to support the Overworld Private Beta and Zero Private Alpha releases and additional security alerting and firewall updates. We have now fully adopted CodeBuild internally and continue to improve our processes.

• 6 significant updates to the Illuvium Cloud Platform.

• Additional security alerting and firewall updates.

• Fully adopted CodeBuild internally.

• Progress is underway to implementation of our new data platform.

Story

Most of our efforts have focused on creating cinematic and in-game assets, ensuring that each asset is detailed and of the highest quality to immerse players in the game world.

• We are focused on edits and direction to the launch trailer.

• Live voice actor recordings to nail the tone.

• Some rework of a couple of scenes that weren’t working as well as we would like.

• Added descriptions for many game objects and will continue to add more.

Summary

This month, the teams working on various products have made significant progress in their development. Zero is ready to launch. Overworld is already focused on delivering an even more impressive PB2. The team working on Illuvium: Arena has gotten you one step closer to getting your PvP on with their work on Ascendant mode. And a new web-based collection game in Illuvitars is just itching to get out into the world. Elsewhere, all products continue to improve. Overall, it has been a productive month, with teams making progress on various products. We’ve had our break and are now gearing up to make the final push towards Open Beta. On a personal note, I know that the team could use support from the community to help us get over the line. We’ve been building tirelessly for two years now, and when you look at the overall project, it is massive. I’m sure we will have things to improve post-Public Beta, but we hope those of you getting in early will provide the motivation we need to get the job done.

Release Order

IZ Alpha → Merch Store → Illuvitars → PB3 Arena → Launcher

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