Well….. it’s been June for a little while already >_> My apologies for the radio silence these last several weeks — I’ve been working ridiculously hard at trying to get something published, but I finally got everything submitted Monday morning, so I’m baaaaack (for better or for worse ;) ). And more or less free of non-job work until I hear back in August as to whether or not my paper gets published ^^ *crosses fingers*

So. We had quite the to-do list last month, and haven’t had many visible updates BUT: four important things have happened. We have two new staff members, and we’ve got this month’s event sketched out!! So without further ado,

First of all, Echolocation is finally out of playtesting, and rewards have gone up by a factor of 2.5! Now that we finally have another game that’s a viable source of nuggets, the Cave In rewards have dropped slightly (to a maximum winning of 80 nuggets, down from 100). The logic here is that we’re trying to get better data for Echolocation, and see what it’s like as players get better at it, hence the “shift”. We’re always analyzing the data, so both of these will likely get re-adjusted in the future as we get more data about how Echolocation when it’s played seriously :)

As some of you may know, Juney does a lot of work in the indie gaming sphere. Well, it’s not so much a sphere. More a sort of wibbly-wobbly, gamey-wamey, sort of… thing ;). Anyway, she rocks at crunching numbers and games and event planning and things — she’s also been helping us out to a tremendous degree in this area with the games and events already, so we figured why not make it official. Welcome aboard!

We’ve been really impressed with Fey’s art, and have decided to ask her to join our artsy-fartsy team of awesome (aka official site artists). Which means she’ll be helping some new ineki make their way out of the shadows soon, and is available as a custom artist :D Welcome aboard!

It’s currently sooooper secret, but the first code has been written and the plan has been laid out. Get excited :D It won’t start until near the end of the month (probably around the 28th but that’s not set in stone yet) so that it doesn’t overlap with our birthdayyyyyy.

Yup, Mycena Cave’s first birthday is coming up, and coming up fast! We have some neat little presents for you, to say “hello and thanks for making our first year on the internet really special”. In all seriousness, I look at this website and I can’t believe how awesome you guys have made it in only a year. You lot are amazing <3

Congrats Fey and Juney!

And congrats Glitch! Best of luck getting published!

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DATAZ1!!11one!!

I’m super excited to try & be useful to Mycena, and I hope you’ll all like what we’re working on at the moment :D!

Congratulations, Juney and feyani! ^^

And gosh, I sure am excited. >w< The spring event was so much fun, I’m sure this one will be at least as great. :D

Juneyyyyyy, feyyyyy <333 //squishes you both

Unfortunately I’ll be busy/working in July so that cuts down on my eventing time, alas my crazy event mode will have to take a break.

But I’m super excited and you guys are all amazing ;O;

Congrats Juney and fey! :D

I’m so excited for Mycena’s birthday, and for the event! ^-^ It’s crazy how amazing the site has become in just a year!

Welcome to the team guys!!! 8D

<3

Congrats Juney and fey!
I can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for us c:

Good luck getting that published, glitch!

Also… I’m actually really relieved that the event is planned for the end of the month…
I’m currently in the CVG Airport waiting for my flight to Hawai’i but I’d be crazy enough to poke at my phone on the beach if there was an event going on.

Hooray for new team members!

But.. why the decrease with cave in? I get that you want to encourage people to play echolocation, but no matter how much you punish people for playing cave in, some people are not going to play echolocation. I get zero nuggets from echolocation no matter what. Because I can never guess correctly. They have the same cap anyway, it doesn’t make me like echolocation any more (in fact it makes me like it less) when you just make it longer for me to max out. I had FINALLY gotten good enough at cave in that if I concentrate, I can get it done in an hour. Which is acceptable for basically grinding for nuggets, I think. But now it’s going to take me longer again and yeah. Needless to say I’m not pleased.

Congratz for the new team members! I can’t wait for this event *Squee~*

Another part of the reasoning behind the changing in nugget payouts is that capping through echolocation should take a little less time than capping through cave in, because cave in (for ‘the average person’ based on the data we acquire) takes relatively less effort, whereas echolocation (again, for ‘the average person’, not the lucky guesser) requires a fair amount of logic thinking/active engagement (e.g. watching a movie while playing cave in, sure!, while playing echolocation.. ..well, you’re bound to be slower at echolocation, or miss half your movie).

Up until now, Echolocation was a slow-to-cap game due to the nugget payout, which caused the max payout to go up; Cave In! was actually a little faster than intended (for the average person), which caused the max payout to go down. In a month or two, we’ll re-analyse the data and see if the changes we expect have taken place :) If it turns out badly, payout can always be re-adjusted.

For now, we just want to focus the attention on echolocation for a while to get a more solid idea of how people play & how fast they can earn nuggets with that. On top of that, a third game is a good chunk on the way to being finished & I’m fairly certain many players will enjoy that one a lot, too :)

Congrats to Juney and Fey!

