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4/27/07 State of the Game Update
Paragus1
Member UncommonPosts: 1,741
Found this on their website today....
http://www.flyinglab.com/pirates/logs.php?log_select=9
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04.27.07
State of the Game
It’s been a while since I’ve started a thread, so I thought it’d be a good time to catch everybody up on where we are.
First, the game itself. Now that we’ve essentially finished coding the new features, we’ve been able to spend more time on bug fixing, performance, and polish. For example, the majority of the developers have been focusing on server improvements. ConCo has finally had the chance to replace the rank 1-15 missions (yay!!!) and will be spending their time polishing up the encounter logic and the rest of the missions. Most exciting are the big new additions: Avatar combat and boarding combat. All of the new avatar combat missions are going in, as well as the boarding combat support. Our designers have been duking it out with one another with big boarding battles, and it looks like a lot of fun. We’re iterating very quickly on it, with daily status mails, real time bug fixing, and lots of attention. And the rest of the team is finally getting a chance to go back and just polish their work, and fill in placeholders.
What’s also helping us move so quickly is that we’ve also grown again. We’re up to 68 people. One of those people is a full time web developer, who’s in charge of implementing and rolling out our new web site. This has been a long time in coming, and it’s finally at hand. It’ll do a much better job of introducing a new visitor to the game, and also provide some fun resources, especially the new ship guide! It’ll take a little while to put up, and I expect Aether will have some update on its progress as we crank through it.
Another one of our new hires runs a full time usability/playability lab, where we bring in players to see what they think of the game. We’re also conducting tests of our new marketing materials, the new web site, etc. As you might expect, this kind of data is extraordinarily useful in fine tuning the game, and it’s extremely cool to watch our test scores constantly improving. The lab is on the second floor, which we’ve now completely moved into. We don’t anticipate leaving our current space until after we ship the game.
Of course, that whole “shipping the game” is what most of you are interested in. We’ve now focused on final feature and polish work to make sure the game will be ready, but there’s a whole other area of work that has a big impact on our release date, and that’s retail distritbuion.
There are two ways to do retail distribution: The first is to take your box around to the major chains and ask them to stock some copies. This results in an order which puts a few boxes in at each retail location, but when it sells out (if it does) it takes a long time for it to be re-ordered, which kills your momentum. If you’re not expecting to sell a lot of boxes, it’s not terrible. The second way to do retail distribution is to market to the channel. You buy end caps, you do some events for the retailers to get them excited, you share some advertising costs, and in essence you build up their momentum and buzz so that they’re excited about you and order lots of copies, talk you up to their customers, and so on. It’s a major effort and it has a big impact on sales.
But it takes time. When we thought about looking for distribution, we wanted to wait as long as possible so that the game would be in as good a shape as possible. It helps with the deal terms, especially in how aggressively the distributor is going to push your game. Essentially, our job is to make our distributor excited so that excitement rubs off when they’re talking to the retail buyers, so then their excitement rubs off on the branch managers, and so on. But we didn’t realize what the lead time was on selling into the retail channel and so we probably waited later than we should have. That was my fault, in particular.
We would like to do a retail release, rather than just a digital download, because we believe there are a lot of gamers out there who would be interested in trying us out if given the opportunity. We also want the awareness that a major marketing effort can build. We’ve done what we can here on our website for the last four years and it’s obviously gone pretty well, but there’s a lot of people out there who still have never heard of what we’re doing.
So, if we go down the route of a big box release (though it’ll still be available via digital distribution) it will require a delay in the release date. I’m not excited about delaying the game, but I am excited about a great launch.
The reason we haven’t talked in more detail about this is because we don’t have a signed contract with a distributor. Having been through a number of these legal negotiations, you never know exactly what’s going to happen until you have a signed document. So while we may delay, we’re still aggressively working towards finishing the game now, and have been putting our contingency plans in place.
The good news is that we’re going to aggressively expand our beta. Right now, you have to have been very lucky (or built a ship!) to be in the beta. That’s going to change soon. We’ll be announcing the details of that when we finish the contract, one way or another.
