Some thoughts on early access, release dates, the big 1.0

Im no kid and know how to wait for a good thing, keep up the good work guys. Luv the game and all the hard work you have put into it

 

Ralfp, I'd watch my tone a bit if I were you. I don't think these people are lying. I think they've hit a rough patch. And I don't think Tiy is handling it well, but I also don't think that accusing them of dastardly evil is in any way productive.

However:

I feel kind of bad for laughing at this >.>

EDIT:
@Deathsdoll Get out of here, we're not being POSITIVE in this thread.

 

Early Access? My first experience with Starbound. Never again.
A very old saying ; "Finished is better than perfect!" (or something like that) You got the message. Since I can't ask for a refund due to small print, i will just shut my mouth and "hope" you will actually finish this.

 

I

I agree with you. I don't feel they lied but that they rushed. The "beta" which I refer to as alpha has undergone a lot of changes some worth it. This is not cube world. The game does work, but just not the way we were promised yet. I know I refer to this game as an alpha but I don't believe they lied to us. I do believe they rushed it out to make us happy and that I can take some blame in, but I would like a finished game. Right now this isn't on par with Terraria in graphics or game play. I expected more than I have received but I will wait for them to finish the alpha period and move along to beta and then a finished game.

 

Oh my...
This thread has been infected by me.
You guys have to realize this.
Will Chucklefish actually mark the current game as 1.0?
No!
Will Chuckkefish mark the current game as finished?
No!
((If they did things would get pretty screwy on these forums...))

 

Way too late, bro.

 

I don't have time to read threads filled with walls of text!

 

That saying doesn't really apply since they aren't holding back by adding nonsense, they are adding content.

A more relevant phrase would be from Shigeru Miyomoto "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"

 

On that note, here's my thoughts, AS A WALL OF TEXT!

As someone who pre-ordered the game as opposed to getting it on Early Access, I just wanted to say that, unlike some of the folk on here, don't feel cheated or swindled in any way. I've had a ton of fun with what's there (I haven't given the nightlies a try yet!) but would be safe to say that I'll probably be waiting for the next big update before diving back into the game and that's something that I am absolutely fine with. The games got huge potential and as such is going to take a lot of work to implement all the awesome stuff that's planned. OK so the release for the "finished" article got pushed back, it happens. Maybe some of the really negative people in the community need to quit being so entitled and try and see things from the devs point of view but this is the internet, that won't happen unfortunately. What I will say thanks to the devs for the transparency and keeping the community updated on what's going on, try not to let the negativity get you down and know that the game will be so, so awesome when it goes 1.0 (or whatever you guys want to call it) and beyond!

 

I didn't mean that. I meant that the forums -- especially News -- were screwy already.

 

You're right, I started my post pretty harsh and provocative. A little bit too much maybe

But I really feel that they're not being honest to the community. They create superb looking graphics and animations and pretend that it is the current state of the game. Also Chucklefish are not a newbie when it comes to project management / game development. Common, they developed Terraria, which is undoubtedly an awesome FINISHED game and on top of that: It is exactly the same genre as Starbound. You can't tell me they didn't know how far away they were from a release date all the time.

What makes almost angry is how they "bait" the community all the time by promises, animated images, a whole animated interactive "Starbound Progress" page which didn't change for almost a year now, the pre-sales with more promises, the "How the Beta is going to work" plans (which is a complete joke if you read it today), the "early access", etc.

Call it lying, naive or aggressive marketing. I don't like it.

BTW: I think Starbound will be a great game. But not this year.

 

@Ralfp They did not develop Terraria, that was Re-Logic. This is their first project AFAIK, so I don't blame them for a few missteps here and there.

I actually agree with that. I just think it'd be nice to know more or less when the next update to Stable is planned for. Next month? December? Next year? Never?

The thing that bugs me isn't the progress we've seen, which is super cool and very encouraging. In fact it looks like the game is getting to be more than we thought it'd be which is amazing. I just think that Tiy's post was very counter-productive when it came to addressing some actual valid concerns. I don't want to read too much into it, but it seemed somewhat bitter and passive-aggressive. I could be wrong. But if the objective was to address concerns about the development schedule, something more along the line of "hey, our schedule got moved along due to unforeseen circumstances, look forward to the next Stable release in X months" would be a lot more helpful than what came across as "you ungrateful bastards, we don't owe you anything."

