The best time to fix your game is before you fucking release it
The second best time is right now.
They may have ignored the first half, but when they screwed up they tucked tail and got to work.
Nobody in their right mind would say they’ve been given a pass for NMS because they have been improving it, especially when you consider the straight up LIES Sean told during interviews. Whether it’s because his expectations were too high for the engine and dev team, incompetence and inflated self-image, or he was trying to build hype for the game knowing they could never fulfill all their promises, it doesn’t matter.
They improved what they made, but they still haven’t delivered what they promised for months leading up to release.
It’s a mixed bag. You take the bag with the good.
NMS is worth playing for the 0 dollars I spent on it, and I could see myself tossing upto $20 for it, but at no point was it worth a full price game IMO.
Being a first time, or even just smaller developer is a nightmare when you compare it against large companies.
You basically don’t have a chance if you try to carry your dream yourself, because you lack funding. But getting in bed with larger companies for funding and marketing puts an insane amount of pressure to perform well or go under.
I can totally understand why so many things were over-promised. I can’t excuse what we got on release, but I do understand why he lied, even in the weeks leading up to release where everyone who plays immediately knows what’s bullshit.
And to be honest, I would likely do the same in some situations.
Like the multi-player aspect where supposedly you would be able to see each other in-game. They really thought with the size of the procedural generation it would take a lot longer for people to meet, even if they were trying to meet up. Unfortunately they forgot to take statistics and probability into account. With the large amounts of people playing, two were bound to end up close enough to meet in the finest few days.
I think they really thought they’d have time to fix it before anyone met.
You’ll say anything when it’s your future, and the futures of all the people you work with, on the line.
The best time to fix your game is before you fucking release it
The second best time is right now.
They may have ignored the first half, but when they screwed up they tucked tail and got to work.
Nobody in their right mind would say they’ve been given a pass for NMS because they have been improving it, especially when you consider the straight up LIES Sean told during interviews. Whether it’s because his expectations were too high for the engine and dev team, incompetence and inflated self-image, or he was trying to build hype for the game knowing they could never fulfill all their promises, it doesn’t matter.
They improved what they made, but they still haven’t delivered what they promised for months leading up to release.
It’s a mixed bag. You take the bag with the good.
NMS is worth playing for the 0 dollars I spent on it, and I could see myself tossing upto $20 for it, but at no point was it worth a full price game IMO.
The Internet Historian has a more nuanced take, which I thought was interesting and believable.
https://youtu.be/O5BJVO3PDeQ?si=64I-h5HQPvUZscvt
Spoiler:
spoiler
This is a simplification that doesn’t do the video justice. It was basically massive pressure from Sony as a publisher and Sean being inexperienced.
Being a first time, or even just smaller developer is a nightmare when you compare it against large companies.
You basically don’t have a chance if you try to carry your dream yourself, because you lack funding. But getting in bed with larger companies for funding and marketing puts an insane amount of pressure to perform well or go under.
I can totally understand why so many things were over-promised. I can’t excuse what we got on release, but I do understand why he lied, even in the weeks leading up to release where everyone who plays immediately knows what’s bullshit.
And to be honest, I would likely do the same in some situations.
Like the multi-player aspect where supposedly you would be able to see each other in-game. They really thought with the size of the procedural generation it would take a lot longer for people to meet, even if they were trying to meet up. Unfortunately they forgot to take statistics and probability into account. With the large amounts of people playing, two were bound to end up close enough to meet in the finest few days.
I think they really thought they’d have time to fix it before anyone met.
You’ll say anything when it’s your future, and the futures of all the people you work with, on the line.
bag