Hello, everyone. I would have jumpped in earlier were it not for the
bouncing problem I've been having. Something called sorbs seems to
have gotten it into its electronic head that yahoogroups messages are
spam. Anyhow, enough of my current E-mail sorrows.
What we have here are two wrongs not making a right. We have a game
that has been unfortunately delayed for an extended period of time
due to unique personal circumstances that its developer had to
contend with. I've been right with all of you in terms of being
frustrated and disappointed with the delays. I've dreamed of playing
this particular game in accessible format since I was a kid.
Experiencing the realisation of such a long-held wish will be a truly
remarkable experience. I'll also have the distinct pleasure of
showing my father how I can play Monty after having him play a remake
of the original game for sighted people. It'll be the first time he
can truly step into my gaming world and fully grasp what's happening.
I hope this leaves people no doubts as to how much I've wanted the
game to come out since I first learned of it last year.
However, despite this impatience, I've done my best to be supportive
of James and protect the community from its unfortunately short-
sighted self. It makes perfect sense for James to have offered those
customers who have demonstrated their faith in him the reward of a
lower price. This happens all the time in the sighted game market and
there have been cases of even longer delays. This is despite the fact
that there's only one James North and hundreds of employees working
on some of these mainstream games. This argument that a business is a
business just doesn't hold up. When you're dealing with single
individuals working on projects, you have to understand that personal
life can and will get in the way. Failure to do this will result in
game developers being burned out and turned away from serving our
community.
I don't think James is perfect. However, he has done his best for us
given his circumstances and the emotional draning onslot of
acusations this community has subjected him to. Perhaps, people would
like it better if developers never told us anything until the games
were fully made and ready. There would then certainly not be a
situation like what we've experienced in Monty's case. However, stop
and think a moment. There would be no news at all for months and
months at a time. Developers wouldn't give out any information at all
for fear of paying through the nose for it later. People wouldn't
have any opportunity at all to offer feedback or ideas which could
make games better than they otherwise would have been. Is that the
kind of atmosphere you people want? If so, I'm glad I got out of
editing Audyssey because that job would be absolutely impossible
given those conditions. There just wouldn't be enough to talk about
every three or even six months to warrant publishing an issue.
Getting people to submit material was like pulling teeth even with
things like they are now.
Those of us who have stuck it out with James will ultimately get a
far superior game to what they would have gotten before. I only know
about some of the improvements he's introduced and can't wait to
experience them all first hand. We'll get our money and time's worth.
This is especially clear to me after reading the manual. If anybody
still has doubts that we'll ultimately get the game, I don't know
what planet they're on. You don't create a manual as detailed as that
or a trailer for a game which doesn't exist. We just have to be
patient and let James do things right. He knows the score.
There are two oposites when it comes to community relations and game
developers. There are people like James who let the community know
what's coming up and aren't averse to sharing some information. It's
thanks to these brave souls that I was able to build Audyssey into
the magazine and community it became. The advantage is the
suggestions and positive feedback you get while you're working on
projects as well as the trust in your work that people will have when
you're ready to sell. The down side is what happens when things don't
go as planned as we saw in James's case. A whole barrage of things
held Monty up for a lot longer than James wanted and people were
repetedly disappointed with missed release dates. The obvious lesson
here is not to offer release dates at all. I don't think there's any
arguing with that given what's happened.
On the other hand, you have developers like Bavisoft who just
suddenly appear with new game in hand. Grizzly Gulch just suddenly
appeared one day out of the blue. I'm more than convinced that had
there been more community consultation, it would have been a far
better game. I also suspect that they wouldn't have been as badly
clobbered by pirates as they ultimately were. Communities like ours
thrive on information that only game developers can provide. How long
would people hang around if we never heard about any new games until
they were released? Things would get incredibly boring as people lost
interest in older games.
Fortunately, there's a middle ground available. Actually, there are
probably several middle grounds. Bavisoft and other developers have
their own separate lists which let them communicate with a more
select group of interested people. They also have access to their own
web sites and could choose to proffer new information only there.
There's also the question of what information to release. I've chosen
to update people on my progress or lack of it every three months in
Audyssey Magazine. That way, people can have an idea what I'm going
through while it's happening. If somebody asks "Why did it take so
long to make Fearless Flin?" I can point them to my developer
diaries. I'll never give any sort of dates at all and I'll always be
certain to make it clear that plans could change on me. This is a
hobby for me until I actually have something ready to sell assuming
I'm ultimately able to create my game. Working at home is quite
different from working at a company even with just Rebecca and I. It
must be tougher by far when you have kids to raise as many developers
do. Things just have a way of coming between you and progress. We as
a community consuming people's creative energies and efforts have to
allow for that. If we don't, we'll see our brightest stars take their
passions elsewhere.
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