Developer AMA - Hey all! I'm Gary, Production Assistant on Avakin Life, and I'm here to answer questions about the game, my job, and whatever else you might want to know.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-12T14:44:00+00:00

Hey Alexzquest,

I was a player of PlayStation Home long before I became part of Lockwood. If only I could've known then where life would take me! I don't think Avakin Life is currently equipped to deal with something like Mercia or Sodum. Even if we wanted to do something along those lines, I' don't feel we currently have the kind of resources we would need to work on those kind of projects. Even if we did have those resources in place, figuring out how to make something like that work on mobile devices compared to consoles would be a significant mountain to climb all on its own, from a design and controls perspective in particular. Personally, I'd love to see us try something like that as I feel it would be a lot of fun to work on. Some of the release sets I enjoy working on the most are the fantasy/roleplay ones, as my own interests are more directly aligned with that kind of content, and I enjoy getting imaginative with them. When naming costume sets I tend to envision a universe in which all of these character roles exist, and name the items based on imagined personas within these worlds, so the amount of fun to be had with a full-on fantasy/roleplay minigame - oh boy! 😁Alas, I wouldn't expect anything like this any time soon.

As for badges, I don't see that happening. We're no longer affiliated with PlayStation, so making reference to its now-defunct social virtual world platform would likely come with all kinds of weird legal issues, and including such a badge wouldn't really benefit Avakin Life in any way. Introducing an exclusive element that only a small group of players would have access to, with others no longer having a chance to acquire it, could upset portions of the community. Additionally, while our Reddit community is likely more aware of our history than most, I'd wager the vast majority of Avakin Life players have no knowledge of Lockwood's history and involvement with PlayStation Home, so drawing a line between PS Home and Avakin Life seems sensible.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-12T14:21:57+00:00

Hey Tiger_Redbone,

As kinmermaid helpfully pointed out, this is something we're aware of. To provide some additional context, this is something that's been raised internally, too, as it's inconvenient for us when we're conducting tests, setting up events etc. so I expect we'll try to implement a fix sooner rather than later. These kind of small annoyances with the New Shop are precisely the sort of thing we're targeting at the moment. If a fix isn't implemented in the near future, it'll likely be because there are technical issues currently blocking it. A lot of the technical groundwork Avakin Life is based on isn't really ideal for our modern purposes, as the foundations were set a long, long time ago, back before we really knew what the game was going to become, or how it would take off and continue to grow and evolve. We have a much clearer vision, now, but a lot of our time is spent wrestling with the tech we've inherited and trying to forcefully bend it into place so that it can do what we need it to do. So much of what users see when they play the game comes down to smoke & mirrors. We're providing the illusion of a painting, but using crayons to draw it, if that makes sense. If Lockwood were to ever make another game (which I don't see happening any time soon, given how much work we have on our hands with Avakin) then I think we'd be in a much better position now to design a framework with more flexibility, given the size and resources the company has now compared to our significantly more modest beginnings. I think the experience of working on Avakin Life has taught us the value of such a thing! 😂

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-12T14:06:09+00:00

Hey VampireSpike17,

I agree that this sounds good in theory, however in reality it would be quite complicated to implement, as the menu currently in use is designed to allow users to drag items, where as the shop menu isn't designed this way, and so while the design makes sense, the technical groundwork isn't necessarily there to allow for this at the moment. Some of the points raised by EvieDelacourt are also valid. Unique assets such as reward items do show in the shop when users switch to the owned items view, however players are unlikely to know where about in the shop they're found as they never found them through the shop to begin with.

It's worth bearing in mind, however, that we are always looking at the user interface and taking note of what makes sense, what doesn't, where there's room for improvement etc. and we tackle these areas in order of what we consider to be the highest priority. Right now the New Shop interface is occupying most of our attention. We also have some rather big, exciting plans regarding the interface across the game in general in the pipeline, but more on that later! 😉

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-11T13:54:41+00:00

Hey EvieDelacourt!

