Exposure: Good or Bad?

As a follower of several game development blogs and forums, how much exposure a game should receive during it's early and mid-development stage is an important part to the development of the game and how the developers react to the fame their game (or whatever it is at that point) are receiving. When they get lots of fame, well, the results are mixed.

Sometimes, the popularity helps motivate developers to work harder and get inspiration from others to put into the game. Other times, it can put developers under stress and sometimes attract unwanted attention.

I remember one game that I followed that was really promising, but the popularity caused them to have numerous problems in development, including problems with development costs (and the services they used to distribute pre-alpha versions of their game), rumors about connections with 4chan (still not sure about this), and the public getting angry at these rumors, at the inconsistent updates for the game, and at how the paying for the game worked. This led to many people taking refunds and gave the indie company a bad image, but they didn't give up.

I'm not saying that games in development shouldn't be let known to many people. Look at Minecraft and Terraria for instance. I'm just wondering what you guys think is good for Starbound.

 

I think Starbound should be kept at a moderate person level right now since it's not even in beta, but when it's released I think it would be good for it alot of people playing it. Of course you are going to see the occasional "RIPOFF" people but just ignore them when you do.

 

My view is similar to yours. If/when a beta is released, the fuse for the popularity explosion should be lit. As for now, lets keep it whispered among our friends and communities.

 

Whether we like it or not, Starbound is and already has gotten a lot of exposer because of Terraria. At this point, it's looking to be a good thing. I have faith in the team to deliver a great game, with popularity or not.

 

This is less about exposure and more about what the devs are trying to do. So devs who want to create something popular get easily swayed by hype and exposure. Devs who have an idea in their head and simply want to create it, generally dont.

 

I think exposure is a good thing, the more an audience gets excited over something. The more heart the devs put into it due to all the overwhelming support!

 

This game seems too amazingly perfect to be real. I want to keep it all to myself haha

 

Unless Notch is developing, we don't have to worry about lazy ass devs. And since its the Terraria devs that made like two huge content patches in a year, I think the development will be good.

 

The indie scene honestly thrives on exposure these days. Through Humble Bundles and YouTube videos, that's pretty much their entire advertising team. Starbound is unique because it already has a cult following of Terraria fans. More publicity doesn't hurt, and indie games usually advertise themselves without any work from the developers. That's just how they are.

 

I want to be able to say "I joined Starbound before it was cool!" So keep it quiet!

 

Keep it on the down-low for now. Youtube will do the advertising work when and if we get a beta. I know if I end up in it, I'll be uploading massive amounts of footage, given the OK from the devs of course.

 

I think that it should be a type of early bird catches the worm xD Because I hope that the veterans will get recognized before we get a flood of trollin' Noobs
~ Thank You
John Devince

 

From experience (former reviewer), games sell better when they get hyped 2-3 months before release. If you hype too early, the general masses tend to forget about the game by its launch date, and you're revealing a mostly unfinished product with many features subject to change. If you hype too late or not at all, the game will fall into the cracks and ultimately be an underrated cult classic. Sega pulled this stunt with the Sega Saturn. If you release a product that nobody has heard of, who will want to buy it?

If ChuckleFish is aiming for a summer release, they're going to want to start oiling up the PR machine anywhere from now to Soon™. But a lack of advertisement will kill this game in the water. At the very least though, Steam will handle some level of that. Even offering some level of pre-order incentive will help boost awareness (maybe some space hats in TF2. Everybody loves hats.)

Naturally, hype will bring users to the forums; and I do know how hard it can be moderating populated forums. But with new users comes new perspectives, and the devs might even find some new ideas buried somewhere in the avalanche of "can i has beta". The only real argument against hyping the game is that people are jealously guarding their chance of a beta invite against the unaware. Keeping this game a secret is only going to thin the herd and the profit. The more the merrier, I say!

 

It's hard to say, I'm so vastly excited for it, but at the same time I feel if people get TOO hyped for it, release might be a bit of a downfall, as too many people would expect too many things, idea's and speculation that might not be true, versus idea's that people pretended were true.

But in the same breath, a bigger following means a more engaged community and a much much more broad release across the board, painting a great many happy people, as well as far more input~

So it's hard to say really, it depends on how the exposure is handled.

 

I think they should wait until its close to release, since otherwise you'll get a bunch of people come in and get bored with waiting and leave.

 

Remember folks when Starbound comes out and more and more players start joining, We will have the right to be labeled the "Veteres" (Old ones) A race that has been around since the universe began and was setteled by the younger races.

 

The key to hyping a game is to not lie about it. *cough* Peter Molyneux *cough* . This also means that the developers need to take an official stance on the hype machine instead of the fanbase. This will ultimately help control the amount of rumors and speculation about features that may or may not be in the final product. People have to know what to expect without being misled or completely uninformed. So far, I have to applaud Tiy and crew for development transparency. It's uncommon for developers to be so open about the behind-the-scenes of what's in development. So long as they deliver on what they've promised, I don't foresee failed expectations to be a problem.

 

Except he told about features that never was in the games, these devs haven't said much and yet people are hyping like crazy.

But yeah, you're right. The fanbase is overhyping things. Like overhyping Penguins, have we actually had it confirmed that you can NAME penguins?
The devs should try to knock this whole hype thing down a notch before it gets out of hand. Then when that is done they should look into gaining exposure.

 

Oh absolutely, I think the biggest threat is more or less design decisions getting the chopping block, but even then I imagine the community will understand. So far the build up for the community and the exposure thus far has been expertly handled and I certainly don't doubt Chucklefish in the least, I just hope they can stay above the cliché company to community disconnect.

 

When the game will hit either Steam or Desura it will be a big hit, Im sure of it.