What happened in the development of this game?

[varjak_]

Intended to post onto the "Anyone else disappointed?" thread but instead putting this as it's own thread to promote discussion, because healthy discussion is how things get better.
Separated for readability.
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I think this game is a case of "capitalism got in the way (again)" unfortunately.

Alice Ruppert was the creative director for this game (and is also the owner of The Mane Quest). She states on twitter "the project and team was bigger than anything I'd done before, there was some turnover in the team, and the vision between stakeholders didn't always fully align".

As Microids/Aesir Interactive is a small indie company I think we can assume Alice was basically in charge of everything (this ISN'T to imply she's to blame for the issues, but instead that her words can be taken as truth).
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I can't help but think the developers just ran out of time. The sheer amount of bugs, the lacking content and perhaps notably the issues with the Irish Cob DLC. The tack bug (where everything is deformed and doesn't fit) is seen in the trailer a week before release. Did they forget or not have time to fix the tack? I can't see it being too difficult to adjust things with fully complete models.

I feel like the stakeholders or a parent company pushed for an early release or for the team to hold exactly to the announced deadline. And unfortunately, the game released (what feels like) half done.
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This game needs a "no mans sky" style comeback, and fortunately the devs seem responsive and passionate about improving the game.

What I am worried about, however, is that these improvements are going to be sold to us as DLC. Releasing an early-access level game with the mentality of 'we'll patch it in later' is a growing trend and you can basically smell the future DLC's in the air, and this is something I'm worried the stakeholders pushed the team towards.

[Kitty Kath]

Can you possibly put the link about:

Alice Ruppert was the creative director for this game (and is also the owner of The Mane Quest). She states on twitter "the project and team was bigger than anything I'd done before, there was some turnover in the team, and the vision between stakeholders didn't always fully align".

If it doesn't bother you of course.
I tried to dig for info myself but I couldn't find anything, might be my way to google stuff up.* <- For context.

[varjak_]

Originally posted by Kitty Kath:

Can you possibly put the link about:

Alice Ruppert was the creative director for this game (and is also the owner of The Mane Quest). She states on twitter "the project and team was bigger than anything I'd done before, there was some turnover in the team, and the vision between stakeholders didn't always fully align".

If it doesn't bother you of course.
I tried to dig for info myself but I couldn't find anything, might be my way to google stuff up.* <- For context.

Here's the tweet: https://twitter.com/MaliceDaFirenze/status/1568169090166001664

[Cerebrobullet]

I think we can really only guess at what the development and demands were, but your thoughts sound pretty reasonable and on track with what we know about the games industry, unfortunately. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a time demand and/or capitalism demand problem.

I really want to see this game do well and get fixed. It has so much promise, and the bones of the game are really, really solid. I hope the devs maintain their interest in supporting it. I'd love to see some kind of roadmap, but I'm sure right now they're in rush mode to deliver the next patch.

Them not just dropping the game and running is a good sign, but I too worry about DLC. Day one DLC alone is kind of a red flag to me. DLC that offers a new horse breed, when there is only one horse breed in the base game, sets off alarms in my head that someone's plan is/was to endlessly sell new horse and customization DLC.

I plan on sticking here and waiting for new patches and updates for a while. It's managed to entertain me for 15+ hours so far, even with all the practically game breaking bugs.

[Kitty Kath]

Originally posted by varjak_:

Originally posted by Kitty Kath:

Can you possibly put the link about:

Alice Ruppert was the creative director for this game (and is also the owner of The Mane Quest). She states on twitter "the project and team was bigger than anything I'd done before, there was some turnover in the team, and the vision between stakeholders didn't always fully align".

If it doesn't bother you of course.
I tried to dig for info myself but I couldn't find anything, might be my way to google stuff up.* <- For context.

Here's the tweet: https://twitter.com/MaliceDaFirenze/status/1568169090166001664

Thank you! I'll give it a read or two.

[BeastyBby]

Honestly yes I think they were heavily pushed to release for the holiday season and probably felt rushed. However as I said in my review of this game I felt they could of easily spent another year of development to this game. There is a lot more that could of been expanded or polished as a whole like characters, animations and/or details, take more time to fix bugs and balancing the gameplay.

[Rattle]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I am also sincerely worried that they are going to be dropping DLCs to add features to the game that it's still missing. No Man's Sky made a comeback, but the first five or so DLCs were free to help bring the game up to the standard people had hoped it would be. So, yeah, if they start charging 10 dollars to add features that should have been in the game, I don't think a lot of players are going to be happy about it.

I also share the opinion that the developers ran out of time. The thing is though, your budget is your responsibility, planning is crucial in ensuring you remain within the limitations of that budget. Now, things happen, of course they do, but it's also furthermore your responsibility to adjust accordingly. Because a few bugs are fine, but a broken, barren game is really not.

Also, and this is the big problem: walking around and telling people that

1) "This is the best horse game in a life time"
2) "This raises the bar for the genre"

Creates hefty expectations. By NOT saying that, and by rather saying "Hey, the game is small, we have a tiny budget and we just want to make a fun little horse game" would have done a lot in preventing this sheer intense disappointment.

Finally, I personally get the suspicion that they WANTED to make this big horse game, but couldn't due to time constraints. This is what happens when you push beyond what your team and by extension, your budget can handle.

So yes, capitalism maybe, but the team is not blameless, and they should absolutely take responsibility for what happened.

[Rattle]

Originally posted by BeastyBby:

Honestly yes I think they were heavily pushed to release for the holiday season and probably felt rushed. However as I said in my review of this game I felt they could of easily spent another year of development to this game. There is a lot more that could of been expanded or polished as a whole like characters, animations and/or details, take more time to fix bugs and balancing the gameplay.

