Hello everyone and thanks for checking out the sixth edition of my column. It's been a pretty hectic few weeks since last time and sure has gone by quick. I couldn't believe it is already August now and got me realizing that Bootleggers will be coming up on its ninth year next month. I think that's absolutely amazing and am really happy to see it come this far. But more on that as it gets closer.
I mentioned last time that blackjack and the achievements feature would be getting released right around now. While they took a bit longer to get ready for release than planned, you should be seeing them coming out sometime this coming week/weekend. I know we, or well, more accurately, I, haven't been the greatest with deadlines, but ultimately I felt a bit extra time making them exactly how I wanted them to be was worth the extra few days. I'm too happy with the two features to just release them for the sake of releasing them when I know I want to spend some more time on them. So be sure to keep a look out for them and you'll be seeing them shortly. I'll be making a separate post for them when they are released so I'll save any further discussion about them for then.
So coming up after that is the almighty crew update. I'm really excited to get moving forward with that and really see how well we can transform the current crew system. I've been collecting ideas over the past few months in anticipation for the update, as well as talking with some of the team to get their suggestions as well. I really don't know how long it'll be in production for, given it won't be the only feature being worked on at the time. But in a few weeks once some decent progress is made I'll have a better idea where we stand with that.
I also wanted to apologize for the length of downtime some features have encountered, namely things like State/Nation Dons, photo album, FAQ, etc. Unfortunately I'm the only programmer working on the game right now and mixed with the other responsibilities I have, someti(2000)mes my programming hours get shorted. Believe me, I love programming, but sometimes after dealing with the business side of things, points/payment issues, advertising campaigns, server issues, etc., I just don't have as much time to program as I'd like. I'm not mentioning that as any sort of excuse, more just as how things are. We've been looking into potentially getting another programmer to help with this, but with that comes its own issues. It is something we're still looking into though and it is a definite possibility that we'll have another programmer sometime in the future, but just not as of now. But I am trying my best to get what I can done and I thank you for your patience during the various downtimes. I do have all those issues noted and will hopefully be getting them taken care of soon.
Anyways, that wraps it up for this issue. Like I said, be on the lookout for those new features coming this week/weekend and I really hope you'll enjoy them. And by next issue I should have some more information for you regarding the progress of the crew update and anything else going on. So until then, have fun!
