Well here we are, everyone. It's been another successful year of NirvanaOnline, and here I am again to talk your ear off (or whatever you say about a long-winded blog post) about what all has changed, and all of the great things coming down the pipeline.
This year, we added the PoltercrystOnline to the NirvanaOnline Suite, which brought with it an unprecedented about of content within a flagship game world. This major update was preceded by the Season of the Seance, which added some ghostly new content to the game, and preceded by the Season of Horizons, which has had a focus on a diverse array of core-game sandbox experiences rather than big-ticket Vaults and Raids.
The Season of the Seance saw us add a new activity type to the game in the way of the Seances, a new activity that challenges players to connect various nodes to each other via sculk veins. While this new activity type wasn't our most popular new activity, it saw a resurgence in the Season of the Spectral as new Seances appeared around the Poltercryst. This season also saw the introduction of the Illuminatra 12-player Vault, after a nearly 2-year delay. This Season was the first sign of our change in philosophy towards less NirvanaOnline content overall, and more higher-quality content, while still leaving some room in the schedule for me to be a bit more creative with what I release, and leave more room for us to fix things and address issues when they arise. Having less things on the calendar allows me to overall be more spontaneous and release some smaller surprises throughout the Season rather than being locked into 8-ish big releases every 2 weeks.
In the Season of the Spectral, we doubled down on big, cinematic moments like Last Will, Oneirophobia, the Relinquished Crown, and the Cradle of Consumption mega-boss fight. We added massive new Vaults like the well-received Zenith of Atrocity, and the Root Canal. Each part of the Poltercryst was made to represent a very real fear, and the darker tones of the game world proved to be very popular for returning and veteran players alike. One criticism of the Poltercryst was that it felt hard to navigate as a newer player, though with the Poltercryst being a high-level game world this felt somewhat appropriate. Going forward, however, the next couple of summer game worlds in 2025 and 2026 will have functional teleporters off-the-bat. We also introduced the new Hives update for Nirvana, which shipped with a brand-new Zombies-esque Hive. While this wasn't our most popular new addition either, I maintain that the bones are there to build the activity type into something bigger, something grander. The Season of the Spectral culminated with players finding the hidden gothic village of Arkham, invading a taken version of Shine Manor, and ultimately killing Mr. Longfingers once and for all (?). Want to know more about what's been going on since Mr. Longfingers was vanquished? There's a new Lore Page going out for all players in the nirvana-resources channel on Discord. I think you'll find it very tantalizing...
On a side note, this summer we started a new philosophy with our 12-player Vaults. We've since slowed down on Vault production in favor of making each Vault feel truly unique with new mechanics, or combining existing mechanics in new and interesting ways. Don't worry, you'll still get multiple new Vaults per year, but they'll be spaced out just a bit better to allow me more time to cook.
Finally, we started off this Fall Season as Season of the Witch, though as many of you know we swapped this out for the Season of Horizons after learning about the Pale Garden assets that Minecraft recently shipped. This would allow me to make Season of the Witch more interesting by utilizing these assets to create a mechanic that was already in production (and having some trouble code-wise, if I'm being honest). It also allowed us to create a Season that was more focused on core sandbox experiences like the Pyria Mines update, which lets players finally mine until to their heart's content. Then in November we just released the Showdowns Update, which introduces dedicated PvP arenas to NirvanaOnline and overhauled the state of PvP (hopefully for the better, right?). Finally, just this month we've introduced the Myths of Mortieu Update, which is the first in a line of Game World Upgrades that will bring some of the smaller Game Worlds up to the flagship standard of Etheria, Arkoneux, Babylon, Poltercryst, etc...
Finally, before I start talking about 2025, I want to address some of the smaller surprise content that's released this year. Sometimes I get inspired by other things going on in my life, books I've read, movies I've watched, and games I've played (yes, I play games, who knew? lol). Most recently I added the Psychosurgery Update Part I to the Asylum game world. This is the first in a series of updates that aims to upgrade the Asylum to a full-fledged Flagship Game World over time. Earlier in the year I gave you guys the GagaGums update, which added new bubblegums you guys could earn from the Zombies game worlds, and use them to boost your stats and abilities until you died, changed worlds, or until you beat a Vault, Raid, or Incursion. We added the Hall of Heroes, which gave us a way to celebrate some of our most notable Keepers and tell their exciting stories from Nirvana's history. We also added the new Lifelines system, which game players the ability to call in some support when they need it most. Earlier in the year I dropped a big update full of Parkour Courses and Free Falls for BabylonOnline, and this summer I overhauled the Hop-Putt courses around Nirvana and added full-fledged Mini Golf to the game (though I'm still trying to find ways to improve it even further). Some of Nirvana's best updates and most important sandbox updates have come from these little surprises in between bigger releases.