The thing that bugs me is that it NEEDS at least a year. It feels like they were too ambitious and ended up failing at almost every hurdle. If they'd made a smaller game, a little thing with a simplistic base design it would have been fine. They could have polished and cleaned it and sent it to the masses with a far better reaction. It wouldn't have been GREAT but they would have put a good foot forward and possibly made a second game, bigger and better!

All we have now is a broken mess.

[Rattle]

Originally posted by Cerebrobullet:

I think we can really only guess at what the development and demands were, but your thoughts sound pretty reasonable and on track with what we know about the games industry, unfortunately. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a time demand and/or capitalism demand problem.

I really want to see this game do well and get fixed. It has so much promise, and the bones of the game are really, really solid. I hope the devs maintain their interest in supporting it. I'd love to see some kind of roadmap, but I'm sure right now they're in rush mode to deliver the next patch.

Them not just dropping the game and running is a good sign, but I too worry about DLC. Day one DLC alone is kind of a red flag to me. DLC that offers a new horse breed, when there is only one horse breed in the base game, sets off alarms in my head that someone's plan is/was to endlessly sell new horse and customization DLC.

I plan on sticking here and waiting for new patches and updates for a while. It's managed to entertain me for 15+ hours so far, even with all the practically game breaking bugs.

I honest to God didn't even think they'd take that road, "endless DLC horses" but yeah, it is a strong possibility. And it would be a tragedy, as Alice should know better. The genre is already littered with money grubbing microtransactions. No on, and I mean NO ONE wants this game to turn into that.

[Roti_queenie]

Originally posted by Rattle:

Creates hefty expectations. By NOT saying that, and by rather saying "Hey, the game is small, we have a tiny budget and we just want to make a fun little horse game" would have done a lot in preventing this sheer intense disappointment.

I agree so much. I work in a video game study, and I was always told "don't hype". The expectations was really high. I also 100% agree with the rest of your comment. They needed more iterations and couldn't do so.

[Cerebrobullet]

Originally posted by Rattle:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

No Man's Sky made a comeback, but the first five or so DLCs were free to help bring the game up to the standard people had hoped it would be. So, yeah, if they start charging 10 dollars to add features that should have been in the game, I don't think a lot of players are going to be happy about it.

I just want to point out that EVERY upgrade for No Man's Sky has been free and will continue to be free! We're up to something like 10 major patches? Some of which completely altered the game, many of which added fully realized new features. The next gen update was free, too. Hello Games is pretty much the masterclass of coming back from a poor release and turning around public opinion.

Now, they did have the benefit of having an extremely hyped up game which netted them a ton of money to start with, letting them take the time to fix it and continue to support it. I can't imagine this studio has anywhere near what Hello Games got in preorders and sales, so I'd never expect an equal amount of free content. But I think offering even a few large updates for free can and would go a long way in bringing back trust. I sing the praises of Hello Games all the time because they really showed they cared about what they released, and I really, really hope something similar can happen here. I want to love and support this game so much! I'm crossing my fingers that it can get over this road bump.

[Jessfique]

The bugs we found are something you can do within just PLAYING the game. The fact that the game was either not tested or tested very loosely is a red flag for me

[Pusestovler]

This could be a teaser at upcoming DLCs or cut content. Whatever it is, I just hope they do not charge for content that should've been in game as you mentioned. The Witcher 3 DLCs was amazing, with many hours of content for a VERY generous price, but in that instance, it was just bonus content since the game is really great in of itsself. But for these guys to charge for upcoming content would be another faceslap

[Sephiroth]

I agree with everything you've said, as this definitely seems like the case. What we have here is a game with obvious passion behind it, that appears to be held back by the decisions of financiers rather than the dev team itself. I feel as though, if given enough time, the devs could have released a fully polished product. I can only hope that the stakeholders wont hold them back from doing this, or demand that DLC be produced before the basegame is fully polished.

This game has the potential to be as popular as Stardew Valley if it is handled right and given enough features. I really, really hope that the Dev's understand who their audience really is, and that if we are given more complexity, questlines, and problems to solve, this game can last so much longer and be a highly recommended, satisfying experience.

But my fear is that because it is a game "for kids" (I put this in quotes because it is obvious that adult players are enjoying it too, including myself) that it will be relegated to the "good enough" mode of thinking. What I mean by this, is that Devs of games "for kids" tend to look at simplistic mechanics, or features that aren't fully fleshed out, and go "that's good enough for children!" when in reality, it isn't. Kids are smarter than you think they are, and they want games with the same complexity adults do. I cannot count how many times as a child I was frustrated or outright bored with horse games made "for kids" because I wanted so much more out of them.

Wanting more out of them doesn't mean that the content cant stay kid friendly, however- this game can be made as complex as Stardew without delving into the darker themes that tend to be present in some of the characters within that world. We can keep things lighthearted, and be the horseback riding hero, but give us NPC's to gain reputation with, better farming mechanics, and more areas to explore- give us things to directly do with our horses too! Make the breeding and racing mechanics mean something!

[Yukiko]

Originally posted by JessFique:

The bugs we found are something you can do within just PLAYING the game. The fact that the game was either not tested or tested very loosely is a red flag for me

100 % agree. more I don't want write, I wrote yesterday a long extra thread about my own thoughts about this and it was deleted.

[Rattle]

Originally posted by Yinaria:

Originally posted by JessFique:

The bugs we found are something you can do within just PLAYING the game. The fact that the game was either not tested or tested very loosely is a red flag for me

100 % agree. more I don't want write, I wrote yesterday a long extra thread about my own thoughts about this and it was deleted.

What? Can you post it here for us to see? That would be messed up if it was removed!