Guard Frequency Episode 119 | Return of the Phonecall

Comments (6)

• 

  PreachMan

  May 11, 2016 at 1:30 am | #

  Thanks Gents! Another enjoyable show (as always!).
  I would add to the discussion of MVP a couple of thoughts:
  -Part of the reason that we don’t have a list of “here are the features for launch” are things like Planetary procedural generation. The early word was that we would not be able to go seamlessly from space to planet until well after launch. And then F42DE happened and that all changed. That’s one of those unexpected pieces of development that happen.
  -Part of the reason that we don’t have “Star Marine” is a combination of the FPS stuff didn’t come together as quickly as they’d expected AND the social module went from “you’ll be able to visit each other’s hangars” to “Port Olisar” because Port Olisar came together more quickly than they expected (at least according to Tony Zerovec).
  -Looking at the time it’s taken to get to this point in the game and extrapolating that into the future is not as helpful an exercise as it might be because not only have they been building the game since 2012, they’ve been building the company–adding staff so that adding new features and content should take less time because there are more hands and minds at work on it.
  -This doesn’t negate all of what you guys said on the show, but it didn’t seem to me that any of it was taken into consideration during the discussion. I think these things make a difference in what our expectations could/should be.

  For what it’s worth. . .

  Looking forward to next week’s podcast!

  Reply

• 

  Jed

  May 11, 2016 at 12:06 pm | #

  I don’t agree.

  First, ramping up is NOT a special get free card. All companies who are experience success, or starting a new project will have to go through this phase.

  Second, many decisions were maybe leading to dead ends or extended the workload due to reworking the existing assets.

  Just my 2 cents.

  Reply

• 

  seannewboy

  May 11, 2016 at 3:37 pm | #

  wonderful show everyone, great to hear from all the callers.

  Reply

• 

  Bennu

  May 13, 2016 at 4:08 am | #

  Nice call-in show.
  Since you talked again about the need for a defined Minimum Viable Product and the “need for more project management,” here’s my response:

  No. CIG is doing it right.

  I do seem to recall Darian Vorlick referring to releasing target dates as “starting the dick punching machine.”

  I think about it this way: I have given CIG a bunch of money so that some obviously talented and passionate people can work on creating a really cool game. I am amazed at the flood of information that comes out through monthly reports, weekly videos, and now (most importantly) regular patches. I can go play the game as it currently stands and give them feedback on what I like and don’t like. I can help test new stuff and submit bugs. I can actually help make it better with my feedback. This is awesome!

  When will it be done? Dumb question. The current state is that we get a patch just about every month. #4 is running late, but it’s also a lot larger. As the months roll by, we will get more and more of the SC that we want. At some point, it will become the MVP for Karl because he’ll be able to mine and do trade runs. Then at some later point, Frank will have his MVP because he’ll be able to learn the Tevarin language. Maybe a little later, Simone will be happy because she can go off pioneering and search for new jump points and systems. At some point, Chris Roberts will have his MVP and… ummm… the version label will drop the Alpha/Beta tags. Oh, and there will be a really cool launch party. Then the team goes back to work on SQ42 episode #n and implementing other cool ideas that have been hatched for SC. I honestly don’t see development needing to stop.

  If CIG were to declare a target date and/or what constitutes the MVP – then all CIG has done is to get everybody to complain. Every Citizen has their thing and they can’t all be done at once. Lots of these things are inter-related, so sometimes it makes sense to work on things in a particular order or grouping. Sometimes it makes sense to work on, say interiors for the Banu Merchantman… not because you need that ship now but because you can’t work on the Carrack due to a design problem someone else is fixing. Defending all those decisions is hard, so why bother?

  Nope. CIG is doing it right. We get to see progress and we get to give useful feedback. We don’t get to complain about how they should do X first instead of Y. Sometimes a feature may even silently die when they find out it doesn’t scale. We also don’t get to complain about how system Z is “good enough” so they should call it done. If Z is good enough for you, then go play the heck out of it and enjoy it… then be pleasantly surprised when it gets improved later… or tell them what you liked about the previous state and why it should change back.

  Dates and “% complete bars” are just going to set expectations that make people unhappy.

  Reply

  • 

    Justin Lowmaster

    May 13, 2016 at 4:54 am | #

    That was Travis about the punch machine. {;0)

    Reply

    • 

      Bennu

      May 13, 2016 at 11:24 pm | #

      Oops – thanks for the catch. 🙂

      Reply