Outside the Box Software - Game Development Diaries

Street Boxing is one of the gameplay modes we’ve been keeping under wraps. Here are a couple of teaser screen shots:

All you need to street box is a pair of boxing gloves, which you can get at the local shops in SocioTown. Street Boxing is real-time fighting. How well you do is dependent on your fight strategy as well as your player attributes such as Speed, Strength, and Endurance.

You can improve your player attributes by training, eating, and lifting weights.

- Chris Evans

The 8th has just about arrived and we are beginning the beta test finally! This is how it’s working:

Right now there’s already a small special forces group checking out the game on the production server. Once they give it the okay, we’ll be contacting about ~100 beta testers on Saturday night/Sunday. Assuming the game doesn’t blow up in flames, we’ll contact another ~250 beta testers on Monday. If all still goes well, we’ll contact an additional ~1000-1500 beta testers throughout the rest of the week.

So if you don’t receive an e-mail this weekend, wait until about the end of next week before you send me hate mail. We have received close to 4,000 beta test signup requests, which is fantastic considering we’ve done very limited marketing thus far. Out of that 4,000, we’ll probably contact half over the next week.

Also, if I find the time this weekend (which will be tough) I’ll post some screen shots of Street Boxing. Street Boxing is one of the gameplay features we’ve kept under wraps. Yes, it means there’s actual PvP play in SocioTown. Like I said I’ll try to get some screen shots and info posted this weekend.

Hope to see you in SocioTown!

- Chris Evans

3/17/08 UPDATE: We are about 5 days behind schedule, so if you haven’t received an e-mail yet don’t worry! We haven’t contacted the majority of people yet. Again, check your emails this week. Sorry to keep you all waiting! But we want to make sure all the major kinks are taken care of before you guys get your hands on it.

I’ve been getting quite a few e-mails, so I just wanted to post officially that we’re finally feature complete (meaning we’re not adding anymore new stuff) and that the beta testing will begin in 2 weeks on March 8th.

From those who signed up for the beta test, we’ll be choosing a select group. That group will then get SocioTown Invites which they can invite their friends or whomever. So if you haven’t signed up for the beta test now is the time to do so. Make sure to fill out all the sections correctly and any comments you provide will help a great deal as well.

It’s almost here!

- Chris Evans

I just did an interview with Virtual Worlds News. I reveal a little about some of the gameplay elements in SocioTown. You can check it out here:

Interview With Virtual Worlds News

- Chris Evans

We’ve just released the the official trailer today. Today is the first official public announcement for SocioTown! You can view the video on the official site here: http://www.sociotown.com/sociotown_video.html

Also, the official site itself has gotten a large update. A bunch of new screen shots have been posted and we’ve created a new section that goes over all the new features:
http://www.sociotown.com/sociotown_features.html

Those who signed up as Alpha testers should be contacted shortly if you haven’t already. The first beta test should get started sometime next month.

In the meantime, enjoy all the new footage and information!

- Chris Evans

Outside the Box Software is located in San Diego county. With the recent wildfires, development has been put on hold for a few days, so we can prepare for possible evacuation.

Development should resume at the end of this week. However this means the testing schedule will be pushed back by several days.

Those in San Diego and others in Southern California who are affected by the wildfires, stay safe!

- Chris Evans

Alright, it’s almost been two months since the last update and public testing is right around the corner! Those of you who have signed up for alpha/beta testing, you should expect to receive an e-mail in about two weeks. The testing should be begin roughly at the end of this month. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide a specific date fairly soon, but right now it’s looking like it’ll be the last week of October.

Next week, I’ll be releasing a new gameplay video that will show some of the social system in action.

Stay tuned the wait is almost over!

- Chris

I know many of you are anxious to check out the game, but I’ve decided to push the public testing back by about 2 months.

Originally I had planned to have a small group of public Alpha testers to check out and test the basic functionality. The more advanced features would be tested at a later date. However the game is progressing faster than expected, so I’ve decided to wait a couple of months so that the first public testing has some of the advanced features already implemented.

So far we’ve kept SocioTown pretty low-key, but I’m sure some will be disappointed. Though in the end it’s definitely for the best and when you early testers finally get your hands on it, the game will be much more complete and enjoyable.

We should be posting another video clip in the first week of September.

Whew….

Sorry for missing a couple of Friday updates. Here finally is the video clip of the shop walkthru.

The description of the video cut/pasted from the official site:

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Description: This video gives a glimpse of the shops in SocioTown as well as demonstrates how players can change clothes just about anywhere.The video also contains some night-time footage.

As for the shops, they are run by NPCs(Non-Player Characters). Every shop has a NPC store manager and depending on the size of the shop there may be several NPC store clerks. While they are responsible for selling items to players, players can also have conversations with the store clerks about random events and situations in SocioTown. Each store manager and clerk have a distinct personality.
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Almost done with the shops. In the meantime, here’s some new screen shots of the apartment hallways. The interior textures have been improved since the last video clip that was posted.

You can view the new screen shots here:
Apartment Screen Shots