November 24, 2022
Sep & Oct 2022 Dev Update
Welcome to another development update! It’s been a challenging past couple of months for the overall market but we’re motivated as ever to keep building & continuing our mission of making fun games that we’ll all love to play.
Check out all the latest updates on company achievements, products launched, and major game design & development updates for SIPHER ODYSSEY. Enjoy!
ADDRESSING THE CRISIS
Hello World! The past two months have certainly been eventful, to say the least.
However, despite the ups and downs of the macroeconomic markets, Ather Labs is unaffected and well-positioned to deliver compelling games & innovative web3 products for many years to come.
Most recently, we opened our third office, held our first company-wide physical get-together, had an incredibly fruitful collaboration, and so much more. Check out the rest of this report for more details.
Before we get started, we would like to address the elephant in the room:
Ather Labs has NO exposure to FTX exchange, no Market making activities with Alameda, and held no funds in their platform. Aside from the global economic ramifications, Ather Labs is unaffected by the incident.
Even though this was a significant setback for the web3 space, we remain committed to our mission. We will make it through by continually innovating and maintaining a vigilant, hardworking, and thrifty approach.
Onwards.
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NOTABLE COMPANY MILESTONES
DA NANG OFFICE GRAND OPENING
Our third office in Da Nang is often referred to as the new Silicon Valley of SEA.
ATHER LABS - ALL SIDES UNITE
Our Ather Labs family has grown. We are now 170-strong!
Team building, sharing lessons and directions, sharing hugs & laughter, and eating a birthday cake.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
OFFICE FESTIVITIES
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GENERAL STUDIO UPDATES
INU: OUR FIRST
Check out the video below to hear about how INU’s design was conceived.
ATHER CLUB LAUNCH
The Ather Club is a system that will continue to foster and grow web3 communities.
SIPHER COMICS LAUNCH
Sipherian Tales, our comic series from Gone Fishin’ to Stranger.
SPOOKY SIPHERIA
We ended October on a spooky note with our series of Sipher Halloween Events called Spooky Sipheria.
ATHER LABS EXCLUSIVE MERCH
Our Official Sipher Merchandise is on its way out and ready to be shipped to some of our hardcore supporters.
BORED BOX PARTNERSHIP
Featured in Bored Box’s B64 box is the Bored Inu Spaceship – a Bored Box themed spaceship.
SIPHER ODYSSEY IS NOW ON TIKTOK
Sipher is now on TikTok! Check out some of our bite-sized videos and learn something new about Sipher Odyssey.
GAME DEV UPDATES
GAME ECONOMY SIMULATION
Build models for the in-game economy.
Use Machination and other tools to build models and run simulations of theoretical models
Run the model with each possible scenario in the game
Theorize and create mental models for how to calculate and control the [REDACTED] currency in-game to control [REDACTED] deflation and inflation pressures
ART TEXTURE IMPROVEMENTS
Polished and significantly improved colors, palettes, and textures.
Here are some examples of the application of our schematic material on various skins and models.
TESTING CHARACTER FLAGS
ENEMY OVERHAUL
Enemies are now distinctive from one another and have more interesting mechanics.
UNIQUE WEAPON ACCESSORIES
Personalize weapons by decorating them with a variety of unique accessories.
PLAYER EXPERIENCE AND DESIGN
We go over painstaking details and UI flows to ensure UX/UI contributes to retention and players’ joy as much as possible.
INCREDIBLE WEAPON SKINS
FEELIN’ THE HEAT?
WORLD EMBLEMS
Each world location has its unique emblems, which represent its characteristics.
MORE THAN 100 BOOSTS & COUNTING
Customize your playstyle and dominate the game your way with the revamped boost system.
TO STRATEGIZE & TO IMPROVISE
DOPAMIS THE SKY GOD
Welcome to the technologically advanced world of Dopamis.
PROCEDURAL DUNGEONS
A new procedural system for level designs will generate layouts from our library of assets & rules.
UPDATED ENCOUNTERS
A revamped encounter system allows enemies to spawn at random times and location
THE PATH TO 3D
Some early 3D animation rigging for our NPCs, characters, and enemies with varying weapons.
ARE YOU READY?
Expect more seamless multiplayer gameplay as well as significantly improved graphics and visual effects with the UE-Pre-Alpha Playtest.
…but not without its flaws.
OUR INTERNAL RELEASE NOTES
- Gameplay on internaldevlbuild/0.1.0.3
- Boost system reworks, now with more than 100 boost cards in playtest build.
- New Level Design randomization system. The gameplay layout will be randomized from sets of pre-crafted gameplay setups.
- New Enemy Encounter system that can spawn random enemies. This could help craft new gameplay experiences for the player on every dungeon run.
- New Weapon modular system and overall weapon rebalance.
- Full enemy rework. The enemies are now distinctive from each other and with more interesting mechanics.
- Rework and polish on Melee's attack.
- Improved Player Dash mechanic.
- Rework and balancing on Sub-Races Unique Skills.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Weapon: Dual SMG and Shotgun: Sometimes bullets don't always show hit registration & damage numbers.
- Weapon: Grenade Launcher: Grenades explode immediately when firing while standing close to an obstacle.
- Improved Enemy AI / Obstacle placement: Enemies can sometimes get stuck at some small gap between the wall and the obstacle.
- Missing other players boost selection when playing in multiplayer mode.
- Players get damaged over time when standing on a saw trap during map transition.
- The game gets stuck at the "Good Try" screen if the player minimizes the game and dies inside the battle.
- The auto-select boost doesn't work if the player minimizes the game at the boot selection screen.
…etc. The game-building journey continues
GETTING READY TO CHARGE
All four BURU sub-races are preparing to tank some major damage in the upcoming UE Pre-Alpha Playtest!
INCHES AWAY FROM PRE-ALPHA PLAYTEST
Our UE Pre-Alpha Playtest is right around the corner, and we couldn't be more excited.
Keep an eye on our official Social Channels for the most up-to-date information on when and how you can participate in our UE Pre-Alpha Playtest in the very near future!
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FINAL WORDS FROM OUR WORLD ARCHITECT
FOUNDER’S NOTE
Dear everyone,
The recent back-to-back crisis with Luna, 3AC, and FTX has no doubt set web3 back for many years in terms of public exception, adoption, and growth. Many people are hurt, their financial livelihoods are ruined, and along with it, their trust in what web3 promise to bring, the promise of a new economic framework of distributed ownership via shared contributions and participation. We are extremely lucky to not have had exposure to these events, however, even our trust and confidence have been shaken. Luckily for us, once again, we’re a studio focused on making great games. Games appreciation and success should not and will not be hindered by these actors. Ultimately what we care about and what gamers care about, are great games and we remain committed to this mission.
There is an immense amount of work going on under the hood of building games, blockchain middleware, and publishing around it.
Many of these details have to be kept private as they are still works-in-progress and also possibly unique value propositions for our studio. It truly takes a lot of dedication from a large team (170+) to be striving to deliver a game this ambitious in as short an amount of time as possible while embracing the ethos of web3-gaming.
Just like Jeff Bezos once wrote: “It’s always Day 1”, it is with this attitude and view that I try to instill in our vision and mission to build and it’s been a blessing to be accompanied by so many young & amazing talents that are eager to bring the best possible gaming experience to our players.
I wish you all the best in these turbulent times and hope for your continued support. Remember it’s always darkest before dawn.
FOUNDER
TIN NGUYEN
Thank you for reading this edition of our
ATHER LABS DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
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