Friday 29 January 2016

DevBlog #5 The Arcade Plaza

Hello and welcome to the latest issue of the DevBlog. We’ve got some pretty big news to share with everyone. Over the last couple of weeks you’ve seen how our team have been working on bringing The Bowling Alley to Atom Universe...but that’s not all they’ve been working on.

In fact, they’ve been finishing an entirely new area which houses the Bowling Alley. This is known as the Arcade Plaza!


In this spacious area, you’ll be able to hit the Bowling Lanes for a game of 10-Pin Bowling and, depending on how high you can score, you’ll win Atoms for your Avatar; you’ll also be able to unlock a variety of different bowling balls to help improve your game.



If bowling isn’t your thing then fear not: you’ll be able to take your Avatar to the Dancefloor. Here you can dance the night away with your friends and meet new people to hang out with. This visually stunning Dancefloor is in the heart in the Arcade Plaza, with glowing floor tiles, smoke machines, lasers and a giant disco ball - let dance fever take over your avatar!



All partied out? Want to chat with your friends in the comfort of your own booth? There is plenty of seating available around the Arcade Plaza and within the booths your Avatar will be able to view the mounted displays.



And so to the big question - When will this content be available? 


Well, PC users will be able to explore and take in all the activities when we transition our Steam version over to the Early Access phase of development over the coming months. We can't announce a specific date as yet, but you guys will be the first to know and we will bring this to you as soon as we possibly can!

PlayStation users, hang tight! We will be shifting our focus to Early Access for a small period of time, but fear not this will allow us to squash all the nasty bugs and allow us to create a better experience for all.

Wait, there’s more! 


The Arcade Plaza represents the first stage of the final phase of production and we are releasing it early in order to test out all of the core components which are now in the game - user accounts, logins, chat, avatar actions, games and Atomz a-plenty. The plan is to then roll out regular content updates, each month adding more games and features - you might even see some clues as to what’s coming soon around the Plaza. ;-)

We’re very excited to be able to welcome lots of real users to Atom Universe!

11 comments:

  1. OMG this all looks so awesome! I love this idea of the Arcade Plaza and am so excited to see those screen shots! I like the modern look and am very excited to try this out when it becomes available! And as an Alpha tester of the PC version I hope to see this soon before the Early Release! It looks like everything is coming together so nicely and I couldn't be happier with the progress. Thank you so much Atom Republic! Keep doing what you are doing because it is AWESOME!!!

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    1. Hey Steve. Last year there were mentions that the "Early Access" version would be released some time during the 1st quarter of this year. Also, that isn't the "golden" release, more of a beta which would be the next stage of development as the game is currently in Alpha. Since then, I was told that the 1st quarter was more of a "target date" for the Early Access version. Just stay tuned for official statements from Atom Republic on their social networks (Facebook, Twitter), here, and on their forum site (http://atomuniverse.net).

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    3. Steve,

      For the Alpha, we were given keys to download it and those were provided by email. When the Alpha is promoted to Early Access on Steam for PC as mentioned above, I believe it will be available for download by the general public so I don't think a separate email registration will be required since it is not for a limited audience like the Alpha is. As mentioned in the Dev Blog, the focus will be on PC first and after bugs are worked out it will be available on PS4. When it comes to the PS4, I am not sure if a registration will be required to get the code or not. No official details for that have been provided by Atom Republic on that, but since it will be released to the general public, I would think that it wouldn't require registration to get codes by email which is the same assumption I made for the Early Access on Steam. No timelines for any of this have been announced yet and so just stay tuned to the channels I mentioned previously for those. I did hear Tanguy say that they are being very careful about announcing release dates because they want to make sure they meet them so that the community won't be disappointed. It's a very sensitive topic for everyone. I would rather wait for the game to become as stable as possible instead of rushing to get it out in the 1st quarter. Quality is more important, especially if ti is to go to the masses. It does no good if it is released earlier and full of bugs as that will only cause more criticism and work for Atom Republic. I would be patient and wait for an official announcement from Atom Republic which will come as soon as they are ready. :)

      Btw you repeated your last comment 3 times. You might want to delete 2 of them lol :P

      Thanks,
      Trisha

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  2. Very excited.Can't wait to be welcomed, for real.My friends and I thank you for so enthusiastically working to make it happen.

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  3. I love the screen shots that have been shared in this DevBlog. When that pic of the dance floor was shared on Twitter as a preview to this blog, I had mentioned it kind of looked like a cross between Konami's Club Luminosity space and Atom Republic's Discotheque apartment that were both on PS Home. And now seeing the other pics I am even more excited. I love the modern/futuristic look and as usual, everything looks so real! I'm so excited that the Arcade Plaza is the "first stage of the final phase of production" and that it will be released early so people can test out the features which the Alpha testers have been testing for a while now to get even more feedback. I'm glad I've been testing the PC version of the Alpha since it seems the PC users will be able to try out all these activities when the current PC version of the Alpha on Steam is moved to Early Access for all PC users in the next few months! As we have in the past, I'm sure we will be able to help Atom Republic find bugs so they can stabilize it before it goes to Sony for the PS4 users, which I understand makes up the majority of the community. I love the fact that updates will be released monthly (last year I had seen Dena say we would be getting updates every 2 months) to get feedback even more quickly (possible shorter dev sprints?). All in all, I am very pleased with the progress that I have seen with the Alpha. I think that this right here is probably the most exciting news that has been shared about AU to date!!!

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  5. Its like eye candy for the avatar's soul! Looks great Atom Republic.

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  6. Please see my reply to you above. :)
    Btw, you posted this response twice (see below).

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