Is Sapiens abandoned? No!

[majicDave]

No! Sapiens is very much still actively being worked on, and will be for a number of years yet.

Due to the low frequency of updates, people often come in here thinking it's dead, so I want to reassure everybody about my plans, and explain why it takes a while between updates.

First up, Sapiens is made by one person (me). It's important context, my resources are limited. I have decided to continue to develop Sapiens solo as I believe this will achieve the best result over the long term. In short, taking on a publisher and funding to hire more developers would make me lose all passion in the project, change it into a money making machine, and ultimately ruin the game and put it in another developer's hands. There are also loads of other major benefits to being a solo dev, but I won't go too off topic, you just need to know it's not changing any time soon.

As a result of the solo constraint, I can't work concurrently like larger teams where planning and development of the update two releases away can begin before the next update has even entered testing, so my release cycles are longer than some games with larger teams.

Sapiens is also a very complex game, where every new feature can have a large number of flow-on effects. It's a huge project, and I take a lot of care to make sure it's as bug-free as possible. So new features can take a while to implement, and then I need a good few weeks of playtesting and fixes. The community testers help a lot during this phase, but I think it's extremely important that a developer plays and tests their own game thoroughly every update, or there is a real danger of becoming too detached over time and losing direction.

So with all that in mind, I aim to release major updates every 3-6 months on average. I've settled into this routine as what will work best for me, for the game, and most importantly for the majority of players. 0.5 is taking longer than most, but it's a big one.

I don't post very often on these discussion boards, as doing so takes time away from coding, which makes updates take even longer. I also have pretty much stopped posting on social media, and my youtube videos are few and far between. And again the main reason for all of this is that I want to get updates out as soon as possible, and all of that stuff adds up to big delays. There are enough players now that I don't feel the need to invest my time in promoting the game, I can afford to just focus on making the game better, so that is exactly what I am doing.

I do apologize if you came from playing other games that get more frequent updates and are disappointed with waiting so long here. But just know that I'm in this for the long haul. I see this as a marathon, not a sprint. We can all see the potential, but we won't get there if I sell out and take a back seat or burn myself out. Please try to be patient, and know I'm doing the best I can.

Dave

[Moominpappa]

Doing a grand job Dave. Here for the long run buddy. Thanks for making this game, it's excellent and I love it.

[Thing482]

It really is sad seeing people say this game is abandoned because you are focusing on adding features which are more time consuming rather than re-textures. I am glad you are working on things like villages, Sleds, enhanced UI, canoes, trading and things like that over *Tree type #6* (the wood is pink this time)...

Don't get me wrong having dozens of different species of trees is something I want but the abundance of content should come after core progression.

[Beletang]

Appreciate the post, Dave! Keep at it, super excited to see the next update. Sunk in a great 25 hours over two playthroughs (giving time for updates). Wanted you to know there are patient and supporting fans out there.

Guys check out the discord, he is really active there with consistent updates, and it's a good like-minded community. I won't put a link here, just google it.

[CarlCinco]

I think considering that this project is literally a solo developer project, the updates are coming in quite frequently. Also, the updates are always solid quality being added to the game. I can't imagine how much work that takes but it always turns out to be amazing. I am happy to sit back and patiently wait for the next updates come through and I know there are many who feel the same way. Thanks Dave for making such a gem of a game! I'm happy to be able to play and enjoy it!

[abe]

Thanks for the update Dave. Excited to try out the new features when they are polished and tested!

[76561199040771259]

I played for 500 hours, I feeling the game having problems with graphics, crashing each 20-30 min. I check the temperature of graphic card run +6°/+8° higher, this happened in last 10 days.

Is a great game, but remember, wasnt free for us too, so if you dont have your head fresh and clear to know when you need help, this game will run to die, because you´re not understanding players wants. Remember, paying for unfinished demo and whitout a plan is bad, too bad.

Maybe you take my words bad and hate me, but I wanna help... anyway...
PS Spanish translation is a real sh....t just like my english :D

[NoxMortus]

@majicDave - a large part of the issue is your unwillingness to communicate on the primary advertising domain of your game: Steam.

