A Tentative Release Window for the Settlements Revamp

No no, this isn't the final version of the game at all. Maybe I misread the original post? Looked like the post was saying that there was an expectation that the game would have been completed in September 2013, not revamped in 2014 (which, to be fair, applies to Settlements and some balancing more than anything; not a 'start from scratch' kind of thing). Apologies if I misread anything!

I think we listed September 2013 as when we'd be releasing the download keys and such. Granted, I wasn't with 22cans during the Kickstarter and was just casually following the campaign as someone interested in the project, so you might know some aspects of the campaign more intimately than I do (though I've definitely tried to get as caught up and familiar with everything as possible). I genuinely wasn't trying to be snarky when I said that I wasn't sure I followed. Because I wasn't. 

That said, one of our last videos goes into some details about iterative design and how things, despite our best intentions, can and will change but how this isn't always a bad thing. You may have already seen the video though, but figured I'd link it your way just in case. Cheers!

Yeah, the exact wording on the kickstarter page is "GODUS will take seven to nine months to complete". That's rather definitive and unambiguous. Ludicrous, clearly, but no one forced them to write that.

I think the timing of things is something that was very difficult to estimate in general, particulary with the iterative design style that Peter and the team embraces. Have we had these estimates wrong before, ranging from final completion date to individual updates? Absolutely. I'd still like to think this is for the best though, rather than rigidly sticking to the time frame we gave at possible detriment of the final version of the game.



Appreciate the feedback (seriously) and I was aware of the aforementioned dates and all (September) but I assumed maybe I or others had gotten the wrong end of the stick with how we were translating what that actually meant. I genuinely don't mean to use it as an excuse of any kind but if somebody says I'm wrong about something I try not to immediately react with "Nuh uh!" or some such. I've done everything I can to educate myself about the past of this project, well beyond what I'd even reasonably consider information that would be in any way useful to me. I've been around long enough that I feel there wasn't much catching up to do to begin with and I followed this project on a personal level since the Kickstarter began (and even a bit before, as Sam and I always stayed in touch with each other so I knew a bit of behind the scenes info before the public did). So when I say something like that it's more along the lines that I'm always happy to admit when there's a bit of info that I misinterpreted in some way. Cheers for the candid advice though!

If a well versed, experienced, "legend"/veteran of the gaming industry told me that his game would be done in 9 months, I would very much want to believe him. Fortunately for my sanity this "legend"/veteran has a reputation that precedes him.

Along those lines. Can you imagine what "Godus for PC" would be like in finished form if there had been no community feedback. It makes me shudder to imagine what they would've shoveled out if there hadn't been so much outrage... er.. um.. constructive feedback.

Most of the problems can be linked to the mobile version of the game. There is essentially one version of the game that exists on two platforms. The reason our feedback is often ignored (by ignored I mean heard but discounted) is because it doesn't gel with the F2P mobile version vision. They can't remove stickers because they need people to pay for stickers. They can't have left click raise, right click lower because touch only has one click. Iterative design is throwing up opportunities for improvement but they ignore them.

While I'm on the subject what's with the repetitive questions about the same stuff. 22 cans do you not have enough feedback to work on? Re poll on stickers - stop using chests, lower number required and make our people generate them in a meaningful way. Please don't ask again we have spoken enough about this. Regarding the technology timeline please play civilisation 5 and copy for fucks sake. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, civ nailed tech circa 1990 and it's never been improved on since so if you want tech copy them please.

Finally to cap off my epic rant what is happening with mobile? It's so bugged that people lose progress and gems the very thing they are paying for in this f2p monstrosity? Do you think it is ok to take their money and then wipe te very progress they are paying for. I would have understood maybe if you'd released a hotfix but how long has it been must be months since last mobile patch. The negative comments are starting to mount on the App Store with people complaining about lost gems and connectivity. Again you shoudnt have released the game.

Sorry that's my rant I just got worked up.

It's not so bad considering that they had a multiplayer prototype available before Kickstarter went green.  They had a partially functional game before they ever got funding so I'm sure a number of backers thought that the post-Kickstarter time was refinement, expansion, and stabilization.  Instead, it was rework from scratch after rework from scratch.

As to the Iterative design chestnut, I've said it over and over again.  THERE IS ALMOST NO ITERATION IN GODUS' DESIGN PROCESS.  Iteration is where a feature is added and then the develpers perform a series of refinements until it meets an acceptable criterion.  It's not a series of feature proposals that get binned if they suck.  The ONLY thing that comes close to "iteration" in their design process is how they're handling settlements.  They released them back in 1.3 and they sucked.  They reworked them as part of 2.0 and they still sucked.  They released a "settlement revamp" a few months back and nothing improved.  Now, they're trying again.  That's iteration. 

Adding a feature like totems, realizing its serious limitations after playtesting, and then removing it is NOT iteration. 
Yanking out the ability to sculpt portions of the map "just because" is NOT iteration. 
Balancing classes in an MMO IS iteration. 
Adjusting build timers to make sense IS iteration. 
Refining new features designed for mobile so they make sense is NOT iteration.

It's not my interpretation, but the definition of iteration.  Iterative design is cyclic, not linear.  A prototype is constructed, then refined through " prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a product or process."  Just pushing out a new build isn't an iteration, though that's what 22Cans keeps trying to point to as an excuse.  If that is a valid interpretation then all programming projects must be "iterative" since the only alternative is to write an entire application without compiling it until it is finished.

The problem is that there are so few features and so little added to Godus over the last year.  When things are more likely to be tossed out completely, rather than refined, then it's hard to justify calling it an incremental change.  I wouldn't care so much about the 22Cans interpretation of "iterative design" if it wasn't being used as a blanket excuse for insanely slow updates and meager feature additions.  When we can see nearly as many things removed as added over time, it's hard to consider Godus' desing as incremental repetitions rather than an infinite loop.