Why is the development so slow?

[Mr. Wiggles]

The game is nice and all but the development...it was too slow even before the war in Ukraine.

[Btoad]

life mr. wiggles, simple as.

[Hademar]

Oh, it's a great game but the development is slow because this is probably a side project or something. They care to some degree just not as much as most would have you believe.

The reason why is because, as you can see from the Steam reviews, they probably already made their money off this game and more. Any updates from here on out will be 4 - 6 months, perhaps longer and yea... That's all she wrote.

Again, it's still a fairly fun game with lots to do just don't hold your breath when it comes to updates.

[Wayfinder]

Because you perceive it as such. If the same amount of new content was added divided in small batches on a monthly basis, most people would be fine with the pace.

Originally posted by Hademar:

Oh, it's a great game but the development is slow because this is probably a side project or something. They care to some degree just not as much as most would have you believe.

It's not a side project, and it's the main and only occupation for most members of our team.

[funkmonster7]

Originally posted by Hademar:

as you can see from the Steam reviews ... That's all she wrote.

I'd welcome you to read my review. It is a bit old, but you should read reviews written by people who have hundreds of hours of playtime. "Most" reviewer don't even have 500+ hours of playtime.

[Mr. Wiggles]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Originally posted by Hademar:

as you can see from the Steam reviews ... That's all she wrote.

I'd welcome you to read my review. It is a bit old, but you should read reviews written by people who have hundreds of hours of playtime. "Most" reviewer don't even have 500+ hours of playtime.

100 hours of playtime mean you have probably done everything in the game twice

[funkmonster7]

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

I'd welcome you to read my review. It is a bit old, but you should read reviews written by people who have hundreds of hours of playtime. "Most" reviewer don't even have 500+ hours of playtime.

100 hours of playtime mean you have probably done everything in the game twice

I have 668 hours. (Add another 100 hours give or take if you include offline playtime.) Forget twice... I have done things probably 30x at least, across multiple patches both major and minor alike. My review shows insight crossing multiple patch seasons. Given the game is still in early development, you probably would want to read a review that shows insight across multiple patch seasons within a 2-3 year period than just one or two seasons within a year.

Truthfully speaking, I'm a bit bored of the game as well, which is why I don't play a lot these days. That is kind of expected when you have nearly 800 hours combined... But I can tell you I haven't done everything there is to do yet.

So I can definitely tell you a review with 100 hours of playtime means nothing to me.

[Zaibatsu]

I have been playing Stoneshard and Scum for a few years, and I have to admit that the development of Stoneshard goes at the speed of light when comparing with Scum. So, the complaint is flatly rejected:)

[funkmonster7]

There is also someone around with 5.5k hours of gametime: Shadowspawn. I'll admit that is over the top, but if you want info you probably want to talk to him. ;-)

[Mr. Wiggles]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

100 hours of playtime mean you have probably done everything in the game twice

I have 668 hours. (Add another 100 hours give or take if you include offline playtime.) Forget twice... I have done things probably 30x at least, across multiple patches both major and minor alike. My review shows insight crossing multiple patch seasons. Given the game is still in early development, you probably would want to read a review that shows insight across multiple patch seasons within a 2-3 year period than just one or two seasons within a year.

Truthfully speaking, I'm a bit bored of the game as well, which is why I don't play a lot these days. That is kind of expected when you have nearly 800 hours combined... But I can tell you I haven't done everything there is to do yet.

So I can definitely tell you a review with 100 hours of playtime means nothing to me.

Not really, to the avg buyer people who play too much are just as unreliable as people who play too little.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

Are we going to compare development times?
I'll nominate yandere simulator, no I'm not talking about the feature-complete clone that was made in about a week, but the game that has been in development for almost a decade.
A rather favorable match up, to be honest.

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

Why is the development so slow?

These things, they take time?
I mean it makes sense, you'd be getting a lot of free paid playtesting. Everytime there's an update players are going to pick the game back up to start a new character from scratch.

Also I guess that if say, it fully released tomorrow then people would just be able to judge a finished product rather than something considered as a work in progress that's subject to change and whatever.

[Mr. Wiggles]

Originally posted by POWER WITHIN USER:

Are we going to compare development times?
I'll nominate yandere simulator, no I'm not talking about the feature-complete clone that was made in about a week, but the game that has been in development for almost a decade.
A rather favorable match up, to be honest.

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

Why is the development so slow?

These things, they take time?
I mean it makes sense, you'd be getting a lot of free paid playtesting. Everytime there's an update players are going to pick the game back up to start a new character from scratch.

Also I guess that if say, it fully released tomorrow then people would just be able to judge a finished product rather than something considered as a work in progress that's subject to change and whatever.

Yeah space haven has a similar development pace, still kinda slow for years of development. I mean, when we can expect a finished game, 5 years? That's a whole lot of time.

[Owlie]

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

Yeah space haven has a similar development pace, still kinda slow for years of development. I mean, when we can expect a finished game, 5 years? That's a whole lot of time.

I can see it getting longer as time goes on. I don't think that it's bad. The scope of the game had been getting larger as new update comes and I love how much the dev take new ideas from players to add to the developments.
Another games I used to follow was kenshi and rimworld. Both are sandbox games just like Stoneshard. Both takes a decade to finish and I think they came out great, a masterpiece even.

A quote I like to use is "a delayed game is eventually good". I think it was from Miyamoto.

[SoULLeSs]

Originally posted by Owlie:

Originally posted by Mr. Wiggles:

Yeah space haven has a similar development pace, still kinda slow for years of development. I mean, when we can expect a finished game, 5 years? That's a whole lot of time.

I can see it getting longer as time goes on. I don't think that it's bad. The scope of the game had been getting larger as new update comes and I love how much the dev take new ideas from players to add to the developments.
Another games I used to follow was kenshi and rimworld. Both are sandbox games just like Stoneshard. Both takes a decade to finish and I think they came out great, a masterpiece even.

A quote I like to use is "a delayed game is eventually good". I think it was from Miyamoto.

Just hit a bit over 4,1k hours in Rimworld. 80% mostly thanks due to the mods. It's a game I can play a long time, take a break for a bit and get back into it again easy

[Rabid]

If the game is fun to play and still getting updates (albeit not particularly frequently) why does it matter if it's "done" yet?

[Yaddah]

OPs post translates as: "WORK FASTER! How dare you not slave yourself to death for this project? Have you ever heard of crunch? I want you to do crunch hours! I DESERVE IT AS A PLAYER! Your free time and mental well-being as a dev is secondary priority at best!"