Previous release date delays

Whoa! This looks really interesting, and will probably hold me over until beta. Thanks.

 

This post is partially true. A delayed game is not guaranteed to be good. Without due dates you fail to pressure development and it can take a long time (and therefore be expensive) to develop something which turns out mediocre, and then everybody loses. There has to be a balance between pressure to get work done with enough flexibility to get it done correctly and polished. Art and Enterprise, if you will.

That isn't to say I don't support a delay or two if it is necessary. Since you've decided to proceed with pre-orders, you do have obligations to your fans/customers to both produce a finished product and also set reasonable deadlines (internally or otherwise). Currently you are fulfilling this obligation to me as a buyer with frequent updates on your progress, so I am content to cheer you on and hope development goes smoothly.

 

Yeah it's a bit tough to find a nice middle ground. Delaying the game can be good for a longer time to iron out the bugs and glitches, but delay to long and people will lose interest because other things have come out that they have now set their sights on or they just don't care anymore.

 

I think I'd explode. With laughter. Troll of the year award right there if it happens.

 

They are trying everything in their power to have it released before 2014, but if they feel it isn't ready, then they will wait un-till they feel it is. The devs will know when the beta is "officially" ready for release, so let them make that decision on their own, and we need to respect their decisions.

 

They did invest in new resources. That money helped several team members work full time on the game, and they even hired a couple extra on. It's allowed them to travel a bit and actually coordinate in person, and has undoubtedly purchased them some of the tools and infrastructure they need to work more efficiently.
As Molly said, there isn't some magical machine that they can insert money into that then spits out completed bits of game. At some point throwing more money at the team just doesn't increase the speed any more. There's an excellent quote pertaining to this, but I am unable to find it. Perhaps someone else remembers it?

 

This, this machine that you and Molly mentioned should be an Easter Egg.

 

Looks like 50 pages later no progress has been made in Fanboyz vs Haterz argument that has carried over from this thread to here. I can't say I am surprised. I'm not even gonna bother to read all the bickering. I'll just say that If I were this game's dev I might think twice about talking to my community so openly again. I love it when devs show transparency like Tiy did this morning and actually talk to us without a PR rep. but I understand the urge not to when this is the thanks they get.

 

I agree that there isn't a machine that spits out magical game bits, but there was the promise that 'pre-ordering' (quotations because you aren't actually pre-ordering the game, you're paying for development, which means developmental funding/investment) was going to speed up development significantly. 2 million later and the game is still 3 deadlines behind. Either way, $15 is $15 and if the game never shows up and I lose it, then it's no huge loss. Would I be pissed? Yes, but if $15 is all I lose in my life I should be a happy man.

 

Actually there is. Game publishers who manage large ips do this all the time. They pay the people they NEED to get a product out on time. If that is coders? Coders are brought in. Artists? Then they hire artists.

The problem is, Chucklefish "hired" on everyone mostly already working for them. They still only have three dedicated coders. They should have hired more if they wanted to speed up development, not the strange imbalance of sprite artists and the like they have at present compared to people actually writing the game source.

It is well and good they traveled, met, got to shake each others hand and all. Yet it did little to actually advance the game being made in the long run. Management of resources is an important part of making a game.. and that includes spending money wisely.

Considering full release has been pushed back, it seems clear with so much more received then they ever expected that they can't do so.

 

Here's the thing: when I hear the term "delay" I think of a game that is developed once, maybe with a patch or two to correct bugs not found during beta testing, in a relatively closed production model, like most high budget games, or cartridge/disc games being released for console. However, if your game is "PC-centric" and your intention is to continue development well after the initial release, then there is no harm in releasing an early version as long as it is relatively playable; this will help get the word of your game out, as well as highlight most of the bugs before the official release. Minecraft is a perfect example of this; I had that game in the late alpha stages when is was nothing more than limited creative mode & despite an official release it is still in full development as we speak - in this case a game would not be "forever bad" even if the initial release is rushed - because development is ongoing and dynamic.

I know Starbound is playable in it's current state, I've seen game play videos. Is it perfect? No, but I know development will continue until it is. So please, release it as early as possible, and continue to refine it as time goes on. Personally I'd like to tag along for the ride as we see new iterations of development; and if you have to rewrite some game-breaking part of the code that ruins everyone's current savegame, so be it. Minecraft has done that many times in the past and yet it is still widely popular and, in my opinion, one of the best games ever released. Terraria: same deal. Why not follow in the footsteps of your (very successful) predecessors? What do you have to lose?

That being said, I'll respect your decision either way; you have much more invested in the decision than I do, so I know you take it seriously. Everything I've seen so far let's me know that this game is going to be great, and great things are often worth waiting for.

