Hello, dear @James, @Yota and @OlliePurkiss. I have a serious ask to you.
What we could wait for Boundless?
Please, create a roadmap for us at a year or two.
Below I explain why I find it important.
It’s important to enkindle an interest
Perhaps, it’s relate to interest and sales. At the videogames market we haven’t critical necessity as we have such necessity in food and water. Only the interest is determine anything here. And interest to developing game is not an interest to the game itself but to happy image of future of the game which make gamers joyful and motivated.
Let’s look to games which are really shooted at kickstarter while was developed nought.
Star Citizen – Cris presented a huge amount of plans for years ahead and this created a might reaction in games industry. This plans let him to collect tens of millions dollars for developing. A fact what he created HUGE, AWESOME and DETAILED road map for his project was the reason for his success. People literally seems theyself as a part inside this world. They went on wait for the game and aspire to be involved in new wonderful world day by day.
It would be good to increase sales and profits
It is clear that the games in this post have a slightly different model of monetization. They were launched mainly through crowdfunding and this became famous.
Here is an interest. High-budget projects are launched much easier. They just work on the models “We’ll do everything to the end, and then you’ll see everything”, but they do not show either a roadmap for development or their plans and so on. Only a small trailer, which roughly indicates what will be in the game.
But this is not your option. You don’t have tens and hundreds of millions dollars to develop indoors without news. It will be much more effective if you will go on a whole model of crowdfunding. In the model, people sell a non-existent product only by picture in players heads and imagination they own. There is nothing, but they are already selling an image of better future. This business strategy are called “vision”. And sellers making it exactly by the DESCRIPTION OF WHAT WILL BE with the road map included.
Yes, no matter how to do it actually. You could tell in the video tell about developing process as it was did for the Shroud Avatar, or you could draw some pictures with dates and little descriptions of coming features or you could simply describe it as a text. It is important that these data are publicly available and that everyone wants to PLAY FOREVER. Not only now in what is already there, but waiting every day for something new, which is already planned and scheduled on the map.
The most important thing for me is understanding that when you increase sales you will have more money, and I will have more content, mechanics, news occasions and pleasures from the game.
It’s important to collect feedback in advance
By creating a roadmap you will get powerful feedback on each element that you are going to include.
Players will see what is written in the map and they will have thoughts on this plans, will have feelings, desires and resistance. As a result, they will discuss about in chats, forums, blogs and you will get detailed feedback on everything what you are doing
For example, the developers of Life Is Feudal made not only a roadmap with all the milestones of the development, but also added a mechanism for collecting the wishes of the players. And systematically implement these chips and directions. http://lifeisfeudal.com/Discussions/categories/uncategorized
Publish a visual development process
Do you already know that people get 70% of the information from the visual presentation?
Here you publish in the devlog information on the weekly monthly progress and updates – this is right and very welcome, but how to understand at what stage is now this update? How to understand what is behind it, what is before it, and what will happen ten updates after?
So when here will be a timeline with milestones – this will be a visual orientation for what moves and how, and most importantly a direction where it moves to.
Finally: Give us a game development map!
I asked dozens of Boundless players about whether they know what will happen next? Nobody … NOBODY can’t answer this question. They usually make an acidic and upset face, and everyone said: “perhaps” or “I think so”.
Nope. Nothing sure. It’s empty. No plans from the developers. Is it right?
For example, I want to have technologies. I want it to be so difficult as in Minecraft mods like Advanced Machines, Applied Energistics, Big Reactors, BuildCraft, Botania, ComputerCraft, EnderIO, Factorization, Forestry, Galacticraft, GenDustry, Nuclear Control, IndustrialCraft, Mekanism and so on.
Every step in the game must give me a sense of something real and lasting. The feeling of unity of all complex systems in a whole world. I want to plan myself what to do next and how to progress a character. I want a sandbox. I want to feel freedom and to have great mechanisms and ingame mechanics.
Tell me what do you want to do?
What are your dreams which you want to introduce into the game one day?
What motivate you in the creation of this world, the desire for what kind of mechanics?
Please tell us about yourself, your thoughts and your aspirations. What will be released next?
What will happen in a month, six months, a year?
What will happen 3 years later?
are great team of professionals. You work so hard, so perfectly, very neat and efficient. But very, very, very slooow.
will be released.
