Author Topic: Still March?  (Read 3718 times)

Offline tigersfan

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Still March?
« on: March 11, 2011, 05:47:00 am »
Are you guys still looking at a March release for the Alpha? Or has it been officially moved to April?

Offline x4000

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2011, 09:21:17 am »
I was just going to post about this today, actually, but no: we're looking at the second half of April now, basically.  The reasons for that are twofold:

1. There's a ton of games coming out in March, not to mention trade shows, and it would be marketing suicide to release our first alpha in this month, we discovered.  I don't want to repeat the Tidalis mistake of releasing at the wrong time, even for alpha.

2. We have wound up increasing our scope for alpha rather substantially by the addition of multiplayer, shadows, and some other components of that nature.  The result is that the first alpha version will be even more polished and functional, which is great, but it also means that our project timeline gets shifted around a bit outwards.

But, never fear that we're going to see an endless stream of pushbacks on the date with the first alpha.  In terms of what we initially set out to do, we are actually a bit ahead of schedule; and the scope additions were well-considered things based on overwhelming player feedback to the early screens/videos/descriptions, rather than just general scope-creep because we felt like it.  In other words, early player comments have already helped to shape what our vision is for the first public alpha is, and that's good all around, but it is larger than what we had originally planned when we were thinking about this in isolation before showing you guys anything.

All in all, things are going really well, though.  We'll be seeing that first public alpha somewhere in 5-7 weeks from now, and my god is the game going to be bigger then compared to what it is now. :)
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Offline Echo35

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2011, 11:32:17 am »
1. There's a ton of games coming out in March, not to mention trade shows, and it would be marketing suicide to release our first alpha in this month, we discovered.  I don't want to repeat the Tidalis mistake of releasing at the wrong time, even for alpha.

I've already got a huge backlog of games from March and April, so good decision I say :P

Offline x4000

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2011, 11:35:29 am »
You and everyone else, too, yeah.  :P
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Offline KingIsaacLinksr

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2011, 06:45:03 pm »
Probably a good idea, plus you got iPad 2 fever for a while going around.  Including me ;)

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Offline Teal_Blue

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2011, 07:50:46 pm »

5 to 7 weeks sounds good, but even if it were longer, that would be fine too. I like that player feedback has helped, and glad that the game will be better for all the time to work in the new ideas and the polishing that you mentioned. Thank you very much for listening to the players, a lot of companies out there don't. I suppose they have their reasons and the view on it, but i am glad that you ask for and listen to what we have to say. Even if it isn't feasible or even really a wanted addition to what you are doing, you have the politeness to listen.

Looking forward to the next update and to the alpha release. I think this will be really my kind of game, i like AI War, but the war thing isn't really my strong point. But mostly i think i like the different spin, and your listening the most.

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Offline Invelios

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2011, 08:42:59 pm »
If this delay is making the game better, then I'm all for it. Hopefully the very first alpha release is something that will attract a lot of attention. Also, the delay will give me time to play with my 3DS before this game comes out and eats up my free time.  ;)

Can't wait for the game to come out. Good luck! Really glad you got multiplayer working, my friend said that he would be interested in playing multiplayer with me.

Offline getter77

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2011, 04:41:37 pm »
I'm down to the wire on my gaming fund stash, so if you can (very soon) tell us the price that'd be incredibly helpful as I am literally down to a motley crew of $5's and $1's here and would prefer to throw some in Arcen's direction as it could be quite a long time before any other disposable purchasing power avails.
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Offline cupogoodness

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2011, 03:50:20 am »
I'm down to the wire on my gaming fund stash, so if you can (very soon) tell us the price that'd be incredibly helpful as I am literally down to a motley crew of $5's and $1's here and would prefer to throw some in Arcen's direction as it could be quite a long time before any other disposable purchasing power avails.

We're still finalizing this, but we're hoping to fall in the "more than a sub, less than a pizza" range for those who purchase during alpha, with a price increase at beta and again at official launch. Again, nothing set in stone but rest assured, the game will call for more of your $1's than your $5's if you plan on getting in during alpha.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2011, 03:52:29 am by cupogoodness »

Offline getter77

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Re: Still March?
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2011, 07:52:19 am »
I'm down to the wire on my gaming fund stash, so if you can (very soon) tell us the price that'd be incredibly helpful as I am literally down to a motley crew of $5's and $1's here and would prefer to throw some in Arcen's direction as it could be quite a long time before any other disposable purchasing power avails.

We're still finalizing this, but we're hoping to fall in the "more than a sub, less than a pizza" range for those who purchase during alpha, with a price increase at beta and again at official launch. Again, nothing set in stone but rest assured, the game will call for more of your $1's than your $5's if you plan on getting in during alpha.

Right on, that sounds workable barring any weird happenings.
The Roguelike Guy...also hopefully an overall skilled developer as time rolls on.