Statement from FlipSwitch Games (IMPORTANT PLEASE READ)

[FlipSwitchGames]

https://youtu.be/x4mXjRr1Euo

This statement is to address a few misconceptions about FlipSwitch Games and EmergeNYC.

An issue we have struggled with over the 2 year course of our development is keeping our community happy.

Many players are extremely frustrated, feel ripped off, or confused because of a lack of engagement or progress. This is understandable and we feel this is due to our inability to stay connected with the wide variety of platforms that our community have to communicate with us and in response to that we are trying to scale down the amount of individual and separate threads that we need to view and respond to. As a two/three man development team working full time on the project, it is difficult for us to dedicate time to every thread, comment, and concern.

We have closed the "Bug Reports" and "Suggestions" forums on Steam. If you would like to report a bug or a suggestion, please do so on our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5mhbgJh

If you want to stay in touch with development or report a bug these are the best places to do so:

Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EmergenycGame/
Official EmergeNYC Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/445211119186559/
Official Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rafaelmfernandezable
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSGEmergeNYC

Now on a personal level. Taking on the development of a game this size and this optimistic is very scary. However, the thought of abandoning this project or ripping off the community has never once crossed my mind. As much as I make this game for me, I make it for the thousands and thousands of people who just like me, dreamed of a game like this for so long. I am not a corporation or billion dollar game development company. I'm an individual who stepped up and decided that this is what I was going to do. I was going to take a shot at revolutionizing the Emergency Gaming world. I spent over 5 years teaching myself the basics, and the last 2-3 years putting everything I've learned to use while continuing to learn things everyday. I love what I do. Many of you have watched the countless 10+ hour development livestreams I have done, heard me have mental breakdowns, be hacked, develop new systems and art from the ground up, and everything in between. But for many of you its easy to jump to a conclusion and assume that I am someone trying to steal your money and that I could care less about this game.

This project does not have an "end date". This is something I see myself continuing to polish, improve, and add to for years after a full release. I want to remind players that we are still in Pre-Alpha, one of the earliest and messiest stages of development. FlipSwitch Games does not have an office building with 50 Gaming PCs and developers everywhere sitting on bean bag chairs. As I write this I am at the same desk that I made my first 3D Model 8 years ago and the same desk that EmergeNYC has been built on. To my standards, EmergeNYC has been succesful. It has been able to support me so that my decision to drop out of college and quit my job to focus on this project was not in vain. In fact, it was the best decision I ever made. You all know my end goal is to become a New York City Firefighter. Until then, this project is my #1 priority. Many of you may have lost trust in this game, which is understandable.

Development has been slow and messy. What we do want to remind you all, is that we have been extremely transparent with our development. We have taken a unique approach into the game development world. With no investors, or external funding, we had to rely on crowd funding and actual game sales to fund the development of this project. Anyone can see the 35$ price tag, or the early on 50$ price tag and feel that price is injustified, but that is the price we decide to charge for several reasons. That is the main source of the funding I use to pay Donut, our only programmer. That is also the funding I use to live off of, and purchase essentials to speed up the development of the game. Yes, this game is VERY rough, there are constant gamebreaking issues, multiplayer issues, optimization issues, but this all comes with the title "Early Access" & "Pre-Alpha". We don't use the term Pre-Alpha lightly. We want people to understand that. If you are not sure about buying this game at its current state, or are expecting a finished and polished game, you are in the wrong place. I want to reassure everyone that I, nor this project, is going anywhere. If you ever feel like I am scamming you, or this project is a scam, please reevaluate and take some time to see the time and effort I have put into this project. I am always looking to improve my relationship with the community and the state of this game, however I am only human. While last year was the most succesful year of my life, this year has been the worst year of my life. I will not try to write a sob story or go into details about anything but I want people to know that there have been times where I had to take time off from this project for my own mental well being. Depression and ADHD is not a good combination for one, no less two, of our game developers. As for Donut, he lost his mother and father in the last two years and has had his own trials and tribulations. I wish that a billion $ game studio was creating EmergeNYC, but the reality is that they do not see the potential missing in this genre of game/simulation. However, I am willing to risk it all and dedicate hundreds of hours a month till I pull my hair out to improving and advancing this game. With the last 0.7.4 update and EMS/Rescue update right around the corner, I hope you all can continue to ride with me and Donut as we take on this huge undertaking, and while it can be overwhelming at times, we won't stop until we physically cannot continue working. (God Forbid). This is just a fraction of the things I wish our community could understand, but I hope that the future of this project can speak for itself and redeem itself.

