Release an Episode 0 first? - Poll [UNOFFICIAL]

Release When Ready Only

 

About 119 work days from now, brings us to the beginning of October, which means that in about 57120 work minutes from now, we're going to have a game
But this estimate does not include working overtime, weekends or holidays.

57120 Portalarium work minutes from now hmm...

Ok, since we're managing here....
How many minutes should we dedicate to crafting?
How many minutes should we dedicate to PvP?
How many minutes should we dedicate to the map?
how many to...umm...

But right now above all else,
"How many minutes can we dedicate to getting those missing pics of the houses up on the pledge list?"
~Time Lord~

 

I think you have used thissame arguement before. So I will use the same counter arguement that in regardes to MP having as non detailed companions isn't a major driving feature missing. Where as in a single player game it is more essential to the game style.

 

I Think they had a great concept idea but no development plan.
The amount of major changes all seem to be just about getting in more money not making the game better.
If a year on you make a decision 2 days before the release of R4 to change a major game feature (overland map) and deliver what they did something needs a radical rethink.

Lets look at Star Citizen (forget they have $40m+) when kickstarter was launched you could see that Wing Commander was coming into the 21st Century, SotA's decision to use Unity was probably the biggest mistake they made.
If you are making a sandbox MMO a large explorable world is a must have component, and I don't think Unity can achieve that. Its a great tool for indie users ( not to expensive) and APP store items.
Lets hope everything they are showing us is not the real thing, or all we may have is a medieval housing sim.

 

Can't speak on the development plan; but what we have seen is the process of creating a game - not a final product - cut them some slack ...

 

It's very important to me - although I will enjoy all aspects of this game - I'm here for the deep, immersive, mysterious and detective like feel that Ultima 7 game me when I was young.

 

Nope, nope, No, no, no, Portalarium needs no slack, no quarter given. I'm more of a whipping task master than even Darkstarr in a leather bikini is on this one. Those little Red Hat Gnomes should stop licking themselves and get back to work slaving away on completing our game and filling our online store with goodies to fill next December's Xmas. Now I admit that all the licking helped develop us the technology needed for the Hot Tub (which was a good onekodes to the licking team), but all of that exchanging of bodily fluids now need to concentrate on filling in all the blanks, darting the eyes and crossing the tease.

"let's get that rawhide song throughout the office and get this game going"Heyya!
~Time Lord~

 

I like this diagram...




You can't have it all... I really want to play this game as soon as possible, but I'd much prefer 'good' over 'fast'.

I presumed that one of the benefits of not being tied to a publisher's or distributor's deadlines was the freedom to push back release if the game wouldn't be ready 'on time'. Perhaps there might be budgetary concerns that we don't know about, as someone else mentioned - maybe they won't have the funds for staffing much past the originally-proposed date - but I would really hope that if it's going to have a lot of features missing by October then they would just wait until it IS much better before releasing it. I'm not sure exactly what was promised during the Kickstarter and there may be things that are not terribly important to the overall playability of the game that could be delayed without too much backlash, but it certainly needs to feel like a full and complete game (both in single and multiplayer modes) without those. If it feels unfinished, that's going to really impact sales.

Like I've heard elsewhere on these forums, you only get one chance to make a first impression. And people will remember that first impression even after the game has improved, and may be unlikely to bother giving it another chance. As an example, my hubby insists that Star Trek Online is a completely different game to when it first came out (I never played it so wouldn't know), yet there are still people who were so put off by their initial impressions that they refuse to believe it could have changed that much and wouldn't go near it if you paid them.

A delay might lose the interest of a few backers but releasing an obviously-rushed and unfinished game would surely lose far more potential new customers, and the bad reviews that would come out of it would hurt the game much more than releasing a few months later than planned would do. I don't want an unfinished 'episode 0' just to tide me over, I think that would be a bad idea. So I really do hope that they can afford to delay a bit longer if they need to, and eventually give us the kind of game we're hoping for when it's ready.

 

ive always hated good, fast, cheap.

it is a marketers excuse.

ford motor company proved it wrong almost a hundred years ago with the assembly line. good product, quick turn around, that was close in dollar to what the wo rking man could a-ford (couldnt resist)

same for modern day things like cell phones.

change good to best and maybe you have a modernized version of you argument.

if you want to apply this to software you are also going to lose. india and Russia have amazing sw engineers dirty cheap who are very fast to task.

exceptions?more than a few.

 

You can disagree with the argument itself, but I don't think it negates my final point that releasing a game that looks or feels unfinished would be a poor move. I'd still rather they waited until it was ready.

Maybe it will be ready by October, there could be all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes that we don't see. But if it's not, then I hope they delay it.

 

Nope, I don't disagree with the final point, but that would be a non-sequitur. I just don't agree with the assessment that the above paradigm applies to properly planned and tasked projects. And no that is not a subtle hint about this project.

It won't be ready. If anyone still wants to consider this a "pre-alpha" then a release of OCT is ludicrous to fulfill the original KS promise.

But they have already mentioned it will most likely slip features to make that date. Plus the label says "estimated" Oct 2014. That is a easy way out.

 

The game doesn't have to be finished at launch, but it can't feel unfinished either.

Casual players without any particular loyalty or investment in the game won't stick around for months in a buggy, superficial, unfinished game, just waiting for patches and blindly trusting in promises made by a dev team they don't even know. They'll just move on to the next game, bringing all their friends with them and telling everyone that'll listen how terrible SotA was that one weekend that they tried it. If SotA can win those players over though, post-launch game sales alone could grow the budget of future episodes by an order of magnitude, and that's how this game will become truly great in the long-run. A 6-month delay in the launch of a great game will be quickly forgotten, but 6 months of an unpolished, buggy game will do irreparable harm to its reputation and future funding. I sincerely hope Portalarium keeps their eyes on the big picture and doesn't chase the quick payday or feel overly obligated to impatient backers. Games pushing back their release dates is practically the norm, so there's no shame in admitting it's not ready yet if that's the case. All this talk from them about "launch" being just the day they no longer need to do character wipes is a disturbingly low standard they seem to be striving for.

 

Where's the poll option for let the established studio led by vets with dozens of years of experience follow the business plan they've already written?

 

I voted for option 4. Because they do have a small team presently, I do realize that it will take them longer to get this finished, as opposed to a large company with greater resources available. Of course, we really don't know how far along they really are concerning the story within the game or how much of the hexes are complete for Novia. But if per chance they are fairly behind, then I would have no issues waiting a few more months, if that is what is required, to polish it up and make it a game that will attract new players.

 

I don't want to sound too rude, but this sounds like a straw man argument to me. The merits of the Unity engine is a distraction from the topic. On top of that, your points about Unity are anecdotal at best.

 

People are still playing a single player story, even in multiplayer, and the vast majority will still use companion characters instead of fellow player characters to adventure with them in that story.

I've seen it happen in other games, most recently in SWTOR. People do their storyline when they want to do it and, often, its too much hassle to find real people to come along, so they use companions.

 

I'm confused by this comment because everything I've ever read about the game doesn't suggest they're making "a large explorable world" in the sandbox style at all?