Dappervolk

News

New Year, New Update!

To kick off this promising new year, we’ve got a new update for
everyone on our closed development progress!

After taking some time to process and prioritize everything that we'd like to achieve during our closed development period, our team is excited to announce that we are aiming for the official release of Dappervolk to be within the first or second quarter of 2019!

As always, please keep in mind that this timeframe is subject to changes depending on any obstacles that we may encounter while developing some of our more complex new features. But rest assured, we will have more specific news and updates for everyone regarding our launch timeframe as we continue to make headway through our development projects - so stay tuned!

One of the major projects that we are currently working on for official launch is a brand new town to explore! This location will continue the storyline where many beta testers left off, departing from the sandy shores of Aviar Cove in search for exciting, new horizons - or perhaps, great new depths?

Our current work on this new town and its inhabitants will largely be kept as a surprise for players to unlock during official launch, so we won't be able to share any new sneak peeks with you - but if you're curious about our progress, we are currently in the process of finalizing the art assets and fleshing out the quest writing! What we can share, are some fun in-progress assets for other areas of the site that we are currently developing. For example, we will be expanding Peddler's Port with various new NPCs like the one below.

_{Progress shots of a new NPC being painted! They}
^{will be located in Peddler's Port alongside Pai.}

Some of our most anticipated features for official launch are also some of our most coding-intensive projects thus far! Currently, our coders are hard at work transforming our design mockups for these features into fully functional parts of the site. Below are some of the major upcoming features that we're working on right now.

USER-RUN GUILD SYSTEM
During our beta testing phase, you may have noticed that our "upcoming things" list was updated with a few bullet points dedicated to a new feature called Guilds! This system is designed to give users the ability to create and run their own public or private group, with built-in features such as a customizable theme and homepage, customizable ranks/permissions, a guild-only mini forum and live chat, guild events, and guild upgrade goals to work toward.

Since our last update, this feature has progressed through the concepting and UI design process, and onto the coding and refining stage! Our coders have made great progress thus far, so be sure to keep an eye out for more details on how this feature will be implemented into the game as we get closer to putting the finishing touches on this exciting project.

ADVENTURE EXPANSION
During beta testing, users got to experience our initial framework and first build for a feature called Adventure! Admittedly, this early iteration of the feature was designed as more of a functional test run of its newly built framework than a fully realized, fun game for players to experience - so we completely understood when many felt a bit disappointed by its beta testing debut.

However, thanks to all of the testing and input that we received from our beta testers, we are very excited to now be working on implementing and realizing the full range of ideas that we've been planning for this side scrolling mini-game styled feature!

_{Sneak peek of a}_{UI mockup being worked on}
^{for Adventure's new "active" mode.}

Some new features that will be coming to Adventure are a variety of new default and unlockable sprite appearances, toggle-able active and passive game modes, better optimization, new regions to unlock, new Adventuring music, an encounters bar, and more!

HOUSING PROGRESS
By far, one of our most anticipated - and most ambitious - upcoming features is the introduction of customizable player homes into the world of Dappervolk!

Once unlocked, users will be able to decorate and arrange the contents of their homes on an easy to use grid-based system. Additionally, we plan to integrate a player's Adventure sprite into this feature, allowing you to freely hop throughout your home and even invite your friends over to chat in real-time! Each home will also include skills activities and crafting - but more details on this will be revealed in the future, as we are currently focusing on building the framework for this feature and refining the artistic direction that we'd like to take for the massive amount of assets that it will require.

Please note that, while we regard housing as one of our most important new features, the sheer amount of technical considerations and graphic assets that it will take to produce this feature is something that we do not want to underestimate during development. Because of this, there is a possibility that housing may not be completely ready for release at the time of official launch. Nevertheless, we are extremely excited about the feature and can't wait to share more about it with you as we progress further through development!

MINI GAMES & MUSIC
It wouldn't be a complete update without some news on our upcoming mini game plans and gameplay music, right? Because we plan to officially launch Dappervolk with a brand new town, a new mini game will also be released via the Playground alongside that town! Additionally, we also plan to have some amazing new music to go long with the new mini game, as well as our Adventure expansion.