I’m also not pleased with the payout decrease, I haven’t been able to figure out echolation at all and while I’m at work, having a quick mindless puzzle that I just click through to win nuggets had been a good thing. I gave echolation a try at the start and just knew that I didn’t have time/patience for a logic game. The same goes for the Sudoku style game.

I hope that in time that gets changed back.

I’m so happy for you guys, congratulations on making it on to the team :). I wish that we could edit our existing custom orders so that I could choose you too, Fey! I know that Juney all ready showed you what I had to say, but I was really impressed by that cake ineki that you made.

I don’t really think that they’re punishing players. I didn’t want to have to play any more than I all ready do either (I’m not the biggest fan of cave in!, needless to say), but it is a lot easier since you’ll ‘win’ no matter what you do. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cave in where I didn’t win anything.

I’m looking forward to the new game, that’s for sure! The event is a given (for excitement), I’m hoping there’ll be a lot of items to equip /obsessed.

Congrates Juney and Feyani! :DDD

*sees Doctor Who reference and giggles*

I hope I’m here for the Summer Event! I go to Disney soon and it’d suuuuck to have to miss one for the other. o3o

Not good at Echolocation at all (I don’t think I’ve ever won the few times I’ve played), so yeah, disappointed about the drop in Cave In. Especially when it’s literally the only game I play on here, and even then I don’t have much time for it xD. Ah well.

I’m really looking forward to the event and the birthday surprises! 8D No doubt it’s going to be awesome, I’ve been having withdrawals from how the community all gets together during events!

EDIT: Also minor thing, I noticed a typo on the front page for the announcement. c:

“Echolocation is also finally out of platesting :) Wheeee!”

Congrats to Juney and feyani!  Can’t wait to see their work around the site ;3 Also good luck, glitch!

Not sure how I feel about the nugget decrease.  I gave Echolocation a try and it wasn’t bad, but like a lot of other people said it takes a lot more effort.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing ;3 I love Cave In though, being my #1 site income (and just my favorite little puzzle game to play ever) and I know that’ll only add a couple days to how long I have to play to have enough for the items I want, but it makes me nervous because I’m already trying to catch up on lost time.

We’ll see though, I’ll give it another go. 

Whoo!! New members of the team! OUO More peoples to make bootiful customs~ Yis.

Birthdays are always a source of awesome events, and I cant wait for the summer event! If it’s anything like the spring event, I should probably start training for the all-nighters. quq

The nugget shift is a little iffy, since the only game I play is cave in, but I mean- it’s not too bad, and 80 nuggets is still a lot. <3

Congrats Juney and Fey!

Can’t wait for the summer event.

And I guess 80 nuggets max isn’t too bad a shift, but I do like playing Echolocation so it doesn’t really matter to me.

Congrats to Juney and Fey.

I can’t wait to see what happens with the summer event.

Congrats Fey and Juney~ :D

I can’t wait for the new event, either!

I’m not too bummed by change between Echolocation and Cave-In. Just as long as Cave-In doesn’t go back to the old payment: Things should be OK, I think…  Never understood Echolocation and still won’t touch it with a thirty-nine and a half-foot pole.
Hope you all get enough results, though! o:

Congrats, Juney and Feyani.  Excited about the summer event.

Game Feedback: Like others, not excited at all about cave in decrease.  I’m not a fan of pointless grinding, I’d rather enjoy the games I play.  I do like playing Cave In for a while until it gets to the grinding state.  Now its going to feel even more like grinding.  But at least I’m capable of getting nuggets through it.  I’m not going to play mushroom meals or echolocation.  I’ve tried, I’m not good at them, and never earned nuggets through them.  I don’t like sudoku style/type games, and I feel like both of them have the same type feel to them.  I don’t mind a more “thinking” type game.  I wouldn’t mind being challenged more for a higher payout.  I like other games that require a bit more thought than cave in (matching speed games, memory games, etc), but I hate pretty much all logic puzzles (minesweeper is the closest to a logic puzzle that I actually like and can do), so both the new games didn’t help me any personally. I’ve been pretty much not playing the games at all anymore for the past few months.  I mostly play Flightrising games just to crosstrade for nuggets, and I feel like I shouldn’t have to do that.  I don’t have any problem earning the daily cap pretty quickly on the other sites I’m on, but I feel like its really really hard here.  And I just don’t have time to grind at games for hours.  The two new games are really cute, and I know y’all went to a lot of work for them.  I’m sure that they’re to the taste of some others that like games like suduko, just don’t think those of us that aren’t going to play them should be penalized. I thought the point was to make it less grindy/hard to earn nuggets. Just my own personal opinion, I’m sure there are plenty that feel opposite.  Sorry for the complaint.  Excited about all the other new stuff here.