I really wanted to make this announcement with a signed contract, so I could talk about dates, the beta expansion details, and how it’s going to help us make an even better game. But I don’t ever want to leave you guys in the dark, or feel like you’re hearing something second hand. The first place we’ll announce anything final and official is right here on our website, because this is the heart of our community.
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Comments
Thanks for posting that--interesting stuff!
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
This post is a blatant lie............
because I still haven't received my Beta invite...
Finish the contract?
Now.. do they mean with their inner departments for beta... or are they signing something with say... Fileplanet for that stupid "Subscribers online closed beta! Get your key while they last!" stuff?
Interesting none the less.
Everquest - 2000 - '02
Anarchy Online - '01-'02
Earth and Beyond - '02-'04
Star Wars Galaxies - '03-'06('07)
World of Warcraft - '04-'07
Age of Conan - '08 - shelved.
-Waiting on-
Star Trek Online
SW: The Old Republic
Sigh PoTBS delayed again! I hope they decide to release it then acouple months later box release it!
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"Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
Another delay?Ow for crying out loud....
No way not another Delay?
For the love of god someone tell me how long they mean when they say delay?
A extra Month or two? A year?
Is this a delay on the whole game or just the retail (box) sales? Like, will we still be able to download on June 1st or whill the delay affect the download too?
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
I'd rather have a delay in release than to just rush it like Sigil did with Vanguard. I'd rather have a quality game instead of one with tons of bugs.
it will be a delay for the whole launch Downlaod and retail. I guess from what I understand from reading the games forums, the Disibutar will not order as many copies of the Boxed game with the digital goes live first. cuz they will think the hardcore fanbase will just download the game (witch they are right) and in turn would effect how much the game sells in it's box form. Also with the beta they are going to be expanding it by larg numbers, wich has lead people to think that they will be doing an open beta. So who knows.
I would not worry to much about this delay, The game is pretty much done they are just polishing up some things. the only thing delaying the game (if it dose get delayed) is the contracts with the disibuter and who ever else needs to be involved. If the game dose get delayed (odds are it will) I do not think it will be a huge one maby a month or two. Have no fear the game will come out, everyone seems to forget that FLS is a smaller company and dose not have the massive resources the other games have. The Guys and gals at FLS are doing a kick ass job and I think this game will blow up and become quite popular.
Good work devs, I have faith in ya!
I've said it before, I'll say it again, I don't care how long I have to wait so long as it is done 'right'.
The difference that I see between the delays PotBS has had and the delays in most mmorpgs is, everytime a game is delayed in most mmorpgs the devs also decide to cut a bunch of content from the game that they originally promised for R1. In PotBS each delay means even more content...
They delay the game but we get a little bonus with it, such as, 'we are delaying the game, but we are going to have avatars in R1!', 'we are delaying the game, but we are going to have player crafting now!', 'we are delaying the game, but we are going to release the game in stores via box, not just digital download!'
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Precisely; "if". It wasn't stated that it WILL be delayed, just that it might be delayed. Though the way I read it it looks like a strong chance it will be delayed. Just hope I'm wrong, or that the box (I'd prefer to buy a box copy if available) and whatever else they can add to the game is well worth the wait.
Unfortunately, this possible delay is NOT due to bugs or problems....it would simply be so the could market the game better. Based on the dev posts, and the state of the game log, the game should be clean and ready for June. Beta has not been a major problem. It's not a vanguard situation.
Simply put, if they don't sign a distribution contract SOON, and get the marketing going how they want, then they will delay it, possibly til Oct.
Which seems pretty lame to me. A delay for MARKETING....a first for me...and a waste, IMO.
Unfortunately, this possible delay is NOT due to bugs or problems....it would simply be so the could market the game better. Based on the dev posts, and the state of the game log, the game should be clean and ready for June. Beta has not been a major problem. It's not a vanguard situation.
Simply put, if they don't sign a distribution contract SOON, and get the marketing going how they want, then they will delay it, possibly til Oct.
Which seems pretty lame to me. A delay for MARKETING....a first for me...and a waste, IMO.
Well, you're dealing with an independant gaming company. FLS is doing the developing and the publishing themselves, so they need to examine their options.
Also, even though the delay is not due to bug problems. It will give the beta testers more time to find bugs and other problems of the like.