- Raf

[jasonharris2]

one big thing that can help us on steam who don't use facebook or anything like what is to post a small bit of info here and the link to the rest where you post it

[jasonharris2]

Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EmergenycGame/
Official EmergeNYC Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/445211119186559/
Official Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rafaelmfernandezable
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSGEmergeNYC
all witch i don't have i only use steam

[FlipSwitchGames]

Originally posted by jasonharris2:

one big thing that can help us on steam who don't use facebook or anything like what is to post a small bit of info here and the link to the rest where you post it

We post all of our major update change logs on Steam, we just are not able to go through the huge amount of posts throughout the Steam discussions at times.

[OFC_Woody]

Thanks you for all the hard work and please keep it up

[SEK_SgtFox]

Originally posted by FlipSwitchGames:

Originally posted by jasonharris2:

one big thing that can help us on steam who don't use facebook or anything like what is to post a small bit of info here and the link to the rest where you post it

We post all of our major update change logs on Steam, we just are not able to go through the huge amount of posts throughout the Steam discussions at times.

i kind of understand that you cant read everything all the time but this is the number 1 spot where all players go to first and want to report stuff and now you closed all of it down leaving people with no choice , i dont wanna go to discord or twitter or whatever because i hate those and now how do i report stuff , right i cant anymore and most people now cant , its the sales platform you put the game on and now you shut down the most important source for easy and accesible reports , id rather shut down all the other stuff you got going and focus on steam where EVERYONE is and not the other way around

[SpawnThrasher]

Originally posted by ISEKI_SgtFox:

Originally posted by FlipSwitchGames:

We post all of our major update change logs on Steam, we just are not able to go through the huge amount of posts throughout the Steam discussions at times.

i kind of understand that you cant read everything all the time but this is the number 1 spot where all players go to first and want to report stuff and now you closed all of it down leaving people with no choice , i dont wanna go to discord or twitter or whatever because i hate those and now how do i report stuff , right i cant anymore and most people now cant , its the sales platform you put the game on and now you shut down the most important source for easy and accesible reports , id rather shut down all the other stuff you got going and focus on steam where EVERYONE is and not the other way around

We really appreciate your concerns. I am curious to know what you might suggest we do to make it easier for our users that would rather not use anything but Steam?

[SEK_SgtFox]

Originally posted by SpawnThrasher:

We really appreciate your concerns. I am curious to know what you might suggest we do to make it easier for our users that would rather not use anything but Steam?

it already was easy when everyone could report through the steam bug reports , cant be much easier than that , i mean i cant think of any other way with steam to make it even easier than it was , i mean you clicked 2 times and you basically were right at the bug reports no extra accounts or programs or whatever needed to do that

but to decrease workload with these bug reports you may consider wiping the whole thing once a new update hits so you can collect all data which is from the latest version , maybe that helps you guys on your end , but i dont know , just an idea , or as i suggested drop the other sources and just focus on steam

[Ncdiehl]

Originally posted by FlipSwitchGames:

https://youtu.be/x4mXjRr1Euo

This statement is to address a few misconceptions about FlipSwitch Games and EmergeNYC.

An issue we have struggled with over the 2 year course of our development is keeping our community happy.

Many players are extremely frustrated, feel ripped off, or confused because of a lack of engagement or progress. This is understandable and we feel this is due to our inability to stay connected with the wide variety of platforms that our community have to communicate with us and in response to that we are trying to scale down the amount of individual and separate threads that we need to view and respond to. As a two/three man development team working full time on the project, it is difficult for us to dedicate time to every thread, comment, and concern.

We have closed the "Bug Reports" and "Suggestions" forums on Steam. If you would like to report a bug or a suggestion, please do so on our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5mhbgJh

If you want to stay in touch with development or report a bug these are the best places to do so:

Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EmergenycGame/
Official EmergeNYC Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/445211119186559/
Official Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rafaelmfernandezable
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/FSGEmergeNYC

Now on a personal level. Taking on the development of a game this size and this optimistic is very scary. However, the thought of abandoning this project or ripping off the community has never once crossed my mind. As much as I make this game for me, I make it for the thousands and thousands of people who just like me, dreamed of a game like this for so long. I am not a corporation or billion dollar game development company. I'm an individual who stepped up and decided that this is what I was going to do. I was going to take a shot at revolutionizing the Emergency Gaming world. I spent over 5 years teaching myself the basics, and the last 2-3 years putting everything I've learned to use while continuing to learn things everyday. I love what I do. Many of you have watched the countless 10+ hour development livestreams I have done, heard me have mental breakdowns, be hacked, develop new systems and art from the ground up, and everything in between. But for many of you its easy to jump to a conclusion and assume that I am someone trying to steal your money and that I could care less about this game.

