Focus can often be in short supply in game development, and sticking to your plan often goes out the window.
A history of the Hero U release date timeline:
In December 2012 (the original project launch date), you advertised to backers a release date of October 2013. (~1 year)
In October 2013, you set your new target as June 2014. (~8 months)
In October 2014, "I can’t promise a specific date, but it will be in 2015, and hopefully in the Summer." (~10 months)
In November 2014, "Lori and I have committed to a release date of Oct. 15, 2015." (~11 months)
In February 2015, "We are still on target for release on Oct. 15." (~8 months)
In May 2015, (the second Kickstarter), you advertised to second round backers an estimated delivery date of March 2016. (~10 months)
Now, in March 2016, your "best guess" is November 2016. (~8 months)
You've suggested you were only 8 months away twice already, and you've thought the project was doable within the next year for almost four years. I wish you all the success in the world, and I hope the end product proves to be amazing, but you've slipped dates 6 times as best as I can tell. During last year's Kickstarter, I had no expectation that you would make your March 2016 date, I can't say that my confidence is any higher now.
I have loved the games you've made in the past, and I hope this game turns out to be amazing. But I think for any future projects you would be well-served by seeking help with the less creative aspects of running a project like this.
If they had just refunded the $21 they would have received more money than that in additional donations. These people have terrible judgement. I haven't even commented on this new hire they've made, but for some reason I remember that person as a known SJW scam artist. Looking forward to a year from now when they complain about paying forincompleteun-attempted work.
Is this a meme now? Or are the MBAs paying for plants? Isn't the first time I've seen this sort of agenda pushing.Jesus, time flies, this project started on 2012 and we are on 2016. If kickstarter teached me something was that the whole "We creative people don't need those nasty management people to cut our creativity." is BS as "We workers don't need the evil capitalists, we can do everything ourselves." I guess the lesson is don't assume that something you know nothing about is easy. The Coles should have hired someone else to deal with the production part or even seek advise from people that still do adventure games all those years they were on retirement. Still hope for this game but at this rate, it must be truly an amazing experience that puts the old Quest for Glorys to shame to make up for the whole time and two kickstarters worthy it.
Who are you talking to? From my first post in this thread it's been pretty clear I wouldn't touch this thing. (Or anything by Tim)That serves you right for backing a project with a name like that!
Is this a meme now? Or are the MBAs paying for plants?
Dude, I was agreeing with you, yeah, the Coles are clueless and they need help as their talk of kickstarter as charity shows. How MBAs entered on this?Is this a meme now? Or are the MBAs paying for plants? Isn't the first time I've seen this sort of agenda pushing.
Read the rest of the post instead of quoting a couple of sentences.Dude, I was agreeing with you, yeah, the Coles are clueless and they need help as their talk of kickstarter as charity shows. How MBAs entered on this?Is this a meme now? Or are the MBAs paying for plants? Isn't the first time I've seen this sort of agenda pushing.
You can't point at this one project, run by people who clearly had no idea what they were doing from the start, and use it as an example of why all creative people should slave away under the yoke of "project managers" and "business people". Are you going to pretend that Tim Schafer didn't have multiple business people managing his consistent failures to deliver on time and on budget? Are you going to ignore that a huge percentage of game projects started by the big publishers are cancelled before they are finished?
Big businesses are less efficient than independent creators. In part because I doubt the success rates are much different, and in part because there is a layer of high-paid executives and managers skimming off the top.
They are really coming out of the woodwork today.Is this a meme now? Or are the MBAs paying for plants?
J1M, I'm not sure why you constantly think executives in charge of a project automatically have to have MBAs. I'm starting to think you lack a well rounded view of this issue due to lack of experience. Because I'd say most executives, especially in tech driven industries actually need some real world experience and background in the industry. they're just not random people with an MBA and a business background. they just happen to have good organizational, project management, and budgeting skills.
The company I work for, the execs almost all have operational or technology backgrounds (or both). The only person with a business degree is our CFO, which is just a Bachelor's. And a lot of our competitors in our industry have similar structures. Yes, when a company becomes more global and a F50 company, a lot of the executives need a broad range of business experience in sales, marketing, etc. But it does not preclude them from having a background in the initial type of work the company does. If anything, it's a preferred quality.
