Hey all! TK here- I’m going to give an explanation for what happened to SpaceDelta. Many of you have been asking in our Discord about updates on SpaceDelta, but also why we haven’t released like our usual schedule. I’ll be giving an honest explanation for that in this journal-like entry.
To put it simply: I lost interest. I had no more passion for the project that was supposed to be a passion project. Minecraft had lost its specialty to me over the years and I didn’t have the drive to create content like I used to. I wasn’t spending anywhere near the amount of time I should have been. I should have been spending around 90 hours a week to make a good game experience both from the frontend and backend, but I couldn’t do that.
There’s also business. The bubble for Minecraft that was created from COVID-19 was bursting and I had no reason to continue hosting a server when Minecraft was doing bad. Most large servers were losing close to 30% of their player base. Stepping back, I went outside of my tunnel vision and saw all of the issues that pestered SD. It was enlightening, almost.
I took a break for about 4 months since SpaceDelta closed. Admittedly, the server wasn’t being worked on during this time. The staff team didn’t even know if SpaceDelta was going to exist again and that’s probably why they gave you vague answers on if SD was going to open again. It was a bad time for the project. Though I traveled, I learned more about different cultures around the world, I expanded my knowledge in several areas in gaming, and I’m back. I still had passion for the project that was deep inside of me and I wanted to expand on it. As such, I started to create again.
But I didn’t start creating without intention. If I were to return to SpaceDelta, I had to do it right. And that starts with good, well thought out, game design. I went to the drawing board- literally: An absolutely massive whiteboard and Arcweave, a digital board creation tool.
For the next several months, I would work on the design of SpaceDelta. What already exists, what needs to exist, refining features, and adding new things in to connect the islands so-to-speak. Until my designs got to a good point, and that’s when I shared them with the higher staff team who all seemed excited that the project was reignited.
I redid the organization of every system that was holding the SD staff team together. No more redundant roles and moderators having all permissions now. Not having agency to make suggestions or have a voice was a problem as well for the lower staff team. A basis of trust was formed, but not to a point that I’d call it satisfactory. I redid the staff team, removing some of them and promoting others. A small but efficient and effective team is what I’m after and I think I have it now.
The operations are now more like a game studio rather than a ragtag team of people that we’ve accumulated through lazy means. I’m rather happy with it! However, this means that the process of creation has changed as well. Using Prototyping, Alpha, Beta, etc. phases of development really slow down everything. But it also ensures quality like no other server or Minecraft experience out there. If you would like to join the testing while we go through these phases, click here!
Curious about our plans? Click here to view our future timeline and goals.
If you’ve read this far, I appreciate you and your loyalty to SpaceDelta as a brand. I ask for your understanding as we continue to develop a much better game throughout the next few years. I’ll be opening up the communication lines and giving more and more frequent updates as we near a solidified product to show. I promise to not disappoint.
Thank you very much!
- TK
