The game’s ownership

 

 

Technically, this is old news, but I never officially mentioned it. A few months back, the game’s ownership was transferred to me (Nou). I was already leading the team at the time and transferring it only made the administrative side of everything a lot easier. What does this mean for the future of the game? Not much. It won’t affect the game more than it already has. It’s only a little change on some pieces of paper. It has been in my hands for a while already, and I will continue to keep working like I have been, NVD stays admin like he has been. So even though it doesn’t necessarily affect the future of the game from this point on, it has been affecting it since the transfer last August and needed to be mentioned.

Builders Club

 

 

Builders Club has been quite a controversial subject. It is often seen as being there purely to make money, while severely restricting creativity. While there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to make money when running a business (yes, as much as we love the game, it’s still a business), if it affects the core of the game, something needs to change.

The game experienced a great amount of freedom when the duplicating glitch was around and many great levels were made as a result. We want this to happen again, but then without a glitch.

Therefore, we are getting rid of the Builders Club. We have wanted this for a long time, but a lot of careful planning was required and now is the right time.

This means that, in the future (planning for January 2016), every block pack will be a single-purchase infinite-use item. In other words, buying one portal or switch will allow you to add as many of them to your worlds as you can. This also means you can use them in worlds owned by others!

Gold Membership.
With Builders Club going, it will be replaced by Gold Membership. Gold Membership is a subscription you can choose to purchase like Builders Club, but with a different set of features. I’m not going to reveal the graphics themselves just yet, but I can tell you what we currently have looks very good!

What does the Gold Membership grant you?

• Exclusive gold smileys
A set of smileys only GM users can use, with sleek, gold-themed designs.

• Gold smiley border
Show off a special gold border around all the smileys you own! Can be turned on/off.

• Exclusive, animated aura
A whole new animation type with a special gold glow!

• Exclusive set of Gold blocks
For your and your crew’s worlds only: a set of exclusive gold-themed blocks and backgrounds, as well a gold sign.

• Exclusive gold faceplate for your crew
Can only be purchased by GM users and must be in the crew to be able to select this.

• Lobby skin
An embroidered version of the lobby for that exclusive look!

• Our gratitude
Purchasing a Gold Membership is showing your support the for game. “Supporting the game” is something you hear a lot, but what does that even mean? It means that you show you like what we do and help us purchase new software, hardware, licensing, and even food. That way, you help us being able to develop the game through materialistic means, but also by keeping us motivated.

• More
We may expand the range of what GM has to offer over the course of time or change a few other things, suggestions are welcome!

Of course all of this raises a few questions, and I will try to answer them all. If you have more questions, make sure to ask them!

• I am a Builders Club member and have a few months left. What happens to my Builders Club membership?
It will automatically be converted in a Gold Membership.

• What happens to all the energy I spent in the stackable items?
Nothing. Turning the items into infinite uses should be seen as a positive change, not an opportunity for refunds/compensation.

• Will the price of stackable items change?
Yes, the prices of stackable items will have to increase a bit to compensate for the change to a one-time purchase. If you already own them this of course won’t affect you.

• What happens to BC doors/gates?
They will be replaced with GM doors/gates.

• When is this going to happen?
It is currently in the planning for January 2016, but it could be later.

• I bought Builders Club so I could get all blocks in 1 go, is there another way?
Yes, there will be! One major problem users were having with BC is the recurring payments; they have often indicated to be willing to do a one-time purchase. Therefore, we will offer two complete packs (price to be determined, expect around $30 each):

• Ultimate Block Pack
Gain all existing blocks (except Diamond). New ones will still have to be purchased. This means that if you purchase an Ultimate Block Pack and new blocks are released the next week, you will have to purchase the new blocks the regular way. The new blocks will then become part of “all existing blocks”, meaning users purchasing the Ultimate Block Pack after the new blocks are ingame also receive those. The same principle applies to the other two packs:

• Ultimate Smiley Pack
Gain all existing smileys (except Big Spender, contest-exclusive smileys, and Superman) . New ones will still have to be purchased.

• Ultimate Aura Pack
Get all existing auras (except the moderator/admin-exclusive ones). New ones will still have to be purchased. We will be introducing a new system for auras in the future that will make buying this pack very appealing!

