the current development state, thoughts and a poll

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Chucklefish, the company that is publishing Stardew Valley has enough money to publish 7 games before finishing their very own. They have plenty of money.

 

I'm afraid you seem to have the wrong impression about the relationship between Chucklefish the devs of those games. Chucklefish is not publishing Stardew Valley (or any of the other games not directly developed by Chucklefish themselves) in the traditional sense, where a publisher provides funding for development. They are not providing any monetary support whatsoever. Their role consists of providing a home for Stardew Valley (here) and promoting news about the game whenever there is any. CA and the other devs are still indie devs in all other particulars - they must self fund their own development costs completely.

I think you also have the wrong impression about just how much money Chucklefish have. While they have done well from pre-orders, and are in an enviably comfortable situation as far as indie developers go, they still have only a fraction of the money that even a fairly small traditionally-funded-developer would budget for. As for publishing, a traditional publisher would consider itself broke if it had Chucklefish's bottom line.

 

If they needed beta testers, they could afford them.

And it doesn't matter, we aren't needed. Other developers may like to tell us that we are truly important, but in reality we aren't as important as we're led to believe. Early Access has become such a craze as of late because it's profitable. Being able to play a game and truly help the creation of what was once a mere fantasy in our younger years. Now it's become a reality, and it's not what it used to be. Beta is hardly beta anymore, it's "incomplete".

There is no reason for there to be an Early Access for this type game, especially not a game like this, where a large amount of time is required to be put into. This isn't an Action game or an RPG, or a survival game, or anything like that. If this game goes into Early Access, I'm leaving it behind, and whenever someone else asks for a "Harvest Moon" style of game, I'd just point them to Rune Factory, which also happens to be on a hand-held, which is significantly better to play this style of game on due to how relaxing it can be, which this game is not on. The most Stardew Valley is going to have is mod-support, and even then it's hardly going to have much when you really look at the (sadly) small fanbase this game has.

 

... why would he need a public beta test, or hired beta testers?

Chucklefish is his publisher. Chucklefish can test his game for him without risking it getting loose in the wild. That's one of the major benefits of having a publisher.

 

Again, I think you have the wrong idea of what Chucklefish is. Chucklefish is... what? 6 people? Something like that, anyway, most of them involved in their own development of Starbound. They don't have their own department devoted to beta testing the way a traditional publisher might. Any beta testing, as with any funding, is a matter for CA to sort out. Chucklefish may give him advice, but I very much doubt they would provide anything more than that.

I honestly don't have any opinion one way or another as to whether CA should/should not approach outsiders for beta testing. I'd imagine that CA is in the best position to determine how he wants to deal with any testing which might be required, and I trust that he will do whatever is right for the game.

 

Wrong. www.chucklefish.org Enter the house and check the portraits. Keep in mind there are a few devs/contributors missing from that wall. Also, Tiy has steamed himself testing SV with some commentary from other devs and ConcernedApe. I tried to find the streams but was unsuccessful.. sorry.


>Edit<
Found them!
www.twitch.tv/tiyuri/b/399848607
www.twitch.tv/tiyuri/b/399838803

(Keep in mind these streams are quite old. Lots has changed since then. (According to Dev Blog updates..))

 

Honestly for how great of a game i believe this game could be the fan base is too small and with any version out it could grow. Which wouldn't be a bad thing. I mean look at small the poll is right now (it might be bigger than 24:12 when you read it) but i believe the game will be amazing and deserves a bigger fan base

 

My apologies. I failed to conduct a census to determine exactly how many people are directly employed by Chucklefish in some capacity. /sarc

My point (which relied on a rough estimate of CF numbers, hence why I didn't bother counting them) remains valid. They are a small company, mostly consisting of devs who are working on their own game(s), and don't have a huge contingent of publicity/marketing/legal/whatever that characterises most publishers.

Is that meant to refute my statement that CF won't do beta (note the emphasis) testing for SV? Those streams are by no means a beta test, and seem to be more in the role of CF marketing SV, which is one of their roles. CF simply don't have the numbers themselves to do a meaningful beta test of anyone's game, including their own, which is a part of the reason for the early access release of Starbound (yes, I know that's not the only reason.)

 

Settle down. I'm not here to argue with anyone. I just wanted to shed a little light on what I considered to be false information. You were speculating. I was providing facts.


>Edit<
Removed inflammatory content.

 

I would have been perfectly fine with you clarifying things if you had chosen your language with a bit more care. E.g. "There are actually a few more than 6, check (this link) which will provide a more accurate count, though it is missing some people. But I get your point that it is a small company" and "It's not beta testing, but CF will do some testing - see (these streams)" would have been far less confronting. The flat "Wrong." at the start of the post without indicating that there might have been some validity to my post was what got my back up. If that was not your intention, then please accept my apologies for the tone. (Although I stand by everything that I said.)

 

Personally, I would like him to release it as a future DLC or in an update, of course, I wouldn't mind waiting if it was to be implemented but the fact that he was already considering removing it shows that it may not be going as smoothly or it isn't turning out how he'd like.
Either way, I don't mind waiting for the latter.

Also~ relax guys! No need to argue and all that, go listen to the soundtracks and cool down. c:

 

Say that to all the developers in the past, such as Nintendo. We don't need to beta test anything.

 

I'll talking about 5-7 years ago...

I also said WE, as in us, not the developers, don't have to beta test their product, their artist vision.

Besides, open-beta testing of a game with RPG elements is a terrible idea.

 

In short, there is no need for us, the community, to play test their game, especially when they are more than capable of doing it themselves and/or get other private individuals to do it, and the fact that because this game has RPG elements, notable characters, story, etc, which would spoil/ruin almost the entirety or heavy amounts of the experience before the final release. Stories and story telling are parts of artist media, and them being spoiled before them being complete would hurt the initial first impressions, which is very important in story telling.

 

It looks so nice and I am looking forward to play it, but rushing it may not be a wise choice - so I'll waiting until it is done

Is there any way to support it right now besides showing up here from time to time?

 

i asked before and got a firm 'no'
CA wants to go solo on this lol so sit tight

 

I do kinda wish he'd give us like a little demo or something just so we have something to do. like just the farm and maybe a seed store. Oh well. Got to go find something to keep me busy for the time being.

 

Working on a demo would take time away from the development, and it would be a demo he'd have to redo when the game was finished for compatability issues.

 

i vote for pre-purchase beta game access with bug-report focus and gameplay adjustment
hooray

 

Please no pre-release!
A game like this is only good if it feels like real life.