Community Engagement Through Roadmap

Communities want to feel engaged and connected to the game. One of the best ways to do this is through a published roadmap. Star Citizen has been using one to great affect. Aside from keeping current players up to date on what is being worked on, it is also good for marketing. Roadmaps generate free press on a monthly basis and give non-players something to look at to see that the game is growing and updating. It is a huge missed opportunity.

 

Mistake here is most of the supporters and developers have left.
Roadmap is only good for games when the developers are actually interested in building a game in any other than an ultra casual pace.

For a game that promoted community support and engagement so much... they sure left us in the dark on ALMOST EVERY DETAIL. (we even found out RG threw the game away for a dollar without telling the community)

Everything released anyway is a draft version that's never updated.

Kinda kills the vibe.

//but Yes, SC's roadmap is awesome, even with the squadron deviated work. Just goes to show how well that project is going when then can ignore the PU and its still far more updated than this project.

 

I am not sure about that. New things are released all the time, almost monthly. The release notes always contain a good list. Which means they were working on it for a while. Even at a causal pace, it is just nice to know what is on Catnip's radar. You don't have to do completion dates. Just list what is being worked on.

Development is based on income. The more income, the more development. If you want to get more income you want to publicize that the game is being worked on. As you show, there is this misconception out there that nothing is being done. That the game is just in maintenance mode. Episode 2 isn't the second coming of Ultima, but who thought we would even get something close to that? The game isn't dead and have a monthly publicized roadmap gives the internet a reason to talk and discuss SOTA.

 

Hasn't been one posted for 2 years. Last public roadmap published was in January 2020.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/shroud-2020-vision.161221/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/shroud-vision-statement.166822/

 

I like roadmaps, but you do have to be very careful about how you present a roadmap to gamers. A lot of folks take a roadmap as a sacred promise and lose their s#@! if you miss an item or change your plan. Honestly, I get all the info about what's happening in the game and what the devs are working on from their dev streams and I find that to be plenty informative. I know some folks don't like watching live streams or videos for info, but they are keeping the players informed if you care to look for the info.

 

I am in complete agreement with your statement. I think the key there is to make changes and adjustments almost every week. I believe the biggest issue is when an item is on the roadmap for several quarters, and then yanked one week before deployment. You don't work hard on something for months and just yank it at the last minute. If you start running into issues with a deliverable a month or so in, put that on the roadmap. Say we are having issues.

Communication is a HARD thing because most people genuinely care what other people think and are very sensitive to criticism. They don't want to seem unknowledgeable or stupid in front of other people. You have to be almost immune to criticism. There are people in life who are just going to gripe. There are people who never even thought about playing the game, who will gripe. But open and honest communication is how you connect with your real fans. It is also how you keep people from walking away. I am such an avid fan of SOTA, but if 6 months went buy with no deployments and no communication from Catnip, I would have to consider the game dead. Even if you have to constantly move targets and due dates around, the community sees that work is going on.

 

If they're constantly updating a roadmap, wouldn't you be concerned it could eat into their development time?