Rising Empires - Weekly update

[Peter]

Hi!

Attached is a screenshot with an improved list for selecting technologies. We have a lots of news in this weeks 'Weekly update'. Both from the new alpha test that we are running and new stuff in the game itself:
Weekly update
Next week we'll also present the next race - Humans...

I hope you all have a good weekend!

[tstone]

Hew-mons...

[Peter]

Hi!

Nina, our 2D-artist, has now completed most of the terrain graphics for the Surface and we are very satisfied with them. A few small additions will still be made, like rivers and coastlines. There is actually a couple of rivers on the map but they aren't showed yet... We are looking forward to see her complete the graphics for the Netherworld soon.

[Peter]

We have now started the first small beta test of Rising Empires. Read more at our website

Johan and I hope you all have a very good weekend!

[Peter]

The beta test continues and we've received very good input from our play testers. It will run for two more weeks before we end it for a final evaluation. Our play testers seem to enjoy playing the game, even though it's still unfinished and lacks some important features. Johan and I are working hard to continue developing the game.

For lengthier reports, screenshots and more please visit our website or our Google+ page.

Cheers!

[Peter]

Hi everybody!

The second beta continues as planned and we've now played 10 turns (2 weeks). The setup has forced all empires to build lots of fleets in order to move troops and settlers from their capital. All empires combined has built 68 fleets with some 279 ships...
   
The beta will run for at least 4 more weeks (20 turns) and we believe we'll see plenty of action before the end. The player of one empire has decided to not participate and if you are interested in taking over this position please let us know (reply to this post or send a PM).

I spent last weekend in Gothenburg with Johan and a couple of friends, incl. Glom which is our main game tester. Johan and I discussed how we are going to proceed with implementing the last features in Rising Empires. Rising Empires is, in its current version, a complete game but we want to add more diplomatic options as well as the Heaven level before we release it. The first we will add is non-aggression pacts allowing empires to be more friendly towards each other.

We have also designed a new research view and removed the research selection from the empire menu. Research is such an important feature in Rising Empires and we believed it needed its own view where all data on technologies can be reached.
   
If you're interested in Rising Empires and it's development please support us by visiting our website or our Google+ page and +1 us.

Thanks!

[Peter]

Hi!

This will be the last update before my summer vacation. Only one more day and I will turn off my computer (and my brain) for three weeks! Johan will take a break from Rising Empires during the same period. We'll start working with Rising Empires again in mid-August when we're also going to have a large meeting to discuss the game.

Tomorrow we'll run the last turn of the beta test. We've sent out a questionnaire with a couple of questions to our play testers and are eagerly awaiting their replies. We've already received some answers but we hope to get a few more. Overall I must say that this beta test has progressed very well. The routines for downloading results and uploading orders have been flawless, the bugs and errors that were found could be fixed and we've managed to implement non-aggression pacts.

The last weeks have also been very interesting for me as I've learned a couple of new algorithms and possibilities when writing code. This has allowed me to re-think some ideas that Johan and I had and more practically it also means that I've started on our map generator! It's far from finished but it can create mountain ranges as well as the starting area around the capital.
   
I'll continue with the map generator when I get back from vacation. My idea is to make it able to create good Surface maps first and then start to look at the Netherworld which I believe will be more complex to create.

I hope you're all having a couple of good summer weeks!