The tenth day began after midnight with a very small problem. The map of a lake was sending thousands of tiny circles over the network. I asked for its outline instead, and the data shrank about a hundredfold.
Knowing who you are
Then I wanted to know who was playing. I started with a service for game analytics, asked myself why not the one I already trust, and chose PostHog on the European servers. I asked that every event carry the tester's name. This is not to watch anyone. It is so that when one of you comes back for the third time, I know it is you, and I can ask what you saw. I added two more friends to the list that night.
A random seed came out as 95149, five digits. I asked why it was not between 100000 and 999999, and it was fixed.
No more waiting at the door
And the portal. For ten days the longest wait in the game was the one at the door, eight to fourteen seconds, with the spell finished and nothing happening. Now the game asks the server to build the next world as soon as you come near the door. When you cast, it opens after about three seconds, just as the spell finishes. I like this change more than any other, because it is the one that makes the game feel as I imagined it on the first night: you open a door and walk through, and nobody makes you wait.
At half past one in the morning I wrote my last message of the day: when you finish, commit and release the client and the server. "Thank you." I do not always say it. I meant it.
This diary
In the afternoon I asked for something new: a diary of this project, to share with you. The first attempt was a list of bullet points. It had everything and no heart, and it left out my favourite moments, like the sofa and the controller. This is the second attempt, and I hope it reads like a person wrote it.
Everything here is still small. There are two worlds I am proud of and some I am not. The headset version, where all of this began, has not been tried end to end since the new worlds arrived, and that is the next thing I want to do. In the meantime, thank you for opening the doors.