The Impact of the UK Move on Development

For the uninitiated (like myself), how is the UK move supposed to impact development in a positive way? We've heard the intangibles like that it will increase efficiency and what not but is there going to be an actual impact on game development? I fail to see the rationale behind moving a team in the middle of a large project like the development of SB. It seems like that would be just another way to make development more inefficient.

 

For one just making sure the majority of the core developers are working in the same TIMEZONE and same office is immensely positive for development.

Imagine like say one coder is in GMT 0 while the artists who is working on the necessary art for said new feature works in GMT +8 or more. Getting those two to synchronize so that they don't stall is a pain to say the least. Wheras if they are in the same workspace they can each continue as soon as the other is finished. It's simple logic really >_>

 

It's like buying solar panels. It's a big damn annoying investment, but eventually after enough time you can dig yourself out of the hole you jumped in and eventually climb up higher than where you started.

 

Well at this stage in the development of renewable energy sources, the use of solar panels is highly inefficient... But we aren't here to discuss solar power, are we?

The timing is awful, though. In the middle of development on a large project, one that is severely behind schedule, they decide to move shop? It's probably the worst time to make such a huge move. I see your point, but it doesn't seem like the two+ groups being in the same timezone would offset the potential difficulties of such a large operation.

 

from elsewhere

"Starbound gets hate, not because the average person is witnessing it as it's being developed, but because they've bought the game and are watching itnotbe developed. Instead, they're watching development make excuse after excuse, claiming they're too stressed, they need vacations, or nothing can move forward for several months because people are moving, or that people wanted big updates and not small ones to small updates and not big ones so the end result is no updates at all, they had a few key people making assurances (which could loosely be translated to "promises") they couldn't fulfill, and then began sealing themselves up entirely.

That'swhy Starbound gets hate. If they had demonstrated they're committed to working hard and delivering, maybe sending a nice update of actual substance from time to time, most of us (myself included) would have gave them the benefit of the doubt. Thus far they've put more effort into telling us why theycan'twork, rather thandowork, and many of us are now saying, "So what excuse is it now?"

 

Yay another opinion saying we in it to make it sound like they speak for everyone.

 

the word "we" does not necessarily mean everyone, and if you think it does, I recommend getting a dictionary. He says 'we' because there is a group of several people that share his view. Thats what 'we' means.

 

So he just has multiple personalities ok.

 

He could be royalty.

 

Maybe, just maybe, I dunno, he knows other human beings, he engaged in conversation with those human beings, and after the conversation, came to the conclusion that those human beings shared his opinion?

Surely you must have seen other human being out and about, like on the street, the train station, or post office? You might even have a few as... friends *gasp*!

 

Well maybe just maybe he has multiple alters

 

A short sweep on these forums will make it apparent to you that there are multiple people dissatisfied with the development of starbound. Thats what he was referring to. If you want to believe that he has multiple personalities instead, go for it.

some people know how to read.

 

No no, that is impossiblar! There can only be 2 groups of people, the people that support and love the Starbound team and the haters. Impossible for there to be real genuine people with actual opinions that actually want to see the game succeed but are getting frustrated and seeing major flaws with how things are being addressed and handled.

 

Nope only two very dumb political parties. Humans having varying non black or white opinions is not possible.

 

I really like your whiteknighting way to deal with criticism. It's really almost impossible to fight against it.
1. Multiply similar negative responses from different ppl - "stop flooding thread with your negative spam, we get you after first post, posting same things from different ppl is excessive."
2. Someone presenting popular negative POV - "FFS, you have no right to speak for someone, but yourself! Bring more proof your POV is widespread!"

 

Hey stop whit knighting please

 

I think you should read this. And don't you dare go TL; DR on me. The starbound stuff starts after a few paragraphs http://worldofsven.com/blog/games/london-my-new-home/

 

They'll be near each other...
Sorta hard to fail to see the rationale behind that

 

That in today's technological world that doesn't really change anything from say.... being 3000 miles away. The only difference is now they'll be able to waste time moving from desk to desk with the normal day to day small talk. Working in person can be even worse for production. Seems like a strange idea but you'd be surprised by how much time is wasted literally sitting next to people talking and discussing things more than you should be.

 

It's not moving to London that confuses me; plenty of studios and firms will move shop between projects to bring staff closer together.
The keyword, though, is between projects. Moving in the middle of a large project is by no means a sound idea for a number of reasons, namely that it's yet another large distraction to be added to the pile.

Regardless of the validity of the word 'they', their opinion is still valid and represents a large part of the discussion - and disappointment - regarding the development of this project.

Edit:

The main points I got from this blog post:
-The move was arduous and inconvenient
-There was a question as to whether the move would affect team chemistry (apparently it did not)
-Because of the move, several items/services which are pretty much necessary for development of a game (internet/PC being perhaps the most important tools used to create a game) are not available to Sven, and, presumably, his team
-Feedback times will be several hours shorter
-The move could be temporary
Most of these things worry me, and the thing about the feedback doesn't assuage my concerns. In reality, the feedback issue should have been a minor issue. If it was serious enough to warrant a move, perhaps the issue wasn't feedback times and was instead motivation among staff, something that has been well-documented over the past couple of weeks.
This isn't a condemnation of the Chucklefish staff but instead an observation on what seems to be a very serious issue in the firm.