Two Years

Wow, you're right! Nice catch ziroi... I can't believe I missed that! (and welcome to the project, btw!)

I appreciate the support; I feel pretty guilty at the moment because, as many of you may have noticed, things have gone pretty quiet around here recently. I suppose an explanation is in order, but let me say a couple things first: the project isn't dead or anything, it's just kind of in hibernation (or perhaps germination would be a better word :) ). That's actually semi-intentional: When I started the site I knew that some things were on the horizon that would cut into my time to work on it pretty heavily. With that in my mind, I did two things:

-I made sure that this possibility was built into the "business model" (so to speak) of the project: I wanted a system that didn't require lots of increasing, sustained interest to be successful; People can make pledges and then mostly forget about the project until things are more developed if they want to. There's no need for them to come back all the time (although eventually that kind of community is something we want); The project still grows, just at a slower pace.

-I also made a decision to purposefully avoid publicizing the site to any serious degree, with the idea of keeping to a small and dedicated community at first. That's because, as I've said before, there just isn't the infrastructure in place to handle a high (or even medium) traffic website right now; Nor is the pledge system really robust enough to invite contributions on a large scale.

So here's what's going on with me, and where things stand now. Some of you might remember that I recently moved back to the US from Japan; What I didn't mention is that that also entails looking for a new job, which I really have to make my main focus at the moment in order to keep the lights(and servers) on :) On top of that, my wife and I had our first child last year, which has compounded the usual hassles of an international move about fivefold. I'm sure you can imagine how much spare time all this leaves me for game projects! That said, however, this level of busyness will (hopefully) not last indefinitely, and Metropolis is not forgotten by any means.

As far as the project, the concrete next steps right now are:

1. Developing and upgrading the site infrastructure. This is something I've been working on here and there but it requires more dedicated time, and possible more expertise.

2. Making plans for marketing and promotion. When we do have the site up to snuff I'd like to have a good stock of materials and plans to really start promoting the project. I've had some discussions with Mighty_Borlaug about one project in particular that shows a lot of promise. Again, slowly but surely; I'm sure most of us are far more interested in the nitty-gritty of the game than in marketing, but that's really what needs to be done if we're serious about making this happen.

So that's what's up with Metropolis at the moment! Sorry to bore you all with the personal details, but I appreciate all the continued support and wanted to let everyone know what was what. Stay tuned!

Congratulations on having your first child!  Certainly reasonable that life for you has gotten more involved, especially since your move.
In regard to website infrastructure, are you hosting the MP on an in-house server?  If so, are you planning to move the site or server off-site with another company (such as Rackspace)?
Thanks for the update as well.  In my opinion, you shouldn't feel obligated to provide updates as we are only making pledges that aren't in hand, but it is appreciated all the same!  You have important priorities at home!