Interested in listening to our existing Dappervolk music?
Visit our talented composer's Dappervolk page over on Bandcamp!
https://stijnvanwakeren.bandcamp.com/album/dappervolk

MINOR DELAY
Over the holidays, an unexpected hard drive failure occurred on the main desktop of our lead artist and project manager, Quis. Thankfully, we keep regular data backups on external drives, so no files or progress were lost in the process. She has since invested in a new desktop to replace this older device, but some technical issues with the new build have delayed her ability to switch over. This is expected to be resolved soon, with the only major impact being on her ability to continue progress on the content that we have set aside for streams.

We'll be sure to update everyone when our art development streams resume. Nevertheless, it is full steam ahead into the new year!

Thank you all for your continued support!
We hope everyone had a great holiday & start to the new year.

...more

Farewell, Until We Meet Again!

Our beta testing phase has officially concluded!

On behalf of the entire Dappervolk staff team, we'd like to thank all of the players that joined us over these many months of testing to experience the game and share their valuable feedback! We are so grateful that we got to meet so many of the awesome people that make up our community during this time, it was a truly heartening experience for us to read through all of the passionate, insightful discussions and suggestions along the way. As we head into closed development to prepare for the future official launching of the site, we are certain that Dappervolk will return even bigger and better thanks to all of your efforts as beta testers!

As we described in a previous news post, Dappervolk will be entering a period of closed development so that we can focus on improving and building upon the site - this includes implementing user suggestions/feedback, expanding upon existing content, and adding entirely new features! During this time, some of our major projects will be implementing a 5th town and tackling our 3 most complex features: Adventure, Guilds, and Housing. These large projects will involve an intensive effort between various members of our team, and as such we anticipate that we will need until at least January 2019 to develop these features. This is our preliminary estimate as of this news post, so that everyone can have a rough picture of how long the downtime between beta and official launch may be. With that said, this timeframe is ultimately subject to changes depending upon any obstacles that we may encounter while developing features of this complexity.

In the meantime, we will be resuming activity on our social media pages and through email newsletters to keep everyone posted on our progress during closed development! We intend to release development sneak peeks, progress updates, and even some artwork streams throughout the coming months - so stay tuned, new and exciting things are on the horizon for Dappervolk!

To keep up with our closed development progress,
you can follow or join us at any of the links below:

Our team will be active regularly on our Official DV Discord server,
if you are interested in engaging with us throughout development!

As promised at the very beginning of the beta testing period, the player(s) that spun the most of either legendary custom maker item during testing would be rewarded with one of that corresponding item for official launch.

So without further ado, here are our winners!

Zelda (#28) with 11 Custom Clothing Creators spun

Domayne (#5996) with 10 Custom Pet Creators spun

Honorable Mention: Zelda (#28) also spun 10 Custom Pet Creators,
but Domayne broke the tie because they were the first to reach 10 total.

The corresponding prizes will be distributed to the winners' accounts for official launch.

Thank you so much for playing!
We hope you all had fun & will see you again soon.

Sincerely,
Dappervolk Team

...more

End of Beta Details & Information

Hey testers! This will be our last news update before our end of beta "farewell" announcement.

Just to be sure that we're all on the same page, the exact closing
date/time for the beta testing period is listed below.

BETA CLOSING DETAILS
When beta comes to a close, the site will enter into a period of closed development where accounts will not be able to be logged into. During this time, all testing data generated during beta (currency, items, character choices, posts, etc.) will be reviewed and then wiped in preparation for our future official launch of the site. Because of the non-permanent nature of all testing data, please make sure that you save any information onsite that you want to keep before the site closes at the time listed above - for example, your friends list, profile coding, forum guide content, and so on!

If you bought or redeemed any reward codes during beta, these codes will become active again for redemption when the site reopens for official launch. Additionally, any carry-over prizes obtained during beta (such as the event trophy and spring bloom item) will be re-issued to all qualified accounts and should be in your inventory when you log in once the site reopens.

Additionally, once beta closes our two beta-exclusive Support Bundles being sold on Gumroad will also close. The next few days will be your last chance to grab these bundles before they retire permanently - this means that all of the exclusive items within them will never be sold again! For anyone who may be interested in making any last minute purchases, the two bundles are linked below:

Purchase Links: Musical Bundle + Magical Bundle

CLOSED DEVELOPMENT
The period between the closing of beta and the opening of official launch is going to be a critical moment for our team to focus on improving and building upon Dappervolk. We have a lot of work ahead of us, including implementing user suggestions/feedback and adding entirely new features - so this downtime will give us the opportunity to concentrate our efforts on bringing you a bigger and better Dappervolk for the official launch of the site!