Please, this isn't a distribution issue. The reason the game is missing yet another release date is that it's nowhere near ready. If you read between the lines, they are STILL putting in major game features. It's been clear for months that they were nowhere near on schedule for a June 1 release. It looks like they are only now gearing up to really BEGIN testing the game. We are not talking about a simple month or so delay here. Now that they are planning to release with a version that requires in-store purchase, just add another 6 weeks from the time the game is actually finished. I suspect the end of this year is more realistic (if it ever gets released). Of course, once again, the development team sure as hell knew this all the way back in January or earlier when the June 1st release date was given. Did they bother to correct that date? Of course not!!! Just keep everybody thinking it's just around the corner so they don't move on to something else. Once again, as I keep saying, PoTBS strings everyone along with these BS release dates....they have been doing the exact same crap for years... I gave up on them a long time ago and now just stop by to troll. Sad to see they haven't changed....
--
"Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
but yes you are right, The odds of some one who has played the game and is now bashing it are very slim. That is why I never really listen to someone who says "This game is crap, and it will fail" or something along thos lines. The other thing I want to point out is everyone keeps focusing on the negitive what about the fact they are expanding the beta! that is just going to be The Bee's Knees in my book.
I completely admit I'm being nothing more than a troll. I haven't played the game at all. However, if you look at the selected quotes from above it seems pretty obvious they are nowhere near the "polishing" stage. They don't have a complete set of missions in yet, let alone tested. The have just added the boarding battles code which the designers are still revising. They just hired people to start getting feedback from players to see what they like (and I assume make changes based on that). And, yet more promises about expanding the very limited beta "soon". These aren't the things that are happening to a product that is entering the final polishing phase a couple of months before release. Everything points to many more months of work. Again, there's no way the development team doesn't know this or hasn't known it for a long time. They just haven't bothered to let their future players know...the 4+ year long tease continues. It's a good thing I don't run mmorpg.com because I would be petty and remove everything related to PoTBS and tell them to come back when their servers are live (and let them find somewhere else to play their hype game).
BTW:My Sig means nothing.
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=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
Anyways, the game has been delayed before (a year+ that I can remember) and the only reason the game might be delayed now is because of finacial/distribution reason. If this is the case, then I can understand, but again all the more reason for the to hurry up and push the game out
Anyways, I thought something like this might happen since last year, I knew they put 98% of their resources into making/finishing this game and they were a small company. I was sitting at home reading the dev blogs and thinking...Hmmm...I wonder who's running the financial issues for the games release; I got more worried when I hardly got to see any of FLS propoganda-machine, er I mean hype-machine in action.
Eh, I'm just ready to start playing.....
I Reject your Reality and Substitute it with My Own!
It appears to me that they've found them selves in the enviable position of being victims of their own success.
I believe that originally they only intended to release the game over STEAM. Because that was the cheapest way to get a game out to what they probably assumed was going to be a medium sized fan base.
But, now that they have alot of buzz going on about PotBS, they're looking at options for a much larger release and all the fan erm... fanfare that goes with it.
I don't believe this is entirely for the fans. They've worked alot of years on this game and I'm sure that the idea of Gamestop launch parties ala Burning Crusade and LOTRO appeals to their vanity as much as it would to any of us. However, I do feel that their efforts to get as many people into the lauch as possible benefits all of us. Too many MMOs die a sad death from lackluster launches. To my mind, only EVE has managed to recover.
Delays suck, but I agree with the general theme here that we'd rather have a polished release a few months later, then a buggy one in June or August (depending on who you talk to).
I'm hoping that a longer polishing phase means a longer open beta.
-Seth
Sethanon
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Its a good thing I am not very interested in this mmorpg or I might have posted a lot of hate because of this delay. Yet another delay for a game that has been in development for 4+ years reminds me too much of Dark and Light, and believe me when I say I could have unleashed on Flying Labs for this delay announcement
However, I could wait for it. I'm thinking that the game will actually be very good, but the delays always make me worry that something just isn't right. If it's just a contract for distribution to retailers, and has nothing to do with the game, then that should be a big relief. Still, after reading about this game back in 2003 or so, I think it's about time it gets released . . .