Okay, here's the part some of you are probably most interested in. What's happening to Nirvana in 2025? Well, this Spring Season will be the newly-refreshed Season of the Witch, which will come with all of the unreleased content that didn't ship the first time. I've also got some exciting developments in the way of NirvanaArcana (hopefully), and I also plan to give you guys your first expansion to the Pyria Mines. Get ready to find something just a little magical down in those mines, Keepers...
Then, in April 2025, we'll be releasing Zombies In Paradise 3. I'm not going to spoil all of the fun here, but since April 2025 is going to be about 15 year anniversary for Network Nirvana, I've got some surprises up my sleeve (most of which are already going to showcase me going back on my word from earlier in this blog post, in a good way, though). Zombies In Paradise 3 will ship with a new Contest Mode, a new chance for you to get your name in the Hall of Heroes. It'll also (and I know I'm going to regret this)... It'll also ship with our first-ever Quest with multiple various endings. Now, this Quest is proving extremely difficult to code on my end, so I'm going to wait to see how it's received before I promise too many more of these, but I hope you guys will enjoy what all is in store when Zombies In Paradise launches this April.
Now, Zombies In Paradise 3 won't be the only big game world I have coming next year. In fact, I'm bringing you guys THREE new game worlds. Project Black Rock, Project Silau, and Project Knope will all be launching throughout 2025. These three projects could not be more varied, and I'm very excited for us to get to look back at all of them next year and see just how diverse they will all have been. Stay tuned next year for more information on each of these game worlds.
Lastly, I have one more thing to tell you guys about. Recently, as some of you may know, I've been working on rewriting the code for our Seasonal and Miscellaneous Game Worlds, specifically in the Achievements department. When asked about this, I've been telling people that it's because I want these game worlds to be able to "shuffle". What does that mean though? I want to be able to more fluidly move game worlds in the Miscellaneous category into Flagship world status, if they get popular enough. Also, with the Seasonal worlds, I'd like for them to become permanent Miscellaneous worlds if I ever need them to be. Additionally, I'd also like for Flagship Game Worlds to even be able to move into the Miscellaneous category if I need them to. All of this is because of some behind-the-scenes surprises that I'm setting up for 2025 or 2026... whenever they're ready. With Nirvana now being entirely self-hosted, I'm more interested in having a host of smaller worlds that can serve a smaller purpose if I should need them to. Think of Psychonomicron or Empyium. It would be nice to have these small game worlds that only feature a couple of activities, and somewhat act as little "experiments" for some of my larger ambitions, and that's what I'm getting ready. I've got a lot of ideas for Nirvana, and I think it might be fun to partially develop a smaller experience just to see if the vibe is right. Sometimes I get 8-12 hours into designing a game world and decide that I hate working on it. Sometimes I get that far and decide that I'm not sure how it would be received. How cool would it be for you guys to get to be part of these experiments and test out some of these larger projects while they are still baby game worlds? That's a part of what I've been planning behind the scenes, but I'll keep the rest of my cards much closer to the chest on that one.
Okay, and that's it! To summarize, Nirvana took some big leaps this past year in terms of experimentation. Some of them paid off, and some of them need to go back to the drawing board for a bit. Next year we've got an exciting lineup of surprises with 3 new game worlds that will flex not just Nirvana's range, but also its versatility. For now, I'm going to go dark for a bit on new surprises and reveals. The next big thing on my radar will be the Zombies In Paradise 3 and 15-year anniversary announcement. Thank you again for being a part of Nirvana, and thank you for coming together as this neat little community, the likes of which I couldn't be prouder of. I'll see you guys very soon in 2025!
*LlamaLand does not exist
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