The design phase is going very well, much better than expected in fact! The design document is not a 500 page behemoth yet, but does at least sketch some of the game out. I will post some of this in two weeks. I have read that most games start with a design document, so to develop for 2 years and then write one is a bit odd. It does mean though, that when the design is completed, we can be much faster in putting our ideas into motion, because we have a really good starting framework to work in.

The design document itself is not that close to being finished of course. With a game as big as an mmo, this process takes a lot of time. Even with as clear of an idea as I have had about Crescent Dawn up till now, getting everything on paper and taking all of the details into consideration is no quick feat.

In addition to the design document, I am working on sketching the world out and making some maps. I am now very clear on where the game takes place, and if we have a desire to make a certain kind of area, I will know what portion of the map that area would fit into, and what kinds of things to include.

Just to get some statistics out there, Crescent Dawn will have 6 nationalities (perhaps races) which each have their own cities. Most races have one city only, as the world map is not actually that large, in real terms. In game terms however, it does cover a lot of space.

The largest city is fully fleshed out, and will consist of 11 zones. These zones are smaller than what you will find in other games, but all together it covers quite a lot of space. I am hard pressed to find another game with a city of this complexity. How well this translates to the actual game remains to be seen.

Going forward, I hope to provide some sketches or renders of what I have been working on in the next week or two. I am planning on finishing up the design process, at least as it regards to alpha4, in July, at which point development of alpha4 will resume.

I haven't yet solidified which city I will pick, but alpha4 will consist of one of the cities being fairly fleshed out, along with some of the surrounding area. I am thinking of using a planned game session model for alpha4 instead of leaving the server on, because it's so early this will let me interact with the few players better. I will try to schedule enough varied sessions that everyone who is interested will get enough chances.

I think further alphas will probably each focus on a new city as well.

Look for the alpha sometime in September, and I will continue to update progress here.

We are not dead. It may not be obvious due to the infrequency of posting, but this project is still alive, although it hangs in the balance by a couple steel threads. The last two "focus on a feature" articles have revealed at least some of the new things we want to try in Crescent Dawn, but they haven't given a clear picture of the actual game. I still plan on writing a few more "focus on a feature" articles. There are quests, combat, the social aspect, the economy, so many topics to discuss. But looking at each of those things really isn't going to convey what Crescent Dawn is.

There is a good reason we haven't so far been able to express what this game is all about. We don't know! I have finally realized this point, and when I realized it, it smacked me in the face like a wet fish. The primary reason alpha 4 is still not out after a year, is not a technical one. I have not wanted to released alpha 4 until we have a game, but I failed to realize that I don't know what that looks like at this point. Doogs has a hard time designing the world when we don't know anything about the world. I have a hard time designing features because I can't picture what it looks like. All we have are some ideals, some nice features we'd like, a decent technology base to build upon, and a severe lack of free time. We know what Crescent Dawn isn't, but not what it is.

It's time for a change.

So the game is currently undergoing a quite massive redesign process (or maybe just design process, we have done very little design up to this point). We are finding our way, clarifying goals, getting at the root of the matter, and doing tons of world building. When this is done, and we have a decent sketched out Crescent Dawn vision, we will clarify exactly what is going into alpha 4. And a lot of this new design and the alpha 4 laundry list will be revealed to you as soon as we know it. At that point we will also give a timeline for alpha 4.

The gears of Crescent Dawn have gotten rusty, so we have brought out the oil. (Crescent Dawn Online will have both gears and oil, but that's another topic.) We are fumbling around in the dark, so it's time to light a match. (Crescent dawn will have those too.) We have lost are way, and need to chart a course back to land. (Ditto.) If you have been following us, you have been scavenging on the smallest of scraps, but soon there will be a feast. (The feasts in Crescent Dawn Online will be a sight to behold.) Enough metaphors that sneakily reveal some of the future features of CDO.

We are building a foundation on which to build a great game. Ok so i suppose that could be related to the game too. Anyway, I believe that at the end of this, development will pick up, and soon enough people will actually be able to enter the world of Crescent Dawn again.

The incorporation of food in games has a long history of varying success. Most commonly, games completely reject food, assuming that it's something your character does when you are not playing. A common complaint against the use of food in games, is that we don't want to make you go to the bathroom every 30 minutes, so why should you have to eat either? Of course there are games that model eating, and even games that model going to the bathroom. The Sims for instance, models going to the bathroom, even to the extent of wetting the floor if a toilet cannot be accessed, and no one can say that that game wasn't successful.

I think this much realism probably doesn't have a place in CDO, but there is a certain amount of realism that can make gameplay interesting. Realism is only a 4 letter word if it isn't any fun, and fun is certainly one of our priorities.
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This is the first "focus on a feature" I am writing. I chose this topic as the first one to cover, because it was also one of the first conceived systems, and when originally implemented was the only thing in CDO that was game-like in any definition of the term. To get it out of the way, CDO will be somewhat of a crafting game. This doesn't mean that crafting is the only thing to do; it doesn't even mean that all players will be builders. However, crafting is a primary action.

For these posts, I will describe both the feature as it currently exists (either in our minds/design documents) as well as try and give a clear picture of what we are hoping to eventually achieve. I will also look at other games as contrast, just as I look at other games for ideas of what works and what doesn't.

What is crafting and why should I care?

Crafting is a concept that has played a part in online games since the worlds were rendered in beautiful ASCII characters. For those who aren't aware, crafting is generally a side portion of gameplay, where resources can be collected through various means, and then put together into new and useful items. It's something to do in game besides fight, and it helps to make the world seem a little more realistic and alive.

Crafting and CDO today...

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Greetings, loyal fan(s). For today's update I am going to do somewhat of a new year retrospective of the past years development, along with some juicy info on what is in store for the future of the game. To get it out of the way, Alpha 4 in it's current incarnation has been canceled, and I don't know when people will be able to try CDO out again. Things are changing - but in the long run it is for the better.

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