Some interesting challenges have been tossed up in the whirlwind of yesterday. One of the backend devs was having unending problems with trying to deploy to beanstalk (surprise surprise), basically it looks like the new version is a piece of crap so we will be using kubernetes instead of waiting 40 minutes for every deployment to hang and ultimately fail.

The browser extension component had to be restarted yesterday, which was a bit upsetting. It turns out that git has a really cool feature where if you type “git reset” it actually unsaves all the work you’ve done … not the best timing for a brain fart! Mind you building the extension component again from scratch was a lot faster the second time around!

A difficulty we face is trying to figure out how players will interact with the mechanics of the game. Having a discussion on the mechanics early will hopefully lead to a better game in the long run. It’s challenging though, to refine these mechanics and rules early and considering how they can be turned into code that the computer can actually run.

As well as utilising a whiteboard kanban board, we’re using Slack a fair bit to ping each other for updates and show progress. A great example is Conrad’s (below) where mechanics and functions of the game that were discussed were summarised and posted for all the team to see … it’s beginning to feel a lot like teamwork!

The rules of engagement … also leads to an engaged team.

It’s quite difficult for our designers, who are trying to build a website, design an app and animate examples whilst the product is still taking shape. Striking a balance between the development and design is a little tricky right now. We basically have to meet somewhere in the middle and decide on how things will look earlier than we would usually. All in all it’s coming together pretty nicely though …

We’re pretty close to having a simple version we can test

The main aim of the game is to eventually take over all of reddit so we’re trying to build rules that encourage participation rather than just maintaining a passive defence. You can build battle karma points and upgrade your abilities to win wars. As is the case with most games, it becomes harder to upgrade the longer the player plays. You can’t win by only dominating r/circlejerkaustralia like a greedy warlord, the peasants will surely start revolting and you’ll be overthrown.

Invading or defending a subreddit will reward battle karma to the winner. Resting in occupied subreddits will also accumulate karma. The larger the subreddit, the more karma it generates! Players can spend battle karma to level up and change the tide of battle.