Weekly Dev Chat - December 9
Guest Introduction:
- A new team member, Bryn, was introduced as a Game Designer.
- Background: Based in Sydney, previously a senior game designer at Mutable working on God's Unchained (a Web3 TCG).
- Gaming interests: Trading card games, FarmVille, Harvest Moon, RPGs, Dota 2, Counter-Strike.
Bryn's Initial Impressions & Focus Areas:
- Has been playing Sunfall Land for a couple of weeks prior to joining.
- Primary focus areas identified:
- New User Experience (On-ramping): Improving consistency and lower friction, especially for the first 7 days.
- Daily Login Rewards: Working on a new system (see below).
- Achievement System: Ideas to make achievements more visible (e.g., on your farm) and reward long-term streaks.
- Faction Choice: Leans towards Goblin faction personally.
- Found the community very welcoming and positive.
Key Updates & Upcoming Features:
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New Daily Rewards System:
- Moving from on-chain to off-chain claims to simplify the process and improve retention.
- No longer requires a wallet transaction each day; rewards pop up automatically upon login.
- Proposed changes by Bryn:
- Reduce RNG (randomness): More stable, set rewards on some days instead of all mystery boxes.
- New Streak Rewards: Introduction of monthly and yearly streak rewards.
- Yearly rewards could include exclusive cosmetics to showcase longevity.
- Discussion about potential "streak protection" for edge cases (travel, illness, tech issues).
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Micro-Interaction Experiment (Waving System):
- A new social feature being tested in the Plaza.
- Players can initiate a wave to another player. If the other player accepts, both characters perform a custom wave animation.
- Aims to create quick, seamless social connections without needing full chat.
- Future ideas: More interactions like cheers, faction-specific gestures (e.g., clashing swords for same faction).
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Upcoming Chapter 13:
- Theme: Crustaceans.
- New features: Crab pots, lobsters, prawns, various shellfish.
- New cosmetic: A VOT (fishing) onesie was teased.
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Technical & Infrastructure:
- Login Method Deprecation: WeChat and FSL login methods will be turned off soon. Affected players should contact support or use their linked wallet.
- Merkle Leaderboard Issue: Acknowledged as an external service issue. A new in-game system for LP providers to claim daily food/tool rewards is being worked on.
- General backend upgrades to improve release speed and bug fixes.
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Holiday Event:
- A Community Christmas event is confirmed.
- The Festive Tree will return. Existing trees from previous years can be shaken again, and new trees earned this year will stack for future events.
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Love Charm / Stream Reward Changes:
- Stream rewards now give a "box" instead of a set number of Love Charms.
- This change was to combat bot farming during streams.
- New/unverified players may get food items from these boxes as well as Love Charms.
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Project 2 (New Game):
- Bryn will also be working on the new project.
- Discussions are in very early stages; gameplay is not yet decided. More information will come later.
Community & Other Notes:
- The team expressed excitement about having a dedicated game designer to bring more structured design and fresh ideas.
- The in-game "Town Hall" during streams freezes other players' movements to prevent client crashes from too many people.
- The team's other game, Rarecrows, has reached 25,000 players.