I AM CONCERNED ABOUT SOMETHING

[MiAh The King]

Okay so....this game released three years ago. That's about average for a games completion. RIght? Maybe a little longer depending on how big and awesome the game is. So technically this game has had enough time to finish development.

Now maybe it's a small indie team with little to no money and it's taking them longer but even still it seems a bit odd that this game is STILL in early access and unfinished after all this time.

But my main point and the main thing I'm trying to get to is....what all is there to do in this game? I mean I've unlocked everything, I've got maximum skill points. My tavern is pretty bustling and awesome. But....is there anything else to do? Are there quests? Is there an endgame? Is there a point to keep playing after you unlock everything?

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the game.. But I am a bit concerned. For context...My Time at Portia was released after 2 years early access. And Slime Rancher was released 1 year after early access. This game is NOT as big or as beautiful as those two games so why isn't it finished yet? Hell why isn't there just more content yet? This kinda thing has me worried. Hopefully I'm wrong and that's why I'm here. SO what else is there to do in this game?

There are a lot of locked off areas that look like they can be unlocked by some hidden event or something yet I haven't uncovered anything. So...thoughts? And please keep it respectful as I do enjoy the game. Thanks.

[Sigvuld]

Time in early access varies per game, "less than 3 years" is not a requirement for really any game to be good, just a convenience if it happens to be the case for that game (or can still be a rush job depending on the scope of the game)

[MiAh The King]

Originally posted by Sigvuld:

Time in early access varies per game, "less than 3 years" is not a requirement for really any game to be good, just a convenience if it happens to be the case for that game (or can still be a rush job depending on the scope of the game)

The point i'm trying to make is that much larger, bigger, prettier games with small indie teams have taken almost half the time to finish their games than this one has. So the question is why?

[MudeJoe]

Originally posted by MiAh The King:

Originally posted by Sigvuld:

Time in early access varies per game, "less than 3 years" is not a requirement for really any game to be good, just a convenience if it happens to be the case for that game (or can still be a rush job depending on the scope of the game)

The point i'm trying to make is that much larger, bigger, prettier games with small indie teams have taken almost half the time to finish their games than this one has. So the question is why?

Because they had more free time to put into development, or they've been more trained in developing games, and so on.. there are a lot of possibilities, in the end this game still recieves updates. And about the fact, that you have nothing left to discover - that might be it. Maybe you're not supposed to have a whole lot more ahead of you, maybe this game wants to be what it is right now, regarding the overall experience of the gameplay itself, no special quests, no huge endgame, maybe it just wants to be a relaxing experience and when you've discovered everything there is and you're getting bored it's time to move on to another game. :)

[Philtre]

Originally posted by MiAh The King:

The point i'm trying to make is that much larger, bigger, prettier games with small indie teams have taken almost half the time to finish their games than this one has. So the question is why?

"Small" can mean anything from one person to a dozen or so. I think this one is pretty solidly on the "one person" side of that scale. And I'm not sure it sells briskly enough for it to be their full-time job. Updates are happening, new mechanics are being added; I think patience is a requirement for early-access games in general, and for more niche titles like this one in particular.

[onealone]

Over the years my experience has been that the majority of games take 4 to 5 years to completion. Secondly, not all games enter EA at the same state of completion. Some enter with barely a pre-pre-Alpha video demo. Others have already been in the works for a year or more before going to EA.

I'm not saying that you should not have your concerns. I am saying that some of your presuppositions are a bit off.

[kgrace142]

Different teams of different sizes with different resources make different games at different speeds. Game developers are not Content Vending Machines, y'know?

[MiAh The King]

Look I understand where everyone is coming from. I'm not knocking the game. I love the game. Okay?

However just because I love something doesn't mean I'll be blind to the possibility of being milked. Okay? For instance. How would you know if the developers were just milking this for all they could?
...
You wouldn't know. What, you're going to take them at their word? Why? The only way you guys would ever remotely believe that they're dragging their feet to get more money is if they admitted it which they'll never do. So there's literally NO REASON to just assume they have pure intentions.

Let me say again, I love the game and I'm not bashing it or the developers.

But just because you love something doesn't mean you need to be blind to the possible negative possibilities.

What I"m saying is simple. This game is small. With not a lot of content, gameplay mechanics, graphics or musical/sound innovation. It's on a repetitive loop of doing the same thing over and over again. And after 3 years, this is all they have?

And normally to make a Tripple A game takes 3-5 years. Look it up. This is definitely NOT that. This is a low quality game in terms of comparing it to a tripple A game which can take 5 years.

So....IF this is all they intended for this game then fine. That's great. Let people know that though. I'm not saying stop supporting them or the game, I'm not saying go around bashing it or ignoring it. All I'm saying is don't blindly follow the words of the developers and use your own brain to deduce if they are dragging their feet or not. If we pay them money to support their early access game then we have a right to criticize and judge.

Now if someone can please answer my original concern. Is there anything else to do in this game? There are a lot of locked off areas and a few interesting conversations making me think theres something else I can do. Finding the golems parent, free the guy from the ice. Stuff like that. And whats up with the caravan showing up in that small section in the woods to the south?

[floricel]

i think that we should give them time and in that time play the game and give suggestions. also, check 7 days to die - this game is in early access since i was a kid

[brian_va]

factorio took 8.5 years to get to 1.0 release, sometimes it takes a while to create the game you want to make. i'm fairly new to this game, but the devs seem active enough in the discussions and there were a handful of patches in the last week or so after the larger update.

