Approaching 3 years

[Afanickton]

I understand the small development team but, its been 3 years since the game released on steams early access. Sure there have been a lot of patches and refining with new minor content but there are still many issues relating to the content and game play that currently exist still.

2020 "Travelers rest" is put into early access as well and now the small development team now has 2 unfinished games they're working on.

2022 March 5th: Today one of the developers showcase the game on his steam deck... and i realize... this is what the time and money is going into? IDK I just feel scammed at this point and thinking back to 3 years ago when I first played this game thinking "this will be great it's a space game that shows so much promise!" I look back and regret hyping this game to my friends and showcasing it.

2022 August 22nd: Poking around looking for any updates and came across this

"The Bullet [developer] Jul 16 @ 10:24am

--Originally posted by Bess161rus:
Obviously, this project is dead. I still don't understand, why this crap exists in the Store. Devs made what they want - gather some money and dessapeared. More than 3 years of early access. I didn't notice any valuable changes during the last 1.5 years... no more news about furhter development. Obviously - Isolated Games is just another gang of scammers. Bring our money back!--

We have not disappeared. We are a very small team and we are working on two games at the same time. Between the Stars has been selling very little for a long time and Travellers Rest is the game that is paying the salaries of the employees. Even so, and despite the fact that the project is not profitable, we are going to finish the game and give it a decent ending, although it is going to take longer than expected."

Looks like it'll finish up eventually *shrugs*

[Kjas]

After making the same mistake several times I quit buying "early access."

[SchweddyBalls]

Not sure how steam deck support triggers feelings of abandonment but that's just silly. As far as the steam deck goes its a move VALVE--encourages--every single developer to explore. It generally doesn't take much money and the time varies depending on compatibility with the steam deck software/game engine blah blah technical stuffs

I can't really comment or defend the current situation on developing two games at once. I don't know the specifics of the team or financials but as long as the patches are flowing and progress is being made If traveler's rest was shooting for some grand triple A scale game it might be concerning but its a seemingly small game and simple vision that's different than between the stars in many many areas and scales

I've been burned much much more by regular games than i have by early access. $40-$60 used to get wasted on games that died out in a year or two compared to early access projects that range from $7.99-to high ends of $30 (i'm thinking everspace 2/deep rock galactic?) and while they may be in development a bit longer 1-3 years// the community is allowed/involved much closer than normal/closed studios projects/big name developers. Just my 2 cents. my category of "dead projects from EA" is much smaller than the hundred's of normal "finished" games that hardly see any TLC or bug fixes after officially releasing and die out when big names move on to the next big project/launch

Don't lose hope Afanickton

EDIT (rock and stone brother!)

[Black Hammer]

The game hit EA three years ago with the supposed expectation of being in EA for about a single year. That's well past the time budget, and by extension, any financial budget. Any project manager would consider going 300% over estimate would consider that a failure.

Were you scammed? Technically, no. You bought an EA game that came with no promise of ever being finished. Fortunately, this doesn't appear to be entirely dead in the water, just progressing very slowly.

That being said...

Originally posted by Kjas:

After making the same mistake several times I quit buying "early access."

This is the attitude to have towards Early Access games, going forward.

Would you go into your favorite restaurant, then pay and tip in advance of getting your food? Probably. But you wouldn't go someplace you've never been to before, that nobody's eaten at before, and even imagine doing that. That's what backing an EA title from an unfamiliar developer is.

[owen8964]

I've bought a few Early Access games with the expected mixed results. This I regard as a good buy. Why?

Because the Devs are genuinely active and developing the game. They haven't given up on it and moved to their next project, they respond quickly in chat and they are currently working on finishing the story, iirc.

Progress may be slow but it is happening.

I have a few issues with the characters in the game but this is a very good little Space Shooter with an enjoyable twist on it in the dice rolls.

edit: Worth remembering that there's the small matter of a pandemic happening over the last few years as well. ;)

[Madnuss]

Made the mistake serveral times now, and yes im done with EA.

While this game has potential, the glacial pace at witch its delvelopment is going...I dont expect this to reach a full release int the next 2years.

[Afanickton]

Originally posted by SchweddyBalls:

Not sure how steam deck support triggers feelings of abandonment but that's just silly. As far as the steam deck goes its a move VALVE--encourages--every single developer to explore

Spending money on a steam deck and other games for personal enjoyment while developing two games and seeing on the very same youtube channel the last updates for it being 3 years ago triggered it for me.

I get being a gamer and playing other games, but when I saw that video it just made me feel like they didn't care and wanted to show off having a steam deck? The feelings might be dumb and childish but it is how I feel, I felt very strong about this game and am just very bummed out over the progress for it.

