Novel Direction
Hey everyone!
We haven’t updated the development blog in a while! To be fair, we’ve been really busy lately, and we hope this post will cover most of the things we’ve been up to, as well as what we’re planning on doing with Aikonia.
For this brand new year, we decided to completely re-brand MADSOFT. We used to develop flash games, but after much thought, we came to the conclusion that we will not be dealing with flash any longer. We now build browser-based games and web applications only. We’ve also redesigned our logo and we’re currently still rebuilding our site. For now, it’s just a blank page with our new logo in the center.
We’ve already started working on games, and we hope to get them done before the end of the year. The first one is a sci-fi themed browser-based MMORPG called “Project: Velyria”.
Since we’re switching to web development only, we’re going to take this opportunity to completely rebuild our community site. It currently is a flash portal, with tools for collaboration (project management system, file storage and sharing, etc). We’ll be removing features, as well as adding new ones. Basically, we’re planning on making it similar to apple’s “Game Center” or the playstation’s “PSN”. You’ll have an account, which will be linked to all our upcoming and future games, and things you do will be stored on there. This includes friends you add, achievements you earn, messages you receive, etc. So look forward to that!
And now, on to today’s main topic: Aikonia!
When we first started building Aikonia in late 2009, it was a simple, and slightly silly, flash RPG. The project has grown and changed a lot since. We were still planning on making it a flash game, but we were introducing new elements to the game, such as online multiplayer and character customization. Unfortunately, the more we added to the project, the harder it got to build, and the more time it ended up taking.
Unfortunately, flash is really hard to deal with and it requires a lot more work and effort than you’d expect. This is the main reason we switched to web development.
Which leads me to this official announcement:
We’ve changed Aikonia entirely. It is not a flash game anymore, instead, it’s a browser-based game. It still has all the elements we intended to include such as quests, beat’em up-style combat, multiplayer (guilds, item trading, etc), a large & open world, custom character building, etc.
Flash will still be involved in the equation, but only for a single element, which we can discuss later on. For now, know that flash is not the main element of Aikonia, and the fact that it is browser-based makes it easier to implement multiplayer elements and seamlessly add new features in the future. It also means everything will be stored online, so you will be able to access the game from wherever you want, on any device you want, and continue from where you left off!
We hope to have your support on this, as this was a tough decision for us to make, and we hope that, in the end, it turns out to be a great one!
