'Fan' investment, community relations and development.

[Aidi]

For me the contribution i have made is to see ED come to reality - and that now seems to be the case so personally i am happy that my donation has achieved this.

The fact that i have paid enough to be involved in the beta and additional forums is a bonus and it will be a privilage to part of.

As long as suggestions and ideas which are born here in the forum and listened to, considered and implemented in line with what the developer envisages then that will be cool.

To see it developed with little regard to its backers is very unlikely... And would only end in bad press.

I can imagine that its going to be a big task for the dev team to have 100's if not 1000's of extra "developers" all wanting their bit included... I for one am hoping that by the time the dev forum opens the majority of what ED will and will not contain will be laid out, the the input from our side of the dev will be to develop these existing ideas.

 

[Fermats Folly]

This thread raises a good question. Inevitably with so many backers some will be disappointed. However, I think the demographic profile of the backers may help here. Not only is there a huge love for the existing versions of the game but I think there's rather more maturity and less naivety than in some gaming communities. The whole tone in the ED forums shows that very well!

 

[Nicodemus]

"large" is supposition on your part. FD have downplayed work to date as "skunkworks" ie done unofficially, in spare time, with limited resources.

We are mostly in the dark as to what the currently anticipated scope of the development project is (other than some sensible redlines about what won't be in the initial release), and also to what extent the scope is currently complete and how much remains to be done.

FD have said in media interviews that post KS they have been hiring new team members to help deliver the game, and introduced some of the existing team as one of the KS updates.

Anyone who pitched in at least a fiver to the KS is promised update reports from time to time. Hopefully some non fluffy project metrics will be included to help build antici----pation for the pre-releases and release, and to provide some interim progress assurance.

I disagree that it is a supposition, to get as far as they have done is a large amount of work. The actual playability of the game may not be as large as we think but all the background stuff has to be in place (think art, physics, concepts, etc) to enable it to be delivered for next year.