Greetings Milletians,
This is Director Min Kyunghun.
I'm very pleased to announce that we've finally set up a dedicated place to share news and insights about the Eternity project with all of you. It feels different to talk with you in a new way, rather than our usual dev notes or announcements. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous about it.
In this space, we plan to keep you posted about issues we've faced on the project, concerns we've had, and updates on how the development process is going. Our hope is that you'll feel like we're working on things in full view throughout our extended development cycle.
We may not be able to share news as frequently as we might like, depending on the state of progress, but we'll do our best to be consistent about offering up our perspectives—to make it a place where we can show you more about what you have to look forward to.
Since this is the first post I'm sharing with all our Milletians here, I'd like to give you a quick rundown on the current state of the Eternity project and the direction we're taking.
Classic but Classy
Honestly, it feels a bit cheesy to say it aloud, but this is the idea that summarizes what we're trying to achieve with our work on the Eternity project. It's actually a slogan we came up with internally at the outset of the project so that the entire team could keep it in the forefront of their minds throughout the many phases of development.
We believe that the promise of a "fantasy life" lies at the core of what Milletians expect from the game and enjoy about it, and since that fantasy life encompasses everything you can do in the world of Erinn, rebuilding in a way that carries that forward is central to Mabinogi Eternity.
Our ultimate goal is to preserve the unique outlook Mabinogi has always taken from the beginning, and in order to do that, the project must succeed in capturing Mabinogi's classic identity. In doing so, however, we also want to take care to really polish the experience so that Mabinogi can best show off the unique strengths that set it apart from other games.
The Current State of the Project
At this point, you're probably wondering how much progress we've actually made. Currently, the Eternity project is in the "prototyping" stage. That said, prototyping for something like this is pretty different from what it would be like on a new game. For us, it involves redesigning a game that's in active service with its own full development cycle, with the intent of eventually succeeding it.
That means there's a lot of work being done right now--too much to give a meaningful estimate of the actual progress we've made. What I CAN tell you is that we're either working on the following tasks now, or will be soon:
- We’re planning to redesign our server structure and logic to improve stability.
- We need to not only recreate all of Mabinogi's existing content in the new engine, but also ensure it all works as you've come to expect.
- As we do that, we'll be revising the game’s data and scripts, improving them as we convert them over to the new system.
- Every map and instance and the countless components that go into building them must be improved in quality or faithfully recreated in the course of migrating them to the new environment.
- In the asset migration process, we may discover that some original pieces of artwork or design elements we need have been lost to time...which is understandable, given the many years the game has been in operation. While we work on redrawing and recreating any such material, we'll need to write up new design documents for content that needs attention and polish to bring it up to modern standards.
- Beyond these specific things, there are many other areas that will need work as we bring the whole of Mabinogi into this new environment.
In order to see all of this done within a reasonable timeframe and at a good level of quality, I think we'll also need to make some hard decisions about certain pieces of content and existing systems that presently see little use. As the development process continues to progress, we'll be here to touch base with you, explaining each step and sharing our thoughts and concerns.
With a clear direction in mind, we on the Mabinogi team have been ever mindful of the concerns we have, but have approached the work before us with a sense of excitement. As we continue our forward march, we'll use this site to share our stories and stay connected with all of our Milletians until the Eternity update goes live.
When we thought about how we might best show our progress, we decided that each contributor sharing their honest stories about the issues they've wrestled with and concerns they've had would be the most open way to communicate with players.
Of course, not all of us are talented at writing—myself included—so the stories we have to tell might not always be delivered with verve. I can't assure you that you'll find them all interesting, either. However, we believe that our honest wishes to make the world of Erinn 'eternal' is no different from the feelings each of you have. That shared desire is why we wanted to undertake this journey together with our players.
I hope you'll continue sending us your love and support, as you always have. Mabinogi Eternity is a Fantasy Life that we'll create together.
Thank you,
Dir. Min Kyung-hoon.[1]
Not wearing Mad Paris Wig
