STEAM

Fast neutrino, you have to catch up! Spam the forum, I heard spaceship battle suggestions are always a runner.

Huzzah!

Zero-sum games aren't a very big studio. It might even still be a one-man show, but they did recently release a game through steam Early Access which sold fairly well even if it wasn't spectacularly well received.

So is Uber just gonna let this shitstorm on Steam blow over? I would like to hear this from a Dev.

Uber is an exceptionally interactive dev, I would cite the livestreams as evidence. Yes, plenty of other developers post as much or more on their own forums as Uber, they're usually indie devs too.

Steam early access was some minor bad PR, it's not a big deal. It could have been avoided in hindsight and there's probably some things that can be done now to mitigate it. As I suggested earlier calling the early access what it really is (a collector's edition) would have helped, it may not help now though.

Uber really doesn't deserve the flak they're getting, especially since Steam wasn't their idea - the community asked for it and Uber delivered.

Positive press. Positive press everywhere.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Planet ... 56700.html
http://www.vg247.com/2013/06/13/planeta ... nt-page-1/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/13/plane ... -to-alpha/

Yep. Not changing a thing and sticking to the plan.

Do you seriously think we run the company based on internet mob rule?

I can't imagine they have any other choice, anything they do at this stage will offend someone somewhere, and probably their dog.

To be fair, at least in their case they were carrying burning wads of their parent's money and not pitchforks, shovels and... other things.

One thing to note is that most of the bigger developers simply have corporate policies that don't allow people to say stuff on the forum without easily getting fired. Here we encourage people to wear at least 15 pieces of flair.

Just a quick note that I have to head out (company function) and won't be posting here until late or possibly tomorrow.

I wouldn't figure you to. I'll probably pick the Alpha up when I have the dosh.

Have you guys contacted Metacritic and asked them to take the page down? The release date is wrong and it shouldn't be up. I'd recommend legal action....

I find it respectful that you run Uber how you think it should be done.
But clear communication (even to an internet mob) cannot hurt in my opinion.

(Have not read Steam forums, so perhaps you guys have already given detailed information and people are still stampeding)

Apparently not as much detail for the steam crowd. They're still a little riled up.

Mother of...

Yah. That's pretty inappropriate of them to put it up when it isn't released. It's not a full game yet, it should be impossible to properly review it.

Funny that the detractors weren't around during kickstarter.

Well like I said earlier, there isn't really much they can do other than hunkering down and hoping it blows over. Satisfying steam users will upset people here, and satisfying people here will upset steam users. So since the steam users are already upset....

Also for the nth time, early access is is basically treated as a de-facto release nowadays. You can blame a myriad of small, but successful-against-all-odds developers for that.

And do not forget, the people here have already committed themselves to PA, making it possible for PA to be developed in the first place.

Beer and strippers is a company function now?

Take a bird in the hand over two in the bush as they say :lol:

As much as I like steam, I'm surprised to see this happening. That people don't understand that 1. it's how it was on kickstarter and 2. it's basically a way of creating a controlled group of testers so they don't get too many people all at once is a bit disconcerting. I mean, come on. It's just different business models. Minecraft was going for as many people as possible, uber was going for people who really wanted this game to happen. There is no moral authority going on here, as the game is going to be priced cheaper than supcom's original release in the end.

It's not about Backers giving Better Feedback, but about being able to give DIFFERENT feedback. As I said, anyone can sign up on the forums and share ideas and opinions, but having Alpha Access gives a lot more context to work with when giving feedback. In a way it is like they can give better feedback, but they have the advantage of being able to use the Alpha as a Basis or Foundation. You haven't been around to see it, but there has been a LOT of discussions on ideas and suggestions, from both Fans and Devs and they have had an affect on the game already, and that is only going to happen more as we get more and more features implemented into the Alpha and can really focus on actually trying things to see if they work instead of just talking about theories.

Careful, you're making assumptions about a lot of people here and it's doing you no favors, I know you certainly don't speak for why I backed the project, and many many others as well.

Mike

Really? The first thing I thought when I saw PA advertised on steam for $90 was "man there are going to be a lot of upset people on the forums right now" and was not disappointed in any way.

Blame steam users all you want, but its the system they have gotten used to. Early access hits, it's 30-50% discounted but that is balanced by the game being unplayable. Half of them complain on the forums that it is unplayable, half defend the game for being an Alpha/Beta/Smismar.

That's basically the Steam hive-mind SOP.

Uber upset the nice little system they had, and it caused a bit of a faff. It could have been worse, it could have also gone better. It's a risky business. Nine times out of ten when there is an internet furor, it fades out in to the ether. However there is that one time out of then that it gets stuck in everyone collective craw and sowers things.

Time will tell which one of those things it will be. Probably the first, but I don't envy everyone having to sit under the guns of this.