Scrolling threw these forum’s i see alot of the same, people in a love hate relationship with this game. I feel like if i was a developer for a game i would pay attention to my audience. Maybe this team isnt doing that for some reason but, here is a idea i have come up with to make your game profitable, and give your long term players what they want. A complete game.
Sell skins… its cheap for you to make and gives your game a steady income. Your game is becoming popular again because of the gamepass release, you should capitalize on this not only for your company, but for your long term supporters that stuck with you threw your mediocre bug fix schedule, also tho that leads me into my second point
Use some of the funds you make from microtransactions hiring more staff that actally understand how to fix bugs quickly, with the extra income you can add more features depending on the revenue, and that will definitely satisfy your new and long term players.
Lastly, you need to listen to your community more. Sad to see all these posts of people trying there best to give direction on a game they love only to be ignored.
You have a unique game with a genre that is in need of unique. You also have the choice to either capitalize and make it something like no mans sky. Or let it die a buggy, Cursed game. I hope as a fan of your game that you choose the first option.
The Xbox Series S/X was released on 10th Nov 2020, this game had it’s first ‘official’ 1.0 release on 21 April 2020. To date, the game has had no review / upgrade for next gen consoles at all from last generation and it’s just embarrassing at this point just how pathetically it performs on next gen hardware, especially when compared to similar products in the genre on the platform.
This game is just getting the bearest of minimum ‘support’ at this point so people who actually bought this mess with real money don’t storm Microsoft support to demand a refund.
Throwing a bone to put this on gamepass is literally a last gasp ‘give us money’ effort on behalf of this dev, the console port of this game has been abandonware basically since 2020 shortly after official release.
At least Devs like Hello Games (No Man’s Sky) and CDPR (Cyberpunk) appreciate that a bad launch with real follow up effort can save not only the game, but also your reputation.
But then there’s ‘other’ developers like Starbreeze (PayDay) and The Fun Pimps (7 Days to Die) who basically put out a basic product on console, provide a couple basic updates (to stop mass refund requests) and then run for the hills…
Have a guess which mold this Developer fits into?
It’s been 994 days since the ‘official’ console release (never mind the pre-launch development time!) and this game is STILL a train wreck on console.
At this point, the game is abandonware (and I don’t care what the official statement here is any more - actions speak louder than words and the ‘piles’ update was a joke considering how long it took to release) and I regret wasting my money buying this mess.
For those coming from Gamepass to have a look, be glad you didn’t have to actually pay real money for this game, the rest of us got a reminder on why supporting games through ID@Xbox before release is an absolute joke and should come with a warning.
While Im not a huge fan of paid content as some devs abuse it as a forced cash machine (more often seen on mobile gaming, but not just that), it can at times breath new live in the game and benefit both devs and players. See, if youve already bought the game, its unnecessary (and damaging) to have to keep paying just to be able to play it.
That said, something that is a good expansion at a competitively low price can encourage gamers to purchase and give devs a cash incentive to continue to evolve the game… The skins that you mention are just graphics and a fun customisation - they should be dirt cheap as its not hard to implement.
Dont be mistaken, the devs do watch these forums, so they are listening and you never know when they will comment on posts…
I do agree though, getting those bugs is important as it can create a poor user experience and while the game comes under the genre of survival (which there are many) it is actually unique.
I play on pc, not console - maybe console is to be updated when they have the time. but what I do know is the devs have released 2 recent updates, nov 22 & dec 22 - that doesn’t indicate abandonment to me - maybe they use pc as a testing ground and console will get a major update in the future…
This basically confirms what I was just saying… They released a console update dec 22 - build 2104 and they actually state integrations from pc.
It would be too much work for only 2 people to do constant updates on every platform and so they chose to update pc (on which its written with unity game engine). Once they are happy with the updates, they write a new build for consoles. Its not abandonware - at least not yet…
For another game, this idea would probably work, but not this one. They would need to make the game interesting enough to get people to spend their money on it. People will say this is fun, but it doesn’t give you a reason to buy skins, items…etc. With lack of consistent updates, performance issues and bugs. The game needs to be worked on heavy before they go asking for more. I bought the game years ago, so I know waiting is a chore. I want this game to be way more than it is especially on consoles. I’ve complained, reasoned and accepted how this game is handled. This game was $10 when I got it and I played it more than 100 days which is more hours than many games I own that are bigger in general. I got my money worth definitely. All I can do is wait for this game to either pick itself up or fall completely.
What is everyone currently playing other than this
I play sims (flight, truck, farm, etc). I also play action games from time to time, the last being tomb raider…
Lately though Ive been trying again to get back into learning game dev using Unity (which is what was used to make this game incidently), so I know how difficult it is to actually make a game - expecially solo or as a 2 person team (these devs are a 2 man team, with 2 others managing forums). I have programmed c++ and some java for personal apps, still getting to know c# for use with Unity.
Really cool man. I tried programming years ago and I sucked bad. I give it to anyone who can understand the languages enough to create from code. I still want to learn, but I would need serious tutoring I don’t have the time for.
I love simulators and survival games. We definitely need more of them on console. I beat every Tomb Raider on Xbox except Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Amazing reboot.
Hoping the devs bring out a big update this year. Would be so cool during our blizzard.