Lots of people have been asking the same questions to me, so I thought I would blog it and make the information available to anyone who cares.
1. When is it being released?
This isn't a simple question. As you can probably imagine, this depends on a lot of things, from me being able to put enough time aside to work on it all the way to beta testing. I had originally hoped to release it tomorrow, but that won't be happening. The *scheduled* release date is now Monday, MLK Day. Is this 100% set in stone? No. But I can assure you, spamming me on skype and my inbox here won't speed the process up.
2. Are there color levels? Are levels necessary to play the different games?
No, there are not color levels. There is a system of ranking, and in this there is a system of "plateau"s, so to speak. That is, when you reach certain levels in each of the games, you will be able to show that off with a title. Your titles will vary for each game. The best Survivor players may not be the best Mole players, and your titles will reflect this. As such, any new user will be able to enroll into any of the different games on the site. The more you play, and the more you win, as relating to each different game, the higher title you will earn. These titles come into play in various aspects of the site.
3. Is there karma and a Hall of Fame?
No, there is not Karma. Yes (kinda), there is a Hall of Fame, although much different than the one here. Your placings in games will earn you "fame", which contributes to your ranking on the site. There are 4 separate "Top Users" sections, one for each game. However, these "Top User" sections only apply to recently earned fame, similar in essence to the Monthly Rankers section here on Tengaged. You will still keep all of your fame ever earned, but it will not all contribute to your "Hall of Fame" placing. This is to encourage continued competition, and also makes it possible for newer players to leave their mark on the site.
4. Will there be designs and avatars?
Yes. As lots of people have seen already, I have a wonderful designer who I have been working closely with to develop full-body avatars. This means that designs will also be available, and will range from clothes to shoes to hair to accessories, and even other categories such as backgrounds and objects. The 4 different games will each have their own way of affecting a users avatar (for example, winning a leg in The Amazing Race may award the user with a background of their current location in the game, something like Tokyo or something).
5. Will there be a shopping game?
No. At least, not anywhere remotely close to the way it works on here. Any user will be able to open a shop and sell anything they already own for whatever price they want. There will be a search option available when searching for an item you want, so that you can see which shops that item is available in, and for what price. Having many, many shops will reduce the insane inflation that is seen on here, and will hopefully make shopping a more competitive aspect of the site.
6. What are you going to do about premades?
Nothing. The way games are set up on Udoravia is completely different than here. Spamming for power, and plussing/negging fellow players are not aspects of Udoravia. Instead, the format of each game is very closely related to each actual show. Joining with premades will not benefit you in the slightest, due to many reasons. First of all, alliances will be very easily spotted in games (in ways that I do not want to reveal yet). Also, the only game in which alliances will benefit you would be Survivor, and since enrollment is random (that is, joining a game will place you RANDOMLY onto one of the two tribes), you have no guarantee that you would even be working with your allies.
7. Will all of the games be available upon release?
I'm working very hard to make this a reality, but each game is very different, and requires its own extensive amount of time to create. I would like to say yes, but the hard fact is that I just have no way of telling. Survivor is the only CONFIRMED game to be available upon the release, but I'm also working very hard to make The Mole and Solitary available by Monday as well. The Amazing Race is a very tricky game to set up and will most likely take more time to get ready.
8. Will there be flash minigames?
No. The challenges for each of the games will be similar to actual challenges from those shows. For example, people playing Survivor will have many puzzle type challenges, as well as challenges involving their other castaways. These will be things such as the infamous "3 plates" challenge, and sliding puzzles, riddles, and scavenger hunts. Challenges for other games will be entirely different, but they will not be flash games that have nothing to do with the show.
9. Are you trying to sabotage/destroy/replace Tengaged?
No, not even remotely. I love this site, and I love the people I have met here. I'm tired of people accusing me of trying to "overthrow" randomize, or whatever word they choose to use. The whole reason I've even started making the site was as more of an addition to this one. I'm not advertising it around the internet, I'm not creating a Big Brother game, and I'm not trying to steal rando's hard word and his users. If you still think that is the case, there is not much I can do to change that. The two sites are very different, and I'm sure anyone who gives my site a chance will notice that right away.
EDIT: With regards to Streeter's question:
These are things that any programmer has to take into consideration when designing a game. The reason most online versions of The Mole fail is because of the things you have pointed out. The way The Mole will work on Udoravia is as such: 12 users enroll into a game, and one of them is randomly selected to be the Mole. All users compete in challenges to build up a group pot (which THIS pot decides how much money the players earn at the end of the game, that is, each game of The Mole will have a different payout depending how well users collaborate on these group challenges). The Mole themselves will work to sabotage the group and earn money for their own Mole Pot. This is the amount of money the Mole CAN win. Each day, everyone takes a quiz about the Mole's identity, and for each person that correctly identifies the Mole, the Mole's Pot will be reduced. In this way, it is advantageous for the Mole to NOT tell anyone who they are, even friends, as they will likely earn little to no money if they do.
I wanted to write this blog because my inbox has been flooded for weeks with questions from people, and I've been bombarded on Skype as well about this. If you have other questions, you can leave them in the comments and I will add them in here if they are relevant enough.
Thanks, and sorry to the large group of you who hate me because of what I'm doing. I'm still not sure why that's the case, but it's out of my control.
1) Will games be quickgames, or are their options to enroll in a fast game or a slow game?
2) Are there going to be timers? Because if not I suggest maybe something like a myspace thing where the signal is red or green, and it can go yellow if they are going to be back?
5. Will there be a shopping game?
No. At least, not anywhere remotely close to the way it works on here. Any user will be able to open a shop and sell anything they already own for whatever price they want. There will be a search option available when searching for an item you want, so that you can see which shops that item is available in, and for what price. Having many, many shops will reduce the insane inflation that is seen on here, and will hopefully make shopping a more competitive aspect of the site.
why dose puma get negged =( what e is doing is something you all wont but if you want to create a site with (I Love Money, BB, Cutthroat, and Endurance) go ahead
Random question...which has nothing to do with the gaming aspect. I have tried many times to get this implemented on here but no one seems to listen. In regards to "friends" lists...will there be one of that sort on here? Also, if there is, will there be a way to know automatically who has added you as a friend? I had suggested before that an auto-generated email is sent to a person if they are added as a friend to someone. Is that something to consider?
This is excellent information for those of us citizens of the kingdom of Tengaged who know there's an alternative kingdom of Udoravia out there to explore.
I'm a little dissapointed that we have to wait a few more days, but still, this sounds like a great site. Personally, I'm looking forward to the solitary game. And I love the idea about the Survivor game! Can't wait for the site to open!
first off i just want to say i am liking everything that i hear about this, and that i appreciate all the hard work youve put in to making this happen, puma. i do have two question thoughs, and im leaving them here rather than mailing you or trying to get your skype from someone, as im sure you are sick of being bothered about it. my questions are in regards to the mole. to me it seems impossible to make this work like the real version, for two reasons. first, as there is no real cash prize, we would have no reason to compete to do well in challenges, and thus everyone would likely sabotage all the competitions in order to look like the mole. second, if there are two friends in the game and one is the mole, naturally they would tell their friend their role to help them win. of course there are some people who would lie to their friends to sabotage their chances of winning, but generally i believe games would be ruined do to this cheating. i was wondering if you had any plans in mind to solve both of these problems.
