I'm really not impressed... 1 year passed our initial kick-starter date and really no info on why. The video updates are so spread apart... Sorry for the negativity but I'm just not feeling it. In the end I see this game being supported by the current community only. I've seen other projects fail headed in this same direction. I see this game ending up being Like Shroud of the Avatar. Dead, no community because promises are made and aren't followed thru and then there are no explanations. Just the typical,"do you know what it takes to develop a game?" I mean how is there a kick-starter date for last year July and here it is almost July 2019 and still no kick-start and no explanation why? How did that get screwed up sooo bad by professional developers. Then we get these videos thrown in here every so often, that aren't exciting to me at all. $250 budget build? 5 minutes of motion cap, where you guys failed horribly. Okay so you got it to work. We know you can get it to work. Its not exciting. We where 100% over the fund me. How the hell is this progress going so poorly? I fell victim...like most people do. To the promise. This is the spiritual successor to Ultima Online (Shroud of the Avatar). Piss, poor shitty. 12 million kick start and still going. This is the spiritual successor to Firefall(Ember) HERE! Take my money! Promises promises promises...... Only reason I'm bitching is because I llllllllloooooooovvvveeeed Firefall. but it's starting to look like I need to let this go now before i get my feelings hurt in the long run. Good luck with Ember. I really hope I return to something epic in the future, but I highly doubt it. Good luck
LONG LIVE Firefall!!!!!
and I'm really not trying to be negative. i've been here from the start.
just voicing my opinion.
I'm sure a lot of what I am about to say has been repeated oft times on this forums, having done so myself several times. But these are simple facts that can't be avoided or ignored.
The team is only around 20 odd strong. And of that, Grummz is the only full time member. The others contribute to the game by putting in work after their regular working hours for other companies/on other projects. And this includes the modelers, animators, tech staff, just about everyone essential to get a build for the game working and presentable. Hence, this is in no way comparable to a full fledged team working full time.
To directly address your concern: The game is being funded entirely by the community, yes. And with that comes the caveat that if the team is unable to put out a playable mockup that can truly capture the feel of the game they want, and is incapable of capturing the fancy of the gaming community, that will just about be it. It will not get enough funding, and development will have to stop. Hence, the team has to ensure that they bring in and use the best tools they can, within budget, to produce high quality builds. This means that there will be revisions of dates as they find better ways to improve the tech used and successfully incorporate it into the game. Additionally, priorities and plans may change, which may require additional effort be put in. A good example is the decision to change the Playable Mockup into a multiplayer build.
Also remember that several of these team members are wearing multiple hats, sometimes learning new tools on the go. These factors add into development time. At that point, estimates can be expected to fail. Even the most well planned out and well staffed projects often struggle to meet targets as new plans and targets are set up during development. I believe the team do require some leeway in this matter.
The videos may seem trivial, however they are integral to the 'communication' part of the development process. It's telling the community that yes, they are working on important aspects of the game that have to be improved before a playable build can be thrown out there. How often have you seen multi-million dollar games released that are poorly optimized and require exceptionally powerful systems to run at acceptable frame-rates. The $250 PC build was the team ensuring that the game is optimized from the get go. Once the foundation is set right, anything you build on it remains strong. It's easier to optimize as you go, instead of having to optimize at the very end.
Further, the team has been quite open about the developmental process. Different members of the team, including Grummz, are in constant touch with the community regarding the development process and the work they are putting into the game. They have even taken to getting the community involved in significant decisions involving game mechanics/features, which is quite refreshing in itself. This continues to tell the community that the team is building a game for the community that supports them.
I cast a look at the gaming scene today, and you have cases like Anthem which stay in dev for 6 years with multi-million dollar funding and is released an absolute mess. The team here cannot and will not do that. And I'm pretty sure none of us here want an Anthem-like mess from the devs that gave us Firefall. It's better to take the time to do things properly than rush everything out the door and fail in the biggest promise you made to the community that supported you. And to that end, I'm sure most would agree with me that the community is willing to be patient while the devs do their job. Let's call it 'looking at the bigger picture'.
100% additional funding is always relative. A better measure is the amount that the game was funded. 500% funding on a 20,000 goal is still only 100,000 which is no way comparable to the 100s of millions that go into the development of a typical AAA title these days.
Your concerns are valid and understandable, however there is a bigger picture here, that we, as the community that wants to reclaim what we lost in Firefall, need to be aware of when we evaluate the performance of the team.
All said, it is unfortunate that you feel 'cheated' or 'betrayed' by the team. Hope to see you back around soon. Good luck.
