Sven on Starbound Progress

Posted on Reddit a few hours ago, figure with the downtime folks here may not have seen it yet. Always nice to hear good news!

http://worldofsven.com/blog/games/starbound-the-teams-still-working-hard/

Here's the content in case you can (amazingly) get here but not to worldofsven.com :

By now I’m sure it’s apparent that any speculation for a Q1 2013 release has proven to be overly-optimistic given the ambitious scope of a project like Starbound, but everybody on board is still hard at work and we’re on the cusp of hitting a major internal milestone which we couldn’t be more excited by! Right now the main goal is polishing up all the the core gameplay mechanics that elevate Starbound from being just a sandbox into something with an overarching goal and compelling rewards for our players. Our coders are hard at work on making this a reality and they have been consistently churning out some absolutely phenomenal stuff as of late, with only greater things to come!

Our artists on the other hand have been working on a lot of different bits and pieces ranging from dungeon elements to the user interface, but particular focus has been placed on producing some awesome-looking gear for players to look forward to creating and discovering as they explore the many worlds that populate the galaxy. The image up top is only a very small sample of early game gear and showcases quite neatly just how much customization we already have across the board. When you factor in that most of these armor pieces will come with handy mods and augmentations that will bolster your survivability and/or mobility, the capacity to play the game your way only increases!

I personally am still squeezing in work wherever I can. My focus has returned to the sound recently, as feedback from internal testers is that our weapons could use more variety sound-wise, so I’m doing my best to flesh things out with more sounds for them to choose from. I have also begun to add more creature sound sets, so ideally there should be some really good variety there as time goes on. I’m doing the best I can and hopefully if I’ve done my job right by the time the game is out, you won’t even notice it.

While I’m at it, I’d also like to give a shout out to Curtis Schweitzer who has continued to dazzle us on the team with his stirring musical compositions for Starbound, much of which you can listen to freely on the website!
We appreciate the excitement and patience a lot of you have shown while waiting for our game, and believe me when I say we’re just as eager to get Starbound into the hands of the players as soon as possible, but it’s important to us not to deliver a half-baked product. Whilst continued support after the first year is firmly in mind, we want there to be enough stuff in the game at launch to keep you guys playing for a very long time, without relying on post-release content. I hope you guys can understand and bear with us a bit longer, good things are coming!

 

Woo progress reports! \o/

 

Thanks for sharing this, TFGoose.

Here's the image Sven mentions:



Keep on Starboundin', developers. Best of luck!

 

Sounds about right. Keep up the great work guys!

 

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

 

Probably means the game is going to be a polished diamond on release! Also means they are running late, but it will all work out.

 

No, duh.

I mean, what are they saying about the current progress?
Are they saying that it got pushed back even farther since the update last week? Are they just apologizing for the length of time it has taken?
Are they trying to calm down the rabid release date people? Do they just feel like posting stuff?

What does it mean?
What is the point of this announcement?

 

Ahh, yes, thanks for that addition Keeper!

 

Because we are all have our own high targeted PR firms with consistent messaging? Maybe he just felt like writing this up, and the main site was down at the time.

You're overthinking it.

 

Cool armor sets!
...and funny masks!

I like how the armor at the top looks like Space Marine power armor.
Now I kinda wanna use that armor + a cape + a horned helmet just to look like a Chaos Lord.

 

behold...the star rangers unite!

but in other news, it's nice to have a new announcement

 

Well, it's more of a blog than an official announcement, but then again anything that comes from the mouths of those involved in the project is kinda treated like an announcement regardless.... So I see your point.

I kinda thought this was probably in reference to the same "excited about progress" tweet that we saw from Tiy recently. It sounds like they got a couple of pretty sweet things in there, but I doubt we'll hear much about them before the next newsletter.

That said, now I'm really looking forward to that.

 

Ahhh teasers. Not sure wether I hate it or love it.

 

*explodes*

This is awesome.

 

It's nice to hear an official confirmation for the delay I had suspected (and to be honest, feared) a month ago.
At least they're being honest with us, unlike a few other game companies I could mention as of late..

 

well
i knew deep down starbound would be released december 31st 2013

 

It means he's basically eliminating the possibility of a 2013 Q1 release.

Why does it seem Starbound is always 3-4 months away?



I hope this is the last "delay".

 

For what it's worth, I see nothing in his post that makes me want to re-evaluate my perceived progress for Starbound in any negative way. I think this was just one person saying the same thing that others have been saying or thinking, just doing it in a slightly more direct way. I doubt it's meant to be viewed as information we are to absorb in addition to stuff we've already been told.

This is more of a "hey guys, so obviously the game isn't out yet, but as others have been saying stuff is really coming along nicely lately, and here's some non-descript thoughts about that." I don't think we should take it as any indication of further delay. If anything, info from Tiy and other devs as of late have me thinking that things are on track for release far sooner than the last day of the year.

Time will tell of course.

 

It's sad to hear about delay

Buuuut - it's great that they are making progress and adding so much stuff (personally I love little things like that!).

Can't wait!

 

I like to read this post starting at a calm inquiry which eventually culminates in a frenzied panic.