Dev-Log #6 - Minescape leagues (RuneTale)

by RockTheFlag

Welcome to our sixth Dev-Log!

It's been a while since last dev log was released (over 2 years!) and today we're finally ready to release some information on what's been going on with GamesLabs development progress on Minescape Leagues.

Minescape Leagues is one of our competition based minigames available on the network. The game has already had 2 successful seasons with lots of feedback from the community. Both of the seasons showed us, that to make it more successful and likes by everyone, we need to apply some significant changes to it:

Name change

We're glad to announce, that Minescape Leagues will no longer be heavily known as just fast paced Minescape, but rather a competition based game and so it comes with a new name to differentiate the projects - RuneTale.

We took the decision to change the projects name based upon the fact that some players get confused by both games (Minescape & Minescape Leagues) being too similar and sometimes cause issues for new players joining and looking for long term gameplay to only find out their progress will not be saved. From now on the projects will be split and we hope this move will clear some confusion caused before.

Season length

Leagues was a fun gamemode for those looking to compete and those that don't have a lot of time to fully enjoy Minescape, but sadly, players would only actively compete in the season for the first 2-3 weeks of the season and then take a break before returning right before the end of the season. To fix this issue and encourage more active competition based gameplay, RuneTale will be split in chapters instead of seasons: each chapter will last exactly 2 weeks and one chapter will go live once a month giving both us and the players time to relax before the next competition.

Player opinion based chapters

"You should have made it so that we can choose different paths for tasks in Leagues", "You should make Leagues harder"

Those are some of the opinions we hear from you on the daily bases upon a new season of Leagues and we do care about them. To make the suggestions and player interaction in the project easier, We've decided to make the chapters based upon player voting.

In our discord, players will be voting upon challenges for each chapter of RuneTale. The challenge that wins will be put live in to the next chapter and the ones that lost will be put into the poll of votes for the next time.

We can already tell that RuneTale season 1 will be exploration based challenge chapter with xp rates, drop rates, skills and other activities being unlocked as you progress.

Unique content

As with the previous seasons, the new RuneTale will contain some unique changes, test mechanics/items and other stuff. The first season of RuneTale will experiment with change of the default RSP, changing it to Vanilla one and letting builders implement more unique blocks / looks for the world. We will also be bringing back some of the most liked features like the toolbox.

Rewards

The new RuneTale will not come without rewards! - The new chapters will once again reward players with some in-game content or even more! The specific rewards will be published once the chapters start.

Staff applications

GamesLabs is actively accepting Staff Applications! We are looking for players that are passionate about contributing to the GamesLabs Network, Minescape, and other exciting projects. We are specifically looking for players to assist on the following teams:

  • Assets Team: Assets team is responsible for creating models using Blockbench. Models range from items, cosmetics, monsters, and more. Previous experience with Blockbench is helpful and preferred.
  • Build Team: Build team is responsible for bringing the Network to life! Builds include Minescape Points of Interest, Minigames, Network Lobby, Convention Booths, etc. Previous build experience is helpful and preferred.
  • Development Team: Development team is responsible for creating all the features and mechanics of Minescape and the network in general. Previous development experience is preferred. Java knowledge is mandatory.

If you are interested in joining our team, please apply on our website at the following link: https://www.gameslabs.net/apply/
We look forward to reviewing your applications!

The end

That's all for our sixth development log.
Make sure to join our Discord if you haven't already!