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On Early Access
11 years ago
General
I ran across this article made by the developers behind Pixel Piracy. It pretty much sums up how I feel about Early Access.
You can find the original article here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/264.....15799673239204
"WE WILL NOT BE USING EARLY ACCESS FOR THIS TITLE
Let me just blast through the reasons in bullet form, as there are MANY.
1. WE DON'T NEED TO:
We made enough money from clients on Pixel Piracy to warrant upgrading out 2 man NON studio to a 10 man team across 3 countries, with a PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT studio in Turku, Finland; a DESIGN Studio in Murcia, Spain, and freelance artists working to help our LEAD artist (yes we have a PLURAL amount of artists).
2. IT WOULDN'T BE RIGHT:
Even if we NEEDED the money, it wouldn't be right MORALLY. We already went through the motions of game development one time using Early Access and wound up launching a buggy title way too early because we had a very, VERY avid test group of fans who would say it was perfect. By cooking it until perfection on our own terms, we ensure we are giving our clients what they PAY for and not what WE PROMISE THEM WE'LL COME THROUGH ON.
3. EARLY ACCESS IS ABUSED WAAAAY TOO OFTEN:
"Abused" is a very strong term, as we ourselves are guilty of this. When you are making a game, you start out with a wide open field of open doors to potentially go through. When looking for funding, you look through those open doors into ANY direction you want, and promised based on them. Development of a game OBLIGATES a team to close doors little by little, many times closing UNWANTED doors that you PREVIOUSLY promised. Couple that with the fact that nowadays it's STRANGE for a studio to actually launch an Early Access title, and we're looking at an abuse cycle our studio wants to take no part in. We thank each and every one of you who have helped us get to where we are, and we are learning from the past instead of living in it.
4. EARLY ACCESS IS A CRUTCH WE DON'T WANT TO USE.
We feel Early Access is a "Crutch" people use, and it's one we don't need. We should be judged as professionals in a sector where we attempt to thrive and flourish, not flounder and waddle. The only way we can do so is to produce tight, polished games with the risk of having it all go to hell and a handbasket if we launch it and it turns out to be crap. THIS FEAR is what drives us, it's waht makes us fight. If we take that fear away we'd just promise the moon and then deliver something with no "heart".
5. I simply think EA is garbage at this point in time due to the studios misinterpreting how it should be used.
LARGE studios have NO "real" right to be using Early Access. Come on guys, you base your game's sales point on a HUGE mainstream developer's name and push out a pre-alpha tech demo and charge top dollar for it, just to turn around and whine about how "not enough people bought it to make it viable so we pulled the plug." That has a name where I come from, and it's bullshit, I'm calling you guys on it and will show you how it's supposed to be done. I'm not a AAA studio, I'm BARELY a mid-range studio, and I'm sitting here working on a staurday afternoon after having had my spine collapse on me and having been bedridden for two months now.
If you want the respect of your fans, if you want your "legitimacy" as a game development studio or a world renowned developer or an "ace" producer, don't beat aroudn the bush, don't cash out, don't cut corners and get the job done. I'm sick and tired of Kickstarter, Early Access and all of these startup programs that are supposed to be used by people who NEED the means to get their projects off the ground abused by these Big Name so-and-so's and their rock solid reputations (or not). Why don't you find a publisher to put two million into your idea and get it done? Oh, what's that? Because when you don't come through on a Kickstart or Early Access promise you only dick over a client, and doing the same to a PUBLISHER will hurt because they have nasty lawyers? Well tough s**t friend, them's the bricks. "
Someone made the counter argument in a different thread that early access games are better off because you are relying on your entire consumer base for bug testing, and that if development teams could have done that in the 90's, they all would have. Well, I posit to you: How does it feel to be an unpaid QA tester? How do you feel about paying money for an unfinished product based on the assurances that your feedback might make it better?
You can find the original article here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/264.....15799673239204
"WE WILL NOT BE USING EARLY ACCESS FOR THIS TITLE
Let me just blast through the reasons in bullet form, as there are MANY.
1. WE DON'T NEED TO:
We made enough money from clients on Pixel Piracy to warrant upgrading out 2 man NON studio to a 10 man team across 3 countries, with a PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT studio in Turku, Finland; a DESIGN Studio in Murcia, Spain, and freelance artists working to help our LEAD artist (yes we have a PLURAL amount of artists).
