Just release a beta version and let the true/core fans shape the final version of game.
I’m talking to you Hello Games (No man’s sky), just don’t mess it up with upcoming ‘Light no fire’.
Edit: Blueprint (not footprint)
A lot of devs already do this. That’s what Steam Early Access is for. Now, whether or not the devs actually listen to feedback is a different story…
Early Access is just “release”. Only the devs openly admit ahead of time the game is buggy and unfinished, and promise - as always - to fix it up and add the missing parts.
Often they do. Sometimes they don’t.
TBH it’s ultimately nothing but a shitty buggy release, but the honesty of making that known ahead of time buys a whole lot of goodwill. It should be the default, that any publisher releasing a game that is not finished - so most AAA nowadays - marks it as Early Access, openly declaring the unfinished part.
It’s also very different from a beta version, which is usually feature and content complete (otherwise it’s generally called an alpha). Early Access versions are often very early in the development process, they’re feature-complete-ish, but never or rarely content complete, usually just starting out on that. This works exceedingly well for games that need “just more stuff”, but can miss the mark on games that need underlying systems reworked as this ires the existing playerbase and splits it.
I disagree, big publishers do not deserve early access, they have money to pay for QA, it’s a gross misuse of the feature.
Early access isn’t necessarily different from a beta version, it’s just the name of the program used by devs to generate some revenue and get feedback during development. The game can be in alpha or beta or whatever.
Personally, I avoid games in early access on principle (with a couple exceptions) as I would rather play them once they are completed.
Same, I got little enough gaming time, might as well play it once it’s in its best state and play something else before that.
I’m talking to you Hello Games (No man’s sky), just don’t mess it up with upcoming ‘Light no fire’.
What messed up NMS was overpromise to a basically criminal degree. If this were a B2B-transaction, they’d have been sued to hell and back. There’s absolutely 0 chance LNF won’t suffer exactly the same fate.
I’m cautiously optimistic for Light No Fire. The main thing I learned from the NMS initial launch experience (am a day 1 player) is not to allow myself to get too hyped for games (this knowledge was cemented by the launch of CP2077 haha). And, you’d hope that Sean / HG learned also not to overpromise in terms of feature set… would hope they learned a hell of a lot from the long cycle of updating NMS.
Well, there’s no redemption arc bigger than NMS in gaming history, being optimistic about NMS is ok and has been for a few years.
My opinion: Follow the Apex Legends one. Don’t tell the public literally anything. Build up zero hype, and then release it out of nowhere and let the game speak for itself. No hype = no overinflated expectations or impatient gamers. Obviously not every studio should do this, but I wish more would. I enjoy being pleasantly surprised, rather than wait for a game for years, only for it to be overpromised and DOA.
That approach works for some studios and some game projects but it’s no silver bullet. A lot of times gamers don’t know what they want until it’s handed on them on a silver platter which can make taking the correct kind of feedback really difficult. Sometimes outside influence may also stray the developers from their original vision.
That being said, developing game in complete secrecy for years and expecting it to become a success has pretty much the same chance as winning in a lottery. Getting MVP out there asap to see if the game will receive any sort of traction and feedback is generally the best approach unless it already has an audience (sequel or well known developer). It can be prototype, demo or early access as long as it’s something.
[edit] Removed some repetition
Do you mean “blueprint”?
English is not my first language. Sorry 😭
<3
Just edit the headline
I hope Titan Quest 2 will be good too.
It’s under a different studio than the original. The original devs are releasing a new DLC for Grim Dawn, though.
Its crazy that they still update that game and I love it
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Grim Dawn early access started in like 2013. It’s old, bro.
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Yeah and? I don’t know what are you trying to say here, its not like I said “Its crazy that Grim Dawn still gets updates unlike WoW”. Do I really need type out all the old games that still get updates when I want to talk about one?
You wanna know another old game that still gets updates? Project Zomboid. /J
But really though Zomboid has also been in early access since like 2013 and it’s still getting actively updated. Not to mention all the mods available on the steam workshop.
Holly shiy Berk from yhe hit manga Berserk
take 20 years for the next game?
But BG2’ dev and BG3’s dev are different. The moment Larian (BG3’s dev) got rights to develop BG3, they started immediately.