To Unity and beyond

 

 

Currently, Everybody Edits runs on Flash, but Flash is slowly dying. It’s losing support, will be updated less and less, will become less secure, and in general, Flash is a very inefficient engine. Therefore, we are porting the game to Unity. We have already started and it looks very promising thus far. The client runs a lot smoother, so no more lag!

Why Unity and not HTML5? The major advantage of Unity is that it’s a cross-platform engine. In other words, you will be able to play the game on your phones and tablets! Everybody Edits will still be available on the main website as it is now. We are aware of the concerns about the Unity Web Player being inefficient and it no longer being supported by Google Chrome, but we will be using the WebGL player for the website, which works a lot better. Essentially, Unity compiles C# into javascript, meaning we will have both html5 and Unity without the need for a runtime. I hope you trust we can do this properly and that it puts your concerns to rest.

TO ITERATE: THE GAME WILL RUN AS HTML5 ON WEBSITES. THIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL NOT BE AFFECTED, DO NOT NEED TO INSTALL ANYTHING, AND YOU CAN KEEP PLAYING IN ALL BROWSERS LIKE NORMAL. STOP PANICKING!

In addition, we will also offer a stand-alone client to play on your desktop, plus we will look into getting this client on Steam to open it up to a whole new market and get in a great amount of new players.

The when is still unknown; it’s hard to estimate how long the porting will take. It has been low priority so far because we wanted to focus on adding new content to the game first, but from January onwards the Unity development will be kicked into 2nd gear.

Other

 

We will keep adding new content to the game and there is still a LOT of awesome stuff to come! We will also keep working on other things in the background as well, such as extra payment options etc. Stay tuned!

End of Halloween

 

The ghouls and goblins have retreated back to their own realms, leaving Everybody Edits in peace. The lobby and the website have been cleaned up, back to their original styles.

• Removed the Halloween campaign: it will return next year.
• Moved the Ghoul smiley to Classic items.
• Moved the Mummy smiley to Classic items.
• Moved the Bat smiley to Classic items.
• Moved the Halloween 2015 pack to Classic items.

 

• Earning a smiley as a campaign reward now automatically equips it.
• The Purple Ghost smiley can no longer be attained through magic. It will return as a campaign reward in a new campaign later.
• The Red Ninja smiley can no longer be attained through the ninja/key Easter egg. It will return as a campaign reward in a new campaign later.
• New magic smiley: Light Wizard! This Wizard will show the way through these dark, cold, wintery times.

This change in magic smileys was made for consistency: the Purple Ghost smiley was not in line with the rest of the wizards. Of course, if you already own these smileys, you get to keep them.

• New shortcut: press I to toggle the inspect tool.
• Re-added the zoom options to the right click context menu.
• Disconnecting from a world now displays a pop-up stating this information.
• Users attempting to purchase crew items while lacking the required minimum amount of energy now receive an error stating this information.
• Guests and chatbanned users can no longer read chat.
• Lava blocks now cause a Fire Effect: this allows you to see the remaining burn duration before dying.
• Browser tabs now display the world name when in a world.
• You can now remove worlds from your favourites in the lobby by clicking the icon:

 

Bug fixes

 

• Fixed a bug where BC members who hadn’t purchased team blocks were unable to use the /setteam command.
• Fixed a bug where crew member descriptions couldn’t be deleted.
• Fixed a bug where you could fall through one-ways when exiting a portal.
• Fixed some website links at the bottom of the page.
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash if a campaign reward image was not found.
• Fixed a bug where effects were ignored when being hit through a boost.
• Fixed a bug where black spots were sometimes left on the minimap when deleting blocks.
Considering its rare occurrence, this fix has not been confirmed.
• Fixed a bug where some users didn’t receive their badges after beating a campaign.
This has been corrected automatically in the meantime. If this occurs again, rejoin the world to receive the badge.
• Fixed a bunch of exploits/places you could get stuck in the following maps:
– Slip Slide Ride
– Water Levels
– NC Naos Antediluvian
– I Crew Persian Peril
– Spidey’s Abode