Oh wow, we just noticed now it’s been 8 months since our last blog post. We are so sorry about that! We’ve had our heads down feverishly working on the N v2.0 update and have been hit with some delays and unanticipated problems, and completely lost track of time.
But to be totally honest, part of our silence has to do with not having finished the game already… we wanted it to be done a year ago, and here we are still struggling to get it done. We’re feeling pretty bad about that, and sincerely apologize to all of you who have been waiting so patiently.
We should have news for you very soon (really, this time) and we cannot wait to hear what you think.
Follow us on twitter if you like:
@metanetsoftware
@raiganburns
@maresheppard
And get ready for N v2.0! It really is coming soon.
We’re old enough to handle some details.
Soon (TM) is getting pretty old.
The details would be: front-end is taking much longer than anticipated, level-making is taking much longer than anticipated (after about 3000 levels it’s pretty hard to find new ideas/concepts), we’re still trying to get in-browser performance to be reasonable, and there are several small bugs remaining. The editor is the only remaining big task (aside from the inevitable bug fixes when we release an open beta).
We’ve changed directions on several things several times, which doesn’t help.
Also, we’ve spent a month or two on the first phase of an N-related project which we’ll be announcing soon; we’ve spent a month or two working on presentations we had to give at GDC and Freeplay; we spent a month in Tokyo.
Finally, we’ve been really struggling with this project for a number of reasons. For one thing, the pressure we feel is immense. There is also the stress of working on N seemingly for eternity, while our other in-development projects are collecting dust (not to mention the stress of having many failed attempts at new games, none of which have proven to be as fun as N).
It’s becoming harder and harder to work on it because we anticipated being finished an entire year ago, and our motivation is severely depleted — we were becoming burnt out back then, and at this point we’re incredibly burnt out.
On bad days, we feel like fans will hate it and new players won’t get it, we feel like it’s never going to end and we’ll never produce any other worthwhile games beyond N.
Thankfully, on good days we can see a glimmer of hope that it will be done soon and people will like it; we still enjoy playing and making levels; we’re grateful that there are people out there who still like N and remember it fondly.
We’re very sorry for the delay, but hopefully you can understand it’s difficult for us too.
“On bad days, we feel like fans will hate it”
straight up, if you guys implement the ability to create user-made episodes (i.e., with a persistent timer over a number of levels) we will love you forever and all will be forgiven.
otherwise it will be pitchforks and torches :p
I’m just happy to hear you’re keeping at it! I’m sure the new version will be well worth your time and effort.
Don’t give up! You’ve still got plenty of fans! 😀
I think everyone is really looking forward to it, its not the fear that the game will be bad that’s annoying them, its the time. And since you guys can’t do anything about the time we really dont have much of a right to complain. The only thing that you need to do is continue making the game and stay in contact with the community 🙂 Im personally looking forward to 2.0 alot.
Where mapping is concerned, the community is more than happy to help out. I would even say that most of the veteran mappers from NUMA consistently produce maps of a higher quality than you two do. With this in mind it would both relieve you of a task and improve your product if you interacted with the community.
Keep up the good work, we will wait patiently until the big moment. And as they say, stay in contact with the community.
Can’t wait for the release.
Yay an update!
I’d like to say, it’s not time or bad news, it’s when you guys seem to disappear off the face of the earth.
I for one have got infinite patience for N. Over 7 years of playing and I’m still not bored with this game.
Thanks for the update! It really makes quite the difference. Hope for the best of luck!
Thanks everyone.
@Destiny: the problem we had when reviewing user-made maps for N and N+ is that it doesn’t take much less time — we save time on making the levels, but we have to spend much more time playing them, both to select them (i.e less than 10% of the levels we play are selected, so we’re spending a lot of time per level that actually makes it into the game) and also so that we can accurately rank their difficulty (and we ended up making many small edits too). Also for N+ we wanted to make sure the difficulty curve was more gradual, and user-made maps tend to be of the very-difficult variety.
@gloomp: I’m really sorry, but I don’t want to dance around it — user-made episodes are cut, or at least for initial release. The reason is that we’ve cut episode highscores completely — episodes have always been a sort of kludgey awkward aspect we didn’t really love (i.e it’s just not as fun to speedrun as individual levels, it’s tedious, and sort of pointless since you could just speedrun the individual levels in isolation, which in our opinion was a better experience). We’re hoping to include some sort of episode-like “playlist” feature which lets users chain a sequence of user-made maps together, however again it won’t have online highscores, so it’s hard to say whether it’s worth doing. (hopefully once things are rolling we’ll get a better sense of the database usage and we’ll be able to determine whether we can enable highscores for user-made episodes/groups)
We’re really excited to share the secret N-related news, however we want to make sure things are signed and official before we say anything… but it’s exciting! 🙂
Really good to see an update from you guys. I think the fact that a community has been sustained by N alone for the past eight years speaks to the potential presented by N v2.0. Keep going! You still have a great community of fans behind you.
