When you follow the development of games via forums or social network posts, what do you get most excited about? Screenshots, features added, or someone at the office got a new gnome for his office? Along with that, what are your expectations? Do you think we should be given timely updates, as in every week something new regardless of how little impact the news is? Or do you think they should just update on major milestones? Personally, in a perfect world I would like a couple updates a week - small ones. Maybe a random screenshot of something in game or even just an office shot or an image of them doing something in their dev tools. I love personal stuff too - as it makes you feel some sort of connection to the game (yes I know that sounds pretty sad ). Since it's a card based game - they could even do a "Card of the Week" feature. Just something to give the community something to talk about, and possibly draw more attention to the game that way. Although I think the names of those involved with this one will draw in plenty
I like detailed changelogs with alot of techical behind-the-scenes stuff. But office gnomes are cool too.
I like sifting through details mechanics changes, upcoming content additions, and yes, things like a Card a Day countdown to new releases. I'm a sucker for Card-a-Day countdowns =(
I prefer frequent, small updates just to keep up activity and to see there is still progress being made.
I do agree with the rest of you... flipping through changelogs is a blast. Frequent small updates or at least communication is great. I don't even care if much progress isn't being made, I just like to know the devs haven't been kidnapped. I also think the majority of us that have been through many game releases are okay with a release date being set to: When it's done. We just like updates and stuff to talk about with our friends about games we are looking forward to. One think I'd ask is to not set dates unless it's set in stone and put in a nuclear fallout shelter. False hope is a killer
I agree with Strumiker about the release date, Project Zomboid recently had a community fallout after missing their expected update release and had to resort to some serious damage control. Avoid set in stone release dates, Valve time is quality time. On another point, I do rather like small updates with an occasional surprise. Let's us know that the devs aren't dead and are still working, and it gives the community something to talk about. I also support the 'card of the day' (or week, whatever. ) thing. Once again, provides something to talk about. ^_^
Heh. Awesome. I like a mix of solid technical info with some lighter (Card of the Week, etc.) content updates.
I much prefer to have anything posted than nothing. It's nice to know that people are still working on a game. Too many times I've been waiting for a game to come out only to one day visit the website and see the last post was 2006, or realize they stopped paying the website host.
It would be nice if there was a weekly update with new info about the game and perhaps 1 card for showcase.
When it comes to showing off cards, it occurs to me that we don't know what stage in development this all is. It sounds like fundamental design decisions may still be in progress. So, instead of "card a day," things may be closer to "awesome-we-figured-out-a-gameplay-mechanic a day." Truth be told, it would be awesome to figure out a gameplay mechanic a day . . .
The battle part of the game is pretty locked down and is now in a polish phase, so we can definitely start showing off cards and talking about effects. There will be a lot of balancing and tweaking to come yet though, so we could easily talk about a card and then change it between now and release. The character building part of the game is also fully functional, although a lot less polished than the battle part. The campaign and adventuring part is what we're moving onto next. It's *designed* but not implemented yet.
