So.. Game is dead?

[Deja Vroom!]

No updates for a while. Relatively little content added in with the previous updates. Is the game dead?

[Tynie]

The short answer is no. The development team is just settling into some new digs and added a new programmer to their team. My understanding is they are putting the finishing touches on a new update which should release in the immediate future. Discord is a better venue to witness activity within the Vox community.

Hang with it and I think our patience will be rewarded. I see the time the developers have spent already and the time they take with updates as a good thing. Shows their commitment to quality and releasing only the game they envisioned. The recent changes for the development team can only mean good things for the player base.

[frogopus]

The future patch note from the Discord: 0.31.0 alpha - Smarch ?, 2019 (NOT YET)
- Support for several popular joystick/throttle/HOTAS controllers.
- Controller Mapping menu allows all gameplay functions to be reconfigured.
- Fix incorrect top-left menu option hotspot for mouse and motion controller input.
- New close-range weapon (replaced Flak Cannon). :gun:
- New level. :snowman2:
- New anti-air weapon.
- Fix AI getting stuck when walking through tunnels/underpasses.
- More pilot model options.
- Fix conflict with Citrix Workspace software.

[frogopus]

On Discord they've started running a Works In Progress section where they've shown off improved and brand new avatar models and the new map coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQSd8O1aOVs&feature=youtu.be

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/552203571584565253/552630551304077313/male_pilot_old_v_new.jpg?width=794&height=447

[rusty_dragon]

Originally posted by frogopus:

On Discord they've started running a Works In Progress section where they've shown off improved and brand new avatar models and the new map coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQSd8O1aOVs&feature=youtu.be

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/552203571584565253/552630551304077313/male_pilot_old_v_new.jpg?width=794&height=447

That is what no one of developers should do. The problem with Discord is that it's not for communicating with community. It's for having lovely local chit-chats.

Many developers repeating this mistake nowadays. Discord is fine, if you want to have one. But the main place for posting updates should be games announcement/forums/media. Otherwise most of your community and potential customers got left in radio silence.
OP is absolutely right. Consumer should not dig and search around to find info about game's development and if the project is alive. Absolute most of people won't go additional mile like that. They'd see no updates and go away.

That's especially a big no-no when you are talking about multiplayer only games. This makes life of death sentence for the game.

UPD. Did a bit of research, looks like developers in fact do updates for the rest of the community. Which is good.
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791462172655/announcements/detail/2563019799748800368

Still there should be no Discord exclusive previews unless cases where they want to get feedback test from a smaller group first.

[Crunchy[Daz]]

Discord isn't for communicating with the community? How so? They can post announcements there too. Which is extremely usefull for their community considering the game isn't just on Steam but Oculus as well. There's no digging involved, just join the discord channel...its that simple. Do that and its the same amount of effort and mouse clicks to see it on their channel as it is to check for updates on Steam.

If you personally don't like discord or want to use it then thats on you, not them. Its only growing in popularity so might as well get used to it now. But really, if you're one of those people who need constant validation that game is still being worked on then maybe Early Access isn't for you.

[frogopus]

Discord keeps the devs in more or less constant communication with fans. In a world where no one checks your website, your player base is split across Steam and Oculus, and theres like 6 different social medias you're expected to maintain, Discord is the most feature rich, and direct for gamers. The game is integrated into Discord, so you can see when players are in game, which server, and how many players are on that server.

Using Discord to communicate about things like works in progress that may change is a much better way to get feedback from your dedicated and involved player base, just like you said. Better to save your major announcements and patch notes for things like Steam.

[Aphex Guy]

For my part, since we at Space Bullet use Discord internally as our main form of quick communication, it's much simpler and easier because it's already at our fingertips.

You're right that there certainly could be more that we could broadcast as news on a larger # of channels such as reddit/steam community/website. The tricky part for me is that doing so takes up a lot more time when things need to be formatted nicely, whitty, pretty pictures on there, and so forth across many platforms. For any 1 piece of proper news that we choose to broadcast broadly it's at least an entire workday to do it. Those kinds of things add up to take a lot of time out of development, so our choice is to keep those bigger broadcasts to being less frequent.

If a player chooses to be more involved there are many more active avenues they can explore to follow our product. There is the aformentioned discord with upto the second ramblings from us directly, our Trello for regularly updated status on features we are developing, and every couple of weeks we do post more broadly. For a team of 3 people, I personally think that's plenty fair stream of communication.

[Taz Hollywood [WAL - K.A.O.S]]

...and that answer from dev is almost everything I need to push me to buy this game ;) may take the plunge soon, with two friends. :D

[jack.anderson19]

Excellent game ... support the project .

[PhantomX]

I hardly see anyone one. I see like 2-4 players on a good day and sometimes 0 players on a bad day.

[frogopus]

Originally posted by PhantomX:

I hardly see anyone one. I see like 2-4 players on a good day and sometimes 0 players on a bad day.

