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Crowfall; FOUNDERS' UPDATE: SOFT LAUNCH STRATEGY

DragnelusDragnelus Member EpicPosts: 3,503
edited May 2016 in Crowfall
http://crowfall.com/en/news/founders-update-soft-launch-strategy/

FOUNDERS' UPDATE: SOFT LAUNCH STRATEGY

Let’s Talk about Dates

By now you guys have (hopefully!) seen that we make it a goal to be exceptionally transparent when it comes to our plans, our development process… and, yes, even our mistakes.  We believe that transparency is a core part of our company’s DNA; we want you guys to both celebrate our victories and be help us learn from our mistakes.

That’s our preamble.  Now let’s talk about schedules.

The Good

Overall, we think momentum on the game has been extraordinary. For a team of ~20 people, we have absolutely flown through our development plan.

  • It has been barely over a year since we ended our Kickstarter, and we already have a playable game with multiple game modes – which we consistently test on servers all around the world.
  • We have a strong foundation for a number of core systems: patching, login, character creation, melee and ranged combat, skill training, siege engines, items & equipment… and a bunch of back-end stuff that you guys don’t know about. Some of these still need a fair amount of iteration – but the foundation of the game is getting better with every release.
  • We successfully delivered a server-side physics system, one of the cornerstones of our vision. Players can destroy castles and topple walls in real-time -- one of the most challenging (and unique) problems that we set out to solve.
  • We have core functionality for five of our 13 planned archetypes. Thanks to feature reuse, our velocity for creating new archetypes is also increasing.

The Bad

We still have a lot of work to do, and the clock is ticking.

  • We need a TON of optimization (both server and client). We’re topping out our matches at just under 100 players… a solid start, but it needs to go up a LOT (and it will, soon!)
  • Our worlds are still very tiny. We need to increase the size of each world by more than an order of magnitude.
  • Our procedural world system isn’t done yet, and we can’t start to build “real” worlds until this system is functional.
  • We have a mountain of content to create (characters, monsters, buildings, equipment, materials, mounts, etc.)

The Ugly

Back in December, we made a decision to push out our “Siege” milestone so that we could spend more time working on combat and movement. It was the right call: combat feels a LOT better. The fallout, though, was a delay in Siege Perilous – a one-month push from March to April.

The truth is that we are still not there yet. Combat is better, but it needs to be GREAT. Movement is better, but it needs to FLOW. Castle destruction is cool, but it needs to be AMAZING.

Nothing is free. Once again, we are faced with a choice:

  1. We can call these systems ‘good enough’ and move on, to do our best to make our original date(s), OR...
  1. We can continue to work on the foundation of the core game experience, knowing that the schedule won’t be able to absorb it. The impact of continuing to polish these systems, of continuing to strengthen the foundation of the game, is going to push some features into 2017.

In our mind, this isn’t really a choice. Our ultimate goal is to make the best game possible, a game that we (and you) will play for years and years.

If we have to choose between hitting a date and making a great game, we will choose the latter, EVERY TIME. We can’t shortcut polish. We can’t just say it’s good enough and move on. That’s not why we started this company.

And yes, we know that this isn’t easy on our community. While we are confident that spending more time on polish Is the right answer, we hate having to ask you to be patient. To complicate matters, we don’t know exactly what will be delayed (or for how long) because we don’t know how long we’re going to need to spend on these core systems. Polishing something until it’s right isn’t something you can easily predict.

Hate it or not, we’re going to do it because it’s the right way to make a great game.

So, what does this mean?

There is really only one way to deal with uncertainly. We are going to take as long as it takes, but instead of shooting for a single launch date (and delaying that day until we complete ALL planned features and content), we are aiming for a soft launch to get you in, and playing, as quickly as possible.

Our priorities are to…

  • To build you a playable game experience,
  • To turn on character persistence with the expectation of never wiping again as soon as we feel like the systems are solid enough to do so,
  • To prioritize the features that are central to the heart of our vision first, and
  • To treat the game as a live service, adding features and content incrementally over time

…and, most importantly:

  • Continue to polish the core systems until we get them right.

In the long run, you guys will judge us by the game that we ship.  If we need more time to make it great, we will find the money and extend the schedule. This doesn’t mean that we won’t get you in, and playing, as soon as possible—we promise that we will—but we are in this for the long haul. Nothing trumps quality. Not even time.

