My Thoughts on atWar's Future

It's great to see players discussing atWar on the forums, the input of experienced, competitive players is vitally important when debating strategy and game mechanic changes, however, with all due respect, the suggestions and complaints being made by these players regarding atWar's future viability are highlighting the wrong issues at the wrong time. Hopefully this gives people a new perspective.
(Apologies for some of the economic terms, I'm trying to be as specific as possible here)

1. Back-end Development
First things first, atWar has bugs to fix, and essential features to implement before we even consider all those cool ideas and suggestions. When asked about releasing the game to steam, amok and Ivan actually said they wouldn't be doing so until all the bugs were fixed and the mapmaker was finalized. The top mapmakers should be consulted here.

What we really need is developers. The problem is, developers are really expensive. The demand for developers greatly exceeds the supply. Consequentially, a graduate of Computer Science from a decent college can expect to earn upwards of €40,000 per year, upon graduation (Quasi Rent). They're normally snatched up by large, well established multinationals, who can afford to pay these wages as they've already profited off multiple successful games and software which they have under their belt. (Economies of scale).

So, you're the owner of atWar, a relatively small browser game, you know the game has the potential to make serious profits. Let's say you want to employ one full-time developer to help you develop the game. You've got to fork out upwards of 40k for one developer. That's nearly half the cost of the game itself right off the bat. So how do get developers?

One option is to employ workers from less developed countries. The cost of living in these countries is a fraction of the cost of living in developed economies like the USA, Europe etc. Dave could pay these workers $3 for an hour's work, that would be a small amount to him, but a lot to somebody living in South America for example. This is how we got Clovis. He even said this himself. The trouble is, these less developed countries aren't producing many high skilled computer workers. The few skilled developers quickly move to centralized areas and seek employment from large firms here, if there's none in their own country they'll probably move to the US. (When you've got employment lined up, getting a work visa to the USA isn't so difficult. Work visas can quickly turn to citizenship once the worker finds full employment. Ok maybe not in Switzerland. The Swiss are culturally fucking impenetrable).
Now what are the chances of getting a game developer, from a less developed country, who happens to play atWar, who agrees to work for this low wage, who also has a good understanding of the game? It doesn't matter if you like Clovis or not. We got lucky.

If anyone on this game is proficient in computer languages, or knows anybody willing to work for a lower wage for part time work, talk to Dave. I'm sure he'd be happy to get some cheap (or free) help. Even if you can only do a few hours a week, it will help. This is only needed for a short period until all the bugs have been weeded out and solved.

---

2. Front-end Development
The next step is a complete graphics overhaul. The site has a 2000's old browser game feel to it, it's rusty and stale. Sure we're all used to this design, it's convenient and it's all we know, since we've had it for so long, but we've got to freshen this game up to attract new players. It's going to piss off a lot of older players for a few weeks, but after that, it will only do wonders for the game. A website redesign isn't overly expensive, it's a worthwhile investment before marketing the game to the public. It's gotta look good.

---

3. Implementation of Ideas
This is the fun part, things only get better from here. The admins can now focus on implementing all those cool ideas we've come up with over the last few years. New strategies, in-game features, profile customization, the development of the Protocoin shop, new clan features, this is where atWar finally becomes what we all wanted it to be. This is where the magic happens.

---

4. Marketing
The marketing campaign is set up here, we'll have a marketing admin at this point, similar to what we've had previously. Protocoin drops, premium sales, the atWar press, community events, tournaments etc will now be effective at this point. The community will thrive. This is when the supporter team is finally given its full potential. The possibilities of how we can market this game are absolutely endless. Once we have secured steps 1,2,3, we can work wonders.

---

So, right now, we've just got to get those 1 or 2 extra developers. Either that, or sit back and wait for the current ones to fix them by themselves, but be aware, that option is going to take patience. Work together for the next few months, you'll be surprised at how sweet the fruits of harmonized labour can be.

Note: You can be a skilled programmer in a less developed country.

You are completely right on this. Few people here have actual backend and frontend development experience, so your points generally won't be understood enough, I'm afraid.

Also join Epic Clan

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

One option is to employ workers from less developed countries. The cost of living in these countries is a fraction of the cost of living in developed economies like the USA, Europe etc. Dave could pay these workers $3 for an hour's work, that would be a small amount to him, but a lot to somebody living in South America for example. This is how we got Clovis. The trouble is, these less developed countries aren't producing many high skilled computer workers.