As of right now, I’m following all three of those accounts on Twitter.
OH man. I can’t wait for this.
Super excited. On days when you feel down, remember that you still have many fans who support you!
How often do you guys check in on NUMA, the forums (when they’re up), etc? And do you ever get on irc? Just wondering.
Great to hear from you guys, we believe in you!
Whenever you need that “glimmer of hope” restored, hop over to nmaps.net and count the number of maps created — in your little 2004 flash game’s editor — on that single day. Just that day. If that doesn’t make you happy about your product, I don’t know what will.
-flag
M&R: Great to hear from you as always. It’s good to hear you’re still making progress on v2.0 – any progress is good progress and remember you still have a large fan base behind you. Take your time. 😉 There’s one thing you forgot to mention: V2.0 BETA PRIZES. Their lack of existence has literally been the bane of my day-to-day life for the past ten months. How’s progress there?
@flag: just counted them myself and got 33… I’m surprised, myself. Even before numa went down last year we were only getting about half that. Something is causing a resurgence.
don’t stress, guys. Also, if you guys are needing a funding boost, I’m sure when the forums are back up, we could host some kind of charity drive if you wish.
Also, from a highscoring aspect, I don’t mind if you no longer include episode highscores, but please make the game harder to hack/cheat. Speak to Unreality about this if you need…
How can we talk to Unreeality. Ne isn´t in NUMA anymore. I´ve tried to see anything he´ve done after 2010.
“We’re hoping to include some sort of episode-like ‘playlist’ feature which lets users chain a sequence of user-made maps together”
oh, wow, that’d be very awesome. don’t worry about highscoring too much, people will figure out a way to make it a thing regardless.
Great to hear from you guys! I’m looking forward to the v2.0, even although it may take a lot of time. Just take your time and remember that you have a great fanbase. 🙂 As we Poles say – the hope dies last. Keep it going!
Awesome to hear some good news. It’s amazing to see that most of the names here have been around since the v1.3 release or earlier. There are approaching a quarter of a million user maps on Nmaps – proof N is successful. I’d like to see a slicker editor / playtester, but to be honest, as long as the map data is easily manipulable, we can do that ourselves. I really just want a release, ASAP. Thanks again for the update.
Episode highscoring deleted?! Noooooo D: imo episode highscoring feels completely different from level highscoring, it shows endurance and patience, a different level of competition and way of enjoying, and an intrinsic part of N. But if it was causing you trouble, wih storage capacity or data managing, then its OK, but ill miss it, just like Ill miss a lot the old tricks, like corner jumps of any kind, bounceblock glitches and oneway bugs.
As for the levels, I also agree its a better idea to have M&R-made levels. There are really good maps on NUMA, a lot, but Metanet maps have an unique feel and style, and competing on them seems to be unfunproof.
Overall Im glad to hear from you guys again, really happy actually 😀 Ill miss the old N features, old highscorers, the boards, the physics engine, etc, but Ill gladly play the new N like crazy no doubt, so will everybody. Hopefully this will reactivate and increase the community activity and bring many more people.
If it hasn’t been said enough, all your fans are here to back you guys up in any way you need it!
All I hope for is that I get a second chance at my username, because I’ve had this for four years, and my sixteen year-old-self doesn’t like how my twelve year-old-self makes nicknames. ;3
Stay strong, Metanet! I can’t wait until I can actually play again! (Original version is incompatible with OSX lion). Good to hear from you and continue to keep everyone updated!
Thanks for all the support and encouragement everyone! 😀
Today we got thumbnail rendering working, hopefully it will be hooked into the level-browser soon (GoldenGear Games, also from Toronto, are helping us by doing all of the front-end/UI programming).
Levels are pretty readable down to 1/12th scale (2x2pixels per tile) but I think we’re going to go with 1/6th scale (4x4pix per tile).
About the beta prizes: we haven’t forgotten! We just don’t have any new merch yet. There will definitely be some by the end of next year (due to secret N-related project) at the latest.
Our original plan was to have “medals” or similar tied to your online account, e.g for having a certain number of #0 scores or completing all the built-in levels or whatever, displayed next to your name. We were going to then give the beta winners unique medals; sadly, all of the social features were cut when we decided to not bother with Facebook (for a while we were really hoping to have a “challenge your friend to beat a level you made” type feature). Possibly we’ll revive this idea in the future, who knows.
Anyway, thanks again for all your kind words.
Finally, you guys posted…8 months late. But still, a late post is better than no post.
I was excited when I saw that you finally had a new post. It was also nice to know that you were still alive, just “sleeping at the blog” for the past 8 months.
Although I’m anticipating for the new version, there’s one question: Can I transfer the levels I made from 1.4. to 2.0. when it’s released? I’m making a map pack but I fear that I might have to do everything from scratch when 2.0. goes out.
Hope you make another post again before the year ends! And I still play 1.4 occasionally, but I’m playing it less. Maybe it’s because 2.0. seems so close.
