Future of SMPs with the Bored Chaps…
First, let’s get the main thing out of the way
I’m still working on bringing more producers on. If you’ve applied I’ll reach out soon- I promise…
Just over a month ago we released our first SMP since Big Hole to the world, and that was SkyGrid SMP. We put a tremendous amount of work putting it together and making it feel as professional and feature-rich as possible. And I believe we achieved that.
BUT from Day 1 we had snafus and difficulties with the concept and other functionalities. We set a total of 45 days for Season 1 as an experimental period and as we’re almost at the end of those 45 days it’s time to reflect.
It’s been my decision that SkyGrid will not be renewed after the end of this season.
After October 20th the SkyGrid server will be shutdown for the foreseeable future.
HOWEVER! between now and then we’re going to remove things like borderlimits and so on. Meaning that you all can make the most of the final weeks of SkyGrid.
It’s important to note that this was entirely MY decision and no one else on our production team deserves any flak for the choice to close down SkyGrid SMP and projects similar to it.
BUT that doesn’t mean no more multiplayer servers…
Despite the imminent closure of SkyGrid, that doesn’t mean the end. We’ve rebranded the @SkyGridSMP Twitter to now be @Bored_SMP and it now acts as a hub everything Bored Chaps multiplayer related.
We’ll be running more pop-up servers, viewer involved servers, modpack servers, event servers and so on. But nothing as “manufactured” as SkyGrid. A lot more laidback in a similar vein to Big Hole. We also hope to run big event servers like Pride Island. AND modpack servers inspired by the Yogscast.
These will be a lot easier for us to maintain compared to projects such as SkyGrid which acted more like “content farms” and thus had a lot of complexity.
Near the beginning of 2023 we hope to do a Big Hole anniversary server and event.
We hope to run a public Christmas Island in December similar to our previous Pride Island.
Some point soon we’ll run more 24/48 Hour pop-up servers.
Oldschool style Modpack servers.
and much much more…
Do you hate SMPs then?
Gosh, that’s a complicated question with a complicated answer. But in short- no, I don’t hate SMPs. The more complicated answer…
Well, it mostly comes out of fatigue. Around the same time we were launching SkyGrid SMP I had become incredibly fatigued with the whole SMP Content Farm shtick. A vast majority of Minecraft related streams were on SMPs and most of them were established to be a place to make content, rather than as a fun lil’ projects amongst friends.
This meant that shortly after we launched I was already tired of the concept of SMPs and as the main guy running things this created issues. It meant that I wasn’t there to make sure that the concept and server grew after that initial launch. I take full responsibility for that!
I still think SMPs are fun, and have a lot of potential. And we aren’t leaving them behind completely. But rather just recognising at what we do better and focusing on that instead. Laidback stuff such as Big Hole helped us grow to the point we’re at. So it’s projects with that kinda vibe that we’ll be focusing on for the time-being.
We may get involved in big creator SMPs in the future- maybe more in a producer/funding capacity, but for now- back to the things we do best!
The end of SkyGrid SMP doesn’t at all mean the end! And we’re going to be doing so many more fun servers.
So long, and thanks for all the fish! 🐠
“This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays”