Here is a general update on plans for the near future of Hazeron.
We are working to get Hazeron Starship ready for release on Steam. It is fully integrated into our build processes so updates to the software propagate to all versions: the Hazeron Starship solo game and the Shores of Hazeron MMO clients and servers. My first priority is on the Steam release but changes often apply to the mmo client and/or servers as well.
Shores of Hazeron - The MMO Game
The mmo Shores of Hazeron will continue to be free online until Hazeron Starship is released on Steam. Then it will return to being $10 per month using PayPal, as before.
No changes are planned or pending that would force a reset of the database. There is no current plan to reset the database at any point along the way.
There is some hope that the solo game will drive players to try the mmo. The servers are being kept online until after the Steam release, to see how that plays out.
To be honest, it will take a miraculous surge in interest in the online game to keep the servers alive. They are expensive to maintain and they are not needed at all for the Steam version, which is solo playable only.
In my opinion, I predict the servers are taken off line a few months after the Steam release.
The web site will remain up to support the wiki and the forum, mainly for bug reporting.
Hazeron Starship - The Solo Game
The solo Hazeron Starship is currently getting a surge of attention, to get ready for release on Steam.
The current plan is to work hard for the next three months to get ready, with the possibility of going six months, if that is needed.
Steamworks has fully approved Hazeron Starship for release on Steam. I just need to push the button and Hazeron Starship will be announced as "Coming Soon". It will remain in that state for two weeks before it is actually available in the Steam app store.
Rather than rush into that, I decided the game needed more solo play content. I wanted to give the player more value for their money. I also wanted to improve the story.
What I would really like to see is a continuing story that rambles along but never really ends, like a soap opera or comic book, like episodes of Star Trek or The Mandalorian. Updates to the software would include additions to the story as they become available.
To that end, it is beneficial to start with a substantial amount of story for players to play through. That way it takes them a while to catch up to the leading edge, where the author is now in the story. As the story grows longer, each new player after that has an even longer story to play, before they catch up.
I hired a professional novelist and playwright to take command of the story telling in the game. It is a long time Shores of Hazeron player who is passionate about the game. I do not yet know if they want their identity known to the players so that will remain unsaid for now.
They have the latitude to rewrite the story from scratch. No bit of the existing story need be saved.
This will lead to useful improvements in the story script engine.
Eventually, it might be possible to make the script engine available to the public. Then players could write and share stories between themselves. Some games have done this successfully. It doesn't really work for the mmo, unless someone at this end reviews and approves each script. Otherwise it's, "Oh look, is that a patent for warp 9 lying on the ground? Whoa Q255 even!"
Steam assigned an Adult rating to Hazeron Starship. It makes sense for a game where players can get naked, have sex, and bear children.
One benefit to that adult rating is that children won't be playing the game. It is detailed and complicated. It really isn't a game for children.
Another benefit to that is the author can write for an adult audience. Steam is a mature platform, with a lot of mature players. I think adults want to be spoken to like adults, not like children. Knowing the audience is comprised of adults, the author can develop an engaging story that might not be interesting to children. I don't mean pornography or crudeness, but complexity and subtlety, with adult themes and innuendo.
Steamworks currently shows 94 million active monthly users. An unknown number of them are adults. An unknown number of those adults might be interested in a complicated space game.
We are working to get Hazeron Starship ready for release on Steam. It is fully integrated into our build processes so updates to the software propagate to all versions: the Hazeron Starship solo game and the Shores of Hazeron MMO clients and servers. My first priority is on the Steam release but changes often apply to the mmo client and/or servers as well.
Shores of Hazeron - The MMO Game
The mmo Shores of Hazeron will continue to be free online until Hazeron Starship is released on Steam. Then it will return to being $10 per month using PayPal, as before.
No changes are planned or pending that would force a reset of the database. There is no current plan to reset the database at any point along the way.
There is some hope that the solo game will drive players to try the mmo. The servers are being kept online until after the Steam release, to see how that plays out.
To be honest, it will take a miraculous surge in interest in the online game to keep the servers alive. They are expensive to maintain and they are not needed at all for the Steam version, which is solo playable only.
In my opinion, I predict the servers are taken off line a few months after the Steam release.
The web site will remain up to support the wiki and the forum, mainly for bug reporting.
Hazeron Starship - The Solo Game
The solo Hazeron Starship is currently getting a surge of attention, to get ready for release on Steam.
The current plan is to work hard for the next three months to get ready, with the possibility of going six months, if that is needed.
Steamworks has fully approved Hazeron Starship for release on Steam. I just need to push the button and Hazeron Starship will be announced as "Coming Soon". It will remain in that state for two weeks before it is actually available in the Steam app store.
Rather than rush into that, I decided the game needed more solo play content. I wanted to give the player more value for their money. I also wanted to improve the story.
What I would really like to see is a continuing story that rambles along but never really ends, like a soap opera or comic book, like episodes of Star Trek or The Mandalorian. Updates to the software would include additions to the story as they become available.
To that end, it is beneficial to start with a substantial amount of story for players to play through. That way it takes them a while to catch up to the leading edge, where the author is now in the story. As the story grows longer, each new player after that has an even longer story to play, before they catch up.
I hired a professional novelist and playwright to take command of the story telling in the game. It is a long time Shores of Hazeron player who is passionate about the game. I do not yet know if they want their identity known to the players so that will remain unsaid for now.
They have the latitude to rewrite the story from scratch. No bit of the existing story need be saved.
This will lead to useful improvements in the story script engine.
Eventually, it might be possible to make the script engine available to the public. Then players could write and share stories between themselves. Some games have done this successfully. It doesn't really work for the mmo, unless someone at this end reviews and approves each script. Otherwise it's, "Oh look, is that a patent for warp 9 lying on the ground? Whoa Q255 even!"
Steam assigned an Adult rating to Hazeron Starship. It makes sense for a game where players can get naked, have sex, and bear children.
One benefit to that adult rating is that children won't be playing the game. It is detailed and complicated. It really isn't a game for children.
Another benefit to that is the author can write for an adult audience. Steam is a mature platform, with a lot of mature players. I think adults want to be spoken to like adults, not like children. Knowing the audience is comprised of adults, the author can develop an engaging story that might not be interesting to children. I don't mean pornography or crudeness, but complexity and subtlety, with adult themes and innuendo.
Steamworks currently shows 94 million active monthly users. An unknown number of them are adults. An unknown number of those adults might be interested in a complicated space game.