How long will closed development last? This is one of the most important aspects of our closed development that we're grappling with, as it will largely depend on the progress of our three largest and most complex features (Guilds, Housing, and Adventure) and any unforeseen bumps in the road that we may encounter while getting them ready for release. There are bunch of other team efforts that also need to come together to make official launch possible, so there's a lot to be coordinated and considered when trying to give you all an accurate picture of how long we'll really need to ensure that everything is ready. But rest assured, you won't be kept in the dark on this! Our end of beta "farewell" post will include more details on our current development projections and how to keep up with our progress throughout closed development. Stay tuned!

As a reminder to everyone, our custom creator contest will be ending at the same time that beta closes. The lucky user(s) that spun the most of each custom creator will be rewarded with one as a prize during official launch!

Be sure to get all of your spins done before beta closes!
Winners will be announced in our final news post.

Good luck, everyone!

...more

Autumn Premium Shop Test & Other News!

Happy Autumn, Dappervolk!
As our last order of business during beta, we are releasing our
Monthly Turnip Chance Machine for testing and feedback!

Alongside the new shop, a new mini-town called Peddler's Port has appeared. This location is where our new NPC shop will reside and will become home to various other merchants in the future - including NPCs that will be selling monthly potato items, class-specific items, and more!

Visit the World Map and select the Peddler's Port icon to visit this new location.
Additionally, it will not cost you any town hops to visit this area.
You may also return to the town that you originally hopped from for free!

Because this update involves adding a new town to the site, we
will need to go offline for maintenance for a short period of time
to implement the new content.

In the spirit of autumn, all of the test items that we're using are an autumn-y witch/warlock theme!
These items will be repurposed into seasonally obtainable items during official launch, so everyone will have a chance to obtain them again in the future.
Bonus Prizes: For every 10 spins in this shop, the shopkeeper will reward you with a free bonus item of your choice from that month's shop stock! This should help reward collectors and give players a bit of control over the unpredictable nature of the turnip chance machine.
When the site officially launches, the turnip chance machine's stock will renew each month, with the previous months' items permanently retiring. This type of retiring system will only apply to items that are "limited" rarity.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the balance of this new feature!

Dappervolk's cash-based currency is the Turnip, which is displayed next to your potato count on the top bar - not to be confused with the item called Plump Turnip.
Turnip currency is not transferable between users, however items obtained using Turnips can be traded and sold freely.
There will be 2 main ways to obtain Turnip currency on Dappervolk: Purchasing it through the site for real-world currency, and participating in in-game activities that will give out small amounts of it over time.
You will be able to purchase Turnips starting in Official Launch, where we estimate that 100 Turnips will cost roughly $1 CAD.
We also intend to launch with free ways to earn Turnips, such as through daily login bonuses, opt-in ad viewing, and NPC affection milestones!

BETA-EXCLUSIVE PET

All users who registered and verified their account during beta will receive a Prismatic Bell item during official launch, which will hatch into a Prismatic Pup! Like the Celestial Pup that alpha testers were rewarded, this pet is a beta-exclusive quaint that will be retired permanently.

BETA TESTER ACHIEVEMENT

All verified beta accounts will also receive an exclusive beta tester achievement to display on their forum posts! The achievement icon isn't ready for release yet, but it will be unveiled in a future announcement.

As a note: verified means that your account's email must be verified in order to qualify.

After the beta testing period ends on October 25th, 2018, Dappervolk will be going into a period of Closed Development to focus on reviewing tester feedback, updating/revamping existing features, and continuing development on new features to prepare for official launch.

In the last few days of beta, we'll be posting an important news post with more information on what our upcoming development plans are, as well as some rough estimates for official launch.

Stay tuned!

...more

Aviar Cove Debut & Beta Conclusion Date!

Welcome the starry seaside city, Aviar Cove!
The site will need to go offline for maintenance to implement the new town update at the time listed below.

Once maintenance ends, you'll be able begin your journey to Aviar Cove if you've completed the main quest up to the end of Silvie's Mine. Simply start the "Trip to the Seaside" quest with Cairn!

