What is LIVEdev?

LIVEdev is a term we coined right here on the DangerLands Development Team. While working on the game we pretty much need to keep it up and running all the time. Instead of keeping everyone out and unveiling a secret project, we are doing our development right out in the open.  Users are invited to try out the current build and give us feedback on the forums. It's as simple as going over to the current game project page. The game uses the Ston3D web player, so should work on all major platforms and browsers.

http://www.daveyounggames.com/DangerLands/DangerLandsWIP.php

The reason we're publishing this URL and letting players in so early is that we are avid game players ourselves. We know what it's like to hear about a new game in development, and anxiously await its release. Sometimes you get lucky and get accepted into an early beta program, but we thought it would be even cooler to be able to see the game from the ground up as it's developed. It can have prototype features and probably lots of bugs and unfinished things, but it will always be here for you to see :)

It's a lot of fun to do LIVEdev! We get to interact directly with the player community and see as people try out features and comment on things. Lots of feature requests are made obviously, and sometimes we implement a new feature on the spot. Then we say "Hey! Refresh the page!", and a new build with the new feature is ready for them to see in seconds after it's announced.  This brings in our player community into the development of the game in a deep level never quite seen before in the game development world.

One good example of this is the chat window. It covers up an area of the screen which people often want to see. So someone said "It would be cool to shut the chat off/on."  Within minutes, I created the functionality to slide the chat window in/out, and then enhanced it a bit so that when new chat messages that came in and the window was closed, the Chat button blinked a bit. This was an easy one, but we didn't have to wait months for it to happen.

The current version number is always displayed in the game interface, so it's easy to use the forums and report a bug or make a request for something you'd like to see in the game.

So, enjoy the ride! Be gentle and courteous also, as there will usually be lots of things unfinished at any given time :)