Game Development: Death

[MagicManICT]

over here in the haven lands ANY mistake made in an update will result in a gigantic shitstorm being made by everyone.

No truer words have been spoken on this subject, sir. Bravo for telling him how it is! (If anyone sees a troll in my statement, then maybe you should check the mental mirror a bit more often.)

[Enrymion]

>There are 80 hearthlings playing.

Well jorb. Lets admit. You fucked up with game. Again.

What? I don't see how a reasonable player count somehow means fucked up game.

[Grable]

What? I don't see how a reasonable player count somehow means fucked up game.

I'm sorry but 80 is a bad player count even for a niche game like this. In reality it's not even 80 (bots, alts etc). I'd guess 40-50 actual players. I'm not saying they fucked up the game that much, but there's still a lot of open issues to be solved and a lot of simple 'fun' missing from the game.

[lachlaan]

People seem to forget this is still in .. well, technically alpha. Had they released with complete gameplay, with no testing, no balancing, no nothing, people would've whined that they were left out of the loop. As if is you get to shape the game that you will get to play IN THE FUTURE. Right now you're just backing a weird kickstarter that needs constant funding and that is not quite a complete game yet, so don't complain that it's not yet there and instead constructively suggest how it can get there.

[venatorvenator]

The real numbers are higher due to timezones and quick logins on free accounts. It wouldn't surprise me if the actual count is around 500.

People seem to forget this is still in .. well, technically alpha. Had they released with complete gameplay, with no testing, no balancing, no nothing, people would've whined that they were left out of the loop. As if is you get to shape the game that you will get to play IN THE FUTURE. Right now you're just backing a weird kickstarter that needs constant funding and that is not quite a complete game yet, so don't complain that it's not yet there and instead constructively suggest how it can get there.

I don't think it's a problem with the game. It's just that without promotion the playerbase can't recover from the natural player count drop because no new users are coming. Survivalcraft, for example, is in a much earlier state than Haven and it has already sold 60k units. It's kinda sad to see crappier games get all the players while Haven remains as it is.

[LadyGoo]

People seem to forget this is still in .. well, technically alpha.

Priced like the best game ever made.

Well, in addition, hopefully you realize that 50% of the content is produced by actual players. Cities, politics, wards, social stuff and etc. The price politics and a few questionable updates have driven that content away. As one of my friends told me, "there is no reason to play because there are not enough people playing in such gigantic world. Nothing ever happens".
Imho, once the fundamental mechanics will be finished, J&Lo should consider joining the evil side and using Steam/work on advertisement/price reductions.

As an active trader I can tell, that if they would have higher number of people, more people would be buying tokens for in-game trades and improve their income levels. Newly joined players will look for quick ways to get basics. So they'll buy tokens from J&Lo and re-sell them to other players. That is a common practice. The problem is that there is no fresh blood as well.

[lachlaan]

I do agree population could be better, and even jorb agreed that the map size seems excessive. But having admitted that I can't believe the right solution to be any of the following:

a) drawing new players to an incomplete game before mechanics can be balanced and made circular and self-sustaining in nature. I want haven to be a game that won't so much have an endgame but will rather be like Tetris, in that the content doesn't change but you could perhaps always have a match or two. It needs proper replayability. After it gets it, bring in the masses for sure, and they'll never complain for content if the gameplay is acceptable in quality.

b) restarting the map every time the game gets boring. Make it smaller, wait a month, siege changes no longer warrant a small map, people whine again, re-roll map. New mapgen gets coded, new world. Resets would frustrate a big part of the population, and Imo would be detrimental before more major mechanics gets added to be tested on this world before it gets wiped.

c) going full free to play. If they starve and start feeling underappreciated due to lack of donations and constant shitstorming on forums they will put less effort into it and ultimately we still get a shit game.


At this point they could tweak costs to match the quality of the alpha and the amount of grueling boring stuff we need to go through to test their latest content. Perhaps days of gametime as reward for bug reports. Perhaps arbitrary game time rewards for best theorycrafting feedback and design feedback.

I'd personally prefer that they ignore the doomsayers, even if I myself an also bored and annoyed by the lack of players. That way we might get an actual game, and not a big ball of band-aids and knee-jerk reactions.

[jorb]

Priced like the best game ever made.

You mean largely free to play?

[shubla]

Priced like the best game ever made.

You mean largely free to play?

HnH is not free to play in reality.
To do anything other than small hermitage in game. 1 hour / day is not enough.
"free account" is more like "trial account"

[Redlaw]

Why do many face book games keep lets say 4k people playing all the time, with new people coming in and paying? yes they are basically free but if you want to speed your game up/get some of the special bells and and things, you pay them. Some times a lot, just for something that is a small advantage to a large one.

Why have they not over all gone away since it seems so much like a bad idea? People do pay for those small advantages, the in this moment if you want to speed up you can buy x power up works... it be like if jorb and lofter started selling flint and steel in the shop and other convenience items, that make game play that much more easier for those that want to get ahead.