This project does not have an "end date". This is something I see myself continuing to polish, improve, and add to for years after a full release. I want to remind players that we are still in Pre-Alpha, one of the earliest and messiest stages of development. FlipSwitch Games does not have an office building with 50 Gaming PCs and developers everywhere sitting on bean bag chairs. As I write this I am at the same desk that I made my first 3D Model 8 years ago and the same desk that EmergeNYC has been built on. To my standards, EmergeNYC has been succesful. It has been able to support me so that my decision to drop out of college and quit my job to focus on this project was not in vain. In fact, it was the best decision I ever made. You all know my end goal is to become a New York City Firefighter. Until then, this project is my #1 priority. Many of you may have lost trust in this game, which is understandable.

Development has been slow and messy. What we do want to remind you all, is that we have been extremely transparent with our development. We have taken a unique approach into the game development world. With no investors, or external funding, we had to rely on crowd funding and actual game sales to fund the development of this project. Anyone can see the 35$ price tag, or the early on 50$ price tag and feel that price is injustified, but that is the price we decide to charge for several reasons. That is the main source of the funding I use to pay Donut, our only programmer. That is also the funding I use to live off of, and purchase essentials to speed up the development of the game. Yes, this game is VERY rough, there are constant gamebreaking issues, multiplayer issues, optimization issues, but this all comes with the title "Early Access" & "Pre-Alpha". We don't use the term Pre-Alpha lightly. We want people to understand that. If you are not sure about buying this game at its current state, or are expecting a finished and polished game, you are in the wrong place. I want to reassure everyone that I, nor this project, is going anywhere. If you ever feel like I am scamming you, or this project is a scam, please reevaluate and take some time to see the time and effort I have put into this project. I am always looking to improve my relationship with the community and the state of this game, however I am only human. While last year was the most succesful year of my life, this year has been the worst year of my life. I will not try to write a sob story or go into details about anything but I want people to know that there have been times where I had to take time off from this project for my own mental well being. Depression and ADHD is not a good combination for one, no less two, of our game developers. As for Donut, he lost his mother and father in the last two years and has had his own trials and tribulations. I wish that a billion $ game studio was creating EmergeNYC, but the reality is that they do not see the potential missing in this genre of game/simulation. However, I am willing to risk it all and dedicate hundreds of hours a month till I pull my hair out to improving and advancing this game. With the last 0.7.4 update and EMS/Rescue update right around the corner, I hope you all can continue to ride with me and Donut as we take on this huge undertaking, and while it can be overwhelming at times, we won't stop until we physically cannot continue working. (God Forbid). This is just a fraction of the things I wish our community could understand, but I hope that the future of this project can speak for itself and redeem itself.

- Raf

I just wanted to say that I know how stressful life can be when people tell you you rip them off when you are not actually doing that and I just want you personally to know if you are having mental breakdowns over this take time off and don't listen to the haters just work at your own pace because I have had multiple breakdowns with this coronavirus but you need to know that you can ado as much as you are wanting too just make sure to take care of your self first before the game ok I Care about you and I wnt you to know one of your emergenyc fans Actually cares more about you than the game You need to be here to work on the game and having a mental state that is bad could take it all away from us so please respond to this if you get to read this It hurts me to think that I almost became the same person all the others were becoming to you haters and i love the game more than you could imagine but just keep working at your pace not everyone's pace they want for you ok I care from the bottom of my heart and just letting you know I have gone through what you went through just as a teen I want to be a cop when I get old enough and help people like you have help me in a way thanks and keep up the work at your own pace ok

[AmbulanceManGaming]

This game needs to be drastically optimized in all honesty before anymore updates such as new vehicles or new maps come out. If you want to keep the masses happy, then this needs to be a priority.

[TheProdigy]

Four year since this post and the game is still extremely buggy and updates and engagement are almost non-existent it seems.

[FlipSwitchGames]

Originally posted by TheProdigy:

Four year since this post and the game is still extremely buggy and updates and engagement are almost non-existent it seems.

If you want to be fully up to date with what's going on, you should join the discord. A new update is coming at the end of next month

[BiggHoss]

It would go a long way to remove the stolen and copyrighted assets used in game.

[Morfax]

This was posted 4 years ago, and the game has made 0 progress in terms of playability.. yeah when a scammer tells you that they are not scamming. Ive tried reporting this title to steam for fraud.

[Morfax]

Originally posted by FlipSwitchGames:

Originally posted by TheProdigy:

Four year since this post and the game is still extremely buggy and updates and engagement are almost non-existent it seems.

If you want to be fully up to date with what's going on, you should join the discord. A new update is coming at the end of next month

[Toast Chee]

Originally posted by FlipSwitchGames:

Originally posted by TheProdigy:

Four year since this post and the game is still extremely buggy and updates and engagement are almost non-existent it seems.

If you want to be fully up to date with what's going on, you should join the discord. A new update is coming at the end of next month

Don't bother with the discord. Its a bunch of apologists for the dev, and even in there they are saying its dead lol. Regardless of whether an update comes out at the end of the year, this game is still a buggy mess 6 years on