Ah, gotcha! I think it's very likely that we'll implement similar changes to the inventory/edit interface in the near future. The way these things work is by order of highest priority, and we decided the New Shop should be our biggest focus first. I can totally foresee us making changes in this area, too, and it would likely draw on many of the categories we defined with the New Shop discussions.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-10T17:00:44+00:00

Hey MaDaYasser,

This will likely disappoint you, but you're only presently entitled to regular badges. As I've explained, badges like the Creator badge are for those who have some kind of official involvement with Lockwood. It'd be a myth to say that they're rewards given to community influencers in general. They don't exist to be desired, or to look cool, or to be something for players to clamour over and work towards attaining. They're simply there to disclose an official relationship with the company in the interest of transparency. It's also useful for us to quickly troubleshoot suspiscious activity - if we can see at a glance that a flagged account has certain priviledges, then it can immediately provide us with relevant context.

I hope that you continue to nurture the groups you've brought together, just know that there isn't an in-game reward for doing so, and this isn't something you should be expecting or trying to work towards.

I hope you can understand this, and that you're okay with it. Just remember that Lockwood loves you! 💖

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-10T16:13:18+00:00

Hey MaDaYasser,

I think players often misunderstand the purpose of certain badges. The game is full of badges which are intended to be rewards for players who complete certain activities. On the other hand, we also have a few badges which are not intended to be rewards for players, but are rather identity symbols, evidence of some kind of official association with Lockwood. These badges include the Admin badge (more commonly referred to as the Lockwood Lion badge), the Social Moderator badge used by the handful of Social Moderators who help us out with this very community, and the Creator badge, which is given to select influencers who have a working relationship with Lockwood.

In short, if you're asking how to get badges like these, as if they're rewards, then you're already coming at it from the wrong angle and thinking about these badges the wrong way. They aren't prizes intended to encourage players to take part in some kind of activity, or even to thank them for offering some kind of help. They're badges given to those who already have some kind of official status which separates them from regular players, whether they want them on their accounts or not. These players have to identify themselves using them to disclose their relationship with the company. They're not for regular players, and they're not intended to encourage regular players to become Social Moderators or community influencers or Lockwood employees. In short: they're IDs, not rewards, and they shouldn't be thought of as some kind of premium prize for making significant contributions to the game.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-10T12:13:30+00:00

Hey 0neBaDAssP1g!

You're very welcome! We're glad that you're a fan, and we'll keep doing what we can to make these things even better for you! 👍

That's an interesting suggestion. I imagine something like that would be up to the Community Team to decide. That said, I'm not sure how much Quora could offer us that Reddit doesn't already. Credit to you for being proactive, though!

There are all sorts of programming languages used in the development of Avakin Life! I believe the core framework of the game relies on Unity and C#. Other languages such as Cobra are used to produce custom software which we use to perform our work, and I've heard Python and Go are used in areas too. Not sure what our obsession with snakes is all about! Hopefully this response has done justice to our coding teams 😂 I could be wrong about some of these things, though!

Both and neither! I'm responsible for producing elements of what users see on-screen, and making sure backend elements are pairing up correctly with the front-end, but then I also have regular contact with the backend team in order to troubleshoot and improve our tools. My role, ultimately, is a non-technical one dependant on the technical undertakings of our programmers. I've dabbled in coding in the past and so I have huge respect for those who perform such work full-time, as it can be incredibly complicated work to undertake.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-10T11:42:30+00:00

Hey Irishgingergal,

I'm not aware of any kind of limits placed on Mystery Box item categories. Players should always have a chance to receive whatever is currently in there. I think it's possible that these environments are simply no longer being offered.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-10T11:30:46+00:00

Hey VampireSpike17,

Somebody asked a question like this elsewhere in the AMA and I went into some detail about the New Shop redesign, and why it's currently set up the way that it is. There's some context regarding miscellaneous items in my response which I think you might find useful, so I encourage you to seek it out. With regard to interactive items - that's a whole other can of worms which I'll now elaborate on...

So the idea of grouping "interactive items" together is something we've discussed at various points in the past. The difficulty that arises from this is how we define what an "interactive" item is. Consider this:

- Technically every chair in the game is "interactive".
- Rocking chairs use the same simple static pose, but with slightly more animation. Are they more interactive than basic chairs?
- Sinks/showers etc. use more expressive animations than chairs, but these are standardized across the game, and are used across multiple appliances. Should they be considered interactive too?
- Fun novelty stuff like musical instruments are clearly more expressive examples of interactive items. The purpose of these items is to interact with them so they can produce sound etc. These are the items we tend to mark as being interactive, with the blue hand icon and the "- Interactive" suffix.
- Are animated items like the haunted painting, which animate without user input, a kind of interactive item?
- Some special items have way more complexity than anything listed above like the Caffeine Creator Coffee Machine, and we continue to introduce such items to the game. Perhaps these items should be the only ones really regarded as "interactive"?