Played with a full server the last few days. 9pm-12am est is the sweet spot, and Friday/Saturday people are usually playing for another hour or so after that. I don't think I've ever had a night where there weren't at least 6 playing and it's rare that it's that few. Tuesday nights are always a full server during and after our 10PM event. Thursday nights we're testing clan play, so there's always a big group after that too (so around 11EST we open up the server). Weekends you can usually get a group going mid day, but I'm rarely on then.

[frogopus]

It's important to join the Discord so you can see when players are on. With VR, it's a bit more work to strap on and see who all is playing, so we all use Discord for that. If you're on a server, we'll see that you're on, how many people are on, and what server. That way even if no one is on yet, I know I can create a game and have people see easily, and I never play on my own for long.

[PURE MALICE]

Originally posted by aphex_guy:

For my part, since we at Space Bullet use Discord internally as our main form of quick communication, it's much simpler and easier because it's already at our fingertips.

You're right that there certainly could be more that we could broadcast as news on a larger # of channels such as reddit/steam community/website. The tricky part for me is that doing so takes up a lot more time when things need to be formatted nicely, whitty, pretty pictures on there, and so forth across many platforms. For any 1 piece of proper news that we choose to broadcast broadly it's at least an entire workday to do it. Those kinds of things add up to take a lot of time out of development, so our choice is to keep those bigger broadcasts to being less frequent.

If a player chooses to be more involved there are many more active avenues they can explore to follow our product. There is the aformentioned discord with upto the second ramblings from us directly, our Trello for regularly updated status on features we are developing, and every couple of weeks we do post more broadly. For a team of 3 people, I personally think that's plenty fair stream of communication.

*AHEM* I ONLY look at game site/game access forums, I do NOT 'discord/facebork/twits-r/or other social anythng, i look for game info on official game site/game hosts only, i do not play games to work for hrs pretending to be nice so im allowed to waste my time hoping i accidently find any real info, its not game forums, like someone else said its "RADIO SILENCE"

for instance, I cannot find any game info from a "dont not mention VR ANYTHING EVER" point of view, im looking for MECH type games and screw vr as "who cares its a waste of resources and time perspective" no where does it say, ''this is a game and vr isnt anything but extra, not main draw, not hows the game without vr cow pattys. so, so far, still nt bought or tried it, stop patting selfs on backs and put the info in the front pages and fourms 1st, and so what the time? leave the images out of the posts, thats for propaganda, and store front page not for actual information needs

[frogopus]

Originally posted by xxan:

*AHEM* I ONLY look at game site/game access forums, I do NOT 'discord/facebork/twits-r/or other social anythng, i look for game info on official game site/game hosts only, i do not play games to work for hrs pretending to be nice so im allowed to waste my time hoping i accidently find any real info, its not game forums, like someone else said its "RADIO SILENCE"

for instance, I cannot find any game info from a "dont not mention VR ANYTHING EVER" point of view, im looking for MECH type games and screw vr as "who cares its a waste of resources and time perspective" no where does it say, ''this is a game and vr isnt anything but extra, not main draw, not hows the game without vr cow pattys. so, so far, still nt bought or tried it, stop patting selfs on backs and put the info in the front pages and fourms 1st, and so what the time? leave the images out of the posts, thats for propaganda, and store front page not for actual information needs

I can say, I'm not a social media guy either, so I get that. But it sounds like one point you're making here is that the Store page doesn't talk enough about whether or not the game is a mech game with VR as an 'extra,' and not the main draw? Taken straight from the store page:

"Experience the ultimate giant robot combat action-simulator that’s strong enough for your average screen, but BUILT for VR."

It's very definitely defined as built for VR. If you don't have VR, or you don't have friends with VR trying to get you to play with them, I'd recommend waiting until the full release, when there are more customization options added in to enrich the non-VR experience. But there a few active players that play with a monitor, and I even see a review on the front page right now that says he's enjoying it even without VR. So you may like it. Just by being 100% physics driven, I think the game is pretty interesting and stands out from other mech games.

The devs do post all news to the store page and website. They just post works in progress to the Discord to get feedback on things that can change before they push through the updates. If you watch the store page and the website, you can get all the info you need. The Discord is just where the sort of beta testing/early access dialogue is happening between the devs and the active community. It's things that could change before any actual update happened. Much of the community, far more than half, are on an Oculus and many don't interact with Steam much. The Discord unites both the Steam and Oculus communities, while also showing who is on the game, how many are on that player's server, etc. If that's not for you, the devs do reply on the Steam forum and Update comments.

[Echorion]

I only saw one other person besides me online when I tested the game out. I don't know about dead, but the online doesn't seem to be doing too hot. Will look again maybe at peak hours.

Running this game at the end of the month as part of a VR demo session for a lot of folks, so those that play this game I will bring all their feedback to these forums, since the devs seem to check on it every so often.

My personal opinion is just that it's really good, but controls are kinda hard to get used to and would rather use a HOTAS setup, but I don't think the way this game was designed that HOTAS would work very well, which is a shame.