What if Starbound is a failure?

Yes but unless that guy was the one person on the forums watching at that time... its just unlikely. Loads of people on these forums watch Bartwe whenever he streams. Then tell the rest of us afterwards that he was streaming and we missed it... if he said that, then it would have been picked up on.

 

Oh those conspirational theories never get old

 

No conspiracy theory here.. just pointing out that one guy said that one of the devs said dec was a likely beta release date, wont provide any source and, the happy little camper that I am, is just trying to point out how unlikely it would be for one person to pick up on something a dev said that everyone else missed...

 

I think this tells us pretty clearly that they are entering the final stages of development. I am very confident that the game with be coming out in a short time from now, and all the talk of a next year release is unfounded. I also highly doubt that Bartwe said that a release this year is unlikely, simply because as many mentioned before, 100's view his streams and there is no mention of a gaff life that.

 

Even if the game turns out to be terrible, it's still a commercial success. Those are my brief two-cents.
At the time of me posting this, it's up to: $1,559,192

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Let me tell you a little story about a game called They Came From Hollywood, and a little two-person development studio named Octopus Motor.

Way back when, back in the early 2000's, a pair of indy developers thought that they'd do something neat and create a giant movie-monster game, in the vein of old games like Crush, Crumble, Chomp, but in real time. With no experience in making games, they did everything from scratch, from the engine on up. They had big plans, wanting to support unusual controllers like a dance-pad for stomping your giant monster around the city. Around 2001-2002, me and my interest in giant movie monsters found the game's site, and began following the developer's blog.

The problem? They had no roadmap. They had no real clue what they were doing. They were almost criminally understaffed and underfunded. Delays, naturally, were everywhere. They eventually discovered that their in-house engine couldn't do everything they wanted to do, least of all efficiently, and that ever-progressing hardware and software environments had kinda left them in the dust. Their prototype wouldn't even run on a modern system due to legacy code that was no longer supported. Somewhere around 2005, they even began joking about their own delays; they said that they were "Abe Factor: Vigoda" - like Abe Vigoda, everyone thinks he's dead but he's really not. They said that they weren't done-for until they were "Abe Factor: Lincoln" - well and truly dead.

Come around 2008, the pair at Octopus Motor were called away from the game to do 'paying work' on a theme park amusement ride. At that point, the longest stretch without a blog post occurred, and it wasn't until 2009 that an update was finally posted. No further updates happened. Years passed. Everyone called it vaporware, that it was Abe Factor: Lincoln at last.

Nowadays if you go to TCFH.com, it's a dead site. Error 403 - Forbidden. The only remaining evidence of Octopus Motor's existence is their company page. Suffice it to say, I followed They Came From Hollywood's development failure, from 2001 to 2009. So, I kinda know what it looks like when an indy game fails, and fails hard.

Starbound's not showing the signs of a failure. Sure, it's got a long development cycle, but it's also a very ambitious game.

TCFH had two guys. Starbound has over a half-dozen. TCFH had no design goals or roadmap. Starbound does. TCFH blog updates started regular, and quickly faded into sporadic and then nonexistence. Starbound's have actually gotten more frequent, to the point of being daily now. TCFH never reached the preorder stage. Starbound has over 66,000 backers contributing over $1.5 million USD, and it's not even released a beta yet.

Basically, everything that TCFH did wrong, Starbound has done right, and already has $1.5 million dollars in sales to show for it, and it's not even released. If somehow Starbound is a failure, it will take a colossal screw-up to do it. They'd basically have to take the existing money and run. The only thing I've seen Starbound do that seems somewhat strange is opening preorders for such a long period of time before having beta ready. Most games I've seen open preorders and beta simultaneously.

Now, let's go look at the ultimate what-if. What if Starbound is an abject failure - it doesn't live up to the hype, it plays like a limping dog, and is generally terrible. Well for one, we'll know the minute Beta happens, and that gives us plenty of time to cancel our preorders. If Chucklefish were to attempt to skip beta and go straight to release, well that's false advertisement and would probably have them stuck in a class-action lawsuit pretty damn quick. It'd also be suicide as a game studio, because nobody would trust them ever again. I'm pretty sure Wanderlust, Risk of Rain, Treasure Adventure World and Stardew Valley's devs would jump ship ASAP in order to not be associated with Chucklefish, in that situation.