#thirdworldprogrammers

I can't comment on anything but your front-end development section, but you are indeed largely correct; the UI could very much use an overhaul. Hell, the old Silverlight look had more staying power than the current HTML one imo. Visual overhauls are something I would very much like to see in the future, and thankfully I've got a few projects I've been working on that will hopefully spice things up in the near future

Once Dave can allocate more time to AtWar or get other developers on-board, I think a lot of what you said will be immediately addressed. I think for the current time our mission is to gather more consistently-playing users, add new content/fix what's already there, as well as making events to keep everyone entertained and enjoying the game.

I agree with most of what you said, I think we are more on the same page than not. But let me reply to your points:

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

First things first, atWar has bugs to fix, and essential features to implement before we even consider all those cool ideas and suggestions.

Totally agree, there are many bugs to fix, and this is something we need to focus on before we attempt any more ambitious things (steam, mobile ports, etc).

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

What we really need is developers. The problem is, developers are really expensive ... One option is to employ workers from less developed countries. ... Dave could pay these workers $3 for an hour's work.

I've outsourced work on other projects, so I can say from experience... the coders who work for $3/hour will give you shit code. Trust me, it's not worth it. When I hire people, I look for quality. I've found it's always better to pay more up front for quality work and do it once, versus doing it on the cheap and dealing with the headaches for years to come.

If I wanted to outsource development of atWar, there are some very talented developers in places like Ukraine, or Eastern Europe in general, who cost a lot less than US-based developers. But not $3/hour!

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

If anyone on this game is proficient in computer languages, or knows anybody willing to work for a lower wage for part time work, talk to Dave. I'm sure he'd be happy to get some cheap (or free) help.

I'm sorry, but I actually have to say no to this. I have my reasons for wanting to keep the development team small at this point, and it has nothing to do with cost. For now and the immediate future it's only going to be Clovis and myself. We're up to the task, don't worry.

In the long run it won't always just be the two of us... if atWar grows then sure I might end up hiring someone to be paid out of atWar profits. Or, more likely, as my overall business grows I'll assign one of my devs to work some of his/her time on atWar and basically I'll just make up the cost from revenue elsewhere. For now either option is still a long way off though.

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

The next step is a complete graphics overhaul. The site has a 2000's old browser game feel to it, it's rusty and stale.

I completely agree. I plan to make some incremental improvements here and there... eventually we'll do a total overhaul but it's not very high on the list yet.

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

The admins can now focus on implementing all those cool ideas we've come up with over the last few years. New strategies, in-game features, profile customization, the development of the Protocoin shop, new clan features, this is where atWar finally becomes what we all wanted it to be.

I'm focusing on this a bit already, because there's a lot of low-hanging fruit here. Bugs are important but very time consuming to deal with, whereas new stuff like this is often easier. So by giving the players some new stuff to try now, it (I hope) makes it easier to be patient while we're working on the harder stuff in the background.

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

4. Marketing ... The marketing campaign is set up here, we'll have a marketing admin at this point, similar to what we've had previously. Protocoin drops, premium sales, the atWar press, community events, tournaments etc will now be effective at this point. The community will thrive. This is when the supporter team is finally given its full potential.

I have a great marketing person already, who has been helping me with atWar since the beginning. We have an ad campaign loaded up and ready to go, but I've been hesitating to do a big ad spend until more of the bugs and big updates are in place. I am spending a small amount on advertising now, and we are getting clicks & signups, but the big campaign will come later once I feel we are ready.

Meanwhile, the supporters are already helping with social media, making videos, and many other tasks, which are (and will be) a huge benefit to the game. When I started we had only maybe 4-5 supporters on the team and no real structure... since then we've made great strides expanding the team, organizing ourselves, and implementing new things. We still have more work to do but I'm very grateful to all the help from our supporters.

Prispeval Wheelo, 16.03.2019 at 18:07

So, right now, we've just got to get those 1 or 2 extra developers. Either that, or sit back and wait for the current ones to fix them by themselves, but be aware, that option is going to take patience.

I think having patience is the best advice.

We're making progress already, and once I get a few other things out of the way on my side I'll be able to put in more time. There are some potentially very good things happening on my side... if things continue to go well there's a good probability I'll be expanding my team this year. If so, I'll have much more flexibility to assign some dev hours to atWar (if not doing it myself).

I hate to be that guy... but I'm tired of seeing people post messages like this lol, everyone got their idea of what works best, theres been about 10 million of these kinda posts...

I just don't read em anymore cos I feel like everyones sayin the same shit

Thing is generally a company, in its first years, don't make profits at all, its growth is based on debt.

As far as I know at war is self financing, then its growth is slow

So it's impossible for us to get a proper vision on the development strategy without any information on the business plan and the financial sustainability

Nevertheless this topic is more useful than all the topic that boywind ever created