Yes, you are active on discord, but aside from the diehard fans, the other players of this game will not look at discord. Nor will you get an additional sale by restricting your communication to discord.

You either need to:
a) engage more frequently on steam, with say monthly progress reports.
b) employ or have a trusted follower post the updates on your behalf.

Without either of these two actions, the forums will continue to be filled with "abandonware" threads.

[James Solo]

I'm really enjoying the game, I would really love to see more geometric building shapes like circles and smaller rectangles and squares. Maybe a way to just resize the current ones :)

[0r@ng]

I saw people saying its abandoned and thank goodness for this response. I saw this game in development years ago, I was staying in a place like a teenage care home (for misbehaving or temporary shelter house(s)). Then I suddenly thought of this game, after I got out and I played this game. Discussions made me ask whether this game is abandoned.

I'm glad this game is still under development by Dave alone.
Keep up the good work!

[AethelWulf02]

Originally posted by NoxMortus:

@majicDave - a large part of the issue is your unwillingness to communicate on the primary advertising domain of your game: Steam.

Yes, you are active on discord, but aside from the diehard fans, the other players of this game will not look at discord. Nor will you get an additional sale by restricting your communication to discord.

You either need to:
a) engage more frequently on steam, with say monthly progress reports.
b) employ or have a trusted follower post the updates on your behalf.

Without either of these two actions, the forums will continue to be filled with "abandonware" threads.

I agree with this, writing up some simple blog posts with some WIP pictures to put on Steam would go along way with making people not feel like the game is abandoned.

[Alexander Rahl]

"Abandoned" is a literal term and a state of being.
if the game gets one update a year, and that update adds an extra building, some new small feature and bug fixes, the game will be treated the same was as an abandoned game is.

i havent touched the game since shortly after the last update, when i saw all there was to see of interest to me. i check back for updates and every time i see nothing. the game is functionally abandoned. you may still be plugging away at your end, but the end users see none of that whatsoever. my discord is cluttered with two dozen channels i dont use, and i dont intend to add yours to that list when i can just as easily tab over to Sapiens on my steam list and check for an answer to "any updates?" by looking at the news feed.
Youve sold a product to people, how you go about handling that responsibility is up to you, but it will determine whether your game is lauded with the likes of The Forest and Executive Assault, or condemned to the likes of all other EA games that went nowhere.

[Blaine]

So if we're supposed to expect major updates every 3-6 months, and .4 released over 5 months ago now... does that mean we can expect .5 to release within the next month or less?

[Thing482]

Originally posted by Blaine:

So if we're supposed to expect major updates every 3-6 months, and .4 released over 5 months ago now... does that mean we can expect .5 to release within the next month or less?

He was working on the "destination builder" which is the main component for creating AI villages and advanced starts. He has said he plans to have experimental multiplayer support for 0.5... Which to me means this update will likely take longer than the other ones. We will have to see though a month from now.

EDIT: Or if you have discord you can check to get the updates MUCH faster.

[poverty]

Originally posted by Alexander Rahl:

"Abandoned" is a literal term and a state of being.
if the game gets one update a year, and that update adds an extra building, some new small feature and bug fixes, the game will be treated the same was as an abandoned game is.

i havent touched the game since shortly after the last update, when i saw all there was to see of interest to me. i check back for updates and every time i see nothing. the game is functionally abandoned. you may still be plugging away at your end, but the end users see none of that whatsoever. my discord is cluttered with two dozen channels i dont use, and i dont intend to add yours to that list when i can just as easily tab over to Sapiens on my steam list and check for an answer to "any updates?" by looking at the news feed.
Youve sold a product to people, how you go about handling that responsibility is up to you, but it will determine whether your game is lauded with the likes of The Forest and Executive Assault, or condemned to the likes of all other EA games that went nowhere.

I barely follow this game and check back randomly, but seeing all these entitled posts is hilarious.

[DRED]

Its all good dave.. love the game... and I very much appreciate the time and effort you put in it. I'll be patient.