Illuvium Dev Blog - May 2023

Intro

There's a phenomenon called Creeping Normality which we all experience every day. It's often cited in a negative context, and for good reason. Usually, it relates to how we can accept significant changes as long as they happen gradually, over long periods. An example of this has been my gradual reduction in community engagement. I discuss the consequences in detail in the Illuvium: Zero Season 1 post-mortem. However, nothing inherent to Creeping Normality makes it fundamentally wrong. As I've missed the last three dev blogs, it's been wild to look at my February draft and see how much has changed in three short months. Since many of you see the leaks and get to play the new game versions, it might not seem shocking, but there has been a crazy amount of progress this year.

We launched Illuvium: Beyond, Illuvium: Zero Season 1, Private Beta 2 of Illuvium: Overworld (which includes significant updates to Illuvium: Arena), plus we are nearly finished with the Merch Store, and a slew of updates for IlluviDex, Account system, Play, and the Website. What a list!

This is not to mention some fantastic projects and partnerships we are cooking up in the background.

I'm so proud of the team and what we have accomplished together. It can be challenging for the team to read negative comments about us not doing anything or not making things exactly as you want. And we can't ignore it like most studios because we are you, and you are us. As an unfeeling machine, the hate has never bothered me, but for the sake of the project, I would ask that people take a step back and try to get a bit of perspective. Who else is making a series of interconnected blockchain games at the quality we are? I think you'll find that list vanishingly small.

So with that said, here is the May Dev Blog. I hope you'll take the time to read.

Illuvium: Beyond

We're nearly finished with Wave 1. After the Extended Run, we have an excellent partnership planned, and then we move on to Wave 2 with a whole new list of Illuvitars to collect. I'm incredibly excited about this because as the Waves roll out, you'll find that you can start to complete some Collections, and the game will come alive. You'll have to make decisions around what you bond if you want to compete with the big fish.

We've taken your feedback and plan to add additional features to Wave 2. To begin with, it will only be small things since the teams are laser-focused on other projects, but we think you like the little QOL tweaks.

Highlights

• Nearly feature complete for Promotional Sales, and we have one coming soon.

• Wave 2 artwork is being finalised as we speak. Plus, we added some new backgrounds for Tier 0's.

• Alpha Icons will be stamped onto Alphas, so you have more to show when you aren't on the IlluviDex.

Illuvium: Zero

Season 1 is live, and you can build out your plots to achieve the limited selection of blueprints. While those are not exclusive to Season 1 (it wouldn't make any sense), those that mint them at the end of the season will have an advantage. We're now on to the Beta stream, which is all about connecting your progress to the backend. The team is bigger and better, too, so you can expect faster progress in the future.

Highlights

• Season 1 is live.

• Progress has been made in minting blueprints, which will be available at the end of the season.

• Beta development has begun.

Illuvium: Overworld

Private Beta 2 is out, and people seem to love it. There's still a long way to go for Overworld, even past the Public Beta. The world will be more interactive, fun to traverse, and exciting.

Highlights

• Two new regions (Brightland Steppes and Abyssal Basin)

• Two new movement mechanics (Wingsuit and Aero Soles)

• Experience and Level Growth implementation

• Consumables

• Encounter Mods

• Overload

Illuvium: Arena

The updates for Arena that shipped with Overworld PB2 have been well received. There are still some changes to come, not just after data collection but from our own internal designs. It is coming together nicely, though. Ascendant Mode had delays due to resourcing, but the team wasn't idle and implemented dozens of new features and improvements. We are pushing towards PB3 (a combined Overworld and Arena update), which I've been waiting for since last year. There's something about PvP that completes a product. I think we will convert many people to being fans of the auto battler genre.

Highlights

• The Arena PvP prototype is nearly complete

• 28 new Illuvials

• Omega Rework

• Synergies Simplified

• Hyperview

• Overload Updates

• Connection to the server

IlluviDex

This is another area that I think will massively help out the overall feel of the project. We're about to begin the work for the Repository (the information section of the IlluviDex) and complete the Marketplace by including all the new collections, such as Illuvials, Suits, and Weapons. There is a lot of work here, but due to our modular design, much of it can be borrowed from existing work done for Land and Beyond.

That said, don't expect it to be perfect or finished soon. We're talking about hundreds of dev hours to get this where we want it, but it will be worth it. Once you can click on a listing for an Illuvial and see not just its stats but its Echoes (personal achievements for that unique NFT), then head over to the repository to see the bio and how it functions in every game; we know you'll start to understand the vision for Illuvium.

Highlights

• Requirements complete for the new collections in the Marketplace and Repository.

• Illuvial Echoes scoped out.

Game Launcher

Our interim solution should be ready soon. It got a bit bogged down in legalities, and if we want to do this right, we need to cross our T's and dot our I's, so while this delay has been a frustration to you and us, I think it's better to do things by the book. I don't have much to share with you, but I will soon.

Highlights

• An interim solution is nearly ready

• This will allow for more exposure

• This will allow for much more rapid updates

Account

Some exciting possibilities, but we are unsure if they will work for us. Also, we must ensure we stay true to our plans to be decentralised. There's a delicate balance between having quick access to functionality and not getting locked into a system that doesn't match our long-term goals. But IMX is our most trusted partner and has committed to helping us build the functionality required to seamlessly onboard people the way we want. There is much to do here, no doubt.

