Devs - Talk about games in development or no?

mid_gen

mid_gen

mid_gen

Soldato
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With No Man's Sky continuing the trend of recent years of kicking off a major poopstorm because something the developers mentioned during development may or may not be in the final product....question:

Should we go back to the old days, where there was usually zero said by a developer prior to the release of a game where the first exposure the gaming community got to a game was a magazine review after it went gold?

Should we embrace the Star Citizen model, where development is completely transparent?

The current model where developers frequently talk about a game while it is in development seems to be a recipe for disaster in the age of Reddit etc. It just doesn't seem to work.

As a developer, I don't think you can *ever* talk about *anything* in a game that's in development and be 100% sure it's going to end up like that in the final product, or even be there at all. There are too many things that can change. It's not just "we ran out of time" either. Sometimes it's a technical problem that can't be overcome. Sometimes it just turned out to not work well once implemented. Sometimes it unbalanced the game too much. Sometimes the early test feedback was terrible. Sometimes it just didn't 'fit' once it was in the game.

Any time this happens, it's now a 'lie' and the community goes nuts. So...say nothing? Say Everything?
 
Or how about they say stuff without being cryptic. Sean Murray's 3 year parade of NMS over the media (aka Sony poster boy) was badly handled from the start...He is in essence Peter Molyneux version 2.0

Most devs can talk about their game and it not turn out to be BS because they actually know what their doing with their game instead of just blagging it constantly.

I dont think Star Citizen is a good reference point though, the devs are so up their own ass with that game (made worse by the insufferable community) that their game updates are becoming a joke in themselves.
 
Okay, third option :

Devs should just ignore the portion of the gaming community that appears to be just outright hostile to the people that create the games they play? There are going to be people that rage on you no matter what you do?
 
They can say whatever they like in development as long as when things change they say that too. I haven't been following NMS really but from what I've read it seemed he said certain things were going to be in the game but then dodged the question in recent interviews rather than addressing the change. That is bad.
 
Firstly speaking as a consumer I feel the problem is they only go half in. They talk about things when they need to build hype, and are silent when things go wrong. Its difficult too earn trust, and easy to lose it. We are all humans and understand people make mistakes but often the mistakes are covered by half truths, Developers do straight up lie about things, omit important parts of updates for example. I think either you go all in and are open, or don't talk at all. The middle ground does more harm then good, as a consumer if I only know half the story then I'm left to think up what the rest is, and since its hidden its easy to assume the worst.

Speaking as a developer its difficult, your excited about your work, and you really want others to see this thing you created thats amazing. Personally I've learnt that you just need to give as much info as you can, once you start promising features you need to either developer to explain as best you can why its not. Typically I've found its either more complex then you thought, or some business pressure, the problem with the too difficult part is people grossly underestimate how difficult things can be. I've been told my who life that literally every feature can be done with SQL lol. However if you giving frequent enough updates and are just up front that "Hey would have loved to give you this feature for the game now, but it is delayed and we will keep you posted" as long as the delay is not too much most will understands.

Finally, if users are update or complaining its a good thing, the problem beings when people don't care enough to complain. Also I think the community needs to show some sort of response. It shows the shot callers hey the community really wants this feature and they are upset, and also it will let the developer know that they can't just get away with ****.
 
So pretty much like I expected...say everything or say nothing?

Which is a shame, because I quite like hearing about development of a game, and I don't mind if things do or don't work out exactly as was originally intended. Aren't there more people that fit in this category?

I guess middle ground (that we are taking more) is to put the game in player's hands during development in the form of public tests. But even that doesn't placate the raging minority....
 
It's a judgement call - I don't see any force to make developers more or less transparent than they currently are. Just be more aware talking publicly about features that are still are in flux - and where that's an impossible scenario tonally temper expectations...

In the age of crowd funding I don't think it benefits anyone to become less transparent and replace that by say traditional marketing. SC is a special case where 'investor oversight' ends up meaning largely it's customer base with significant sums involved. Personally I hope that's never repeated as that game just feels like a ticking timebomb.

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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mid_gen said:
So pretty much like I expected...say everything or say nothing?

Which is a shame, because I quite like hearing about development of a game, and I don't mind if things do or don't work out exactly as was originally intended. Aren't there more people that fit in this category?

I guess middle ground (that we are taking more) is to put the game in player's hands during development in the form of public tests. But even that doesn't placate the raging minority....
Click to expand...

I don't think you have to say everything, but you have to say enough. For example I've seen games promise X,Y,Z and Y,Z don't make it and they dodge any questions about it. Thats bad, if they give some info or updates then its enough. I as a user don't need to know the details of the development process at that company, just enough to know that Y and Z are being delayed and some rough estimate.

I think testing is amazing, I've seen it with Diablo 3 and now overwatch, users are actively helping the developers, get a nice test build and the developer has made changes on the back of the testing. Using Destiny as an example this could have easily saved the heart ache of things like Thorn/Suros and other stupidly OP weapons that would have taken the community 3mins to figure out are just broken, and then they also feel more invested.
 
Personally, I would prefer dev's to do more hands on live streams / open forums where they show the product in a live environment and get peoples reactions, thoughts and questions in that open space. It is then up to the dev to answer in the most effective manner without breaking any NDA's they may have in place.

I have been impressed with Rebellion's Sniper Elite 4 coverage, doing live streams and having more planned streams showing other bits of the game and other mechanics should quieten down any hear-say hype that may or may not be surrounding the game.

Surely the key to not letting consumers down is to be transparent with the product you are creating. Showing it off without closing the doors is surely the best way to achieve this?

I appreciate this may be more difficult for some foreign dev's but a half decent English speaking presenter or even translator would be far better than than leaving it to the hear-say hype that seems to plague the gaming industry at the moment.

Thoughts guys??

Shawrey
 
Yeah with Twitch and YouTube streaming as popular as it is, that's their best bet

Trouble is, it's easy to stage a stream to make an upcoming game or expansion look a certain way. Like Destiny with their streams when Bungie did them, then when it comes to release people are like "Oh..." and end up disappointed anyway

I just don't think devs can ever win, you can never please everyone
 
There are also complications when a publisher is involved. Devs might have contractual obligations as to what they are allowed to share from an incomplete product.
 
Have to bring this up again....I'm still genuinely amazed at the number of people that that somehow got it into their heads that No Man's Sky was something it clearly isn't. Hello Games have delivered exactly the game I expected, and I followed it since it's announcement, watched all the videos and interviews.

I can only assume it's this crowd that whenever a game release comes around start all their breathless OMG THIS GAME IS SO OVERHYPED BUT I CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT AND MUST READ EVERY ARTICLE WRITTEN ON IT AND WATCH VIDEOS ANALYSING EVERY INTERVIEW AND TRAILER FRAME BY FRAME SO I CAN FIND SOMETHING TO BE OUTRAGED ABOUT OMG OVERHYPE.

I miss the old days. If Half Life came out today it would suffer the same toxic internet storm. This vocal minority of people seem to have forgotten how to enjoy games for what they are and take some perverse pleasure in being outraged by what they aren't.
 
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