Let's talk: Realistic Project Goals for PA

I worry. Not in a negative way, but in an experience way.

According to chris taylor, he fully supports and loves the projects idea, but worries about scale and scope.

Stating TA took 20 months to make working nearly 7 days a week, SUPCOM1 nearly 3 and half years for a 10 million dollar budget.

So i ask this directly to the devs, how are you going to be able to achieve a release date of this year (apparently?), on such a small budget, with such INCREDIBLE scope and scale for this project? I ask because i'm worried from a consumer point of view, but also value and repect that of a designer who has much experience in the RTS genre, that the goals won't be achieved and the game won't be as great as we all want and to quite a large degree, expect it to be.

I'm not a doubter at all, but as a backer, an enthusiast and a loyal supporter of the project I feel it's my duty to ask and hopefully get some official reply, how are you guys going to this?

Thanks in advance and goodluck onwards .

*Grabs Popcorn*

This should be good.

Mike

Here, read: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=43007&start=120

As said in the thread lordq linked to above me, there are a few aspects of this game that the dev team don't need to worry about... well, developing. Here are the main point(s) stated by neutrino for the lazy.

So yeah, most of the time consuming aspects of the development process are either non-existent (campaign), or cut down (most of Uber having worked on large scale RTS games before, and therefore have some knowledge as to how to attack certain dev-problems. Plus I'd be willing to wager they know what they're doing. ).

Well, let's say, for example, that they focused on making the core game, and the core gameplay fully functional. That includes the general planet/asteroid/solar system map generation, the faction and various special units, (IE. the commanders), and some - or all - of the special planet types. Now, I personally wouldn't have any issue at all, with Uber sorta "delaying" the bigger stretch goals till they are just as functional - (Mainly the galactic war) - and releasing the core, fully playable and functional game instead of them possibly delaying the whole project just to get the whole damn package all "clean and shiny".

I'm not sure everyone in the PA community would feel the same way regarding that as I do though.

I applaud your non-laziness in putting that together ubersoldier.

Don't forget the other thread where I lay out a bunch of design decisions to make things cheaper.

Basing what Uber is capable of on what someone else says is silly. We've been working without a publisher net for our entire existence. As an example Just not having a publisher breathing down your neck save huge dollars.

That being said also please do not confuse the size of the kickstarter raise with the budget of the game. We very well may spend more than we raised on kickstarter.

Also keep in mind that we are using an iterative development process. Once alpha is released we will continue to work on the game. Same with once the game is "final". Every week the game gets better, has more features etc. So if we update the game for the next 5 years when was the "release" date? This is a totally different way of handling this stuff than TA/SupCom etc.

Finally to circle back to my original point I detailed a bunch of design decisions to make the game cheaper. One set of units, procedural maps, no single player campaign etc. etc.

For the point that it took 20 months to make TA, and resources invested into the other games, it's important to note that Uber has tools available to them that simply did not exist during the time of TA, and maybe even to the developers of supcom 1 and 2 (although I'm not sure on that last part). A lot has happened between 1997 and now. The tools people use to develop video games can make a difference, yet no one is taking this into account.

Fixed! ;p

Mike

*HatTip*

Haha! Nay-sayers, that term should be used more often.

But yes kamov, what you say is true.

This method will no doubt cut down on total development time, since not only will the dev team be finding and squishing bugs, the many backers with their respective alpha & beta testing will also be sending in bug reports, thus cutting down on total dev-time fine tuning the release.

And what I quoted by the man is said again. One faction, no need for map design, no time consuming scripting of a campaign, etc. All of those cut down on what might regularly be anywhere from 2 or more years development time.


Now, I'm no RTS guru, but I think the most time consuming processes that don't need to be, are the map design, with all the balancing and making enough of them, and the campaign, with the whole script writing and recording dialog and possible cut scenes and all that, and none of those the dev team need to worry about, huzzah!

I just wanna smash an asteroid into planet...

If I can do that by beta release i'll be happy all the rest can come in updates for all I care lol

If you really support PA for that long that good, you will definitely create the most awesome RTS ever. Lets hope it can work out

Well thanks for responding , i wasnt intentionaly becoming cross opinionated with Chris in regards to your capabilities, i was just factoring in his level of experience on top of all you guys, but you have cleared a lot of everything i have mentioned so, thanks for that, i now feel safer in knowing that the funds raised, tools used, work ethic in place and attitude towards development (a bit like project cars im guessing, weekly builds which make the game better, as im a part of that) and continued support throughout, without as you said, the almost "game crushing" approach some producers can have on a game, will all contribute to making this a success!

I never ever knew publishers had so much control, especially that they were actually fully in control of if a patch for a game was released or not, despite or even against the fact if the developers really want to realise one to the public, nor did i think modding tools hit the same publishing hurdle with such a thing, it's quite astounding really, the power they have to kill a game...for so long ive wrongly accused the dev companies of not caring, when in most (not all lol) cases they really DO want to support us, but cant due the publisher saying "no" and then blaming "limited resources" or "unviable means" or some other publisher orchestrated crap. Ludicrous, soul destroying even.

Anywho back on topic, thanks to all for the links , think i just got a little scare with the way the economy is going, or more accurately, the way the media is constantly going on about it, certainly here in the UK, stfu already! So yeah, I look forward to seeing the project develop, feeding back into it and being a real part of making this game amazing!

Cheers all.

Yay. I would go as far as paying a montyhly subscription to get that. Or buy several add-ons a year.
Executive Summary : you need to find a way to let us give you money

How about we find a way for you to make some money as well?

As I've said before game development is a very tough business. There is so much that can't be said that sometimes it's hard to keep your mouth shut.

whaaaaaaat? :?:

I don't know what I should think about that.

This whole PA story gets more and more interesting for me

Ahah! I knew it! It all makes so much sense now. Water worlds, gas giants, space stations, galactic war...

... PA is a secret military training program designed to discover the brightest interstellar generals to fight the Buggers.

I imagine posting a government job to fight space aliens would cause a panic. They needed a more subtle method to find and hire the very best.

This.