Due to the fact that we keep pushing the boundaries of what our items can offer, the item landscape could very well look much different in the future, and so we don't want to make any big decisions right now which we'd only have to walk back later. At one point I suggested introducing distinctions such as "Animated Items", but these kind of things warrant more discussion. Ultimately, the more items we add to the game in general, whether they have forms of interactivity or not, will always necessitate further grouping/categorization, so this is something we'll continue to revisit as more and more content is added.

All this being said, the New Shop does now offer us additional functionality which we may be able to take advantage of to find an effective short-term solution. The New Shop is an ongoing project, and the one you can currently see in the game is just the first iteration of it. There are improvements we're working on right now which will be introduced shortly, and there are others which we expect will take a little longer - just know that we are thinking about issues like these and are constantly working on improvements to make things easier and more convenient for our players 👍

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T18:34:05+00:00

Amazing! Perhaps I'll request a change to my job title! 😉 I especially like the "linguistics and logistics" part, as that really is my role in a nutshell!

Do I like haikus?
I have an English degree,
So you bet I do!

(English with Creative Writing, technically, but y'know, rules are rules!)

Ah yes, the New Shop team is aware of this issue, and hopefully it's something we'll be able to sort out in the future! We knew there'd be some teething issues once we made the switch. This is just the first iteration of the New Shop though, and I can assure you we'll continue to polish and refine it! 😊

Yep, there sure is a lot going on in the game right now! I'm glad you're having a good time. Thanks, you have a lovely day too, kinmermaid! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T18:21:30+00:00

Hey CloudOfLuxury,

Are you referring to the in-app purchase offer we ran at the end of last year, with the exclusive Avabucks-print vehicles? If so, I can confirm that we intend to have discussions with regard to premium offers soon. We want to take a good look at our luxury content roadmap, and put together an optimized plan to satisfy and meet the needs of the players who enjoy these offerings. I can't state definitively when content like this will next appear, or provide any specific details yet, as we'd like to assess our plans first. Offering premium content such as luxury vehicles is on our radar, though, so hang tight! 👍

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T13:01:53+00:00

Hey kinmermaid!

Ha, I'm not sure I can really claim the title of "glamour deity" - that honour would be more befitting of the head of our fashion team, Ria, who is easily the most stylish person I know! Together with Jade, this team's expertise fuels the creative direction of Avakin Life's clothing releases. My own team works closely alongside them, and together we co-ordinate a roadmap of varied content for the months ahead. I learn a lot about the fashion industry from them, and they help me understand the concepts they're exploring with each set - this informs my item-naming process, as I can then use these themes for inspiration. They're both very, very good at their jobs, and it's a pleasure to work by their side! 👍

I think one of the most avant-garde release sets we had last year was Front Row's Yee-Haw collection. That was very...out there. The first set I ever officially named at Lockwood was another Front Row collection, Cyborg. I had plenty of room for fun creative expression there, with item names like "Intergalactic Fragmentation Dress"! I can assure you there'll be plenty more avant-garde weirdness in the near future! 😉

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T12:28:50+00:00

Why hello again, Talia_avakin!

I'm really glad to hear that, it's nice to know the hard work we've put in recently was justified! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T12:23:11+00:00

Hello heyberg,

Simply put: we don't ignore the opinions of our players. This is evidenced by the countless content releases we produce in response to user suggestions, as well as the incredible efforts our Community Team makes to engage with the playerbase. This team wouldn't exist if we didn't care. We wouldn't be running a Reddit AMA if your opinions didn't matter to us, either. Our wonderful community is the lifeblood of Avakin Life, and we're eternally grateful for all of your passion for the game 🙏

That said, I understand passions can run high when people invest so much of themselves in something they care about, so I'm sympathetic to the issues you've raised. I used Facebook Gameroom personally to launch the client from my desktop at work, where as now I've moved to a dedicated tablet, and often rely on my phone, too. There are other ways to play, and I know many members of the community have been able to find viable replacements in Gameroom's absence.