As to the “when,” understand that we are reluctant to give any firm dates at this point. Instead, we’re going to fall back to the old adage of “when it’s ready”. We will steadfastly uphold our pledge to you: to continue to work as hard as we can, to keep you informed on a weekly (often daily) basis of our progress, and to listen to your feedback and adjust the vision make you the best game that we can.

Once again, we want to thank you for your understanding and your continued support, and we invite you to let us know your thoughts (good and bad) on the forums.

As always, we are listening.

Todd and Gordon
Founders, ACE


Comments

  • JamesGoblinJamesGoblin Member RarePosts: 1,242
    Hey, thanks for posting this! You saved me some effort =)
     W...aaagh?
  • Sid_ViciousSid_Vicious Member RarePosts: 2,177
    "still tons of content needed"

    "small world"

    Uh oh... hopefully its fun!

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  • donger56donger56 Member RarePosts: 443
    Well it sounds like they are falling into the same trap a lot of games fall into when they figure out that they can't produce what they promised in the time they promised it. "Soft launch" is industry code for we want money coming in, but we want to keep using the excuse of the game isn't finished yet. This might fly with the small group of fanboys, but any outside observer will see right through that nonsense. If you need to delay the release then do it, but don't play word games and try to be slick about it. Everyone knows when you stop wiping progression then the game is "retail" no matter what you want to call it. It sounds to me like they are worried about running out of money before they can produce something polished enough to be considered a retail game. 
  • RamajamaRamajama Member UncommonPosts: 271
    Thats fine, many studios push out unfinished products and are not even transparent about it. 
  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    donger56 said:
    Well it sounds like they are falling into the same trap a lot of games fall into when they figure out that they can't produce what they promised in the time they promised it. "Soft launch" is industry code for we want money coming in, but we want to keep using the excuse of the game isn't finished yet. This might fly with the small group of fanboys, but any outside observer will see right through that nonsense. If you need to delay the release then do it, but don't play word games and try to be slick about it. Everyone knows when you stop wiping progression then the game is "retail" no matter what you want to call it. It sounds to me like they are worried about running out of money before they can produce something polished enough to be considered a retail game. 
    I don't believe money is the issue - in the future maybe but not at the moment. Even if the amount raised via KS was running out with a team of only 20 I would be very surprised if the ACE founders couldn't fund it if they wanted it. (Not saying they would btw). I think the key issue - as so often and as you allude to is - sadly - an inability to plan. (And that does have financial implications I know). People basically thinking stuff will happen "sooner" than it does - reminds me of a recent WoW thread :)  

    Will it be a retail launch though? How retail iI is Kickstarter? I think the answer is uncertain. 

    I do think they might have learned from SC as well - the benefits of getting "something" out that people can play for example. And the talk of - I think the words used were minimal viable product. 

     
  • FranciscourantFranciscourant Member UncommonPosts: 356
    donger56 said:
    Well it sounds like they are falling into the same trap a lot of games fall into when they figure out that they can't produce what they promised in the time they promised it. "Soft launch" is industry code for we want money coming in, but we want to keep using the excuse of the game isn't finished yet. This might fly with the small group of fanboys, but any outside observer will see right through that nonsense. If you need to delay the release then do it, but don't play word games and try to be slick about it. Everyone knows when you stop wiping progression then the game is "retail" no matter what you want to call it. It sounds to me like they are worried about running out of money before they can produce something polished enough to be considered a retail game. 
    How I see it is that they said during their Kickstarter that the game would launch in December 2016 and instead of delaying the whole game for a couple months (to compensate for the extra time spent on polishing combat / destruction), they will let some players get in the game and add features progressively. That's basically what thousands of players are already allowed to do in Siege Perilous, Hunger Dome and in the upcoming mini-campaign.

    I doubt that they're worried about running out of money: they're getting more funding from backers and investors regularly. $2,750,000 in crowdfunding in a little more than a year, +$7,000,000 total funding.
  • pythonlabspythonlabs Member UncommonPosts: 13
    I really don't mind this, so long as the original promised plan isn't fully implemented and then sold to me as an expansion later, like some other games have done.
  • YashaXYashaX Member EpicPosts: 3,100
    Looking forward to the soft launch, I will buy it just from what I have seen of the gameplay so far as long as the servers are up most of the time.
    ....
  • stickman1979stickman1979 Member UncommonPosts: 59
    Can't wait. With how shitty and full of hackers BDO is becoming, I need a meaty game to sink my teeth into.
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