2. IT WOULDN'T BE RIGHT:
Even if we NEEDED the money, it wouldn't be right MORALLY. We already went through the motions of game development one time using Early Access and wound up launching a buggy title way too early because we had a very, VERY avid test group of fans who would say it was perfect. By cooking it until perfection on our own terms, we ensure we are giving our clients what they PAY for and not what WE PROMISE THEM WE'LL COME THROUGH ON.
3. EARLY ACCESS IS ABUSED WAAAAY TOO OFTEN:
"Abused" is a very strong term, as we ourselves are guilty of this. When you are making a game, you start out with a wide open field of open doors to potentially go through. When looking for funding, you look through those open doors into ANY direction you want, and promised based on them. Development of a game OBLIGATES a team to close doors little by little, many times closing UNWANTED doors that you PREVIOUSLY promised. Couple that with the fact that nowadays it's STRANGE for a studio to actually launch an Early Access title, and we're looking at an abuse cycle our studio wants to take no part in. We thank each and every one of you who have helped us get to where we are, and we are learning from the past instead of living in it.
4. EARLY ACCESS IS A CRUTCH WE DON'T WANT TO USE.
We feel Early Access is a "Crutch" people use, and it's one we don't need. We should be judged as professionals in a sector where we attempt to thrive and flourish, not flounder and waddle. The only way we can do so is to produce tight, polished games with the risk of having it all go to hell and a handbasket if we launch it and it turns out to be crap. THIS FEAR is what drives us, it's waht makes us fight. If we take that fear away we'd just promise the moon and then deliver something with no "heart".
5. I simply think EA is garbage at this point in time due to the studios misinterpreting how it should be used.
LARGE studios have NO "real" right to be using Early Access. Come on guys, you base your game's sales point on a HUGE mainstream developer's name and push out a pre-alpha tech demo and charge top dollar for it, just to turn around and whine about how "not enough people bought it to make it viable so we pulled the plug." That has a name where I come from, and it's bullshit, I'm calling you guys on it and will show you how it's supposed to be done. I'm not a AAA studio, I'm BARELY a mid-range studio, and I'm sitting here working on a staurday afternoon after having had my spine collapse on me and having been bedridden for two months now.
If you want the respect of your fans, if you want your "legitimacy" as a game development studio or a world renowned developer or an "ace" producer, don't beat aroudn the bush, don't cash out, don't cut corners and get the job done. I'm sick and tired of Kickstarter, Early Access and all of these startup programs that are supposed to be used by people who NEED the means to get their projects off the ground abused by these Big Name so-and-so's and their rock solid reputations (or not). Why don't you find a publisher to put two million into your idea and get it done? Oh, what's that? Because when you don't come through on a Kickstart or Early Access promise you only dick over a client, and doing the same to a PUBLISHER will hurt because they have nasty lawyers? Well tough s**t friend, them's the bricks. "
Someone made the counter argument in a different thread that early access games are better off because you are relying on your entire consumer base for bug testing, and that if development teams could have done that in the 90's, they all would have. Well, I posit to you: How does it feel to be an unpaid QA tester? How do you feel about paying money for an unfinished product based on the assurances that your feedback might make it better?
If I see 'Early Access' in a thing on Steam, I might hit 'Follow' but I sure as hell ain't buying it, unless I know the folks doing it are legit. I learned the hard way with StarDrive.
I dont mind the idea but I understand the cracks and problems with Early Access, something unrelated to the topic but Greenlight. Nothing is perfect, Some work great some developers are smart. but some DO USE it as a way to say "you cant critize its only Early Access" when that becomes very terrible when they use that wall to hide from the reality of problems if they want to make a legitimate successful game. Now most people list Minecraft as a early game that started this whole idea back in 2009 or 2010 one of those years I believe.
There should still be Official Beta Testers and all to release a WORKING title. now if a package isnt fully completed but enough for someone to work on it or so, which is easy to abuse I know. I see no problem with it, But the Developers of games, No matter how big or small should always understand the consideration to doing early access and what it can do to people. Especially Multiplayer like games, Those are the ones you have to be aware the most when making. As by the time its fully released It could be dead before anyone notices. However Insurgency has shown as long as you pay attention it works great.
Smart for them to make the right idea around why not too then just taking it cause its there.