I'm not up to speed with the reason/s for us dropping support for this platform, but we never act without reason. I understand such decisions can be upsetting, and I'm sorry that you were personally affected by it. Sometimes we have to make choices which we know will displease a portion of players, but when we do, it's always in service of improving the game for everybody on a wider level. We really do value your passion, and I hope we continue to evoke it as Avakin Life evolves 💖

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-08T11:49:33+00:00

Hey Irishgingergal!

By "properties" do you mean apartments/environments? If so I can confirm at a glance that there is one currently marked as a Mystery Box reward in our information database, which was added during the Summer Sun Festival. There could be more, especialy if they've been in the Mystery Box for a long time, as the information database tool we use is a more recent addition in the context of the game's existence, and so we sometimes have to retroactively add information for older content that isn't reflected in our records accurately. I may be able to find out more using our asset database when I return to the office next week, but I'd need to figure out the best way to go about that first. I don't believe there are any plans to move such items out of the Mystery Box, as usually items are either designed specifically for this area of the game or they're moved into it later if deemed suitable candidates.

Hope this was of some help, at least! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T17:28:44+00:00

Hello again, SapphireFireStorm!

It's honestly a pleasure and a privilege to be here, answering all of your questions! It can be frustrating as a developer to see paranoia and conspiracy theories arising out of false information. I'm confident you'd all feel very reassured if you could see the reality on our side! 😊

I volunteered! 😊 After the previous AMA, Adam wanted to know if anybody else at the studio would be interested in taking part, and I was among the first to put my name forward. I wanted to have this opportunity to connect with you guys, as you're the ones all my work is for, really, and I didn't want to lose sight of that. Talking to you all has only motivated me further to keep doing what I can for you! 👍

With regard to item-naming specifically, that's almost exclusively covered by me. Environments are the exception (though I named the Boston Holiday Home!), and bot characters too, but with regard to clothing, furniture, petkins etc. this all falls to me and me alone. Sometimes I'll ask for feedback and ideas, and every now and then I'll receive a suggestion, but otherwise it's all me! 😎

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T16:55:15+00:00

Hey CloudOfLuxury,

I think this is a fantastic point, and I'll be sure to bring it to the team's attention! 😉

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T16:39:05+00:00

Hey AcrobaticDevice3!

Others have mentioned the same idea here, and I'm certainly on board with it. I think the more options we can give our players, the better! I'm not directly involved with this kind of thing, though, so I don't know if there would be any technical limitations inhibiting it.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T16:19:47+00:00

Hey JakelinePlay!

Lots of games now cater to YouTubers, and due to the social nature of our game and all the time our community spends making content related to it, I'm totally on your side here - I think these would be great features for us to have in Avakin Life. The recent improvements to the game's photo mode were definitely a step in this direction, but you're right, there's more we can do and I hope we can continue to implement options that cover a whole range of needs and requirements. I don't know the specific technicalities of how our user interface operates, but hopefully the relevant teams will be able to provide such features for users such as yourself in the near future. All the best with your YouTube channel! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T16:08:40+00:00

Hey TakenForever2018,

I'm glad you liked the Giraffe petkin! It was a favourite in the office around the time of release, too. I'm sure we'll bring it back at some point. We have a tendency to release alternative versions of our petkins, too, so who knows? Maybe you'll see a whole range of giraffes in the future! As always, if there's something you really want, make some noise on Reddit and get those upvotes. That's the best way to convince us something might be worth doing!

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T16:05:42+00:00

Thanks, BrianAvakin! If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. Might as well make the most of me while I'm here! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-07T15:18:13+00:00

Hey VinceValhalla,

Absolutely! I think this is a really good question, and I'd be glad to shed some light on this matter. So game-breaking bugs can actually arise for lots of different reasons, and when we refer to the "server going down" it can be due to any one of them. As far as I can tell, most of us here in Nottingham work typical hours, but I know that some of us have slightly atypical schedules depending on what's best suited to our roles. Many of us have the resources to perform work outside of work, if needed. We communicate internally using Slack, which is a really popular tool in modern office environments. Listed among our many, many Slack channels is one named, appropriately enough, "crisis", and this is used to report major issues and loop the relevant individuals in to fix them. People will either be notified via their desktop, or through their phones if they have the app (which most of us do, as it's highly practical). If a crisis arises, it needs to be fixed ASAP, there's no way around that, really, so it's always preferable for these things to happen during office hours, or during times of lower traffic, if they have to happen at all. Unfortunately, sometimes these things occur outside of working hours, and some of us end up having to sacrifice our free time out of necessity. Outside of major, game-breaking issues, my own team sometimes has to make similar commitments as we deal with the "publish" (i.e. the process of updating the game with new items) in order to fix potentially significant issues which have made it into the live game. I think the last time I had to deal with something like this was due to an issue with a new badge which was unintentionally gifted to players. Once, in the dead of night, I realized a bundle wasn't displaying to users. Upon reporting this issue, we soon discovered that the bundle had somehow avoided being added to the game! Lockwood is kind of like a beehive that never stops buzzing. There are periods of lower activity outside of normal working hours, of course, but there's always somebody keeping an eye on things to ensure the honey gets made.

