Is this game dead?

[Shadowhawk]

Is this game actively being worked on still or will it share the same fate as countless other EA games on steam?

[Docsprock]

Of course not. What would make you say that?

[Mirsin]

The devs have made regular updates on the game based upon player feedback. There is another update currently in progress.

[herr_dechse]

The correct word would be derelict but no, its not.

[fp_games]

They are working on an update, rough release time estimate (not a guarantee!) is somewhere around Christmas maybe, but they usually post some in-progress updates several times over the development period.

So no, the game is very much not dead.

[Catsander]

Still alive and kicking. I guess the reason they seem slow on updates is because it is stable and doesn't need updates as much as it needs new features. So they are working on that instead. Not that I know what "that" really means, only that I am very excited to see where they are taking this one.

[Sole Survivor]

Originally posted by fp_games:

They are working on an update, rough release time estimate (not a guarantee!) is somewhere around Christmas maybe, but they usually post some in-progress updates several times over the development period.

So no, the game is very much not dead.

would you say its very playable where it is right now? or does the game have like a wall halfway through due to progress needed?

[IkeXP]

Originally posted by Brachra:

would you say its very playable where it is right now? or does the game have like a wall halfway through due to progress needed?

The game is playable from start to the end. It has many differing ways to accomplish whichever way you choose to play the game. I am always finding myself playing and trying new things because this game can become very addictive.

[Shadowhawk]

Thank you for the responses, everyone. Why is the game in early access for so long if it's in a playable state from beginning to end?

[Wantoomany]

Playable is not the same as feature complete.

There is a good game game here, and if development stopped today I'd feel I've gotten my money worth, but there is still plenty of room for improvements. I'm happy to see updates still coming. Last patch we got fighters and more space encounters. So, at least for me personally, as long as we keep getting new cool stuff, the game can stay in EA for years for all I care.

Rimworld, was in EA for over 5 years, it turned out ok for it.

[aksel_bugbyte]

Development is running active.

With the scope that a game like Space Haven has it just is impossible to predict timelines in terms of when the game is ready for a full release. Of course, that is simply a choice by the developers in the end, when to wrap it up.

However, our choice has been to keep monitoring player feedback and try to determine from that how ready the game is. We could have just ignored that and wrapped it up, but it has not felt right to do so even if time just keeps running and it is taking long.

So it is a balance between those two, player feedback and time that just keeps running. Expectations for a good colony sim these days are high, there are lots of them out there and it takes something special to stand out.

It also takes so much time to develop these types of games and our team is very small. Some often spoken issues is still something we want to try to take a crack at before going full release, and some new features as well. =)

[Rodrigo]

nope, we're waiting for alpha 18 update anytime now. anytime. now.

[herr_dechse]

Gib gib gib update plox.

[5P3K73R]

It's been 3 years (nearing 4) so I wonder if we have a release date?

[Rodrigo]

Originally posted by 5P3K73R:

It's been 3 years (nearing 4) so I wonder if we have a release date?

Thing is, we're getting major updates every couple of months. Wish they were a bit faster? Personally, yes, but what's the point in slapping 1.0 if it's perfectly playable, nearly bug free and we keep getting new content? I'd much prefer to keep it on EA if that means new stuff rather than call it finished and that's that.

[aksel_bugbyte]

The only way to give a release date would be when we feel like we are ready to release the game. Maybe 1 Major Update from the full release.

It's much the same with each Major Update. The date is revealed only when we are close to finishing the update package and know it works well enough. We have to get to that point, test it ourselves, and be able to know what's still missing.

With every Major Update we set up a next big feature to work on. Discuss it as much as we can to try to see the pitfalls, and then jump into implementation. However, there's always hurdles and re-orientation along the way. Always. As we implement piece by piece we notice there's a problem we need to solve, or there is some feature that needs to be modified.

Predicting the timeline is not possible. And with putting a date out there well beforehand we just set up ourselves to cause disappointment to our community with merely one of us falling sick for a few weeks.

We are 3 devs running a super marathon with our game and we need to take so many things into account. Just one step at a time.

We haven't been able to churn out major updates for the game all that fast lately. The complexity of the game has grown and grown and making new major updates starts taking longer and longer.

I understand that silence in the news may make someone worry, but we've been working behind the scenes all the time. With progress update I have personally always felt pressure to show something exciting, combined with wanting to know that what I present is actually something we are going to keep in the game much at it is. (And not change it too much and have it be something else in the update itself)

So I try to balance those things along with the opportunity to spend a day or two taking screenshots and writing texts for the progress update. I would like to start working on a progress update here somewhat soon!