What was Chris Roberts "playing" at last years Gamescom then?
Chris Robert's wasn't playing anything at last years Gamescom or any other Gamescom for that matter. QA testers are the ones playing, Chris Roberts present's and showcases what's happening while directing the camera play, well he tries at least.
Like I've mentioned before those are builds made to showcase gameplay and art direction, technological advancements and overall vision of the game. A proof of concept live demonstration intended to it's core backers. Who happen to be the main investors of the game. The 600i pre-rendered eye candy trailer
IS a marketing video, that's the one that is supposed to push sales of said ship. The rest of the show is a demonstration of the development's progress.
I've only saw bits of the edited Gamescom show but from what I've seen it showcased several progress in both game features and technical advancements along the habitual graphical candy stuff.
We saw a bit of all the stuff they have been working on and some new stuff:
- MobiGlass Enhancements
- 2.0 Item System
- Clothing Customization
- Subsumption AI
- Oxigen/Survival features
- Player Com's With Video
- A bit of Subsumption Ai
- FaceTrack+VOIP
- Cargo Tranportation
- Idris flyable (x2)
- Landing 2 gladius on a Idris
Without working at the company there isn't a way to properly critique their processes. It isn't the case that "normal" Agile practices make you immune to mismanagement. I'm quite sure the graveyards are littered with games that were developed with normal Agile processes.
If management wants to divert funds to producing a smoke & mirrors demo to promote ship sales, you can use all the Agile you like. Won't put a consumer ready game on the table
Yes without being in the inside there's only assumptions to be made. There isn't ONE single way to develop games, it changes between studios and between projects, it's fluid and needs to adapt to each situation. That's why contextualization is everything. Every problem will be different and will need it's own answer.
Cool story bro.
So, when do you think we're gonna get the promised game? Care to give your estimated date?
Already wrote about that some post's behind:
Just like ED it's a 10 year plan for full completion. A marathon, not a sprint if you like. We enjoy the ride the best we can by playtesting and helping out CIG with feedback and support.
It's still a pre-alpha and flight model is still a WIP.
Developers are focusing on more important matter.
The project is under development for only 5 years, of which it took CIG 4 years to build up their studios and workforce, so it's actually effectively under development for only a year.
Worse games than this took much longer to make. Solid technical foundations are just being laid down and production will increasingly ramp up from this point on.
Besides that, in the meantime the scope has increased 10x because CR wants to make us the best game available, so have patience.
I know what you think - $156 million dollars. It's really nothing compared to what this game will be.
It deserves at least 1 billion dollars because it will be unlike anything else out there. And leave CIG alone. Stop asking and poking them with unnecessary irrelevant questions.
It will be done WHEN IT'S DONE. You should be grateful to be able to watch a masterpiece in the making.
First all the systems have to get in place, only later they are polished to be fun.
Game systems have to work first and then be made "fun" later. Sometimes only in the last process you get to see what's fun and what's not, Kingdom Come Deliverance went back to the drawing board on their meele fighting system because of the feedback of the fans that it wasn't fun enough.
There's a lot of flaws currently in the way ship's flying mechanics work just like there are with how first-person mechanics work (in-game radar wallhack seriously?) but I feel there's nothing that cant be improved in future iterations as all the systems go into place.