Suffice it to say that if Starbound bombs, there will be plenty of notice, and a lot of fallout. I'm pretty sure Chucklefish understands the stakes here, and intends to deal honestly with us. If they don't, well, they're forewarned of the folly.

 

If the game turns vaporware, I would just continue to play other games as I do now. Is that so hard?

 

If Starbound fails...over $1.5 million would be wasted

 

Starbound can't even be a failure. It has already earned over 1.5 million dollars.

 

Or GTA V (AWW YISS)

 

Look at Cubeworld, now back to Starbound, now back to Cubeworld, now back to Starbound...

Cubeworld: Released July 2013 (Alpha)
Development began: Summer 2011
Genre: Adventure RPG
Opinion: Cubeworld released into early alpha as a playable but... unpolished game. Servers are poorly optimized, issues with the UI, issues with hardware, balancing issues, bugs, missing features, and other typical Alpha stuff. (more constant updates though would be nice, just needs little patches.)

Starbound: ETA *2013? (Alpha) *maybe later
Delevopment began: Early 2012
Genre: Adventure Sandbox
Opinion: Starbound is still being developed and already looks like a full game though I imagine there is still some under the hood work to be done and features to be added.

The reason I'm comparing these to is because I feel that Cubeworld released too early and that, even though it is still enjoyable to play, it still needs more work. Starbound would feel the same way if the Devs would have tied up some minimal features and released early, still enjoyable but it reeks of Alpha problems. Cubeworld is a good example of a game releasing to early, and I think people should realize that a game like this will only get better if we let the devs do what they need to do.

Just don't take to long. or we'll burn your houses down... with lemons.

PS: Neither game will fail, unless the whole dev team of Starbound get their homes flooded, along with their family members, and lose all traces of the game .

 

I think in general terms yeah starbound isn't taking that long to complete. The thing is they missed their deadlines that they promised, that's why people are upset and I get that, I'm fine waiting but I understand the anger.

It wasn't until recently that I realized that starbound could not live up to my expectation. The big thing about starbound is the procedural generation, which I think the Dev's underestimated how big of a task it would be. I always thought that it will be amazing no matter what but now I'm starting to realize that procedural generation may just be a giant complicated bore fest. I don't think it will be but I'm starting to worry. Everything is the same it just looks different, and the downside to procedural generation is that mobs don't have any connection in the world they are just random monsters. Where as in other games the mobs had importance each drops certain items and what not. Both procedural generation for mobs and the normal way of creating mobs both have their ups and downs and both can be made very well but I realize now that just because something is proceduraly generated doesn't mean its great. If the procedural generation does end up being boring and hallow then I wouldn't say starbound is a failure but a disappointment for sure. Procedural generation is the most complicated thing in the game, and IMO one of the reasons the game is being pushed back so far, so it would be a huge disappointment if it didn't work out well.

But all in all I still think starbound will deliver and much more, I can't wait! (we'll I can, and I am)

 

You were right. He may also have mentioned it on his stream but he also said it on IRC.

Jul 05 21:41:44 <IcyOrio>I'm just asking do you even THINK it COULD possibly be done by the end of July?
Jul 05 21:41:58 <bartwe>IcyOrio: absolutely no chance at all
Jul 05 21:42:14 <bartwe>think december
~~~
Jul 05 21:43:58 <IcyOrio>do you think there's ANY chance Beta before december.. <<;
Jul 05 21:44:11 <bartwe>perhaps
~~~
Jul 05 21:48:11 <Kyle873>bartwe: unfortunately I now see people taking your December as gospel and getting absolutely pissed in the forums going "BAW"
Jul 05 21:48:24 <Pyrii>It makes me facepalm when people KNOW what the dev team mean, but still screw them over om semantics, just because they're impatient
Jul 05 21:490 <bartwe>Kyle873: reality can be harsh

Except they never did make those promises.

 

They can "disappear", as well as the game. Without release. Total success, sadly not for you and me.

