Zancrunio

State of the Zancrunio Game

Updates from the developer of Zancrunio, Joshua Hoffmann, about the state of the game!
All times U.S. Eastern Time


March 26, 2023 - Damage effect flickering removed in Beta 7
I'm working on Beta 7. While I'm not ready to announce much about Beta 7 yet, I did want to report one important thing: In Beta 7, I am removing the flickering that a cube does when it is damaged. This flickering can cause accessibility issues. Instead, when a cube is damaged, it will play a slow animation where it shrinks down in size a bit before growing back to full size.


October 11, 2022 - Beta 6 Released!
Better late than never, right? Four years and five months after Beta 5 was released, I am happy to announce Beta 6 is released! And let me be clear that I have no intention of allowing that much time to pass before the next update again!

If you have Zancrunio, hopefully it should automatically update to Beta 6. If it doesn't, you may visit the Microsoft Store to update it manually.

Here is some of what's new: As I make updates to the game world on the server (for Online Mode only), I intend to post about most of those updates on this web page. But maybe I might decide not to announce them all so that some updates can be a surprise!

At some time in the very near future, I will be shutting down the old Beta 5 server. From that point forward, if you're still on Beta 5, then only Offline Mode will work. The Microsoft Store program on your PC should automatically update Zancrunio to Beta 6 in the background, but in case it does not, you may open the Microsoft Store program manually, search and go to Zancrunio's page on it, and click the Update button to bring it to Beta 6 and enjoy all that's new!


October 9, 2022 - Beta 6 Submitted to Microsoft for Review!
May 2018 was when Beta 5 was released. After four years and five months, I have finally clicked that "Submit for Review" button for Beta 6! Hopefully it won't take THAT long again for Beta 7! I'm guessing I might hear something from Microsoft by the end of this week.

While we wait, there's a few changes from my September 20, 2022 plan that I'd like to mention for how Beta 6 will work: Note: Once Beta 6 is approved by Microsoft and available, then at some point after that, I plan to take down the Beta 5 game server. At that point, you will need Beta 6 to continue playing the Online Mode.

I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


September 20, 2022 - More about Online World Updates
Here's the tentative plan on how the Online World Updates feature will work in Beta 6: I'd like to list some of what's planned for later Betas after Beta 6 (not necessarily Beta 7): I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


September 9, 2022
Small update: I'm disclosing that I've edited my earlier blog posts today. While I'd like to avoid discussing what I edited and why, I feel it's important to tell everyone edits were made.

For those who read those posts earlier before I edited them:
For Beta 6, I'm still planning the feature where online mode can receive updates and additions to the game world, items, monster cubes, etc.

I'd also like to eventually rework this web site so it doesn't have such a sparse feel to it. But if I'm spending time on that, then I'm not spending time getting Beta 6 done. So I'd like to get Beta 6 done first!

I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


September 7, 2022
Rewritten on September 9, 2022

Oh wow, it's been almost a year since my last blog post!

Due to my 9-to-5 job, work on Zancrunio Beta 6 has been progressing slowly over the past year. However, over the past few months, I've figured out a few ways to spend maybe just an hour or two every evening on Zancrunio and still make a lot of progress. I've found ways to address the "recuperation" problem that I mentioned in my August 11, 2021 post. So I've been progressing faster these past few months compared to the first half of 2022!

Based on what's left, I could have Beta 6 done and submitted to Microsoft for approval before the end of this year!

I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


October 27, 2021
Edited on September 9, 2022

Still progressing slowly on Beta 6! Without spoiling too much, I'll list some of the additions I've made to Beta 6 so far: I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


August 11, 2021
Edited on September 9, 2022

Hey friends! I hope everyone is doing well. Development on Beta 6 is still going, though it's going A LOT SLOWER than I expected.

The primary cause: After I get home from my 9-to-5 job, it takes me time to recuperate. But when I recuperate, it's already time for me to sleep, so I can wake up for my job the next morning!

And even on weekends: It takes me all Saturday and Sunday to recuperate from my 9-to-5 job over the past week!

But I am still progressing on development, even if it's just a little bit each day. I'll keep you all posted! - Josh Hoffmann


June 6, 2021 7:00 PM
Edited on September 9, 2022

As I mentioned previously: Over the past week, I made updates to the Zancrunio game server that are compatible with the existing Beta 5 game client that's in the Windows Store right now (and has been for the past three years!). These updates will ONLY be in effect when you play in online mode: There's more updates I wish I could deploy right now, but those will require the upcoming Beta 6 game client. I wish I could update the game client right now. However, game client updates to the Windows Store require submitting them to Microsoft and waiting for their approval. It doesn't make sense for me to make a submission to Microsoft every single time I make a small update to the client. That's why the Beta 6 client will have support for receiving some kinds of data updates from the game server like additions/changes to maps, items, abilities, and monster cubes. Once I've finished developing that, then I'll submit the Beta 6 client to Microsoft for their approval, and I'll let you all know how that goes! - Josh Hoffmann


June 6, 2021 6:00 PM
Edited on September 9, 2022

Hello friends! I'm resuming development of Zancrunio!

It's been a long time! Over three years! I released Beta 5 of this game way back in May 2018. Since then, a number of factors prevented me from performing further development. I won't go into details about those factors right now; maybe later.

So for the past three years, Beta 5 of Zancrunio has remained available unchanged in the Windows Store! I've kept the server (for online mode) up on the Virtual Private Server (VPS) for all this time! And even on the rare occasions that it goes down, or when you have no Internet connection, you can still play it in offline mode.

Within the past week, I have resumed development of Zancrunio! I'm working on the Beta 6 game client which will have some new features! Once it's ready, I'll submit it to Microsoft for approval, and they do take some time to approve it. (All games in the Windows Store and updates to them have to be tested and approved by Microsoft.)

I'll have more to say about upcoming new features themselves in later blog posts. I'll also mention that I've already made some small updates to the game server over the past week that are compatible with the existing Beta 5 game client that's in the Windows Store right now. I'll talk about that in an upcoming blog post.

I should mention that I deleted the Zancrunio forums that were here over the past three years. For three years, I wasn't paying attention and cleaning up all the spam posts. So the forum database got so big that the provider of this web site disabled that database. So the forums stopped working. I figured it would be best to just get rid of them for now. I'll look into reintroducing forums or something similar when the time is right.

So I'm happy that I've found a way to come back to developing Zancrunio. I look forward to making Zancrunio a better and more fun game! If you haven't played Zancrunio yet, go to the Windows Store and get it; it's totally free! Until next time! - Josh Hoffmann



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