Yup indeed, I'm making silly, sarcastic, self-referential and/or self-deprecating thread titles. Here's the interview: http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?p=907254 Here's the special new adventure cover: Here's the awesomeness: Bonk, clatter. "You idiot!"
That's not quite news, but still good to hear; after some previous items, I had feared the hemming and hawing meant things were pushed completely into next year. Jon apparently believes "late this year" is still possible. I hope it's smooth sailing for Blue Manchu! P.S. My birthday is mid-January, that's "first quarter next year."
That is some seriously wishful thinking there mushroom. That said, I want to believe it. Reminds me of 3rd ed DnD I think where bluff checks got something like a +6 bonus if you were trying to convince somebody of something they WANTED to believe. I love that mechanism, it's so true in life. I work in a library and part of my job is helping people with computer problems. One of the worst parts is getting called down to help somebody claim the million dollers they've just won. Despite the fact that the site or email address they're trying to reach no longer exists and I'm RIGHT THERE having to tell them it's a scam, they STILL keep trying. And I just have to say that the adventure module artwork is spot on in every one I've seen so far. Great work!
Oh man, I don't want to get hopes too high. It does seem increasingly unlikely we'll get into Beta before the year runs out. Only two months to go now...
And now the head of the company is RIGHT HERE telling us the timeline has been pushed back. GO AWAY JON! You're ruining our illusions! I'm going to go back and read mushroom's post again!
See, Pugs, I was gonna respond sarcastically. Then you posted again and beat me to it. Save some sarcasm for the rest of us, bud!
Oh man, now I will have to think of something else for my birthday prezzie! ( December 3rd if you're thinking about getting a card! )
Well dont rush it, but dont run out of money ither. Longer betas are far better then quick (omg we need money get this out now) betas. I played APB when it was in beta (the one week it was up) then it was released and it had a lot of problems, but was fun. The issue with that was it needed more time in development for fixes and changes. The development team ran out of money to develop and thats when things went downhill and well, if you dont know the story here is the quick rundown. 7 Day beta 74 Days of operating (online time) Roughly 3-4 major patches No anti-hack software so cheaters were roughly 1 in 4 ruining game environment and balance Company went bankrupt and sold the assets for 3million(i think, dont quote me)
Well they arnt the first to do it. Unique IP's as a company's first game is a huge gamble with tons of money spent before the company can even dream of getting a profit. Though 100m is no monetary value to toss around, SWTOR has spent at least 80m and all they have had is a beta. Granted SWTOR is being made by a reputable company where as APB from no name company.
Realtime Worlds had an excellent pedigree, the founder was part of the Grand Theft Auto team, Rage Software were the main programming team, their Crackdown game won a shedload of awards etc., so it wasn't as if it was two guys in their bedroom.
