ALPHA ROLLOUT STATUS

Ahh those were the days, back when C&C was good, and i was looking forward to Renegade..

Regarding people taking time off of work for this; it's no different than taking time off work for a vacation. You're simply taking that time off to do something you find enjoyable. For us, this is exciting, even knowing it is only the alpha. I'm a $200 backer but I will not be taking time off because I am low on vacation days.

Also, even with how well you guys are doing at keeping us updated on how the game is progressing, we are still on a completely different side of the fence. In office, you guys have been watching this all come together and working on it yourselves. On the other hand, none of us have been able to touch it yet. So even if it is buggier than an ant hill, we'll enjoy finally being able to contribute directly and see a glimpse of what is to come.

In defense of those "high budget developers" ....in my experience (I happen to be in the game industry), it's rarely the developers who are at fault. Generally devs interface quite well with their communities and work to create something amazing.

Unfortunately, for most of the lifetime of the gaming industry, funding has come through publishers. These publishers tend to care a bit less about the quality of the product, and a bit more about making X amount of $$ for Y investment. This is understandable, but publishers are not very accepting of delays and tend to pressure (or force) devs to push games to release before they are ready, or at a point the devs did not intend to release.

Obviously the result is an upset community, who (usually) wrongly attack and blame the devs, who are legally bound to not say "well, actually it's not our fault." This is partly what has caused the migration to crowd funding for even experienced dev studios (that, and they make more money off of their product as the publisher isn't eating it).

I'm still smashing the F5 button here. My finger will probably fall off soon.

Haha I am checking this forum every chance I get as well. Please note UberEnt is based in Seattle, WA and here it is 08:22. They probably don't get to the office until 09:00, even then we'll still have a few hours to wait most likely.

You must not have been around for the past 5 years indie games revolution.
There's dozens of big and small indie games that i personally enjoyed more (and have more hours spent in) than most AAA releases with multi-million dollar budgets to burn on voice actors and cutscenes (press X to open door, watch cutscene!).

• Dwarf Fortress
  Don't Starve
  Minecraft
  Europa Universalis
  SPAZ
  Waking Mars
  Stardrive
  Distant Worlds
  Endless Space
  Dungeon Crawl
  Primordia
  Star Ruler
  Torchlight
  Prison Architect
  Kerbal Space Program
  Path of Exile
  Sword of The Stars (original, devs went nearly bankrupt at release)
  Space Engine (not quite a "game", but still surpasses anything any AAA dev has ever accomplished in a 3d space environment, and it's by 1 guy)

I mean, a list is irrelevant, but i just wanted to give some concrete examples.
In many cases they did better what bigger devs in the respective genre didn't do.
It isn't about manpower size or money.
It's about creativity, talent and vision. Time and time again we've seen this proven true.
In my experience playing games for 15 years anyway.

Noob!
Just don't take any vacation in the first half of this year to burn it all on playing PA.

Dammit, shouldn't have gone to Japan crashing planetary annihilation for 2 weeks would be so much more worth it. just kidding, but I think I prefer travelling over gaming.

I've had to use some for various things, but I have 3 1/2 days left until next year

I also intend to use one in a couple of months for a Wintersun concert

3 1/2 left is pretty hard. Hope you'll be able to enjoy them.

Personal preferences. Japan would be interesting indeed, but I don't have the means for travels around the planet and going to neighbouring countries is ... I have done that enough already for the next for years.

I'm unemployed so right now I have unlimited vacation days lol.

It's kind of unsettling though.

Heh yeah I understand that feel. I am unemployed too aside from one weekend per month in the Air Force. Civilian employment is so much harder than the military! :cry: You'd think being an engineer in the past would help but it doesn't.

Anyway I cannot wait to get my hands on this alpha! I am so excited to have the opportunity to make this game that much better.

One word, my friend, just one word... Chickenpox.

I'm dying to find out if the alpha is going to come out today. Literally sitting in class refreshing the forum over and over.

Hahaha, I'm not sure I even have those. I had to take a day off a month or so ago for personal reasons and I had to take an unpaid day. I've only been here since last September, and I technically shouldn't have any vacation days yet, but they gave me 5 anyway. I know this all sounds awful but it's actually a relaxed place to work most of the time and it will get better.

5 days after 10 month certainly sounds horrible from my point of view

yeah man that sounds brutal. i get 2 weeks / year, I thought that was the bare minimum for FT Salary (though i am in Canada)

Well I get an hour lunch and we have a snack room with really cheap snacks and unlimited free coffee. I can set my own pace on almost all of my work and I can take breaks whenever I want for as long as I want, so long as I get work done. I do lots of stuff though. Wire electrical cabinets, build things with power tools, repair PCs, and do all of the shipping & receiving. I'm not so worried about the vacation days thing. In fact, the only real issue is regarding pay, but that's another story...

<<-- works from home :lol:
no time off required

I bartend on yachts. Slight break from the usual clientele but there it is.