Frontier's release plan is genius

Which doubles down on the point that odysee to date has been mainly a marketing and sales exercise.

If you could relate further, when do developers consider the game "finished"? Genuine question.

With iterative development, which is what Frontier do, they work out the scope of the iteration they want to do (space legs with interiors and EVA etc). They start developing those features in a process (probably Agile/Sprints) and measure the speed (velocity) at which they are able to complete individual "tasks" in teams. During that process you work out what features are most important and reprioritise through product meetings and prototyping. The point of measuring the velocity in this way is to refine the process so your teams only take on work they can complete as they go along.

During deveopment they will have a good idea of what they can deliver in the budget/time available. They will start to refine the scope (work out what features they absolutly need and can deliver) but some features will contiue to go back into the "back log" etc

As features are in a 'testable' state, they go through their internal QA process.

To answer your question. They may not consider anything about the game "finished" in the same way the gamers do, but they have to decide as a studio what is finished for this iteration (remember that classic illustration).

Development teams are made up of many sub teams and individuals who may not agree (just as we in the forums don't agree). Their internal process will say what their definition of "done" is on features, it will say "no blockers/high priority issues must be found by QA" etc

At some point, all of the branches of new features are integrated and they have a release candidate that they have finished all their internal test cycles on etc and they will have a sign off process for that.
 
With iterative development, which is what Frontier do, they work out the scope of the iteration they want to do (space legs with interiors and EVA etc). They start developing those features in a process (probably Agile/Sprints) and measure the speed (velocity) at which they are able to complete individual "tasks" in teams. During that process you work out what features are most important and reprioritise through product meetings and prototyping. The point of measuring the velocity in this way is to refine the process so your teams only take on work they can complete as they go along.

During deveopment they will have a good idea of what they can deliver in the budget/time available. They will start to refine the scope (work out what features they absolutly need and can deliver) but some features will contiue to go back into the "back log" etc

As features are in a 'testable' state, they go through their internal QA process.

To answer your question. They may not consider anything about the game "finished" in the same way the gamers do, but they have to decide as a studio what is finished for this iteration (remember that classic illustration).

Development teams are made up of many sub teams and individuals who may not agree (just as we in the forums don't agree). Their internal process will say what their definition of "done" is on features, it will say "no blockers/high priority issues must be found by QA" etc

At some point, all of the branches of new features are integrated and they have a release candidate that they have finished all their internal test cycles on etc and they will have a sign off process for that.

That sounds very normal. So we should look at it like the odysee release will be whatever they have on the day, and anything further is just a bonus? Yeah that's probably the only sane expectation. Geeez the marketing hype from frontier is shooting themselves in the foot isnt it?
 
That sounds very normal. So we should look at it like the odysee release will be whatever they have on the day, and anything further is just a bonus? Yeah that's probably the only sane expectation. Geeez the marketing hype from frontier is shooting themselves in the foot isnt it?

I will telll you a story about marketing. When I joined Codemasters circa 2000 I was lucky enough to be on the legendary 'Micro machines' team for a short time. They had some interesting stories. The marketing department was headed up by an industry vet called Bruce Everiss (a bit notorious for being one of the people behind the failed Bandersnatch game that was inspiration for that Black Mirror episode) anyway can you imagine putting heart and sole into a game and then opening a magazine to see the words "It's no FUN . Run." used to promote it?

1376256989-26489-309.jpg
 
lol, Mac support springs to mind... Not that anyone should use a Mac for gaming, but hey. FD promised support and then...
... and the shiny new ice worlds from a few years back (didn't see anything like this in the alpha either... so finger crossed, again)

2eqtz8epnew41.jpg
 
I will telll you a story about marketing. When I joined Codemasters circa 2000 I was lucky enough to be on the legendary 'Micro machines' team for a short time. They had some interesting stories. The marketing department was headed up by an industry vet called Bruce Everiss (a bit notorious for being one of the people behind the failed Bandersnatch game that was inspiration for that Black Mirror episode) anyway can you imagine putting heart and sole into a game and then opening a magazine to see the words "It's no FUN . Run." used to promote it?

1376256989-26489-309.jpg

Lol, i think that's just a play on words. Fun run?

Speaking of codemasters.. if frontier was every going to take elite AAA, the main f1 titles are a perfect role model for the presentation required to do it. Simcade gameplay just like elite as well. The fact that they exist creates a problem for frontiers marketing because they boast about themselves like the game was of that calibre. Elite is an amazing indie flying simulator, the best out of any available for sure, but its not AAA.
 
This is not true. I'll play the "I've been in development for over twenty years including the game industry" card on this one.

