Hello Toontown!! It’s time for another anniversary Blog Post, this time we’re celebrating our 8-year Anniversary! Not only is it the Eighth anniversary of the project, but it is also the final anniversary of Operation: Dessert Storm!
Now, hold on a second, let us explain. Since our previous anniversary Blog Post from last year, big changes have happened regarding the project, current projects such as the “MISC” update and “The Dessert Menu”, management positions and the future of Operation: Dessert Storm as a whole. If you’ve been out of the loop, you may have noticed a lot of miscellaneous updates being pushed to the live game since August of this year, so what happened? Well, let's jump right into what’s been going on!
The status of “MISC” and The Dessert Menu
Last year we said that the team has been hard at work on the upcoming codenamed “MISC” update, which is still true to this day! Though, what was previously known as the “MISC” update, with it’s true name being the “All You Can Eat” update, is now known as the “Polishing Period.”
The fate of the “All You Can Eat” update being turned into a general updating period, naturally meant that The Dessert Menu would be something we would rethink in the future. We are 100% certain about doing videos that showcase future content, especially status updates regarding the B.A.T. Update, but how we execute these videos is still up for discussion.
But enough of the gloomy sad news, let’s explain what the Polishing Period is, as well as other breakthroughs and major announcements!
The Polishing Period
The Polishing Period is a period of both small and large updates to the live game that brings it into a more modernized state that is up to par with the team’s standards. We’ve decided it was a bad idea to hold all of these major and minor updates in one massive update due to scope creep, so that’s what all of the previous updates were all about, including Project: KEYSCORE.
Speaking of which, if you want to know more about Project: KEYSCORE and why the Techbots went through another overhaul, please check out the Backstage: Project KEYSCORE Post!
What we’re looking to accomplish with the Polishing Period is to fix many needed errors, unfinished content, or poorly designed and poorly executed elements within the live game. We’ve been focusing on QOL updates to give the playerbase a taste of what we’re able to do to the game such as Catch of the Day, a new Fishing mechanic that allows you to receive more jellybeans if you catch a certain Fish, to other in-development content such as our toggleable Day & Night cycle and revamped Cog Building interiors!
Don’t think we won’t add any other surprises though, as mentioned in our Discord server, we are in the process of giving Toontown Central a major revamp, with Goofy Speedway being turned into Goofy Stadium along with that! What will Goofy Stadium entail and what other surprises will we have afterwards? You’ll have to wait and see!
Other things we are looking to touch up are closing loose ends with things like the Prologue… our plan for the Prologue is to remove it and replace it with a modified Toon-torial, which will be a lot more unique than how it was presented in Toontown Online. Our decision for this is because of the new direction the story is going in, as well as the bleak ending of the Prologue not being something we’re fond of. With this removal, the in-game Launcher screen will receive a major update as well, no longer depicting a ruined Toontown Central, but instead, something a lot more inviting and intriguing.
After we have left the live game in a good state, we will feel confident about moving onto B.A.T. for real… more on this later in the post!
Rebranding
Surprise! While this may be the “final anniversary” of “Operation: Dessert Storm”, it is certainly not the final anniversary of the project! As a team, we’ve collectively agreed upon rebranding the project from Operation: Dessert Storm into a new Toontown identity. Much discussion was held amongst staff members regarding how we felt about a few factors of Operation: Dessert Storm, namely the “pun” of “Desert Storm” which often left a distasteful impression in the eyes of community members, and how the name ultimately did not match up with recent developments such as B.A.T. turning the game into a more RPG-esque experience and major storyline related factors.
Seeing as how the track record of rebranding Toontown projects in the community tends to end positively, we’ve decided that in order to maintain a positive relationship with the community, and as well as letting the community no longer see the project as a “Dead Game,” it was decided that we would go through with a complete rebrand of our identity. What’s the new name of the project? It’s definitely still Toontown… you’ll have to wait and see what the rest is!
New Website
A month ago, we officially started to push applications on our new website, https://staging.opdessertstorm.com/. The website is very much still in a work-in-progress state, but the backend development is going smoothly. This new website will launch along with the project’s rebrand, as most assets needed for the website are designed after the new brand identity we will have established. Nevertheless, we are very excited to get this new website completed!
Status of the Battle And Taskline (B.A.T.) Update
Unless you’ve been chatting in our Discord, most of you aren’t aware of this, but the community can now engage in direct discussions about B.A.T. and its changes! During September of this year, our lead Game Designers thought it would be a wise decision to be transparent about some things that will be changed in the future new game. As such, a Google Document was released that you can easily access in the Discord’s General chat’s pinned messages. This document lays out several priorities that are being worked on, with the exception of the future Neighborhood Bosses as well as other things that cannot be mentioned here yet. (Did you know that we are looking to create 16 unique Boss fights?)
If you want to engage in proper conversations and maybe even give the Game Designers ideas on how to approach the new Combat systems, be sure to stop by at our Discord server!
The New Year and What’s Next
To kickstart the new year, we will be releasing both our Settings & new UI overhaul alongside our Cog Building interior overhaul in one big update! The game will feel so different to play soon, and we certainly aren’t stopping there! Much is still needed to be polished…
After the Polishing Period is concluded, our new website finished, and our new identity established, which should all definitely be in 2025, we will jump right into actual B.A.T. game development! We are very excited to start working on a future new Toontown experience for everyone to enjoy!
Speaking of which, we know our community members are excited too, so if you think you have what it takes to help bring the B.A.T. update closer to fruition, go on and send an application over at our wip new Website, https://staging.opdessertstorm.com/! There are a variety of positions to apply for, from Artists who create new characters and environments, to composers who compose amazing musical scores to match those new environments and instances, to Game Designers who discuss and develop the groundwork of the new systems, tasks, and boss fights, to Developers who code in the new systems and cutscenes, and more! We’d love to have you onboard!
That’s all we have to say for now. Have a Happy New Year and see you in a few weeks!
