Hey, Ash here, Community Manager for Chrono. I’m here to give you an update on the team’s current progress on the game’s client! For those of you that don’t already know, we officially started development about a month ago. That means we’ve hired developers who you can meet here.
So let’s get into it! As you might suspect from the first month of development, much of our current work is building a foundation for future implementations to stand on, and nothing quite says “foundation” like back-end development. Here’s an update straight from Joel himself:
This first month was a lot of setup, getting to know people and the game in depth, and then creating a comprehensive data schema. Data is the foundation of this game, so we need to ensure our database reflects this. It is why our database runs on transactions, and is self reporting when errors come around. It won't be totally unbreakable, but it is very robust, able to self manage, and if data corruption is an issue it will be easy to fix. Currently, we support:
- Cards (obviously), with a historical, and immutable, record of their changes
- Timelines, with an equivalent record
- Tournaments
- MMR
- Seasons
- Friends, with messaging
- Card crafting
- etc!
One thing I am particularly excited about is our plan to have a constant and ongoing analysis of deck archetypes and their evolutions. If this works the way we expect it to, we will be able to watch as an archetype evolves and becomes dominant. This also means we will be able to see why, allowing us to quickly put cards onto a watch list, where we can then decide to rebalance them as needed.
Oh yeah, sweet sweet data. And maybe more relevant for our players, a ranked ladder and friends system! More information regarding those systems as well as “etc” will come in future updates but for now, you can rest assured knowing that you will be able to message “GG” to your best (or worst) mates. Adding on to that, I can also tell you that things like card creation, rarities, sets, art and more have been properly tested and implemented. This means that adding to and expanding the world of Chrono will be more simple (at least technically) for us in the future. Long live Chrono!
It hasn’t all been numbers and wizardry though. On the front end of the game, FlyingFish a.k.a Tony has been working on the side of things you’ll actually see. Much of the first month has involved creating the user interface for the game. Things like the big shiny “Play” button or the glamorous “Defeat!” screen, not that you’ll ever see that screen, right Gamer? They’ve also been working on the drag and drop functionality of the cards, providing a smoother animation as well as adding customizability for whatever tricks we decide to do in the long run.
You may have also noticed in that clip how the camera shifts up and down with the cards as they enter the battlefield (the top lane in the clip). A dynamic camera is something we’re currently considering as a way to make Chrono feel more visually distinct from other card games by shifting to what should be the “focus” at the time. This clip shows off a shift to a battlefield focus, but there are other ways this could be utilized such as card Immortalizations, Action resolutions or anything we set our mind to in the future. This isn’t set in stone, so we’d love to hear your feedback! Do you prefer to see the entire board/screen at once, or would a more mobile camera be something you’d like to see more of?
That’s about all we’ve got for this month. Throughout the article, words like “future” and “long run” came up often because that’s mostly what this work has entailed. Our lovely team has been creating a strong foundation that we can build on to create dozens of expansions, thousands of cards, a million matches and countless memories. Thank you for joining us on this journey and expect more updates like this as we continue forward.