Fuck. I was trying to tell myself to shut up now and not stir any more shit. But 2 glasses of wine later and that promise went out the window.
It seems the prevailing attitude among a lot of developers these days is that bugs are inevitable, so they just push the updates out as quickly as seems reasonable and assume that bugs will be identified by the community and fixed after the fact. I can understand why a lot of developers, particularly smaller ones and newer ones, take that approach but it's not good for development.
I'm decidedly undecided here. If you project the current development pace into the future (1.5 years for 2 chapters) then we'll see the full game 5-7 years from now (Ok that's not a fair comparison I know ch 3 is almost out, but it was almost out at the start of April too, with first week of April as projected release date. Well it's pretty much May now so I don't really know what to make of that). I've been around long enough to know by now that any projected date of any kind will be delayed at least two weeks, but more likely a month or several months.
It also seems extremely excessive to treat every chapter release as a full game release, with quality control and thorough testing at every step. I mean bug fixing I can understand, that's the kind of flaw that can make anyone go "fuck this shit" and uninstall if it's too bad. But aesthetic polish? Not worth. That can get collected with feedback after release and fixed after the fact without problems or having it cause severe delays.
I'm starting to like the devs that just dump what they have done every month, even if the cutoff point doesn't make 100 % sense. That way I can just wait a few months before downloading if I want to experience it in larger chunks. It also seems more fair and transparent to the patreons, as it shows what has actually been done. I don't think Notty will ever do this though, I'm just saying it has it's merits too.
I don't want it to sound like I'm making a personal criticism of you or anything; I'm just, as always, trying to add some perspective. It's just like my opinion, man. Hopefully it made at least some sort of sense.
tl;dr yes it's taking a long time but I think it's a reasonable amount of time given the work that's actually being done. Your opinion may be different (and therefore incorrect)
No worries man. I'm not one to take offense lightly. Besides, it's just your opinion, dude
popabear I'm sorry if it came too harsh from me. I know you mean well and I didn't intend to question your support.
However, I think it's important to appreciate all the work done on the game. Not just the kind that will make the release, but also all the work that ends up being stepping stones for further improvements, and yes all the work that is identified as flawed and has to be redone. I think it's safe to say that vast majority of errors (if not all) that required significant time to fix were new. Notty does learn from her mistakes, so the positive thing to take out of them is that they are unlikely to happen again.
No need to worry, she'll make it.
No offense taken. I just hope I don't have to wait 5 more years to see the rest of the story.
I'd say only the first edge is sharp. Honestly, I can't remember a single instance where I would think Notty's last minute improvement wouldn't result into, well, an improvement. I think her perfectionism is more on the positive side, and results of it make the game better. Don't we all want the game to be the best it can be?
I want the best game it can be,
within a reasonable timeframe. Is 5 more years reasonable? I honestly don't know. I'm feeling the fanboy in me fatigue already.