Prosper Realms of Arkania: Shovelware Edition

[Bobbles]

The first Steam patch was only intended to fix the language issues, nothing else has been fixed. Writing the English translation has been top priority for the devs today (for obvious reasons).

edit: The save game corruption bug has been found. After casting a spell in combat, all your future save games will be corrupted. A hotfix will be relesed later today.

 

[RK47]

....?.....? what. the translation is incomplete on release !?o_O

 

[Stabwound]

So, yeah, there's no other explanation other than they pushed the game out on Steam in an alpha state. How does this even happen? Like I said, it's become clear that Steam QA does nothing more than look at promo videos and tries to see if the game actually boots and isn't malware.exe

This is a disgrace, really. What a way to ruin a potentially good thing, idiots.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Maybe down the line it will be worth it to get the game of the year edition all patched up.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

First Chaos Chronicles, now this. It's really depressing, I was looking forward to try Arkania, but now it seems that good old dos version will be the the only choice.

 

[Renevent]

What happened to Chaos Chronicles?

 

[Infinitron]

What happened to Chaos Chronicles?

Don't you read the news? http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-due-to-legal-trouble-with-bitcomposer.84933/

 

[A user named cat]

Will someone please do an official and detailed Codex review of this in its current state?

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

You guys should stop making any assumptions about WL2/PE based on this mess (even if they're merely ironic). From the first announcement/screenshot it was clear to anyone with half a brain that this would end up to be cheap, incompetent shovelware. Sure, nobody thought it would be that bad, but that's just adding extra fun/schadenfreude. If you expected incline from this game you are seriously deluded.

 

[Bobbles]

It's like the publisher doesn't even care.

United Independent Entertainment makes 99% of their profits off annual iterations of first sector simulators (e.g. Woodcutter 2011, Agricultural 2013). This game probably wasn't a huge priority for them.

The lead dev has clarified his position on bug priorities:

Dass der Magier keine Talent- und Zauber-Steigerungsversuche umwandeln kann ist aktuell kein "großer, schwerer Bug", sondern ein "Versäumnis das wir in einem der nächsten Patches angehen werden", schließlich betrifft er nur genau eine Charakterklasse - wir haben 11, mit der Option auf erheblich mehr. Zuerst konzentrieren wir uns also bitte mal auf wirklich schwere Fehler, die jeden Spieler betreffen.

For non-Germans, he's basically saying that they're going to focus on the big bugs first and leave the cosmetic stuff for later.

 

[codexian reject]

You guys should stop making any assumptions about WL2/PE based on this mess (even if they're merely ironic). From the first announcement/screenshot it was clear to anyone with half a brain that this would end up to be cheap, incompetent shovelware. Sure, nobody thought it would be that bad, but that's just adding extra fun/schadenfreude. If you expected incline from this game you are seriously deluded.

This applies to SR too, it was clear from the begining that SR is going to be a mobile game, by a mobile games company.
PE, W2 and T:ToN have competent and tried writers / designers on board and teams experienced in developing PC games on tight budgets.

 

[pusheax]

From what I can gather Crafty Studios outsources development of facebook games.
They did not even list RoA game on their site. The biggest game for their publisher is Agricultural Simulator 2013.
I can imagine that Crafty Studios decided to move to old school projects for some reason(maybe because that's where money is in Germany). Then they did not have enough money to finance their new project(which has 3D graphics! How foolish) and decided to make an early release on steam. Steam does not test all new games - they think that games from approved publishers will be polished enough. Crafty Studios might be even not aware of steam early access program. Something tells me that it's their last game...

 

[Necroscope]

You guys should stop making any assumptions about WL2/PE based on this mess (even if they're merely ironic). From the first announcement/screenshot it was clear to anyone with half a brain that this would end up to be cheap, incompetent shovelware. Sure, nobody thought it would be that bad, but that's just adding extra fun/schadenfreude. If you expected incline from this game you are seriously deluded.

I prefer not to make any assumptions at all, but then again it's better to expect shit these days.

 

[Bobbles]

The devs have many similarities with Bioware, inculding the fact that they have multiple studios working on multiple projects. RoA HD was made by their smallest studio (two people) while the others are plugging away at updating the cash shops of their browser games.

 

[Infinitron]

Two people?!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

 

[Bobbles]

Further clarification on the patches:

Dass die Savegames nach wie vor verschwinden halte ich für ein böswilliges Gerücht, der Savegame-Bug ist gefunden und korrigiert soweit ich das weiß, wir konnten ihn nämlich heute nachmittag zweifelsfrei reproduzieren. Dass die "alten" Savegames weg ist, lässt sich allerdings nicht ändern, da wurde schon die Hälfte nicht gespeichert, da gibt es also nicht zum Wiederherstellen.