YEEEEAAAAH BUDDY.
I totally agree with EddyMG, I loved doing ep highscores..
You’ll be able to import old levels into the new version; we’re still not sure whether to batch-convert NUMA or just let users hand-convert (the main problem being that batch-converting means auto-generating accounts, and some NUMA accounts don’t have email addresses associated… so probably we’re going to err on the side of caution and just allow manual importing/conversion)
Thanks for the update guys! I love your game, I’ve spent days playing the DS version.
Please release a beta soon! I really want to include N in my homemade Arcade machine.
What program do you use to mod this game? I´m interested about unofficial modding very much.
Hey M&R, great to hear v2.0 is alive and kicking. I’m sure I’ll play the heck out of whatever you release. I always wished I was around for the start of v1.4, to create and innovate routes to be followed by highscorers for years to come.
Sad to see episode highscoring go. They were always one of my favorite aspects of the game… putting your knowledge of 5 levels together into one fancy playthrough. One thing I always wanted to do (but never managed it) was to score a level 0th in the middle of an episode 0th run. I’ll miss them, though I can see where you were coming from.
Cheers.
About the social features: I believe this to be the most important feature needed that was not in Nv1.4. I know the bulk of your time has probably been spent on totally reprogramming the game away from flash but I think I speak for everyone when I say that the gameplay / new levels is not what anyone is craving for the next version. There are plenty of levels and the gameplay from v1.4 is great (demonstrated by how many people love the game). My point is that I don’t think it would be good to skimp on the social features even if it takes a little longer to release. I think a well designed N social network would be huge for the fun of the game and for gaining players. And as for Facebook, I would MUCH rather have a separate N account that is not connected to Facebook (not sure how many people agree with me on that).
Anyway, thanks for all the work you guys are putting in. I can’t wait to see the results.
The initial release will definitely not have social features, but we agree with you that it would be really great… we were sad to cut this, but there was no good solution as far as we could tell — Facebook doesn’t really want you using their API outside of Facebook, and implementing Facebook-like features (friends/messages/etc.) ourselves is a non-trivial amount of work, for both front- and back-end.
There are definitely teams who have offered to implement the social stuff for us, however this would cost a lot of money… and we’d really like to try and keep N free. (As it is, we’re going to be paying for a lot of server usage)
It’s possible that in the future if there is a demand we could try and add a social element to the game, however we were hoping that by making it easy to link to levels/replays, existing social networks could be used.
You can always release it as ‘pay what you want, if you want’. I’m sure quite a few people would pay/donate, me including.
How do you guys get money, anyway?
What vankuss said. verily. I’d be more than happy to pay you.
Please give me that possibility.
ty
Now that those torturous eight months are over, I’m all giddy. Still love you guise! I will waste so many hours playing the new version when comes out, no doubt.
Hooray! And about time, too!
I agree with vankusss. I wouldn’t mind paying for social features at all if the other option was not having them at all. I can’t even remember how many times i’ve payed 1-2 dollars for a stupid iPhone that I only play for a couple days and in the meantime, N has been one of my favorite games of all time and I haven’t payed anything for it. I’d be willing to bet many are in the same boat. As for the amount of work, the community is always ready to do whatever they can to help so keep that in mind.
ok, we’ll keep thinking about how best to do social stuff then — thanks for the support and encouragement, guys. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions about the build too!
Anyone know what is happening with ninjarobotyeti.com by the way? If you know who is currently managing that forum, or hosting the domain, could you email us or have them get in touch? Seems a shame to lose such a great resource, and we want to help if we can.
Whoops sorry, this is the new domain for the forums guys.
http://forum.droni.es/
This is the first update in seven years, so take same time to bring all components (credits, especially – website, etc.) up to date. Also, burn all double exclamation marks and other depraved grammatical zombies everywhere (which are thankfully few, granted). N has an understated sophistication about its UI, and I’m sure everybody values it a lot. Give it one more polish. Push the envelope.
All this is probably foolish and already-taken-care-of, but I’m just very excited. Keep up the awesomeness.
I’m sure the all the hard-work, sweating, and pulling of the hair will be well worth the climax…
I find the close-knit attitude of the game (including double exclamations and inside jokes) pretty apropriate for the Metanet community.
On a side note, we’d be very grateful if you guys could clean the new hacked scores that have appeared on the boards since your last cleasing campaign.
I’m baaack! Anyway, YAY! Glad that you’re still working on N v2.0, but sad that it’s taking a long time.
I for one have checked back a few times to see what you’ve been doing, and finally, you return. I have yet to follow you on Twitter.
OW99, Out.
Oh and also put it on steam.
Hey there M&R, so I was going to ask if N2.0 is going to have some sort of highscores site, so you can browse the leaderboards for each level, and maybe even get some reports! (0th rankings, top20 rankings, total level score rankings, etc) we the highscorers would be highly gratified 😀
On anothers news, the new FORUM domain is: http://forum.droni.es/