History of online Dominion implementations

This page documents the history of online Dominion implementations.

An independent write-up of this history can be found here: Dominion Online History by Titandrake

Isotropic

See History of Isotropic

Speculation

Speculation about the eventual existence of an 'official' online version of Dominion began years ago, likely before the existence of the blog and forum. Unfortunately, for a very long time little was known beyond that. Individuals would try to piece together information from comments by Jay and Donald X. but nothing was known for sure. Speculation was wide ranging and rampant, and led to the creation of "rrenaud's Law", an observance of how much Dominion discussion inevitably descended into speculation about the eventual online version. Isotropic creator dougz was informally approached about taking the job of creating the official online version but he turned down the offer.

FunSockets and Beta Testing

Putting an end to some speculation, Jay Tummelson leaked some information in May 2012 about the official online Dominion platform in a BGG thread discussing the Origins Convention. He revealed that the name of the company working on the game was Funsockets, adding that there would be playable versions of the game on display at the convention. The first images of the game leaked during the convention, prompting further discussion. Though Jay reported that the platform was near its release point, there was no further word on that front for a few weeks.

In late May 2012, it was noted that there was a change on the FunSockets website. The site offered a form to sign up for further information when it became available and offered a contact address for questions. A week or two later rumors sprang up about BGG having access to some Beta test accounts. Dominion Strategy Forum members were immediately interested in taking part in the testing, prompting the creation of an unofficial list of interested individuals. Just days later, theory announced that Beta tester signups would occur on the blog, with preference being given to individuals who wrote articles for the blog followed by a mix of first come first serve and active Forum members.

Beta testing was slowly rolled out to the Dominion community starting in late June and continued through the eventual release in mid-August 2012. Beta testing was attractive to many Dominion fans as it allowed them the chance to be among the first to use the new Dominion platform. Later in the Beta testing cycle, interest was renewed when it was revealed that Dark Ages cards were available to the Beta testers.

Failed Release

The official online version was expected to finally launch to the public on August 16, 2012. This date was chosen to coincide with the release of Dark Ages at Gencon, and Goko's press release found its way to the front page of blogs and news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Kotaku, and Mashable. However, there were a host of issues at the time of release, including security issues, server load troubles, failure of the game to load, and inability to register.

Goko attempted to keep the site running but had difficulty doing so, working through the night and emailing users to apologize for the issues with their service. After realizing that they could not keep up with the maintenance of the site, they eventually decided to bring the release back into beta status. There are a number of blog posts/articles and forum threads related to the failed release and return to beta status.

Public Beta Status and New Release Date

On September 21, 2012, Goko quietly released their Dominion product in a public Beta. At this point, there are still a number of bugs, and updates are still coming regularly as the problems are solved. They are at a point where they are accepting money for the purchase of expansions, with the prices significantly reduced (from ~$6 to ~$4 per half set) from the previous release.

Goko had at this point not released a date for an official full release. The continuing uncertainty had led to forum members (prior to the beta release) making a guessing game of when the product will fully release.

Goko Interaction

Much to the dismay of many on these forums, there had been little information flow from Goko about their product, a problem which dates back to the first hints of an official implementation. Fortunately, the volume of interaction increased in 2013. There have been two separate completed Q&A sessions so far with a third upcoming, both exclusively catering to members of this forum.

• Q&A #1 - Submitted Questions, Video Response, Transcript

• Q&A #2 - Submitted Questions, Answers

• Q&A #3 - Thread Answers

At this point, Dominion Online is the only authorized place to play the game on the internet. Unofficial implementations such as Isotropic have been shut down.

Making Fun and Steam Greenlight

In 2014, Goko was quietly acquired by Making Fun, whose logo began to appear on the Dominion Online loading screen. They promised to completely overhaul the existing code for the game from the ground up, implementing many of the features added by the Salvager plugin. In February 2015, Dominion appeared on Steam Greenlight, in anticipation of release to Steam, as well as to mobile devices. It was expected to release in Spring or Summer 2015, but never ended up releasing on Steam.

Dominion was made available on both iTunes and Google Play on November 30, 2015.

An update adding the Adventures expansion was added on May 2, 2016.

Shuffle iT

See History of Dominion Online (ShuffleIt)

References

This article or section is a stub. Please help by expanding it