Seriously, go Early Access please

[lyubarskiy]

where i can trow my money? >)

Right here buddy!

[lyubarskiy]

I know this is not a favorite point of many, but I wanted to debate.

Crowdfunding sucks for many reason, but the main one is inexperienced people trying to do something that they have never done before. This is quite often why they fail.

However, Crowdfunding to better an existing product or a stable company is something I am all down for if that gives me a better product in the end.

EGO will finish this game one way or another, however, from the presentation it became very evident that they could use extra resources. Much of what was shown was recycled XR assets and most of the animation and graphics were really awkward looking. Clearly there is a vision for of a great game and clearly X series fills a very big niche that even Star Citizen doesn't come close to. There is a huge market for X series with potentially the same scale and fidelity of star citizen. However, EGO have a very small team with very limited resources.

With a successful crowdsourcing campaign they could get enough capitol to hire and develop a game that they are just not going to be able to make at this stage.

Crowdsourcing is a also a good marketing tool that would no doubt help the fanbase.

[Gnorog]

It can also have the opposite effect, especially if the development team is small, and doesn't have the resources to both manage the necessary feedback and actually fix the bugs that are reported.

Believe me, we are not oblivious to the benefits of Early Access. Indeed we have more experience than most of making use of volunteer help, not least through DevNet which has been running for far longer than Steam's programme. But we are also acutely aware of what can go wrong, and of our own limited resources to mitigate against that happening.

I don´t know if you know Factorio, if not I think it´s worth looking at.

They have a very small dev-team, the game is in EA since many years and the community is very happy (I think they have sold more than a million copies of a game that should be considered more "niche" than the X-series).

Their recipe:
Start with a functioning game with a basic but still engaging gameplay. Improve the game based on community feedback, implement new features. Publish an experimental build, fix the bugs, publish a stable build. Rinse and repeat.

That could work for X4 too. You could even disable already implemented features to reduce the chances of bugs. The revenue should allow the implementation of features that are not possible with the current budget / timeline.

[Morkonan]

It can also have the opposite effect, especially if the development team is small, and doesn't have the resources to both manage the necessary feedback and actually fix the bugs that are reported...

I don´t know if you know Factorio, if not I think it´s worth looking at.

They have a very small dev-team, the game is in EA since many years and the community is very happy (I think they have sold more than a million copies of a game that should be considered more "niche" than the X-series).

Their recipe:
Start with a functioning game with a basic but still engaging gameplay. Improve the game based on community feedback, implement new features. Publish an experimental build, fix the bugs, publish a stable build. Rinse and repeat.

That could work for X4 too. You could even disable already implemented features to reduce the chances of bugs. The revenue should allow the implementation of features that are not possible with the current budget / timeline.

Crowdfunding for highly technical products, especially "entertainment" products doesn't have a great track-record in terms of overall achievements.

For indy, first-timers, its often like a garage-band asking people to fund their debut album. That's the situation they're often faced with.

For already existing IPs or proven developers, the record is better. But, when it "misses", it's profile is raised dramatically, much more than "just another failed indy project."

Factorio is fairly unique in design. The overall platform is simple, it just requires a sensible introduction of added bits that are complex, but aren't all that different from each other in mechanics/gameplay terms. IOW, it's a good example of "here's an idea, what can we tack onto it to make it better."

An X4 game is a bit different, IMO. In Factorio, one could release a "basic game" and the player would get to experience a good taste of the sorts of things they'd be doing in the vision for a finished game. In an X4 game, stripped down to such a basic platform, there would be little to do and one wouldn't get to do much in terms of overall gameplay when compared to the end-product. That would be "bad", in my opinion, from a marketing/PR perspective for an open audience. (Closed beta is a bit different animal.)

I'm against any standard form of Early Access or open Crowdfunding unless Egosoft absolutely needs the resources. Between getting a game or not getting one, I'm surely in favor of the former.

But, if they can avoid that model, I think gives a better chance for the game's initial success and long-term value. Some limited form of EA, during the final phases, or crowdfunding, to finish the final hurdles, is acceptable, but will still have risks.