Highlights

• User journey and key screen designs are almost complete; lots of work from our Lead Web UX Designer

• Meetings with vendors to discuss solutions

Staking

There's an update to the Staking App in the works that I'm sure everyone will appreciate. It relates to issues we initially had with the conversion from Staking v1, which led to a situation where people missed out on yield. This update addresses that. There is still a lot of testing to do even though it has been audited because we need to ensure it works perfectly.

Highlights

• Fixes for Staking complete and audited

• Roll-out expected sometime next month

Merchandise Store

We are ready. There is some internal testing to do, and as with any merchandise store, I'm sure we will run into some hiccups along the way, but we're already filling internal orders to ensure the process is smooth. Our product range is larger than what we anticipated launching with, and it will only grow over time. I hope you'll support us with this. When I head into town, I want to meet people rocking Illuvium hoodies.

Highlights

• Finalised product selection

• Finalised product photography (Dokas are handsome)

• Shipping and fulfilment finalised

• Improved tracking and analytics

Launch Cinematic

There was a very rocky patch with the cinematic, and I think I should have stepped in sooner to ensure everything went smoothly. That's my fault. But we are now back on track. The team at Glow has been incredibly supportive of us through this process. Internally I've been chastised for being a perfectionist… by a bunch of perfectionists. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't perfect, and I'd love to make another dozen more edits to bring the story to life, but it's not possible at this late stage. It's also interesting how hard it is to make a good "first" cinematic. Our story has been designed such that we can branch out into any number of genres and have them feel like part of our world. Dungeon Crawler? We can do it, and it will fit into our world. Interplanetary Space Adventure? We got you covered. Being able to bridge that chasm between fantasy and sci-fi is not easy. It requires deep lore to help make sense of our universe. We even had to write a prequel origin story (think Star Wars: Solo) to understand better exactly how our story would play out. I'd like to develop that one further, and it makes me sad that you will barely know that character.

While I think there is no doubt that Len is our protagonist, I smile thinking about how many people will tell me, "Um, actually… the REAL protagonist is X".

Highlights

• Animation nearly complete

• All voices recorded

• Work has begun on the marketing trailer (it requires a few more shots)

Story

After the Cinematic is complete, tremendous work remains for the story. We need to create the NPCs and develop the “quests” you will do in the world. We have some fascinating things planned there, including a whole series of content we need to develop. Funnily enough, that content is something I wrote back in 2020 when we first started the project. It's wild to look back at my diary and see my notes from that time. They were simpler times before my many mistakes. Ultimately, all we can do is move on to become better versions of ourselves.

We added a biologist to the team to provide more flavour and realness to our world. He is already working on Morphopods and will soon add some extra facts to the Illuvials to make them feel part of the world. It is this extra attention to detail that will make us stand out.

Highlights

• Region descriptions have been improved

• All bios have been reworked, and most are already completed

• The Illuvial facts are now much more organic

New Additions

I want to add a section for some new projects that aren't quite ready to have highlights and a detailed recap but are most certainly part of the pipeline.

Deck Builder

This web app will allow you to build decks for Arena (and later on for any other game that needs decks). It handles things like the ownership status of Shards (you can make a deck even if you don't own the Shards yet) and Illuvial Aspects (what are the Dominant Synergies of the Illuvial). For PB3, you'll have access to pre-built decks, but all the requirements for the project have been scoped out. It was surprisingly complex! I’m proud of the design we have chosen.

Fuel Pool

The blockchain world moves fast, and we haven't locked down a technology. I only just briefed the new Strategic Council yesterday about our plans here. There are a few options we have. The development time is not huge; most of the time will be spent defining the requirements and planning exactly how it will work. Then we must ensure it is ironclad because it will form the economic core of Illuvium.

Summary

We are in the phase where our speed is increasing rapidly. This is because there is enough structure around everything that it no longer takes much research time to develop solutions. Remember that the plan for Open Beta is to be mostly feature complete but not fully polished. And that final 10% of polish does take some time, so even after launch, don't expect any new games to fly out the door. We're only committing to a mobile version of Illuvium: Area. Outside of that, you'll get a lot of quality-of-life improvements, better graphics, and more minor features. (things like NPCs and quests in the Overworld)

And we are close to getting all our products and requirements finalised. This is no small feat, and I would be lying if I wasn't looking forward to finishing it and taking a break for a few weeks. It's not as exciting as game design or graphics, but it does mean that we will soon no longer have any known unknowns.

Finally, with the capital raise completed, we are now in an incredibly stable position where we can confidently plan out our next three years. This means we can start to be even more open with the community about the features and roadmap. And while nobody is happy about the bear, we can look for the silver linings. We now operate incredibly efficiently, and both the team and our processes are maturing. No team is perfect, but we will continue to push to be better every single day.

Thank you all for your patience and support. And I promise I'll be more active in the community.

Release Order

Merch Store → Beyond Wave 2 → PB3 Arena/Overworld → Launcher