Showcasing it on a steam deck would make sense if the game was finished and if you even watch the gameplay it looks pretty sluggish and uncomfortable to play in combat situations. I know the OS for steam deck can show an overlay with performance and I'd love to see it running with that on.

[Afanickton]

Originally posted by owen8964:

edit: Worth remembering that there's the small matter of a pandemic happening over the last few years as well. ;)

Right... cause an indie game developer working from home with a pandemic that forces you to work from home will cause stagnation. I get the chaotic situations the could come up (family/friend illness) but when a game goes 2 years over projected development time with very sluggish content drip is whats bothering me.

[owen8964]

Originally posted by Afanickton:

Originally posted by owen8964:

edit: Worth remembering that there's the small matter of a pandemic happening over the last few years as well. ;)

Right... cause an indie game developer working from home with a pandemic that forces you to work from home will cause stagnation. I get the chaotic situations the could come up (family/friend illness) but when a game goes 2 years over projected development time with very sluggish content drip is whats bothering me.

Depends who else you have to deal with and where they are. In a project like this they aren't just devs, they are business managers and not necessarily trained or very talented and you can be sure they have to talk to people who weren't there as well as having their own family and friends to look after.

There were posts iirc about them having problems (in general - no specifics) with Covid and apologising.

Whole thing could yet go belly up but hasn't so far. Importantly they are still talking to us.

[Altijdwat]

typical post for someone new to early acces.....did you realy read the disclaimer before buying? Do you know anything about the progress? Man oh man your post made me feel sick you act like a spoiled kid.

[Afanickton]

Originally posted by 𝕬𝖑𝖙𝖎𝖏𝖉𝖜𝖆𝖙:

typical post for someone new to early acces.....did you realy read the disclaimer before buying? Do you know anything about the progress? Man oh man your post made me feel sick you act like a spoiled kid.

LOL troll detected

[Altijdwat]

You're right that was exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for pointing it out.

[The Bullet]

Originally posted by Afanickton:

2020 "Travelers rest" is put into early access as well and now the small development team now has 2 unfinished games they're working on.

We started developing travellers Rest one year ago, it was originally created by another dev but he had to leave the development due health issues: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1139980/view/3030331590689132156 . For the development of Travellers Rest we initially hired 2 more devs to work on it, and now there're 4 people working on it. Shovah3d and I keep working on BTS. Is Travellers Rest slowing down the development of Between the Stars? Yes, but it is also paying part of the cost of developing Between the Stars. We may have slowed down the pace of updates, but the game will not be abandoned.

Originally posted by Afanickton:

2022 today one of the developers showcase the game on his steam deck... and i realize... this is what the time and money is going into? IDK I just feel scammed at this point and thinking back to 3 years ago when I first played this game thinking "this will be great it's a space game that shows so much promise!" I look back and regret hyping this game to my friends and showcasing it.

I spent literally 2 days working on the Steam Deck "version". And the controller support has taken a lot of work but is something that had to be done and was promised a long time ago, regardless of Steam Deck's release.

Originally posted by Afanickton:

Spending money on a steam deck and other games for personal enjoyment while developing two games and seeing on the very same youtube channel the last updates for it being 3 years ago triggered it for me.

I get being a gamer and playing other games, but when I saw that video it just made me feel like they didn't care and wanted to show off having a steam deck? The feelings might be dumb and childish but it is how I feel, I felt very strong about this game and am just very bummed out over the progress for it.

We didn't spend any money on a Steam Deck. The recorded Steam Deck is from our publisher, Poysky Productions, and it is also a development kit that Valve sent for free. Isolated Games doesn't have any Deck (we will have to buy one in the future or wait for them to send us one), so you don't need to envy us for having a Deck.

Obviously, that video isn't made to show that we have a Steam Deck, it's made to try to sell more units and get wishlists, which in the end, is what pays the development.

Originally posted by Afanickton:

Spending money on a steam deck and other games for personal enjoyment while developing two games

I don't understand this, can't we spend money on other games for personal enjoyment?
Are we not free to do whatever we want in our free time?

[DCBenton]

Originally posted by Afanickton:

I get being a gamer and playing other games, but when I saw that video it just made me feel like they didn't care and wanted to show off having a steam deck? The feelings might be dumb and childish but it is how I feel, I felt very strong about this game and am just very bummed out over the progress for it.

So what? They can't do anything except slave away solely on the game 24/7 or you'll be upset? NO FUN FOR YOU DEVS! *CRACKS WHIP* :D

[Nitehawk]

Yea, devs gotta have some fun too cause work and no play will burn you out. They are still working on this game and they are making a good game. I was hoping the final chapter would have been done already, but that will just give me a good reason to play over again once it is done :-)

[owen8964]

I imagine by now someone has brought out "Beat the Dev" as a mobile app. Should be a great stress reliever. ;)