Shareplay Newsletter #2 May 21st, 1998

SharePlay Newsletter
No. 2, May 21st, 1998, Thursday

Dear SharePlay Newsletter readers,

Just a week after the previous newsletter we have some very important news:

1. Beta sign-up for Space Merchant and Magellan Conflict started
2. Panumbra version 2.1 delayed
3. Panumbra Demo instabilities
4. Panumbra support will not be available 28-31 May

1. Beta sign-up for Space Merchant and Magellan Conflict started

The beta sign-up forms for Space Merchant and Magellan Conflict are now up! They are located at:
http://www.shareplay.com/spacemerchant/beta.htm
http://www.shareplay.com/magellan/beta.htm

Both games will have a closed beta followed by an open beta. Only a limited number of people are accepted to the closed beta. If you register early, you can be part of it! The closed beta for Space Merchant will start at the end of June, for The Magellan Conflict in mid-July. Open beta will start about 2-4 weeks after, depending how many bugs are found.

Just to repeat for those who have not heard yet: these two games are completely HTML based, you only need your browser to play them. Space Merchant is a space trading game, The Magellan Conflict is a space strategy game. Both games are massively multi-player, you play with and against several hundred other players.

You can read more information about the games features on the web site.

2. Panumbra Version 2.1 development update

Version 2.1 is going into system test today. We are two weeks behind schedule. The expected release date is in late June, I am not saying any concrete dates any more until we are sure that we can make it. The release date will be Monday in any case.

3. Panumbra Demo (2.0) instabilities

One new error scared us lately: sometimes the mine entrance locks up and you could not move in it, enter it or leave it. We don’t know what causes the problem, but we are thoroughly examining the world area enter/leave code for the next version, and making some changes which should make the code more stable. At the same time, the monster lag does not seem to be a problem lately. We did not change any code, so you gotta wonder what’s going on.

4. Panumbra support will not be available 28-31 May

We are all going to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) on the afternoon of Wednesday May 27th, and will not be back until Sunday the 31st. Bug reports will not be answered during this time, and server restarts will be less frequent. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you for reading our newsletter.

Regards,

Marta Gabnai
and the SharePlay development team