 

Hey, I guess I get that. But just look at how development has progressed. I mean you can really get an insight on the fact that it's small steps (even though there's a lot of work put in), and it's all coming together now. I'm optimistic about the beta release and I'm willing to bet it's 2013. And if you chose to support a while ago, why back up now ? It looks to me like they've been making good progress. Plus, the devs are probably really eager to get it out as well. My best guess is that they want people to actually have things to do in the game and get the basic mechanics/systems in place (Imagine just jumping around planets and killing mobs with no NPCs to interact with, no progression, etc.). Because they already know how they want all that to work. There will be room for beta and feedback and everything after it's at the appropriate stage. As for the game being good or bad, we can't really judge it yet. We didn't get to play it, but from what I've been reading/seeing, it's all good. That's why it is my opinion that it will be awesome.

 

You know whats strange? The Dev´s sayed that 1,5 mil was a real shocking event for them. They never excpected to get this kind of money together. But they had planned a beta for 2013. And now they got 1,5 mil and they are still not able to speed up the process, even with that kind of money? And Bartwe predicts a beta somewhere in the last quarter of the year.

Really dont wanna know how mutch of that money did go into other projects allready. To hype a game is one thing, but you should stop belive everything that the dev´s tell you. It´s obvious that their goal is to make profit and increase the hype even more by cryptic dailynews like "I really would like to tell you but i would spoiler you. And belive me it´s better then a cure for cancer and greater as god" They want more money? They should beginn to spoiler and show people WHAT they got. But it´s hard to spoiler people if you got nothing that works when you make a video.

It will be funny if they beginn to merge code from 5 different devolopers and the daily news beginns with "Maybe the beta will not happen in 2013...." and it is tottaly possible that this could happen.

 

You know how you are at the amusement park and the feature attraction breaks, and they tell you its going to be an hour for them to fix it, but you already have been in line for 2, so you decide to stay? but then to your surprise and everyone else's they have it fixed in 15 minutes?
I see the same thing happening here. tell us all that beta is going to be the last possible moment in December, and then BAM its here in August!

 

Perhaps the word "failure" should be more explained then. I don't see myself as not getting a good game a "failure." I see it as a disappointment, or a scam (if we don't get a game as you said).

 

They shouldn't set the estimated release date if they can't release even a beta by that time. All of this look really strange to me. Unexpected Kickstarter-like crap, these stretch goals, premium sheet like weapon/hat desing, this damn exclusive statues of rich kids.
At first I was sure that Starbound will be a great, serious game. But now... Ehhh... I think it has already failed for me. They already made over 1.5mil$ and what we have now? Nothing. Everybody is praying for a damn beta on the forum. And it's still unclear: will at least BETA be released at the end of this year. Man, what the hell? They are creating a game which consists of... BUCNH OF DAMN PIXELS! Of course, you can say something like - "Dud, u don' knaw anything 'bout making gmaes, dey r working hard, Tiy iz a god so stfu". Yea, I barely know anything about game making. But I can say that it is much easier to create 2D pixelated game than AAA game. What are they doing all these time? Writting descriptions and making musical instruments. OWWW RIGHT! The only thing I wanted to do in space exploration game is masturbating freaking guitar and singing like a 12-y old Anime girl. HELL OYUES! I was going to buy some king of collector's edition of game when it's released, get some crap like sountrack, sketches and etc. But then I've seen this kickstarterly thingy I was like - "Flop this shirt, I'm buying pixel tier.". I'm not going to cancel preorder. But Starbound has already killied my expectations. Interesting procedural space exploration game became a mass-oriented monehgrabbing mess.
I don't know how to finish this but I'll say that Starbound is dead for me.

P.S. Pets are bullsquid. Pets in a game = childish unserious game.

 

2D game as opposed to a 3D game require pretty much the same amount of coding, merely that a 3D AAA game would have a far larger design team for texture mapping, models, shading etc. (Oh, and the coders would also put some extra work into the 3D world for pathing in an omnidirectional fashion rather than merely the X and Y axis.)

Just because you dislike the idea of music in the game, pets, statues of people whom donated more towards the game etc, doesn't mean they shouldn't be in the game. If you're looking for something less "childish" and "unserious", go outside.