Elega's Top 5 Priorities for 2020

Since 2017, Elega Corporation has experimented with a mix of different ideas. The earliest projects included things like Age of Nomads, a real-time strategy game set in the Paleolithic era. Or, a dashboard that tracked the number of subscribers on YouTube channels. Most work revolved around the game, creating different small projects with APIs of other providers, and generally exploring this idea that automation would provide a self-sustained way of creating value.

It was around this time I also applied to become a Pluralsight author, and to my complete surprise: was accepted! Indeed, I sought out the opportunity to become an author for a number of reasons. I have always liked the idea of working to inspire others, to motivate them, and to teach them skills they need to know to make sense of their live decisions. By exploring ways we build our careers, that is one of the ways to do that: so Pluralsight felt like a really great fit, and it has been over the past 3 years.

We are currently churning through Pluralsight course number 6! We expect it to be completed pretty rapidly, and with the milestone of Pluralsight combined with the recent release of Kalling Kingdom, our eyes are looking to the future. It is time to ask some fresh questions, or to take stock of how far we have come.

Are we headed the right direction?

It is natural to ask if we are on the right track. One of my biggest concerns has been whether opportunities are being missed. In business, you can have a theoretical loss in opportunity cost, which is what you are busy doing while you could be doing something better. I am happy to say: I believe we are doing exactly what we should be doing right now.

Project Papa is still in development and has received a new surge of energy in the third and fourth quarters for 2019. After the experience of creating Kalling Kingdom, it was decided that it makes more sense to take plenty of time to prepare the quality of this upcoming new product before proceeding into a full reveal or announcement. Right now, that is still the direction: continued development and focus on polish later on in its project timeline.

Are New Projects Coming?

Sort of! So, for the most part: we are going to begin pulling some ideas off the shelf that there just hasn't been time to get to, including some video projects and technology talks. 2020 might end up being kind of a quiet year with our heads down focused on new courses and existing course updates, some social media content releases, and updates to Kalling Kingdom. But that doesn't do it justice, read on for details! Before you do, one last thing I will mention is that a website overhaul for here is in the works: there will be work done here to finish some initiatives that have been on the backburner since the beginning, like the ability to report bugs and probably some cosmetic updates.

This leads us to our top 5 priorities.

5 - New Videos

There are a number of videos that should make their way here to the Elega Corp website and the YouTube channel. There is the beginning of a show outline written for some new content that is a natural evolution of what gameFINITY was but instead of from a 'gamer' perspective, it would be more from a game design perspective.

There has long been plans in the works to create a new logo intro animation, which work has started on, and to create some promotional content about the company that expresses our values. It might sound cliche and overly corporate but I realy do think you will like these once they're done.

4 - Music?!!

Music compositions are going to be put together for Kalling Kingdom, included in the game for new and existing customers, and will probably make their way to music streaming platforms like Spotify. I know, Elega Corp is now going to get involved in music and maybe even be a music publisher. Crazy, right?

The current music in the game is drawn from royalty free music, and I have been told that it is realy good! If you like the royalty free music, I will have a way that you can put it back into the game if you want to. But just remember, the new music will be the full creative vision for the game, and I think that it will certainly have way more personality.

Right now I do not have a specific date for the new music coming other than to say it is planned for sometime in 2020.

3 - Kalling Kingdom Updates & Lore Expansion

Because we ran out of time in 2019, Kalling Kingdom will be getting some additional updates in 2020, including features that should make it easier for new players to understand how to play the game, the music mentioned above, bugfixes, and additional new content. There are also new features planned to introduce whole new gameplay systems, including ways in which building placement will have an impact on the health or dynamics of your city, advanced market dynamics like booms or crashes, and possibly even some kind of basic resources trading system with other cities.

2 - Pluralsight Courses & Updates

This should be the most obvious one: the courses have proven to be highly popular and rated very highly (nearly 4.5 out of 5 at the time of this writing!). We are delighted that many Pluralsight customers have been happy with the work done on these courses so far. There are updates planned to bring the Process Builder course up to date as a lot of new developments have happened around that course since it was first produced.

As far as which new courses might be developed, I work directly with Pluralsight to figure that out, and it can change many times before settling into a new project timeline. So, to play it safe, I won't spill the beans on what ideas may come to light. But I can say: I am very excited to finish course number 6 now in the works with more to follow!

1 - Project Papa

SECRET THINGS ARE SECRET. Let's see, what can be said about this publicly? It is software. It is written in C#. It is awesome. It probably will not be released in 2020 but if we think it's ready it may be announced. And when I say we, I do not just mean we at Elega: I also mean who we are collaborating with to make this happen. It includes a business parternship, contractors who will work on various contributions, and it is easily the biggest, most ambitious project in the company catalogue to date.

We plan for you to not be disappointed.

Here We Go, 2020

There you have it, and so we begin moving into 2020. What do you think? Does it sound exciting? Mysterious? Way too much work for 2 employees? Well, all of the above are correct answers. It is a ton of work, and it might take a while for it all to get done, but it will be so worth it!

Some things you should see from us just around the corner:
* End of year wrap up video on our YouTube channel
* Course number 6!!

Thank you for reading.