:D A huge congrats and lots of glitter to Juney and Feyanai. :3

Like the others have said, I’m disappointed in the decrease of the cave in payout. I earn most if not all my money through there. While I do like the other games, I find I spend more time playing them and trying to max out than I do with cave in. Also I’m horrible with echolocation as I very rarely get all of them correct, and it does not give out nuggets for partial answers. With it decreased, it seems like I’d be spending way more time than I have available. I don’t have a job so that’s not an issue now, but later on when I do have a full time job, then it’s going to be extremely hard for me to earn anything and buy the monthly stuff. I tend to buy at least one coat and both items.

I’ll be honest (and may come off as offensive. Sorry about that), but the decrease makes me less inclined to play here.

Oh my gosh, congrats everyone! Super duper excited about the summer even too aaah

Now, onto other things I’m really not so excited about…... I really hate the payout change. I understand the logic behind it and wanting to collect data on it, but I really just am not fond of echolocation at all, and this actually makes me want to play it less. I just honestly don’t have the energy for an involved puzzle game. I know because I tried echolocation for a good solid 20 minutes and was just frustrated the entire time because I gave it an honest to goodness chance and still didn’t get any money out of it. On top of that I kinda have a full time job of cleaning house and taking care of my sister - as I’m sure a lot of people on this site do. Maybe not the little sister bit, but the full time job bit for sure.
In short I really don’t have the time or energy for echolocation, and I want the Cave In! payout to be changed back as soon as possible. I apologize if this post seems overly negative, but that’s really just how I feel on the subject.

Congrats to the new staff members and good luck with your thing, glitch! Golly was I glad to see this update. I was worried when it was late. ;-;

But uh.  As with most people I’m also upset about the pay-out decrease.  Well, upset is kinda an overstatement.  I guess I’m mostly confused?  Why does the payout decrease because the payout for Echolocation increase?  Are you trying to, eh, drive people towards Echolocation in order to get whatever data you’re looking for?  Because, I dunno about other people, but I will never play Echolocation ever.  I dunno maybe I’m just stupid but I still do not understand how to play at all and I don’t think I’ve ever not made a mistake. Maybe if there was payment for partially-right answers but… As it stands no.  That game and I have very nearly come to blows. :| 

In other words I guess the payout decrease isn’t enough for me to get angry about but I don’t see the point in it.

But WOOOOO EVENT and I can’t wait to see what the birthday stuff is gonna be!! :3

I do okay with echolocation, and now that the pay has increased for it I’ll give it a shot for a bit and see if my average pay with it maxes me out faster or not.

It really does take a lot more concentration though. I don’t expect to make more than 50 nuggets in one game, and one game takes me longer than a game of cave in. However, I don’t always earn that much in a game of cave in, though I did manage to get 100 quite a few times in my daily grinding.

Hard to tell if echolocation will be worth it for me, but regardless I am also a little disappointed about the pay decrease with cave in. I think it took me 1-2 hours to max out before, and thats a pretty sizeable chunk of my day since I work 4-6 days a week. Hopefully the change won’t significantly raise the time spent grinding if I do choose to stick with cave in.

I…think I sort of understand the reason why it was adjusted that way, if I’m reading Juney’s post correctly. I’m probably around average at cave-in, so maybe the time I’ve spent is shorter than intended. And I can’t really complain too much, given how I max out every day and hardly spend the nuggets, so I have a lot to spare(I’m saving for some things, honest!).

Edit: Oh yeah, I’m stoked for the event stuff :D Can’t wait to see how it goes.

Edit #2: So I played a little bit of echolocation this morning, couldn’t have been more than ten minutes. A little over an hour after I last edited this post, I’ve maxed out playing only echolocation. So it is not longer to max out with this than it was maxing out with cave in. This is…actually pretty good. I take a lot of potshots so I miss very often but taking the risk lets me win with fewer moves.

I realize though that this is still one of those logic puzzles not unlike sudoku(which is probably why I caught onto it well enough), which are pretty difficult for a lot of people. Hopefully if enough users find it too difficult or time consuming, cave in’s payout could be adjusted. I’d hate to see other people lose out. Perhaps the new game will be something different :o

*Omnomnoms Juney and Fey* Welcome! :D

Super happy about the echolocation payout increase. I loathe Cave In, but clicking the screen rapid-fire still got me nuggets more quickly than playing the game I actually do like :/

Congratulations, Juney and Fey! I can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for us :)

It looks like I’m one of the very few people who don’t mind that Echolocation’s getting a boost in nugget payout at the expense of Cave In. I rarely max out because I don’t have the time for grinding, which isn’t going to change with Echolocation, but at least that game is a bit more engaging than Cave In for me, and it’s nice to be able to earn more nuggets through it.

I’m really glad to see that Echolocation got a boost, and I really don’t mind that cave in doesn’t reward as much. I enjoy echolocation significantly more, but even still, it’s grinding. At 20 nuggets a pop on average, it really wasn’t worth it to play. But with the boost, it actually feels worth my time now. Still pretty grindy, but perhaps actually a decent source of income.

Myla / glitch

I would like to propose moving the monthly news discussion into the MC Discussion forum and the monthly previews into the Announcements because it just makes more sense.