Apr 21, 2024
Penkura - LionsArt
Dev-Com #4
Greetings, members of the Accord.
As some of you may already know, 10 days ago a kind YouTuber named FloppySword featured Penkura in a video. This video generated enough resources for us to temporarily set aside nearly all our side jobs that were keeping Penkura alive, allowing us to focus full time on the game for the next two months.
We plan to maximize these two months by rolling out content originally scheduled for release over the next six to eight months. It will be a massive amount of work, but we are eager to use this rare opportunity.
Before we detail our plans for the upcoming patches, we need to address a small issue. With increased game visibility, we've seen a spike in feedback and bug report emails—from an average of two a month to over a thousand.
After three days of meticulous checking, we discovered that only about seventy of these were from legitimate copies of Penkura. Over 90% of the bug reports came from a nearly two-year-old version of the game. While we do not vilify piracy—understanding that finances are tight and people are cautious about spending on games—these inaccurate reports have significantly slowed our progress. It is error on our part, that we didn't predict such possibility but in the upcoming patch, we will modify the bug report system to more easily verify if the reports are from original copies of Penkura.
Now, regarding the upcoming patch:
In the last ten days, based on video review and conversations with players, we've remastered nearly the entire map to improve player navigation, added over a dozen new points of interest, expanded the lore, and increased the map’s size by about twenty percent with additional space for a second player base. We also resolved dozens of issues reported by players, enhanced the tutorial, and streamlined nearly all game texts for better readability by removing unnecessary filler words. Additionally, we've rebalanced some item production and energy generation and are introducing two new structures in response to player feedback. To heighten the challenge on the improved map, we will introduce two new creatures.
Unfortunately, due to the extra work required beyond what was initially planned, we must delay the release of this patch from April 20, 2024, to April 26, 2024.
Meanwhile, we are simultaneously developing three new levels, the first of which will be released about a week after the upcoming patch.
The second level will follow a month later, and we hope to release the third another month after that.
Below, we are showcasing a few teaser screenshots of the upcoming levels, featuring different flora and fauna and over a hundred new assets created over the past year. In the next two months, we aim to release all the content we’ve been working on, which will triple the game's size.
Between these major updates, we plan to release a small patch introducing the new language system, which allows players to program bots to help maintain their bases. This system should be ready in about two weeks. We are looking for players with little to no programming experience to test how user-friendly and functional it is within the game. Currently, three players are set to test this system, but we are open to more volunteers.
If you’re interested, please join us on our Discord channel at https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm and mention your interest in testing the new feature.
Thank you all for your time and support.
Till the next Dev-Com over and out.
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Winter is coming!
Developer Thoughts: Defense drones have always been held back by their old design. The first drone would be decently balanced, but because they could absorb infinite damage, each acquired drone would have exponential benefits, and as such several limitations had to be placed on the drones, such as the increasing price per defense drone purchased. The biggest flaw was how they limited the design of interesting enemy attacks that used a single projectile. With these adjustments, drones are much more healthy for the game, and should be easier to pick up as a result!