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-360

[Shazza]

Originally posted by MiAh The King:

And normally to make a Tripple A game takes 3-5 years. Look it up. This is definitely NOT that. This is a low quality game in terms of comparing it to a tripple A game which can take 5 years.

You very clearly don't understand what people are saying when they tell you that development isn't a static process, nor is it like a vending machine where you put in a strict amount of time and have a finished product.

In terms of content updates, Travellers Rest is pretty steady. It just had a substantial patch dropped. You need to take into consideration that time is a finite and changing resource for developers - anything from vacations, personal burn-out, life obligations, and even delays due to the game itself needing longer to bugfix due to mystery errors can come in the way.

Triple A titles have a shorter average because there's far more money behind it, far more people, and far more malicious practice (time crunching) to get a product released within a specified deadline. Indie developers largely ignore these rules because it's A) healthier on them as humans, who aren't machines, and B) less people = more time needed objectively to make anything.

[MudeJoe]

Sorry, I can't answer your question, since I never played that much, but regarding the rest of your (very long) text: I don't mean to be rude, but I just don't get it, are you serious? You compare AAA games with... this? You can not compare such things, it's like comparing the possibilities of a shoe to those of a car. You have one, maybe two people, maybe three, working on this game, GOD knows how much experience and time they have for this project. And on the other side, you have huge companies, that work on games more than fulltime, in teams that can include hundreds of people for all the different tasks. And of course you can never trust any EA game (both early access and you know who), but that's clear from the beginning. And all we're saying is, that this game doesn't show any reason to believe they're screwing us. Updates are coming in, slow but steady, and they're pretty nice most of the time. We're being screwed as soon as this game is abandoned while being full of bugs and missing features, as long as that ain't the case it's... Early Access, and a pretty fine example of that too.

[Shovah]

The conditions for the production of different games can be very different from each other. Usually, a game is released in early access close to completion, and that year or two years is used to polish it or add small modifications on a solid base, our example is just the opposite.

Travelers Rest was released as an alpha version created by another developer 3 years ago. That developer retired and in March 2021 Isolated Games took over the development of the game. That version probably doesn't even come close to 5% of the game, and even that, we had to redo it practically from scratch, because we had to redo all the art and redo much of the inner workings of the game to be able to modify and keep expanding content.

In two years, the entire game base has been modified and practically all the content has been added: crafters and materials, expansion and modification of the tavern, all the exterior maps, new NPCs, the parrot system, the new stores, game events, the animal system...

When Travellers Rest came to us the game had hardly any content and little by little the game is getting bigger and bigger. Of course, this change takes time, but as you have seen the pace of updates is high and the patches add significant changes and major content. We prefer to work for a while on getting the best game possible instead of focusing on finishing it fast and leaving all the mechanics and systems we have in mind out because we are in a hurry to get a final version.

[camokamikaze]

To be fair, my favorite indie game was released on early access in late 2013 and only officially released in late 2018.

I think this game has big ambitions, but can only work on things piece by piece. There's a tab for magic and social upgrades, a guy frozen into a mountain-side, a guard who blocks your path one way, and a broken rope bridge on the other side. I'm sure they'll implement all of these ideas and projects into something interesting in the future. It just depends on the size of their team and how much time they can dedicate to working on this vs other possible life events.

Also, it is only $15 USD, so if you've already leveled the tavern rep, maxed your character out, and done all of the research, I think it's fair to say you enjoyed it enough that it was worth the $15 even if we're being milked lol.

Try not to stress out or overthink, and enjoy the farm update if you haven't already! :)

[MiAh The King]

Originally posted by camokamikaze:

To be fair, my favorite indie game was released on early access in late 2013 and only officially released in late 2018.

I think this game has big ambitions, but can only work on things piece by piece. There's a tab for magic and social upgrades, a guy frozen into a mountain-side, a guard who blocks your path one way, and a broken rope bridge on the other side. I'm sure they'll implement all of these ideas and projects into something interesting in the future. It just depends on the size of their team and how much time they can dedicate to working on this vs other possible life events.

Also, it is only $15 USD, so if you've already leveled the tavern rep, maxed your character out, and done all of the research, I think it's fair to say you enjoyed it enough that it was worth the $15 even if we're being milked lol.

Try not to stress out or overthink, and enjoy the farm update if you haven't already! :)

I'm not stressed. I'm still enjoying it, was merely expressing a minor concern. Thanks :)

[MiAh The King]

Originally posted by MudeJoe:

Sorry, I can't answer your question, since I never played that much, but regarding the rest of your (very long) text: I don't mean to be rude, but I just don't get it, are you serious? You compare AAA games with... this? You can not compare such things, it's like comparing the possibilities of a shoe to those of a car. You have one, maybe two people, maybe three, working on this game, GOD knows how much experience and time they have for this project. And on the other side, you have huge companies, that work on games more than fulltime, in teams that can include hundreds of people for all the different tasks. And of course you can never trust any EA game (both early access and you know who), but that's clear from the beginning. And all we're saying is, that this game doesn't show any reason to believe they're screwing us. Updates are coming in, slow but steady, and they're pretty nice most of the time. We're being screwed as soon as this game is abandoned while being full of bugs and missing features, as long as that ain't the case it's... Early Access, and a pretty fine example of that too.

I WASN'T comparing it to other tripple A games. Someone else mentioned how long it takes games to develop without being specific and I was speaking generally.

ALso as I keep saying, I love this game and can't stop playing it but had a MINOR concern. I've been screwed over my indie game developers too many times to count and I don't trust easy. That's it.