WARNING: Giant effort post
TLDR: The 2020 full production run is longer than the launch run, and seems to have similar staffing numbers.
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The Production Dates Are Similar:
The exact start of 'full production' for ED is a bit fuzzy, but using the end of Kickstarter seems a reasonable line to draw for a rough estimate:
If we take the Kickstarter 'thumbs up' as an approximate start point for full production, then the dates look like this:
APPROXIMATE 'FULL PRODUCTION' DATES:
Elite Dangerous:
2020 DLC
Approx: 2.5+ Years
But How Long Was The Pre-Production?
We don't have enough info to judge timescales here, but both seem to have years of skunkwork attached:
Elite: Dangerous:
If you believe this Guinness Book of Records entry, work started about 17 years ago . Certainly FDev seem to have done prep work for 'Elite 4' at various points. (Here they are talking about Legs in 2001). That seems a bit silly though. Only the more recent years of skunkworking are likely to be of technical relevance. So: Unclear. Probably substantial. Probably less than 17 years
2020 DLC:
There's been various talk of them prototyping the expansions. From the familiar proc gen clouds & the leggy mock-ups of pre-launch, to more concrete assertions like: "We have work going on on Season 3 and Season 4 already..." / 'We have ongoing work on planets, including atmospheres, planetary life, walking about...' etc
Dedicated Elite Staffing:
At a ballpark level, staffing seems to be comparable for both production runs:
Currently:
100+ dev team with 'the majority' focusing on the new era.
During the Initial Dev Run:
In May 2014: Speaking of the 'Elite Dangerous team' Braben said 'between 70-100 people are closely involved'.
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We don't have fine grained info on how the teams might have scaled up or down, how much exactly 'the majority' is on the DLC (although the recent quotes suggest it's been the vast majority since 2019), or other desirable details. But the big beats suggest similar resourcing targets. With recent info suggesting EDO may even be a slightly bigger dev run (if conducted during a pandemic).
The Longest Dev Runs Since Launch:
The longest I'm aware of is the small team on the Cmdr Creator for 'way over a year'. The Plandings tech itself went from R&D to delivery in a year.
(Reasons Not To Get Carried Away):
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Bonus end quote:
TLDR: The 2020 full production run is longer than the launch run, and seems to have similar staffing numbers.
---
The Production Dates Are Similar:
The exact start of 'full production' for ED is a bit fuzzy, but using the end of Kickstarter seems a reasonable line to draw for a rough estimate:
Q: Okay, let’s talk about the team. How many people are working on the game right now?
A: It’s still at a skunkworks stage now, and the plan is to increase it beyond that once we’ve got the thumbs up from Kickstarter. [6 November 2012]
I have wanted to do a sequel for a long time, and there has been 'skunk-works' development, on and off for quite some time, but full on development is mostly since (and somewhat during) the Kickstarter campaign.
If we take the Kickstarter 'thumbs up' as an approximate start point for full production, then the dates look like this:
APPROXIMATE 'FULL PRODUCTION' DATES:
Elite Dangerous:
- Kickstarter crossed the line Jan 2013
- Game launched Dec 2014
2020 DLC
Approx: 2.5+ Years
But How Long Was The Pre-Production?
We don't have enough info to judge timescales here, but both seem to have years of skunkwork attached:
Elite: Dangerous:
If you believe this Guinness Book of Records entry, work started about 17 years ago . Certainly FDev seem to have done prep work for 'Elite 4' at various points. (Here they are talking about Legs in 2001). That seems a bit silly though. Only the more recent years of skunkworking are likely to be of technical relevance. So: Unclear. Probably substantial. Probably less than 17 years
2020 DLC:
There's been various talk of them prototyping the expansions. From the familiar proc gen clouds & the leggy mock-ups of pre-launch, to more concrete assertions like: "We have work going on on Season 3 and Season 4 already..." / 'We have ongoing work on planets, including atmospheres, planetary life, walking about...' etc
Dedicated Elite Staffing:
At a ballpark level, staffing seems to be comparable for both production runs:
Currently:
100+ dev team with 'the majority' focusing on the new era.
We've averaged around 100 developers working on the project with a peak of around 140. (source)
...as for the actual build-up to having a significant amount of developers working on it, the tail-end of 2019 is when we really started ramping it up. (source)
More sourcing on the dedicated staffing over recent years here: [1],[2],[3],[4],[5].
Their broader staffing scenario is approx 440 staff, with Planet Zoo launching in November, and a 5th & 6th franchise seemingly in some form of production.
Their broader staffing scenario is approx 440 staff, with Planet Zoo launching in November, and a 5th & 6th franchise seemingly in some form of production.
During the Initial Dev Run:
In May 2014: Speaking of the 'Elite Dangerous team' Braben said 'between 70-100 people are closely involved'.
Their overall staffing ranged from approx 240 to 270 over that period. They had 5 prior projects on the go:
We worked on five projects of varying sizes for our two key clients, and two of these games were released in the financial year 2013–14.
- Zoo Tycoon (Xbox) - Nov 2013
- Coaster Crazy Deluxe (WiiU / iOS) - Nov 2013
- Tales from Deep Space (Kindle Fire etc) - Nov 2014
- Screamride (Xbox) - March 2015 (After which they moved straight on to Planet Coaster)
- (Not sure on the fifth project. Poss failed?)
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We don't have fine grained info on how the teams might have scaled up or down, how much exactly 'the majority' is on the DLC (although the recent quotes suggest it's been the vast majority since 2019), or other desirable details. But the big beats suggest similar resourcing targets. With recent info suggesting EDO may even be a slightly bigger dev run (if conducted during a pandemic).
The Longest Dev Runs Since Launch:
The longest I'm aware of is the small team on the Cmdr Creator for 'way over a year'. The Plandings tech itself went from R&D to delivery in a year.
(Reasons Not To Get Carried Away):
- The game is doubtlessly an absolute ball of code now. Adding to that, rather than building from scratch, will definitely be a lot harder, and mean fewer additions emerge from the dev period.
- The launch title went live with loads of gaps in it . Two years isn't the longest time in the world to innovate in.
- This is mainly guesswork
Just sticking a record of edits here, rather than in the body text. Keeps it a bit more readable:
Edits due to:
Edits due to:
- Planet Zoo's confirmation
- DLC target date classified as 'end' of 2020, rather than 'second half of 2020'
- Source found for approx staffing pre-launch
- Braben quote on start of full production found
- Now expected 'early 2021'
- Various further info on EDO staffing [1],[2]
TLDR: The 2020 DLC is definitely a big, concerted run. Seemingly the longest contiguous period of full production since pre-launch.Expected launch date July 2020 onwards- 2020 DLC: Approx:
2 Years - Was the staffing comparable?
That's pretty hard to nail down too. But it seemspretty possiblethat they're in similar ballparks: Ultimately ED's dedicated staffing for that period seems to be unknown. However it seems unlikely they had much more than 100 staff on the project, given the 'work for hire' projects on their slate at the time.We don't know exactly when 'full production' started on ED, but we do know that it hadn't started prior to the Kickstarter:Expected launch date 'end' of 2020Now expected 'early 2021'
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Bonus end quote:
In terms of its scale, and in large parts its development, Odyssey can definitely be compared to a new game. (source)
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