Dappervolk

News

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

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Trout's Spring Festivities!

Hello, Beta testers!
Thanks to our many Kickstarter backers, a stretch goal was unlocked
that gave us the resources to debut our event system during Beta. As
such, we are happy to announce that this feature is ready for testing!

EVENT DETAILS
We are excited to finally introduce you to our first major test event, Trout's Spring Festivities - a cooperative sitewide event that will run for about 3 weeks, which features some lovely seasonal prizes, as well as a few carry-over prizes! Yes, that means that some prizes will carry over with your account to official launch, as was promised in our Kickstarter stretch goal. The event's objectives, duration, and prizes will be detailed below, so be sure to read over it before you head over to the event hub page to begin playing and testing this new feature!

OBJECTIVES & DURATION
This event requires the community to work together to earn points toward a cumulative goal. The site's progress toward this goal will be displayed through the event progress bar, indicating how close we are to reaching the event total needed to successfully complete the event. The community will have a set amount of time to reach this goal, which is shown below and on the event page itself.

If the community can successfully earn enough points before the end date, everyone will receive the prizes that they qualify for on the event page! However, if the community fails to complete the objective in the available time, players will receive consolation prizes for their participation. In the future, we would like to also have the successes or failures of these cooperative events result in different impacts on the world and lore of Dappervolk!

EVENT PRIZES
The seasonal nature of this event means that a majority of the event's rewards will only be obtainable through participation in this yearly event! The event's main rewards are distributed through a tiers system, where players must reach the indicated points threshold to qualify for the next higher prize tier. Additionally, a high score board will display your score placement amongst other players, as a special grand prize will be awarded to those within the top 25% of scores earned during the event!

Prizes include an event trophy and a new spring themed clothing set, which features a brand new class of wearable clothing that was unlocked via stretch goal by our Kickstarter backers - animated items!

springhairshortitem_by_quislings-dcjh42o

springhairshortitem_by_quislings-dcjh42o

This set contains one animated wearable as a rare, special reward
for those who achieve the top 25% of most points earned.

Which Prizes Carry Over to Official Launch?
All players that earn an event trophy from this event will get to keep their trophy as a thank you for helping to test run our first major event in beta! Additionally, grand prize winners that earned themselves the elusive animated item will get to keep that reward as well.

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