Well, folks – we’ve got some exciting news!
As of today, 7/31/2020, VoxPop has officially launched its Open Beta!
Now that our new client is live, the old on will be taken down. In other words, if you downloaded the Closed Beta, you’ll have to download again. Apologies! However, here’s our promise to you: now that the program comes with our auto-updater, you’ll never have to re-download our client again!
So that’s one of our new features, but what else can you expect?
1.) Expanded User Profiles
Show the world more about you! VoxPop’s user profile system has been expanded to include bios, favorite games, and badges! Special developer, publisher, and the upcoming streamer badges let relevant users easily find your profiles for potential partnerships.
A user settings menu has also been introduced, and will be expanded according to feedback. Users can now select between icons, but cannot yet upload their own. Finally, users will have their ID visible on their profile – but you won’t need to share it everywhere, because…
2.) External Linking to User Profiles
Users can now generate a link that will send others directly to their profile! This will allow you to quickly and easily share your VoxPop page with any of your friends.
In tandem with the fact that games are now visible on the profile, we see this feature as being especially useful for Streamers and Influencers to quickly get their audience to see what games they’re playing. It also ties neatly into our next change…
3.) Simplified User Recommendation System
One of the biggest issues with ID based recommendation is that buyers can sometimes find it cumbersome. This also poses a problem for the recommender – how will you get the credit you deserve if people don’t want to go through the trouble of entering an alpha-numeric code?
Now, however, if a user buys a game from your profile, it will automatically add you as the recommender. While users will still have the option of entering a code at checkout, now all you need to do to recommend games to your friends is link your profile.
4.) “Coming Soon” Store Page
Of course, while its always good to get recommendations on good games you might have overlooked, you might have your eyes on the future as well. Streamers will want to plan for what’s next and developers need a landing page they can direct to.
To accomplish that, we’re introducing a new “Coming Soon” tab to our store, featuring all the games that haven’t released yet, alongside their tentative profit-sharing numbers.
5.) Developer & Publisher Analytics Page
With all this talk of sales and recommendations improvements above, if you’re a dev, you’re probably hoping more for something you can see with your eyes. So we’re proud to introduce a feature our developers and publishers have been requesting for sometime: the developer portal.
So far, the portal can show you how many sales you made, of which games, on what date. They carry some meta-data tags with them as well, such as the price the game sold for (in the case of discounts or sales).
The portal is still in development however, which is why we want to hear from you! What features do you want to see in the portal? What to you want it to look like? We want to know, so be sure to join our Discord (https://discord.gg/SJUJ4v) and leave your feedback!
6.) UX Overhaul
Finally, in addition to the big features above, we’ve made so many tiny UX adjustments that don’t really fit together, so we’re bundling them under this entry.
Among many other changes, we improved the login screen by adding a remember me button as well as username retrieval, for those who forget. We’ve enabled ratings/voting in the store page, as well as fixing some of the back buttons on store pages where they were glitched. We’ve made a number of small visual adjustments, especially to how game images are handled. Finally, per user request, we’ve truncated the VoxCoin numbers to two decimal points, so it’s easier to see their value.
As well, we're excited to announce two new releases, dropping the same day as our Open Beta!
First up is Into a Dream, and atmospheric adventure game about saving the life of a man with depression. Delve deep into the dreams of Luke Williams, a man diagnosed with depression, unfold the heartbreaking story of his life.
Our second game? RADARjAM. an action-packed top down shooter where you're blind to your enemy's location. With each run you are granted cash upon completion to buy ships that expand upon the original by almost entirely reinventing the way you need to play.
Post-launch, RADARjAM has many more content updates on the way, along with Ad-Hoc multiplayer coming later this year.
Of course, this is just a taste of what to come. In particular, with this foundation set, we’ll soon be able to begin development on expanding the profit-sharing mechanism and implementing the micro-investment engine.
With your help, we’ll build VoxPop into something that can truly shake the games industry! If you find any errors, please report them to us and we’ll jump on as soon as we can. And if you have feedback for us, we encourage you to ping us on Discord (https://discord.gg/SJUJ4v).
VoxPop is a small team, and we couldn’t do it without your support. So here’s to you! And here’s hoping you’ll join us for many more milestones to come.
Our sincerest thanks,
The VoxPop Team