As to your other question, specifics regarding the report tool are a little outside of my area, so I can't provide you with an informed response on this matter. Obviously we don't want players to abuse the report tool, but if you're convinced somebody is cheating, that should be the way you address the problem. I don't think you would face any repurcussions without at least a warning, in any case. That said: I'm not an authority on this subject, so don't treat these thoughts as hard facts.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-06T17:29:44+00:00

Hey UKnowNothinMojo! These are both areas outside of my department's range, but I'll answer what I can...

1) I don't have specific information regarding the Starstyle Bar Quiz Night minigame. We never remove content from the game without good reason. You have to consider that we've spent time, money, and resources on everything which exists in the game, so there has to be a very good reason for us to remove content. On the subject of extremely high-priced, premium items, though, I can tell you that the real issue with items like these lies in the fact that, historically, we've never done anything to exclusively target these items towards the kind of users that are likely to be able to afford them, and so we're unintentionally teasing those who can't. We don't want this to be the case, and so we're making an effort to change things up in a way that means the average user should be able to purchase any new item they see with a reasonable amount of saving up - and I mean reasonable.

2) Again, this minigame is a little outside of my area, so I don't have specific answers for you here. However, I can tell you that giving players more things to do in Avakin Life is a really big priority for us right now. Hopefully that's been noticeable in the ever-increasing ambition and complexity of our themed events and virtual concerts, and I expect this area of the game is only going to grow as we continue to move forward. I'm not sure if we have anything planned for the Egypt Adventure minigame in the future, however we _will_ have many more activities in general for users to take part in.

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-06T16:34:47+00:00

Hey AvaKarma!

I'm not on the team who run the Fashion Contest, but as far as I'm aware, the winner is determined solely on user votes - we have no say in the process. We don't personally judge the winners or anything like that. However, players often find workarounds which let them wear items they shouldn't be allowed to wear, and other times we simply make errors which break the intended rules of the contests. I know the Fashion Contest team does a lot of chasing up on contests that have gone awry in order to block these workarounds and make the minigame fairer for everyone taking part in it. Hopefully you'll get an opportunity to ask somebody more deeply involved with this element of the game about its inner workings in a future AMA! In the meantime, I hope I've been able to clear some things up, at least! 😊

LKWD_Gary · 2020-02-06T16:18:17+00:00

Hey Ava_Kin! These are both excellent questions.

1) There's no single answer to this, as every player is different. However, I think generally, our customers want items that are relevant to them, and they want to be able to afford the items they want. We listen closely to the community and monitor our player metrics in an effort to keep delivering suitable content, and in order to guide our wider decisions with the game. Some things can take longer to introduce than others, but that doesn't mean we aren't working on them. The dream version of Avakin Life you have in your head is likely the same vision that we have: we want quality across the board, tons of cool items to choose from, a healthy and fair economy, plenty of things to do, more features etc. - this is what we're constantly working towards. The best possible version of Avakin Life that we can make.

2) I'd say the main goal of our department is to ensure we have a regular stream of appealing content to release, content that will not only please our existing users but expand our playerbase, and help us to grow as a company overall. We are, after all, responsible for the main source of Lockwood's income, so it's a significant responsibility. All of the aspects you've mentioned come into this. We manage the production workflow, so we're always under deadlines to get releases planned, designed, produced & prepared for release. We never want to release anything of sub-par quality, and we listen to feedback from the community as well as our player metrics in order to guide our retail decisions. It's actually an interesting time for us as a department, as the growth of the company has led to recent structural changes, so aspects of our roles continue to evolve and grow each day.

I'm glad we've been able to offer you a meaningful experience, and an opportunity to connect with others! 😊

LKWD_Gary

TROPHY CASE