ScardyBobScardyBobJoin Date: 2009-11-25Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
I think UWE and Wolfire show that open development works. I think the key is to as accurately describe the level of development and put it as a disclaimer on the buy page. Much of the grief they've gotten is for calling the current level of development a beta when its more of an alpha. UWE's problems with open development have been less with the theory than the implementation.
Also, I think the open development route works less well when you're also developing a new engine, because it greatly increases the development time. It'll likely be more than 2 years from the time the first pre-purchases occurred to NS2 v1.0 release. That's a long time to ask your community to playtest a broken, buggy, and unbalanced game and its not surprising that it makes some people quite cranky.
InsaneAnomalyJoin Date: 2002-05-13Member: 605Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
<!--quoteo(post=1849510:date=Jun 1 2011, 09:22 PM:name=Soylent_green)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Soylent_green @ Jun 1 2011, 09:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1849510"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My contention is that successful things tend to be evolutionary with relatively minor, successive improvements between "generations". Your contention appears to be that a giant leap into unchartered territory isn't imprudent. If you find a good counter-example I'd be happy to hear it; but architecture isn't one.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This isn't really true. Architecture is often driven forward by big leaps into uncharted territory. Movements like Modernism comprised stark and ambitious contrasts to what came before. Architectural History is much like Art History in that it is dominated by sequences of movements that sought to reject their predecessors and take radically different approaches, as much at is is by movements that develop the work of their predecessors. Whether any of it is successful is usually a matter of opinion.
This is all rather moot though because the current state of NS2 isn't due to an imprudent leap into the void and then a scramble back to safe territory. Game design is almost always this fluid - it's a case of iterating to find what works and the biggest, wildest changes or ideas always happen at the beginning. Usually you're just presented with a near-finished product so you don't get to see all of this.
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Also, I think the open development route works less well when you're also developing a new engine, because it greatly increases the development time. It'll likely be more than 2 years from the time the first pre-purchases occurred to NS2 v1.0 release. That's a long time to ask your community to playtest a broken, buggy, and unbalanced game and its not surprising that it makes some people quite cranky.
This isn't really true. Architecture is often driven forward by big leaps into uncharted territory. Movements like Modernism comprised stark and ambitious contrasts to what came before. Architectural History is much like Art History in that it is dominated by sequences of movements that sought to reject their predecessors and take radically different approaches, as much at is is by movements that develop the work of their predecessors. Whether any of it is successful is usually a matter of opinion.
This is all rather moot though because the current state of NS2 isn't due to an imprudent leap into the void and then a scramble back to safe territory. Game design is almost always this fluid - it's a case of iterating to find what works and the biggest, wildest changes or ideas always happen at the beginning. Usually you're just presented with a near-finished product so you don't get to see all of this.