 

My only concern is; "will this crappy laptop of mine run it" the rest is details

 

Partially agreed hahaha. When I look upon other sandbox games (Which aren't as hot as this one looks) and see 700+ hours, I can only assume the amount of hours this game will get me... I think every nickel I spent will be equal to one hour...

 

I work for a big publisher on a large ip, and I can tell you with certainty that things are not always handled in the way you have proposed. It's possible some publishers are able to do that, but hiring people - even temps - takes a lot of time, and only marginally speeds things up. And they cost a lot of extra money.
We've run into issues where we needed to finish an expansion faster and hired code apprentices before, but they usually take several months to become familiar enough with our code to get much done. Every time that has happened, we've had to cut features because the apprentices were not able to speed things up in a reasonable amount of time. Sometimes we send out to other companies to create art for us, which helps, but we still need a full team of artists to review and polish everything that comes back in. Often this takes just as long as if the artists had created the models and textures from scratch.
So, while throwing extra money at a project can help in the long term, on a short scale there's a limit to how much it will improve things. And 2m is a very small amount of money in terms of personnel. If each of the CF members have taken a meager 50k salary for two years, that's already half the money gone to current salaries. Expect at least half of what's left to go into tools, advertising, and travel expenses, and you're left with 250k. You might hire on 1 or 2 extra coders for a year at that price. But that might not actually speed up development at all at this stage, and it would drain your backup funds, which is dangerous for any company.

 

This is the best daily update I've read yet.

I'm in no rush, take all the time you need the make the game how you always dreamed it.

More than that though, is your distinction between indie and AAA games.

For a while my opinion was that the differences between indie and AAA games were largely centered on the points you stated, but having someone with actual experience lay down their view and it matching practically word for word made me feel happy.

And I have to say, you were right. Indie games aren't like other games. Indie games come from the heart, and that's why I love them.
I know you would never let deadlines ruin Starbound, and that's why Chucklefish is my favorite.

 

I'll give my opinion here.
The opinion of a part-time gamer who only play games that have that "wow, that's a nice new concept" feel.

As someone with marketing experience, I think releasing a Beta too soon can be dangerous. I've got 2 concrete examples, based on my experience:

1. Minecraft
Minecraft launched its Beta pretty fast. And yes, it was playable, and updates were done almost everyday.
But the game felt 'empty' for quite a while (not many materials, not many monsters, few biomes, etc.).
I played that game for maybe 2-3 months and wondered: "that's it? I feel like there's not much more to it."
I payed 15euros for the Beta at that time, which was cheap for such an original game. But I stopped playing for the reasons mentionned above. 7-8 months later, I logged in once just to see what had changed: There were much more features: biomes, more materials, underground procedural mines, etc. But I had already moved on to other games and never played again. My hype had been killed during the Beta.

2. Prison architect
Prison Architect is in Alpha stage, I understand that.
I played it for a few hours at a friend's.
While I liked the concept, the game was really broken. It was difficult to understand how to properly build rooms (and foundations) and use the powergrid without having shortcuts (which should not be a main concern in a prison management game -- This is not an Electrician Simulator). Anyways, my hype died too. I mean, I'm not sure anymore how this game can be exciting, even in a polished state.

So, it all comes down to Starbound. A game inspired by Terraria (which I found a bit annoying - I only played a long time ago, I think they added a lot of stuff to the game) but way more complex and visually attractive.
The hype for Starbound is obviously huge because of its originality and its complexity.

If the devs had released the game 3-4 months ago, even in a perfectly playable stage, the hype would have died slowly. A few months ago, there wouldn't be any NPC villages, no race-specific item descriptions/dialogues, no dungeons, etc. The game would have been fun, but would have an Extra-light Vanilla taste. They're adding chocolate chips right now, and realized that it would be a good idea to add triple fudge to it, as long as cookie dough and walnuts and chocolate syrup and ... well, you get the point.

So, be patient. They don't want to only make a good game anyways. They want to make history. Indie Game History. And you'll all be witnesses.

 

No, this is a terrible idea. Unless they're being deliberately insulting, flaming, posting porn or generally breaking rules, they shouldn't get a ban. Persistent negativity is no more banworthy than persistent positivity. You start banning people because they're pessimists and you almost immediately turn the forums into something reminiscent of a police state.

I do not agree that this is even remotely a polite response, and while the loud minority is a minority, it would still roughly make up at least 20% or so of the community. This would be the worst, possible, way to deal with it, and would just lead to Chucklefish being painted as a company that can't handle criticism, such as the devs of Garry's Incident or w/e tf its called.

 

It's probably already been said. Reason I'd rather wait some more? Diablo 3.

 

If I may suggest, Path of Exile is just as good if not better.

 

one thousand and fifty seven fucking posts christ