Reflections on the first build

As promised, the first early access build was made available to tier 5 patrons this week! Even though the hours leading up to the launch were very hectic with lots of last minute tweaks and fixes, I managed to get it out at exactly 16:00 CET (UTC+1) on Friday without any major issues. It felt a bit surreal seeing people streaming it in real time shortly after!

Overall those who got to try it seem to be really enjoying it and there has been a lot of positive responses and good feedback! The flying requires a bit of practice and it takes a while to get used to be controls, but once you're past the learning phase it feels more intuitive. Some people have even beat me in the ring racing tracks already... That said, the flight system, controls, and everything else really, is still a work in progress with many more improvements to come.

As expected, a few bugs made it into the build as well but nearly all of them are easy fixes that will be in the next version in 2 weeks. There has also been some good suggestions for improvements, most of which are simple tweaks that will be made for the next version, things like ring brightness, night lighting, camera panning range and map boundary ceiling height. I also plan to include a menu that didn't make it into the first version where you can customize some aspects of the experience, like changing time of day, weather, dragon and fire color, remove the rider, and more.

There was also a kind of Easter egg included, which I honestly did not expect anyone to find. There are 5 goats placed around the map, they look like tiny white specks from the skies and are only really visible if you get very close. I guess I underestimated the community because a few of them were found already on day one!