I feel like the devs are facing a lot of vitriol, and maybe their game got way more attention than they thought it would, and they're just completely in over their heads. In which case they need to hire extra hands. Pretending like nothing's wrong and copping an attitude about it will solve nothing.

EDIT: and I don't want to hear about an "entitlement mentality." Paying customers are in fact entitled to what they paid for. I just wasn't planning on making an issue out of it, until Tiy's post raised some concerns.

 

Hmmm no. They are newbies in "project management / game development".

 

So are most of the people commenting in this thread, coincidentally. Good thing all of us can learn from the Early Access experience, and gain better understandings of what we liked, what we didn't like, and what we would do differently in the future!

 

I played 72 hours and I love Starbound.

Best thing for me its a "living" game. That means I can always be happy for future updates and my own ideas to play it a long time.

And its really cheap ! 50 Euros for a "Blockbuster" game ? And playtime 30 hours ? Never again..Indie Games ftw !

 

As soon as updates to Stable are on some kind (ANY kind) of schedule, and saved files are forwards-compatible, I'll be right there with ya.

 

@Ralfp

Ah yes that water demo was one of the deciding things that led to my preorder as I may have had a slight love of liquids in Terraria. Does the water system have those features implemented currently? I haven't checked out the game in months.

 

(there are over 350 comments and this thread has not been locked yet. I am shocked)

Anyway.

IMO the game is not ready for a 1.0. I think that once you have the questing system finished the game will be ready for 1.0. Because right now after you do your beginning quests there isn't much to strive for except the next tier of armor.

 

This big wall of text is finally translated, it took a lot of my time.

 

I enjoy playing Starbound (168 hours as of now) now and then - as long as there is still something new to be found ingame. Additionally to that I have been following the Dev News Blog with interest every day.

Until reading what Tiy(uri) posted on July 21st I was being patient and feeling happy about every bit of news about further developments. But this one news-post upsets me - it's like being hit between the eyes.

I understood that some players have voiced complaints:

* Starbound still does not feature all of the content that has been "promised" back in April 2013 when sales and "backing up" for Starbound have begun. Currently Starbound does not even deliver all of the "key-features" that are listed by Steam in the description of the game

* the "release-version" - usually meaning a version with all of the most basic and important features for the planned gameplay-experience - have been postponed (again) until 2015, which is felt as being a very long additional waiting-time

* the daily "nightlies" have not made the impression of being "thick and fast" updates

* other games have been released or are known to be works in progress by Chucklefish ever since the company has received the first million of dollars by lots of players who spent their money to specifically support further development of Starbound as it was / is "early access"

* watching the advancements up until now has raised suspicion that if this goes on Starbound will never reach the state of development that has been envisioned and declared back in 2013, not to speak of all the additional awesome ideas for the game that have piled up ever since

- which culminated in making at least one player wanting a refund of money

Telling us now that Starbound could leave "early access" and that it could be sold as a "1.0-version" right now, since it is up to the game's developers to decide what "1.0" even means, is a harsh and rude slap in the face of everyone who's in doubt right now.

It's like being asked by a seemingly nice guy to be his girlfriend. And when it seems that he is meeting other girls too, he would say: "Don't complain. The fact that so many girls have been with me for quite a long time and that they enjoyed our time together proves that this kind of relationship is fine enough to be called stable. And besides: since I was asking you out, it's up to me to decide what "girlfriend" even means.".

A bad comparison, true.

But aren't the players - and "payers" - of Starbound your partners in this project, Tiy and Chucklefish?

Who said something about "breaking down the lines between player and game designer"?

Fully playable or not - the "key-features" of Starbound listed on Steam are not ingame yet.

Also what about the features many players were hoping for when "backing" Starbound "up"; like pets, fossils, Novakids and naming NPCs? Hasn't a number of players paid 1000 dollars or more to you? Have you showed your gratitude to these biggest fans of yours at least?

Actually: by coldly rebuffing complaints so self-centered you're making even people like me feel bad and worried who have been longanimous and quiet up until now…

You have a large and devoted player-base beta-testing all the nightlies for you, and you should have received a big enough amount of money (at about 4 million dollars).

So what's preventing you from hiring more developers to at least fulfill the most important promises as soon as possible (before 2015)? And where's your problem with making those nightlies into "stable" (aka "only slightly bugged") patches every month? Why did you choose to postpone and to react defensively towards concerned players instead?

Are big troubles brewing up at Chucklefish perhaps?