![]() If you want a much more detailed view of the kerfuffle, go here for a good write-up. When I saw it and how the devs were reacting to it, I thought, "Oh boy. When the game was new, I visited their forums to see the feedback they were getting. However, I have to refer all of this in the past tense. This led to an experience that was pleasingly tense and exciting without being soul-crushing. You could usually beat a dungeon without much fuss, but there was always a chance of disaster. In my experience, this basically just acts as a second health bar, so I'll leave it undiscussed.) Upsetting events can drive your characters insane. (There's also the unusual mechanic of a sanity meter. Much of the game is judging how you are doing and deciding after each fight whether you should flee or not. You'll probably get through, but a run of bad luck can permanently kill some (or all) of your characters. The dungeons are (or were) moderately tough. You keep a stable of 20 or so adventurers and pick bands of 4 of them to send into really nasty dungeons. When Darkest Dungeon came out in Early Access a few months ago, I talked it up a lot. This is how my game development process looks under the best of circumstances. Which brings us to the recent fascinating case study: Darkest Dungeon. You'll write a much better game if you don’t just throw the doors of your brain open to the world. For me, ten sensible people are far more useful than 10000 internet randos. Outside feedback is necessary, but you have to filter it. If you let too many loud voices into your head, it can drive you mad. I fear the views of the unfiltered public. Early access devs have to write a game while the entire world is shouting at them. It's hard enough to write a game under the best of circumstances. Also, and this is the part that really interests me, the developers have to finish a game in view of the full public. On the other hand, the game will be buggy and incomplete, and you can't be sure it will ever be finished. Most interestingly (to me), users get a chance to watch an unfinished game take shape before their eyes. The developer can get possibly much needed cash. So now developers can release their game early. ![]() One recent cautionary tale may, I think, be very instructive.Įarly Access, Failing In Public, and How to Fill Your Brain With Madness ![]() Early Access is a popular new way of developing, is here to stay, and requires new techniques and guidelines. But at least, as rough as a shareware game might have been, at least when it was released it was DONE. It was often buggy, weird, and badly put-together. ![]() When I started out writing shareware in the last century, shareware had a pretty bad reputation. The success of Steam Early Access (where developers can put their unfinished games up for sale early) is still a bit of a shock. I am always amazed by how little I am able to predict the game industry. ![]()
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