KickStarter Phoenix Point - the new game from X-COM creator Julian Gollop

[Jimmious]

Devs with lives? PREPOSTEROUS

 

[UnstableVoltage]

There's a certain difficulty in maintaining any sort of weekly update when I am 1500 miles from the studio and in a different time zone, with a team of people who don't speak English as a first language. Communication is all done online via text chat or video call. The people who have an overview of the entire project (like Julian), are very busy with developing the game. It's quite difficult for me to monopolise their time for update material. That said, update frequency will increase once the Backer Build is out there.

 

[ArchAngel]

There's a certain difficulty in maintaining any sort of weekly update when I am 1500 miles from the studio and in a different time zone, with a team of people who don't speak English as a first language. Communication is all done online via text chat or video call. The people who have an overview of the entire project (like Julian), are very busy with developing the game. It's quite difficult for me to monopolise their time for update material. That said, update frequency will increase once the Backer Build is out there.

Give more info to RetconRaider, I am sure he would do the weekly updates for you

 

[PanteraNera]

Maybe these devs have a life outside working on the game?

Devs with lives? PREPOSTEROUS

There were rumors that this "real-life" was involved in The Mandate incident, among others.

Give more info to RetconRaider, I am sure he would do the weekly updates for you

Actually a very good idea.

 

[Alienman]

Mandate... oh boy.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Mandate... oh boy.

I still find it hard to believe that people fell for that.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

captain obvious? i need your help.

 

[Zombra]

Still think it would be wise to do a dev-blog similar to what Overhype did with Battle Brothers (weekly), Klei with Invisible Inc, or other Indie-Games like Project Zomboid, to name just a few. It keeps players interested and engaged and is good PR. Also it counters a lot of speculation.

Maybe these devs have a life outside working on the game?

Yeah ... when you're on the forums a lot it's easy to forget that not everyone is the kind of person who shares their thoughts online for 6 hours a day. Just because there was a studio once where the guy wrote a lot of articles doesn't make trivially easy for every company. To anyone who thinks otherwise: post a well-written 1000-word blog post every week for the next two years, suitable to be read by thousands of people. I won't even add the additional pressure of being very careful not to reveal anything problematic about your current project, or about those thousands of people jumping on every little thing you say and using it against you later, or demanding more information, screaming at you that you're doing it wrong etc, but they do all have to be quality, informative posts about your chosen subject. Go ahead and start now, tag me, and tag me again on March 28 2020 to show you followed through. I expect you all to do this starting right now. "It's not that hard!"

 

[PanteraNera]

Yeah ... when you're on the forums a lot it's easy to forget that not everyone is the kind of person who shares their thoughts online for 6 hours a day. Just because there was a studio once where the guy wrote a lot of articles doesn't make trivially easy for every company. To anyone who thinks otherwise: post a well-written 1000-word blog post every week for the next two years, suitable to be read by thousands of people. I won't even add the additional pressure of being very careful not to reveal anything problematic about your current project, or about those thousands of people jumping on every little thing you say and using it against you later, or demanding more information, screaming at you that you're doing it wrong etc, but they do all have to be quality, informative posts about your chosen subject. Go ahead and start now, tag me, and tag me again on March 28 2020 to show you followed through. I expect you all to do this starting right now. "It's not that hard!"

To get this out of the way, I never said it was easy nor do I do belief so.

I worked in the industry, 19 years ago, as an junior 3D artist. You wouldn't belief how many team meetings we had, at least one weekly. We had milestones that needed to get accomplished in time, otherwise you would lose your funding. It was actually quiet stressful that is why I just worked there for six months, also I realized that I couldn't do good art under pressure.
Thing is and that is not solely against Snapshot Studio but against a lot of indies/crowdfunded projects, it is so disrespectful to take the money and to not keep them updated how it's spend / how the game is coming along. Also I think it is very disrespectful to change major elements without communicating or even better asking their Backers if they are okay with the change. If a game studio does that with an traditional publisher, they lose funding very quickly. With crowdfunded projects that is absolutely not the case.

