Lo-Fi Games

Happy Holidays everyone, I hope everybody's had a great holiday season.

I'm created this new thread because something has been bothering me about the Kenshi development cycle for quite a while now. I really like what Chris has done so far, and I understand he is the only person developing the game (with the exception of art). However, being the only developer isn't an excuse to not give periodic updates on the progress of the game.

As a member who has paid money to support development of Kenshi, I would really, really like to see periodic updates on WHAT is going on and what has been accomplished. Each update doesn't have to be significant, I just want to know the what's going on. It could even be a brief blurb about how Chris has streamlined some code or made the sand look prettier -- I just want to be constantly informed of what progress is being made. As of so far, Chris has been updating around every two weeks or so, which is ok, but I would really like to see more constant updates. I would recommend a weekly series of updates on the progress of Kenshi. In my mind, it doesn't take much time or effort to type out a paragraph or two about the status of the game.

The last update (as of this post) was on December 9th, and its January 3rd as of right now -- a 3 week gap. That's gap between updates is too long. I KNOW that Chris is currently developing farming and brewing, but what I want to see is what kind of additions are being made between 0.33 and 0.40. As of now, I can only speculate on what has been added for farming -- are we farming carrots, potatoes, or some magical wonder plant?



Here's what I propose:

I would like to see a weekly update (Fridays maybe?) where Chris documents what he has accomplished this week, or what he plans to complete in the next few weeks. A weekly process (in my mind) is perfect, because it doesn't require constant tweeting of what's going on, and its spaced out enough that updates will be fairly interesting. These weekly updates don't have to be long, a paragraph or two would be fine. Hell, even stating: "I was too busy to work on Kenshi this week, no updates" would be fine. The most important aspect of these weekly updates is to facilitate communication. Right now, the Kenshi forums are stagnant, there is little to no new content being posted -- that's because there's NO news or interesting information being presented or discussed. Chris, what would happen if you asked a question at the end of each post? You would get the thoughts of the community, and feedback on what people want to see. Hell, there's a lot of creative members among the Kenshi community, a simple suggestion of your could be discussed and changed into something wonderful overnight.

As of right now, Chris's sporadic timing of updates is frustrating. There are periods where we get multiple updates in a week or two, and then there's a blank period where we're left hanging for 2 or 3 weeks. This lack of communication makes it difficult for the Kenshi community to actively develop new ideas. I understand that you, Chris, read every post, but I would really like to see more comments from you. Your level of interaction in the "Bug Reports" section of the forums is phenomenal, and it would really help the community if you can chime in more on other parts of the forums -- most notably feature requests.


Personally, I think that the 0.40 updates is very exciting -- but I want to know more. To me, it is much better to inundate users with information rather then leaving users wondering what's going to happen next with Kenshi. I bought Kenshi very, very early in its developement cycle, back in November of last year. The game has seen some progress since that point, and I want to see more improvement.

Chris, you're making a fantastic game right now. I just want to know more about it.

Chris has said before that when he abstains from participating on the forum, he gets more work done.


I much prefer his methods to those of Sauropod Studios, where they have far greater resources, but have produced far less in a greater amount of time... Most of the staff there spend their time conversing with fans. As a result, their game is still neigh unplayable, and the cost far exceeded the amount of money I paid for Kenshi, despite Kenshi being of far higher quality.


(Also, we are making a DIRECT jump from .33 to .40)

This is because the update changes the game so much that he felt the game will be worthy of .40 at the time this next update is released. There won't be a .34, .35, etc up until .40...

I do agree, & it would be nice to have weekly updates but as long as Chris is happy, im happy. He should do whatever he thinks is right. Even if we are left out for a long time or the updates take forever. People are ALWAYS gonna come back to Kenshi until the games finished.

I do belive that this thread does say what alot of people are thinking though.

lotsofpaper wrote:Chris has said before that when he abstains from participating on the forum, he gets more work done.


I much prefer his methods to those of Sauropod Studios, where they have far greater resources, but have produced far less in a greater amount of time... Most of the staff there spend their time conversing with fans. As a result, their game is still neigh unplayable, and the cost far exceeded the amount of money I paid for Kenshi, despite Kenshi being of far higher quality.

I wonder if you guys have seen DF's dev blogs, Toady one works alone, yet gets a blog post out at least once a week, usually more. of course, actull game updates are few and inbetween but that's more to do with untangling his years of code than interaction with the community.

lkenage wrote: I bought Kenshi very, very early in its developement cycle, back in November of last year.

I don't mean to nitpick, but that was only 2 months ago.








Yes, I know you meant november 2011. But hell, the forums are stagnant and we don't get much to comment on. let a man have his nitpicks!

I don't need weekly or even monthly updates, Solong as the actual updates (the patches) are being worked on and arrive i'll be happy and content.

It's not like chris is keeping us in the dark.

I just don't understand why people would wan't developers to spend time writing 2 lines about how the sand is now prettier.

No pun intended.