A whole new town to explore, with 6 new NPCs to acquaint yourself with!
A series of main story quests that will introduce you to the unique townsfolk of this prosperous seaside destination.
Side quests and daily quests with each NPC as you unlock them.
Each NPC has an unlockable shop with 2 sets of clothing items, a pet hatching item, etc.
Each NPC also has their own set of unlockable affection milestones with rewards (with the exception of affection quest milestone rewards, as we do not anticipate having time to test these during beta).
A new minigame called Starry Night is now available to play in the Playground!

The NPC Diary now contains currently discovered lore info about each NPC's age, species, and pronouns.
New item alchemy recipes and recipe scrolls have appeared for items from both Silvie's Mine and Aviar Cove.
Aviar Cove residents will be giving out Candied Shells instead of Conecakes, as a new type of treat for helping them with their daily errands - they function similarly to Conecakes!
The item alchemy pool has been adjusted for a more even rarity weighting between all items.
Item alchemy recipes have been removed from Adventuring.
Small updates to the daily potato and stat tasks have been added to include the new Starry Night minigame.

We finally have an official end date for our Beta Testing phase! As all user generated data will be erased besides usernames and ID's, remember to save all everything you want to keep including user/pet profile bios, threads/posts, pet accessories, etc!

As a reminder, our Beta Bundles will retire at the end of Beta!

Be sure to stop by our Gumroad before Beta ends if you would like
to purchase one of these bundles before they permanently retire!

Purchase Links: Musical Bundle + Magical Bundle

Our last open registration period during beta will be this Saturday! Remember to register now if you want to secure an account before Dappervolk closes for development in the months leading up to Official Launch!

Stay tuned for our last update during beta, which is a test run of our Premium Chance Machine. Ready your turnips!

...more

Trout's Spring Festivities Conclusion!

Congratulations on completing our first major event!
Thanks to all of your hard work, we were able to collectively
make Trout's play venture a resounding success!

We would like to thank everyone for their diligence in testing out the mechanics of our first major event as well as our event feature's interface. Through all of your efforts and feedback, we've gained a lot of valuable information that we'll be taking note of for future events!

Curious about some of the data that we gathered from the event? Here are some interesting stats from the community!

2745 users participated, resulting in 687 users qualifying for the Elite Carry-Over Prize!

Contribution totals broken down by tier:
1430 Participants contributed 0.1%
467 Bronze Tier users contributed 1.9%
172 Silver Tier users contributed 18%
676 Gold Tier users contributed 80%

Total Points Earned by the Top 20 Highest Scores:
717815
(Representing roughly 7% of Gold Tier)

The community completed a total of 495921 tasks during the event!

Outstanding community effort, everyone!

According to player feedback, we intend to improve future events of this type in the following ways:

The event won't end as soon as the bar is filled, this gives everyone time to get to the tier they want if they plan ahead, and users won't be "taking away" points from others!
There will be "overtime" stretch goals that unlock additional prizes after 100% is surpassed! This will add more to look forward to and strive for if the goal is reached early.
Rankings for tied scores will be based on the user that achieves that score first. Currently it is ordered by ID#, but our coders have reassured us that ties are always "friendly" (both users are awarded the higher prize).
There will be more story and art based things for event outcomes in the future!

Additionally, we are working on a variety of new event types for the future!

A collection based event where you collect points throughout the site in order to spend them at an event shop that opens up at the end of the event.
A team-based event where you pick a team/side to earn points for and try to collectively acquire more total points than the other teams by the end of the event!
A community based event where you earn points by interacting in some way with other users and spend the points on rewards afterward!
Official side contests/raffles happening on the forums during seasonal events related to the event/season!

Please visit the event page hub to view your prizes!

A small note about carry-over prizes: Event trophies and the Spring Bloom item will be redistributed to accounts that qualified for these prizes after the Beta wipe, so they will be waiting for you on your account when you login again during official launch.

If you weren't able to participate as much as you would've liked, don't worry! The seasonal nature of this event means that it and all of its associated prize items will return in official launch. With the event over, we are hard at work on implementing the 4th town update, as well as a test run of how the monthly chance machines might work. Stay tuned!

...more

Technical Difficulties!

Hello everyone!

You may have noticed that the site went down right as the event was completed by the userbase. A pretty significant error came up while the site was trying to distribute prizes to all participants, forcing the site to go into error mode.

For the moment, we have brought the site back up in maintenance mode to investigate the issue and try to resolve it. We're currently unsure of how long it will take to fix this, but we will be sure to update everyone when we get a better idea of what exactly went wrong. As always, thank you for your patience!

...more