Fun & Serious 2

---

Hello again!

It's good to be back to talk a little more about the future.

First, if we look back at the previous Fun & Serious, it's cool to see that we did most of what has been said. It's thanks to the already great team becoming even better everyday.

I have not counted, but we probably made another 15 updates since the last time, including the Cup of the Day, Matchmaking Beta, Club Items on the "Fun" part and the Trophies list, netcode improvements, landing hits issues & OAuth on the "Serious" part.

Now, if we look more at how the team agenda is at the moment :

Fun

+ Big fun!
First of all, we are working on some big fun, but it should remain secret for now. I expect this to be known in around three months from now. The idea is to let you know that we are also developing bigger things along side the more regular updates.

+ Matchmaking
There is a lot of improvements being done at the moment on it, including the ability to party with friends. The next evolution should be closer to release and enable also to start the monthly log and trophy rewards of the reached level. And last but not least, we are actively working on the visuals & polish of it to provide a better experience.

+ Introduction
We are making a focus on the new players. We would like them to more easily get into the Trackmania world. And in order to do so, we will do a focus on how do they play and enjoy the first hours and days of Trackmania. We may add an introduction campaign to the training tracks, we will look if there is need of ghosts or simply a cool video at launch or in advertising panels to show them how crazy can the game be. Better introduction to new players means more players and more fun.

+ Blocks
And yes we are working on that, and we are investigating at the moment which ones would also best add to the current ones. I expect them to be done and available in around three months from there.

Serious

+ Clubs!
If I tell you "Coppers" and "Planets", of course you know what I am talking about. And now, you will know what are "Clubs". Yes, it will be confusing, but we will get used to it ^_^ So, in order to provide services to clubs, there is to be a token system enabling the clubs to access these services when they are limited. Amount of Clubs will depend on number of registered members in the clubs (yeah, that's how the confusion starts)

+ ManiaPub
First example of using the Clubs is the come back of Maniapub, but in a different way. The goal here is to make the use of the in-game advertising panel in order to display the activities created by players. I SO much want to see ManiaExchange advertising and showcase of a map on the big screen on the side of the Stadium! That will make all players discover the creativity of others and potentially join them into it or competitions.

+ Trophies
Second example of using the Clubs is the ability to craft trophies for custom competitions. It will put a value of Clubs to award them. The maximum value of the trophy will be 6 at first, but we may on some specific case grant access to level 7 or 8 one day.

+ Polish
There are multiple things we are looking at to make the experience smoother, like launch time to reach the main menu or initial sequence in modes to make a better game feel.

+ Much more
There are many topics that are less to be discussed under development but I think it's good for players to know that we are still working with a significant amount of effort on some strategic, less visible aspect of the game, since it means longer lifetime for it. These developments represents maybe 50% of the whole work and while less visible, are the ones that make what Trackmania is, the racing operating system, somehow!

And let's end with some words about TMGL

We just went through the TMGL, and it's good to congratulate CarlJr, Pac for the incredible season (you can make it!) Scrapie for the come back and Mudda for first appearance in the league at top 4. It's also good to congratulate all others, since it made this season so interesting as the level was so high. I was happy to see the final chance running for two things : first we zoom on top 9 to top 16 and it enables to talk more about champions that had a lesser season, and second because we can see that players that are in these ranks can reach top 3, a proof that the level is stacked and that Trackmania is open to surprises, which is good for spectators but also, I think, very good for champions who wish to create to be the surprise. Next season, there will be a major change on step points counting, and also a cool adjustments on The Final, with more rounds in top 8 and top 6 but with only one lap instead of two, giving more chances to prove, and keeping the competition quick enough to appeal most of spectators. The introduction of the K.O. was great and provided a solution for cool duels, 15 years after the first Bercy!

We should also congratulate the streamers who provided so good casting and who probably represent the most significant evolution of this season. They connect champions and viewers : they bring champions to the viewers and the viewers to the champions. They are making the TMGL real for all and they improve at least as much as the champions! Congratulations again!

And finally, of course the team at Nadeo behind the league, from the development of the modes to the live events and communication.

And now that the TMGL is done, even if there are things to organize for the World Cup, there is less developments to do since it relies on current Cup mode. It will give even more time to the team to focus on other topics. Keep in mind that the developments on the TMGL are made to lead some of key areas for the whole game and can't be seen as TMGL only investments from Nadeo. Because, we know, there is much more than the super cool TMGL and we should see this in the upcoming months!

And after it will be the holidays. I hope we will reach there with a lot of good vibes all together and wish you ManiaBest!

Hylis

Reply · Report Post