Game Development: Milling Time

[ricky]

I don't need a weekly content update, but I do want at least a weekly "in the pipe" post.

What if what is in pipe is same for 2-3 week in row? Still want posting to say it?

Yep, a confirmation of work unchanged is still a confirmation in my eyes.

[FictionRyu]

I can see rickys view.

[Redlaw]

and so far since people wear asking a little, they gave a post saying not this week, which ya its all good.

[FictionRyu]

Then again, I can see the antsy-ness from people for at least today..Jorb did say that they're "aiming" for this week. However, that's not a confirmation that it -will- happen this week, just that they're aiming for it. Could miss it on the board, but I'm sure whatever they have going on, it's something that everyone can enjoy.

[MagicManICT]

I can see rickys view.

So can I, but there's this small virtue called "patience." If jorbtar have had to quit work on the game for a period of time, they have let us know. If things come up, they let us know. I love when developers can talk about their games coming out, but all it is is hype generation. So often that hype turns into crap. Not all developers can or are willing to hype their games like this for a lot of reasons. I say accept who our overlords are and be glad we have what we have.

[spawningmink]

just noticed in the main picture there was ducks xd xd xd

[ricky]

I can see rickys view.

So can I, but there's this small virtue called "patience." If jorbtar have had to quit work on the game for a period of time, they have let us know. If things come up, they let us know. I love when developers can talk about their games coming out, but all it is is hype generation. So often that hype turns into crap. Not all developers can or are willing to hype their games like this for a lot of reasons. I say accept who our overlords are and be glad we have what we have.

Unecessarily hyping up the game is vastly different than leaving us in the dark. I do understand time spent on forum is time not spent on game. All I ask for is at least some additional info during their (almost) weekly check-ins. The most revealing piece of information given to us that didnt deal with pushout mechanics in the past month was a picture of ducks.

[MagicManICT]

I'm not even talking about over-hyping a la Molyneux, who was famous for doing it with the Black & White and Fable games (and was still at it his last title or two iirc). I'm merely talking about so many of the devs that talk about what they're working on, and to them, it seems to work right, but something is missing or it just doesn't get received by the players when released. How many times has "new combat system" come up here to a bunch of hype and then we're all just let down again because of "it's not (fill in the blank)?"

[ricky]

Again, how well received the update is depends on the player, not the developer. I don't feel it's justified leaving the player base in the dark for (in haven's case, probably a week) any extended amount of time.

To use a time honored example, let's look at tarn Adams at dwarf fortress: game patches are often every 6-8 months, with monthly bug fixes in between content releases. He does, however, take time to hold a monthly future of the fortress and write 2-3 paragraphs updates on their main website every week or so. Of course, this 6 month update schedule is vastly different than haven's update every 1-2 weeks. However, you won't see people theorizing when the next update will be or praying for an update.

And, I'll venture to say that dwarf fortress and haven aren't that dissimilar. Yes, the games themselves are different, but key details remain the same for both: two person development team, free with donation/subscription model of monetization, steady alpha development for 5+ years, player made client mods, and both games have a high learning curve. You could attribute DF's success to its game type(single player vs mmo), and that certainly must be taken into consideration, and yet certainly something must be handled differently by the DF development team that factors into its success beyond gameplay.

This rant/opinion went on a little bit longer than I intended, but that's okay

[Granger]

The guys who make Factorio do it right (imho) with their Friday Facts: http://factorio.com