Cash Infusion – development log #185

With Michi on parental leave, Martin and Julian are keeping the ball rolling this week by applying for the new German games funding program. Everybody start crossing their fingers for good tidings later this year!

Martin

As mentioned last week, I squeezed in the development of a naming feature for systems and planets, partly because it seemed like a nice little self-contained feature I could fit into a tight schedule, but also because we have an increasing amount of players who have gained access to this perk by purchasing the respective supporter packs (thanks a lot, people!).

As usual, the task at hand didn’t stay as small as expected and therefore stretched into this week. The catch this time was that our planet and system names have been static so far. And as it turns out, they are used in a lot of places around the game, most of which lack the required mechanism to update the name correctly, especially in real-time (so a planet changes its name in front of your eyes when someone else changes its name).

Anyway, while both planet and system naming are mostly finished, some more work will be required before the dynamic names are used properly in all places. Since this will likely require some coordination with Michi, who’s currently on parental leave, the release of the feature might have to wait for a couple more weeks.

More time to think of cool names for systems and planets!

Julian (Mjeno)

This week was a bit special in that I spent a lot of time reading and researching. Earlier this year, the German state launched a funding program offering a total of 50 million euros for the purpose of developing new video games – and of course, we want a piece of that. Submissions open tonight at midnight, and it’s first come, first serve, so we’ve been working to get our application ready in time. I’m still waiting for Martin to review what I wrote and to add some paragraphs of his own, but I’m confident that we can send the application for Prosperous Universe out soon. If all goes well, we might receive a huge cash infusion later this year that would noticeably speed up the game’s development, so wish us luck!

Other than that, I spent my time taking care of the usual. It’s mostly community management now, as I’m waiting for the Locality release to get the PR machine rolling again. I had to swing the ban hammer earlier this week, but I’m happy to say it’s only been the third time ever. Anyway, see you next week!

As always: we’d love to hear what you think: join us on the forums!

Happy trading!