Imperial Update 2018.2: Code Freezes and Closed Alphas

A code freeze!

Development on the current version of Imperial Conflict has officially halted.

We've come to a point where building upon the current codebase is no longer viable. It's come a long way in the last ~2 years, but despite its improvements, introducing changes has become prohibitively unwieldy. As of earlier this month, no more changes will be happening on the current site. 100% of our effort is now going towards the new codebase.

Some have suggested that we should have done this from the start when the ownership transfer happened, but I still believe that there's a lot of value to be had in understanding why something has problems, and working on IC's code has been a great learning experience, even if we do eventually shelve it.

Anyway, this doesn't mean that the current game itself is going anywhere. It will continue to be supported and maintained while we work on the new version of Imperial Conflict. The next rounds of Milky Way and Supernova will continue on as usual, and you can safely ignore all of this for the time being if you're not interested.

If you are interested though, you have an opportunity to get involved.

A Closed Alpha

This new version of Imperial Conflict is actively under development. New as in entirely new. New server, new tech stack, new everything. The new backend itself has been under experimentation for a few months now, but we're getting to a point where we'll soon be able to actually see the fruits of this labor.

I wanted to have the alpha up by end of February, but that is unfortunately no longer viable. The new deadline is March 10. The first thing that will be online will be the bare bones site functionality, as in more website than playable game. Once that is all tested and working as expected, we'll start rebuilding the Imperial Conflict universe.

Access and Expectations

The Alpha is going to be closed; initial access will be given to Staff and Patreon subscribers only. If this sounds interesting to you, you can become a Patron for access.

As for what we'll be testing, I have a general plan of game features I want to implement, but it is going to be a highly interactive and collaborative process. That is, you as a tester will influence the priorities we focus on.

Long Term Vision

We'll be keeping the core of Imperial Conflict the same; we're not looking to make an entirely different game here. That said, there will likely be at least a few significant departures. We sometimes look back on "the good ol' days" somewhat blinded by nostalgia and forget that even in IC's heyday it wasn't perfect.

I won't get into too much detail here as I'd rather not talk about these changes until I can show them, but rest assured the overall goal is to keep the game true to its spirit. IC, despite its flaws, is still a great game. The last thing we want to do is make it something unrecognizeable.

Thanks for Reading!

This was a short update, but there really isn't much to talk about until the alpha is up. On that note, back to work I go!