I was trying to avoid using that card (32 years here) - since you seem quite happy going on with yourself. 😂

"Alpha" and "Beta" have no universal meaning. That's one reason why Steam uses the term "early access", which for my mind, E: D has been in for the last seven years. However, they don't say that - and that for me is dishonest and misleading.

The full release of Odyssey on Wednesday is simply compounding the error. And I'm pretty sure it's not the dev's idea - this all comes from marketing and accounts. Things like instancing, ship interiors, VR support, console support, etc (or lack thereof) is the developers basically telling the world that it's not ready for full release yet. But here we are... charging full price for an incomplete product.

Unfortunately for them, they will hang by it. And that's sad for everyone.
 
Is this thread discussing Odyssey?

The thread is discussing Frontier, mainly.
Odyssey, but not only - since FD did certain stuff in other releases...
and you know the saying... IF someone does the same thing everytime, expecting different results for every iteration is...
 
You're right, it is a business, and I am not conducting a philanthropic experiment. I expect a decent product, not prototype material, especially when they charge the same amount of money for an expansion as for a new game.
That's the power of capitalism, if you don't like it, don't buy it, unfortunately most of the software development is just prototypes, they don't need to ship a CD or disk, and you know we can fix it later, I don't like this approach either, however FDEV are not alone, and it's a branch thing, so many games are released in EA and many never get out of EA.

So it's just like a used car business, look shiny almost brand new, only been driven by an old lady blah blah, that being said, FDEV are far from being the worst, not an excuse just and observation.

This is not true. I'll play the "I've been in development for over twenty years including the game industry" card on this one.

Internally we (developers) do not label test builds as "alpha" and "beta" through any specific software standard.

We label internal tests with version numbers like this 0.1.0.4 (example semantic version numbering). There are no 'best practices' that say we have to use "alpha" to mean this or "beta" to mean anything. We use branch names, sometimes terms like "STABLE" this or "MASTER" that.

It's used (but not always) as an identifier that it's a version that hasn't been internally completed, often on public test builds.

There are no specific standards documentation that you can point me to that say constructively what 'alpha' or 'beta' means. It's a general term with some Greek letters which define the order they are released in, nothing more.

If I, a developer of twenty years have no idea what a company means by "Alpha" or "Beta" and you can't reliably point me at consumer advice concerning those terms. How is that transparent?
well, John Snow, go to the black board, start writhing... 😝
iu
 
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The thread is discussing Frontier, mainly.
Odyssey, but not only - since FD did certain stuff in other releases...
and you know the saying... IF someone does the same thing everytime, expecting different results for every iteration is...
No, I don't know the saying...
But I guess it will always rain tomorrow 🤷‍♂️

This thread does make fascinating reading though!
 
... and the shiny new ice worlds from a few years back (didn't see anything like this in the alpha either... so finger crossed, again)


They posted a pic that looked really nice... almost as good if not better
but it was not from alpha because the tech in alpha was not the final one...

I'm really curios how the ice planets will look in Odyssey... hopefully it will not be cringe moment
 
That's the power of capitalism, if you don't like it, don't buy it, unfortunately most of the software development is just prototypes, they don't need to ship a CD or disk, and you know we can fix it later, I don't like this approach either, however FDEV are not alone, and it's a branch thing, so many games are released in EA and many never get out of EA.
and their current track record for "fixing it later", you find that encouraging?
 
I was trying to avoid using that card (32 years here) - since you seem quite happy going on with yourself. 😂


Unfortunately for them, they will hang by it. And that's sad for everyone.
As a game developer of 32 years, can you define "hang by it" and when that will happen exactly for Fdev? I'm keen to understand how you measure this terminal-sounding situation.

I'm asking because, despite its flaws (many that is has), I'm quite enjoying the game and have done on and off since 2014, I'm looking forward to Odyssey and apparently the game has been doing quite well in recent months. I personally don't care if they call it early access or Larry, I paid for something and feel I got my money's worth and I'm sure others would disagree with that from their own experiences but very few games can boast to be universally treasured.

Looking forward to learning from your professional expertise on the topic because I'm sure we've been told the game's going to die a number of times by experts and I would love to know when that is going to be so I can plan for it, at least. Assuming that's what you mean by "hang by it". Because being hanged isn't great, I don't think.
 
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As a game developer of 32 years, can you define "hang by it" and when that will happen exactly for Fdev? I'm keen to understand how you measure this terminal-sounding situation.

I'm asking because, despite its flaws, I'm quite enjoying the game, I'm looking forward to Odyssey and apparently the game has been doing quite well in recent months. Looking forward to learning from your professional expertise on the topic.
So..
"Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is a reasonable definition of madness
I know, but some here insist on doing exactly that, hadn't you noticed?
I can't help it, my memory for patterns is very good...

Expect the pattern to repeat ;)
 
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