My biggest issue with projects like these, is that the Coles should have realized they don't currently have the skill set to pull off a project like this without either A.) outside help (i.e. good project manager(s) who can have dual roles) or B.) Take on a smaller project with a more limited scope to knock some of the rust off.
Instead, they saw this big Kickstarter pie, and they wanted a slice. The old adage, "hire people smarter than you", totally applies here. They should have hired some people who could handle the logistics, budgeting, and scope setting so they could concentrate on their strengths: Creating.
Please, educate me on why all of these brilliant technical minds are spending their days on project management instead of inventing things
Also, nice try with pretending that an 'operational background' is distinct from a 'business background'.
I did read the rest of your post, I just don't know what your point is and I don't know what you said had anything to do with what I said. Most adventure game kickstarters ended on really badly run projects that gone overbudget and delivered nothing or delivered a mess, the Coles weren't the only ones. I'm not saying these projects would be better run by publishers, no, they wouldn't even be greenlit.Read the rest of the post instead of quoting a couple of sentences.
There is a reason why many successful kickstarter projects have people sole dedicated to the production role, that was my point.
Spring Forward
In the midst of Winter, there are times when it seems as if the chilling gloom will never end. Game projects go through a similar period when the game is like a scattered jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing. It is hard to believe that the project will ever be completed. But even in the depths of the coldest and darkest Winter days, we know that Spring will be reborn with joyous warmth and sunshine. So too, we know that Hero-U will find all the pieces of the puzzle, put them together into a beautiful picture, and we will be ready to release the game so that we can share that beauty with all of you.
The pieces are coming together now. There are many more pieces to this game puzzle than we expected when we started out. We listened to our fans and supporters. Thus, the Sea Caves are much more extensive than we planned. Our animation is becoming more sophisticated. Our programming is becoming more elegant and expressive.
It will still take months to fit all the pieces into the game. It will take more months to test it all and make sure it lives up to its heritage of QfG and the expectations of its fans. However, we are springing closer to our goal every day.
Spring Fling
All of the backgrounds for the Sea Caves have been completed by JP Selwood and Aaron Martin. This means that all of the background art is finished.
So, is the art done? No, not exactly.
When we started out designing the art for the game, we created backgrounds like a stage set with many reusable walls and props. This made the scenes seem a little dull and artificial.
We have started the polishing phase of the project. We are going over many of the older rooms now to make them more dramatic and dynamic. Each prop is handcrafted from the finest pixels. Each room is aglow with the careful arrangement of many-colored lights. It’s amazing what lighting can do to bring out the emotions in a scene.
We are also refining and improving our user interface design to make the game play intuitive and yet beautiful.
Our newest programmer, Carolyn VanEseltine, is crafting each scene with character movements and camera placement to bring a cinematic approach to game interaction.
Josh Mandel is bringing his clever wit and wry humor to Hero-U whenever the player examines objects or interacts with the myriad of props and decorations in the rooms.
My dialogue script keeps getting longer and more sophisticated as the stories of all the characters in the game are revealed. This is the richest, most complex story I have ever written.
The game just keeps getting better and better.
Of all the games I’ve worked on in the past, Hero-U has the best team and the best art. I could not be prouder of what we are creating with Rogue to Redemption.
Spring Break
I was asked to speak about Adventure Games at the 30th Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco in Mid March. I was one of twelve Keynote Speakers; together, we gave a retrospective of the game industry over the past 30 years.
There are some truly amazing Adventure Games today. The genre did not die when Sierra folded and LucasArts turned its back on the medium. Instead, adventure games morphed into the interactive, episodic stories of Telltale Games and other studios. They are being jumpstarted by Kickstarter, giving designers like Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island), Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango), and Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight) the opportunity to make great games once more. Games like “Her Story” and “Life is Strange” tell compelling stories by reinventing the genre.
Adventure Games are alive and well.
The pieces are coming together now. There are many more pieces to this game puzzle than we expected when we started out. We listened to our fans and supporters. Thus, the Sea Caves are much more extensive than we planned.
Good, good, Josh Mandel is a bro.Josh Mandel is bringing his clever wit and wry humor to Hero-U whenever the player examines objects or interacts with the myriad of props and decorations in the rooms.