I'd just like to know if we'll see a 3.9/4.0 in the Testers forum so we can squash some bugs pre-official release. I understand the inclination to just work at something without changing your focus, and can understand to some extent how perusing the forums could at times be troublesome for development. After all, if he was working on a feature, had it nearly done, and came upon something he liked in the forums and was tempted to scrap the feature as he had it and take it back to the drawing board he'd be losing time even if it was something fairly insignificant. It doesn't take a lot of backtracking to lose time in a project, a little bit here and there can set you back quite a bit.

I think the fact that many of us are quite eager for 4.0 to drop is indicative of what a good job Chris has done so far, and I'm inclined to believe that even if it takes a little longer when we get our hands on it we'll be happy with it. The problem with interim updates is if you give people something along those lines, they'll start clamoring for more, what's an ETA even if you're going to be wrong, we want numbers, give us numbers... Then if those projections are off, you get a ton of rage threads about vaporware or some crap. It's a vicious cycle, and going with updates for new releases and giving little information save for the immediately upcoming features and broad strokes about where you're going is a logical thing to do.

Trying to give people a heads up on what you're working on can backfire and wind up annoying some fans. While many people enjoyed the Dominion mode in League of Legends, many were annoyed that they did some handwaving and said they turned the concepts from Magma Chamber into Dominion. Magma chamber was painted as a fairly straightforward, just much larger traditional 5v5 map. They're basically saying "well it didn't test well so we scrapped it and went with this". That still doesn't stop people from complaining about it. Of course this community, any community for that matter, has far less vitriol than that of LoL. Still, I can see where any time any amount of effort was put into something that just "didn't fit" and was scrapped people would be more upset about it if they were kept up to date on the minutia of the day to day work Chris has to do, since this is effectively a one man effort.

More updates would be nice, but if Chris can work faster without having to stress about putting out an update every week I'm fine with it. after all I have other things to occupy my time while I wait. Kenshi's potential alone is enough to keep me around.

Hello,

I'm quite new in this forum. But i don't support the idea that the Developer must write updates/Blog, about what has been done or something like that. First of all, a Developer like ours is quite open/free-minded person and you want to control his - NOT good, NOT going to work. Everything he writes does have an IMPACT on things - he has people who count on him, who bought the game and everyone of us has his/hers own opinion on updates and what should be and should not be done. So writing about the updates every week or two is going to have a negative thing. And at this point it is better just to do the work and then - after a month or two, one day say like - "Hello - you have been waiting for it - HERE YOU GO - 0.40! Like it or leave it alone..."
I support the guy.

So, I would advise you to leave the guy alone and let him work.
P.S. Sorry for bad English, it's not my first language

Hi,

I think many people want weekly updates.
But i think also many people want GREAT stuff and perfect content updates then bad weekly updates.
Waiting is hard for such a nice game. BUT if we wait longer he could make more Awesome stuff for us.

So my opinion is.

I wait for awesome stuff. And i DONT want weekly updates.

The OP meant updates as in information snips, not game updates imo.

you just got what you asked.

I've read what a lot of you guys have said, and I do agree with a lot of your points. However, a lot of people are basing their argument on the fact that providing weekly updates will be very time consuming.

Just to clarify, I am not looking for an huge update every week. Like I said before, a tiny blurb of text (1-2 paragraphs) is fine. The most important thing for me is knowledge that the game is being worked on. A lot of new games are being made, simply because it is easier to create a game today than it was in the past. My biggest concern (and that of many potential costumers) is that a game in development may become vaporware. I would not mind if Chris were put up a weekly post that simply says "I worked out some minor bugs in Kenshi, and coded a little bit more content. No significant news this week, but the game is still being worked on." <-- That sentence took me no more than 30 seconds to write.

The update today (posted January 7th, 2013), is NOT an example of the weekly updates I want to see. Chris's post today was substantial and highly detailed -- perfect for the upcoming 0.40 update, but not so for the weekly updates that I hope he may implement. I'm not asking for a super detailed, in-depth essay about the current state of affairs. I just want a little snippet of information telling me what's going on in Kenshi -- 5 minutes a week on keeping silly people like me satisfied?


Also, I don't know if it's possible, but I think enabling comments on blog posts would be a fantastic way to facilitate discussion.

I'm still in awe of just how frequently Toady updates the fanbase.

lordcooper wrote:I'm still in awe of just how frequently Toady updates the fanbase.

It's a matter of preference i suppose. I personally prefer less frequent but more substantial updates over tweet sized updates every 1-2 day(s).

we should not force chris to release the updates too early with nearly nothing because the fans are all saying its too long.Yes,its long,but believe me,its going to be quality.

cyanide_addict wrote:we should not force chris to release the updates too early with nearly nothing because the fans are all saying its too long.Yes,its long,but believe me,its going to be quality.

You missed the point. it is not about releasing updates. it is about releasing news. Ikenage wants chris to write little update information every week or so in little bit-size format.

Maybe Chris should just use twitter then, if small updates are wanted.

I don't think it's a big deal either way; the update frequency is fine as it is currently, in my opinion. I'd rather Chris make monthly updates about patches and focus entirely on working (but not working too hard, of course. I'm no slave driver. )