Also I think it is fair to compare Snapshot Studio to other Indie developers, especially since most of them are actually smaller. I can say that I am genuinely puzzled especially by Overhype and their dev-blog for Battle Brothers, a three man studio.

What I totally agree on, I think its a fucking nightmare to do a crowdfunded game, like UnstableVoltage said "you can't please everyone" and with crowdfunding there are so many people that can come up with all sorts of shit.

I know I tend to be fabulously optimistic, but from real-life experience I can say that I always fared best with being upfront honest, there is just nothing anyone can use against you, if you actually act like a responsible grownup if you make mistakes. If you make a mistake, stand by it, admit it and fix it. If you try to hide it, blame others or the universe, people will lose confidence in you.

That's why I fucking loved MLMarkland not because I was hyped about the game he was going to do, but the way he wanted to do it.

 

[Jimmious]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

 

[Galdred]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

Given the backlash regarding their new project announcement, it is not surprising.
Customers can be even more fickle than backers.

 

[PanteraNera]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

Thanks for correcting me .
Hm just quickly checked their website, when did they went complete silence for months?
Ah you mean since release of Battle Brothers?

 

[PanteraNera]

Given the backlash regarding their new project announcement, it is not surprising.
Customers can be even more fickle than backers.

I have talked with them just a couple of weeks ago, they will do the dev-blog again, once they have announced the game.

 

[Jimmious]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

Given the backlash regarding their new project announcement, it is not surprising.
Customers can be even more fickle than backers.

Yeah I agree. The thing is basically that gamers have become a bit too entitled due to the overabundance of games and require constant communication and feedback. As a developer you get frustrated when the project lead demands something like that and it DOES require extra effort on the side... I can only imagine how hard it is to have hordes of angry people messaging and demanding stuff like that.

Thanks for correcting me .
Hm just quickly checked their website, when did they went complete silence for months?
Ah you mean since release of Battle Brothers?

It's not so much of a correction rather than a notice. After they released the final BB version they basically said nothing for a long time, then released a surprise small DLC, then silence again until like some days ago where they mysteriously announced a novel from sser in the BB universe (if I'm not mistaken).
Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

It would probably been pointless for them to continue talking with "what about the mods" -crowd.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

There was some uniform concept art that was posted on their blog or Twitter.
Looked modern-ish setting.

 

[Jimmious]

Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

There was some uniform concept art that was posted on their blog or Twitter.
Looked modern-ish setting.

Yeah I've seen a couple of concept art thingies here and there. I hope they stick to their basic formula and their engine and enhance/improve.

In any case I only brought them up to say that constant communication with the player base can very easily "burn" you up. I also enjoy to get frequent info but from PP top priority is that they work on the game since the early demos looked very "basic"

 

[Zombra]

Also I think it is fair to compare Snapshot Studio to other Indie developers, especially since most of them are actually smaller.

• It's fine to draw comparisons between different studios, and it's great to point out those that set a good example, but there's a huge difference between "there's this one studio that does this" and "this is the industry standard". If you show me three teams that do a weekly blog and I show you 500 teams that don't do a weekly blog, what can we plausibly expect from the one project we happen to care about?
• A larger studio does not automatically mean it's easier to do public updates. Actually I would think the opposite.

 

[PanteraNera]

I can only imagine how hard it is to have hordes of angry people messaging and demanding stuff like that.

I wouldn't want to be in UnstableVoltage shoe's for a single day.

It's not so much of a correction rather than a notice. After they released the final BB version they basically said nothing for a long time, then released a surprise small DLC, then silence again until like some days ago where they mysteriously announced a novel from sser in the BB universe (if I'm not mistaken).

Okay, true. They haven't posted on the codex since the release as well. They were lurking the thread thought.
Yeah a lot of butthurt happend back than, I was one of that crowd, surprise, surprise .
Today I think differently.
Still when ever I see broken promises, dishonesty I "lose it".
Today I would actually agree that Overhype has been to overambitious, sadly they didn't communicated that. Talked to them about that, but to no success, well at least in private they opened up a bit and I really think they are decent guys .

Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

To be announced

Yeah I've seen a couple of concept art thingies here and there.

Spoiler

I also enjoy to get frequent info but from PP top priority is that they work on the game since the early demos looked very "basic"

Well, more information wouldn't hurt, because the glimpse I put together from the discord look pretty gloomy. I hope I do draw the wrong conclusions and being just pessimistic.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Overhype Studios also had public demo followed by early access period for Battle Brothers.

Weekly updates don't really prove anything without context offered by hands on experience for player.
At worst regular puff pieces just create needles expectations about scope of the project which will cause consumer backslash.
Black & White fell victim of this.

 

[sser]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

Given the backlash regarding their new project announcement, it is not surprising.
Customers can be even more fickle than backers.

Yeah I agree. The thing is basically that gamers have become a bit too entitled due to the overabundance of games and require constant communication and feedback. As a developer you get frustrated when the project lead demands something like that and it DOES require extra effort on the side... I can only imagine how hard it is to have hordes of angry people messaging and demanding stuff like that.

Thanks for correcting me .
Hm just quickly checked their website, when did they went complete silence for months?
Ah you mean since release of Battle Brothers?

It's not so much of a correction rather than a notice. After they released the final BB version they basically said nothing for a long time, then released a surprise small DLC, then silence again until like some days ago where they mysteriously announced a novel from sser in the BB universe (if I'm not mistaken).
Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

Short story - wrote it in about 10ish days on my lunch break for the most part. Just something extra to commemorate the year we first met and kissed under the apple tree, Jimmi. You remember that night? When I mistook your giant nads for a pair of granny smiths?

 

[Alienman]

Btw Overhype went from an update every week to complete silence for months about anything they're doing

Given the backlash regarding their new project announcement, it is not surprising.
Customers can be even more fickle than backers.

Yeah I agree. The thing is basically that gamers have become a bit too entitled due to the overabundance of games and require constant communication and feedback. As a developer you get frustrated when the project lead demands something like that and it DOES require extra effort on the side... I can only imagine how hard it is to have hordes of angry people messaging and demanding stuff like that.

Thanks for correcting me .
Hm just quickly checked their website, when did they went complete silence for months?
Ah you mean since release of Battle Brothers?

It's not so much of a correction rather than a notice. After they released the final BB version they basically said nothing for a long time, then released a surprise small DLC, then silence again until like some days ago where they mysteriously announced a novel from sser in the BB universe (if I'm not mistaken).
Supposedly they are working on something new? Noone knows whats up

Devs are to blame also for this change in behavior. Making gaming out to be a service instead of something you just buy completed. Then we have all other shit on top of that, abandon early access games, Kickstarter scams, games without content, making it politicized etc etc.

 

[PanteraNera]

New Jerchio "mount"

*edit* UnstableVoltage said it is at this stage concept, so no guarantee it will be in the game

 

[luinthoron]

A nice bit of the classic Sectopod feeling there.

 

[Galdred]

Btw, here are my developer's 2 cents on the project:
Regarding communication, it is tricky, because what should be said needs to be decided by the lead of the project, so even on large teams, it can take some time.
I planned to do it actively for my own game, but it takes quite long, and it requires you to switch to something completely different than your usual game development problem (I really dislike "contect switching").
Also, PR from a community manager won't have the same impact as direct contact from the project leader.

Now regarding the geoscape: I had an early geoscape for my own game: the game logic is quite easy when compared to the tactical part. Even in UFO: Enemy Unknown, the Aliens did not really have AI, but random missions to choose from that would advance various agenda. So basically, a simple scoring algorithm would have been enough (or even random choices between available options).

The hard part is balancing the progression and adding a proper UI. Adding a proper AI would be very hard, but it is not really needed, as stupidity is much less apparent at this level, and the player is constantly in the dark when it comes to the opponent resources (unlike in Civilization, where the misuse of military units is blatant).

The release date may seem optimistic indeed, but it depends on the state of things (aka existing but not polished enough for showcase, or drafts on a paperboard).