Ansonsten sind auf Steam heute nur kleine Änderungen hinzugekommen, dort war weitestgehend unser aktuellste Version bereits verfügbar. Und dass dort geflamed wird wie nur was ist ganz normal, das müssen und werden wir aushalten. Ich möchte nochmal betonen, dass wir bisher nicht im PC-Bereich tätig waren, sondern aus der Browsergames-Ecke kommen. Und wir haben vor zu zeigen, was das in Punkto Fehlerkorrekturgeschwindigkeit und Erweiterungen zu bedeuten hat

. Als kleiner Hinweis vielleicht: Normalerweise messen wir Entwicklungszeiten für Patches eher nicht in Wochen.

Savegame bug is fixed on Steam, expect daily/bi-daily patches from now on.

 

[Drowed]

You guys should stop making any assumptions about WL2/PE based on this mess (even if they're merely ironic). From the first announcement/screenshot it was clear to anyone with half a brain that this would end up to be cheap, incompetent shovelware. Sure, nobody thought it would be that bad, but that's just adding extra fun/schadenfreude. If you expected incline from this game you are seriously deluded.

True, true... But the truth is that both in this case as in Shadowrun, the proposals came from fairly "new" companies, without a significant history of games released, albeit with one or two "famous" names behind everything. In the case of Obsidian and inXile, there is greater sense security. (Although in the case of Obsidian it's a fact that the game will come buggy as hell.)

But recent failures (although in the case of Shadowrun, it's at least playable) really frightens me somewhat. I can no longer look with the same optimism to the next RPGs of "Kickstarter generation".

 

[LundB]

Told you optimistic fucks it'd be a mess.

Realms of Arcania

Nope, Steam doesn't make the logos or boxart. Don't even try to blame Gabe for this (boxart from trailer):

Not the best sign for QC. Not as much that one of the artists made it as the fact that apaprently NOBODY caught it before it went up on steam and in a trailer.

 

[eric__s]

You guys should stop making any assumptions about WL2/PE based on this mess (even if they're merely ironic). From the first announcement/screenshot it was clear to anyone with half a brain that this would end up to be cheap, incompetent shovelware. Sure, nobody thought it would be that bad, but that's just adding extra fun/schadenfreude. If you expected incline from this game you are seriously deluded.

True, true... But the truth is that both in this case as in Shadowrun, the proposals came from fairly "new" companies, without a significant history of games released, albeit with one or two "famous" names behind everything. In the case of Obsidian and inXile, there is greater sense security. (Although in the case of Obsidian it's a fact that the game will come buggy as hell.)

But recent failures (although in the case of Shadowrun, it's at least playable) really frightens me somewhat. I can no longer look with the same optimism to the next RPGs of "Kickstarter generation".

What does this have to do with Kickstarter RPGs and in what way was Shadowrun a failure?

 

[CWagner]

Two people?!

You didn't know that? 2 people working on it full time, afaik they had freelancers sometimes.

 

[Stabwound]

Response from main dev:

So, yeah, everything points to this being an early "push it out the door, worry after" release and they don't even care to hide it. Sad. "Check back in 6 weeks" wow, why not delay it for another 2 months then, idiots? They must have completely run out of funds.

2013: Where customers are unpaid beta testers who will eventually get a playable game given enough beta testing. Just pathetic.

 

[Drowed]

What does this have to do with Kickstarter RPGs (...)

All RPGs are promising the "rebirth of the classic RPG model", one way or another. I didn't mean to imply that everyone has the same problems, I was referring to the fact that all are promises that may as well not materialize in the end.

(...) and in what way was Shadowrun a failure?

Where? Well .. First a weak campaign, easy even on the hardest, unexplored battle system, and also an interface aimed at tablets. To complete the problem, we have an editor that's much more limited than it seemed at first (read the topic "Shadowrun modules" for details). Still, I liked the game, but it is undeniable that was a disappointment.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I can't believe they're trying to sell this shit for $20. Clockwork Knight please post some info and screenshots of just how half-baked this is, I'm morbidly curious now.

Posted this on the news thread, copypasting here.

All of those pics were taken in "Fantastic!" quality. It goes from "Tolerable" to "Fantastic", if you're wondering.

The piggy on the other hand, is beautifully anmiated. It's potato game, alright.

 

[Infinitron]

Reminds me of this: http://www.it-he.org/arx_diry.htm

Went to Arx. Went round trying out this new digital camera that the Noden gave me for Christmas.
Took some cool pictures of pigs exploding in slow motion.

Went home.