News from the team: Gaia's plans for Monster Galaxy

[muumuupie]

Hi folks! Mike here from Gaia Interactive, makers of Gaia Online and Monster Galaxy. There are other great people in the company - who I fully support - that are responsible for leading Gaia Online... but my primary focus is working on new initiatives, like Monster Galaxy, and finding ways to help grow and expand Gaia Interactive so we can deliver more great games to more people in more places.

For folks who are interested, I wanted to share our plans for Monster Galaxy, and how it relates to Gaia Online.

Here's the basic steps we've been going through:

(Step 1) Release the "Beta" version of Monster Galaxy on Facebook, and work over time to make the game better. By releasing on Facebook, which has 600 million users, we can attract a whole new audience of people who enjoy our games, but have never been to Gaia before.

(Step 2) Release the Moga Forums on Gaia (YOU ARE HERE!!), and let Moga users come to Gaia for special prizes and bonuses every day. This is a replacement for the often buggy "daily prize" that used to be implemented directly in Moga... now, here on Gaia, you can consistently come back and receive great prizes every day, as well as join in the Moga forums, and explore everything that Gaia has to offer.

(Step 3) Keep making the game better! We're rapidly working to make Monster Galaxy the best game possible. We're still in Beta and even though there are over a million people who like Monster Galaxy, we know it could be better, and we want everyone to love it! There are many major updates planned. You're starting to see some of the new features, like Starseed Gift Baskets, that make the game more fun for you to play with your friends. Eventually, we'll be ready to take the game out of beta and...

(Step 4) Release Monster Galaxy on Gaia Online, so Gaia users will be able to play Moga directly on Gaia! We will have to require a Facebook account to use FB Connect (because that's the only way we can feasibly implement Moga on Gaia, from a technical perspective, in a reasonable amount of time), but will have special prizes, features, and Moga that are only available when you play Monster Galaxy on Gaia.

So, that's the plan for now! Now you know!

Plans can always change, but our goal is to make great games, and we're always focused on delivering the best games to as many people as possible.

We hope you continue to enjoy Gaia Online and Monster Galaxy. Thanks!

[DarkenBloodx]

Nice plans. :3 <3
I keep hoping if there would be a function where people can add friends on Gaia rather than facebook for seeds and stuff.

[CleoSombra]

Hi, Mike. Remember me?

Yeah. I said hi to you when you first joined Gaia. I'm a cat person. You're a cat person.

You never said Hi back.

I can only assume this means you secretly like dogs more.

Anyway, on topic:

hooray.
So your goal is to make great game?
Is this a hint that there might be more facebook games in the future?

[dkkurt]

biggrin .... nice .... I hope that their are new mogas coming and easy ways to capture the legends(BE)

[Rude]

Thanks for the heads up on the future plans. Everything sounds great and I'll be here every step of the way 3nodding

[Phouc Yuu]

Egg-cellent.

I can already see all the new users in this Monster Galaxy forum popping up. Hope they stay biggrin

[muumuupie]

CleoSombra

Hi, Mike. Remember me?

Yeah. I said hi to you when you first joined Gaia. I'm a cat person. You're a cat person.

You never said Hi back.

I can only assume this means you secretly like dogs more.

Anyway, on topic:

hooray.
So your goal is to make great game?
Is this a hint that there might be more facebook games in the future?

I'm so totally a cat person! I have a cat named Chup. She's awesome.

Plus... have you _SEEN_ Monster Galaxy? *ahem* Our design philosophy is "Put A Cat On It". We actually have a photograph of the team's Creative Director anthropomorphized into a tiger with the motto on it... in fact, I think I have it right about here...



No hints for the future. Our plans aren't set in stone beyond the next several weeks... It was super tough to even arrive at the point where I could post the glimpse of our plans in this thread! Plans have to change with the markets, and with what the people are enjoying -- gotta go where the players are. You know, "business" and all that... but no matter what, we'll try to make everything we do fun and awesome.

Thanks!

[Weary_Soulsearcher]

Personally, I really enjoy the game
however, most of my facebook friends got bored of it within the first 3 days
(since we can now gift starseeds, that may change a bit)

however, one of the major complaints was leveling.
it takes a LONG time and lots of battles for moga to level up.
my suggestion for this is to either take off the attack cap, make the rest times shorter for higher level moga, increase experience gained from battles or make blue coffees a giftable item as well.
when it takes 3 hours for your moga to recharge their attacks, waiting isnt exactly and option and it's really easy to run out of coffees.
i'm a college student, so i don't have THAT much time to spare on monster galaxy. it would be nice to be a able to spend short periods of time on it and still feel like i accomplished something in game.

i hope this feedback is useful. sorry if it's too long sweatdrop

[Weary_Soulsearcher]

oh, and ps: thanks for all the hard work!! heart
(oh, and another thing, feedback is based off free players. none of my friends buy things from facebook, so none of us used the sky shop beyond the 20 coins given to us at the start of the game...)

[The Bree]

Glad to hear you are moving forward with MOnster GAlaxy. Hope everything turns for the best.

BTW, you should make more evident that GAIA Interactive is behind the game if one of your main goals is to pick people from Facebook and make them join here.

And, just as a random observation, I normally praise the designs and artwork of the Gaian Art staff, but this time I think they underdid it. All the NPC's you find from your Home to the main city (Wyndham?) are seriously ugly. I understand that real beauty is really rare, but if you wanted to make such an statement you need to stop overdoing it. Not even Nova is really beautiful (compared to the Gaian beauties that you see in Barton or Durem).

Good luck.

[Raven Noireheart]

I never heard of Monster Galaxy before since I had been out of the loop in Gaia because of my long hiatus but I have a suggestion:

if you're able to allow us to play MoGa on Gaia AND it grants Gaia Gold then I think it will be a bigger hit. My reasons is:

Because from what I have observed, flash games here on Gaia tends to get unpopular as it gets old if it isn't profitable, just look at Pinball, fun game but it has a low population.

Although it might be difficult to program, but perhaps you can add this feature as a Gaia Online exclusive...

[Amaya has Fallen]

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

Not a bad plan. I like. heart Gotta say I love Monster Galaxy. So much fun to play, and a great time killer. Can't wait for it to be on Gaia! whee

[ze Wolf Angel]

That seems lovely. I can't wait; Moga is a really fun game! :3 I love all the cute artwork and stuffs.

Though... when I read "special prizes", that popped an idea into my head.
You know that one Moga, Sno the husky? This little cutie;

May I request that he be one of those "special prizes"? OwO
And even better, can he/she have the exact same poses as Dede the Husky?

I could see this as a major epic win, both for those who love puppies, and for those who really really want a husky but don't want to/can't shell out 4-7mil for the current one that we have (so basically this is like the "poor man's" version of Dede.) That, and I just really really want Sno cause he/she is my favorite of all the Mogas. >w<

I could also see this as a draw in for lotsa dog lover/cutie-faced animals players (along with the possibility of other Mogas being made into items, in which case would draw in all sorts of other players.)

[Blanche Arialden]

so if you put moga on gaia... do gaians will earn gaia gold too when playing moga? if yes, i'll be glade to play non stop with moga! xp heart rofl

[Anilates]

So what about those of us who do not want to connect our Facebook with our Gaia Accounts?

Why is it those of us who don't want to connect them can no longer receive daily bonuses just because we want to keep these areas of their lives separate?