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Scope Creep

The speed and volume of ideas, critiques both positive, negative, constructive and other, coupled with the wealth of mediums the multimedia information that has been rolling in, please Intrepid Studios, do not be tempted to take on more than is manageable.

By this I mean, focus on the core design that you set out to be finished,. Take on embellishments, improvements that can be managed within the same time and the resources that has been set/available by yourselves, including with the extended monetary resource kickstarter has empowered the studio with.

With every additional idea, change and/or additional test comes potential for scope creep. As we all know this is dealt with by taking more time, using up more resources and/or change in quality.

Isolate the great ideas that are not within budget and/or time and they can come as patches/updates after release to turn a good game into a great game!

You have a large community that would gladly be available to bounce ideas off, give input, provide feedback; take advantage of it!

Comments

  • Yes this is something I'm worried about too.

    This game has such promise and I would hate to see it fall into the trap that Star Citizen has to the point where the game becomes unrecognisable and years behind in its development
  • The devs have said several times that their stretch goals have been priced in such away that acheiving these will be doable within the same time frame. As far as the random it would be cool to be able to tatoo my whole body, a spear would be cool, party boats/floating freeholds and the like have all been met with yes that something we can talk about but no promises of yes we will have that on launch day. So hopefully they will stick to their gameplan and not alow scope creep to cause delays.

    The core people at intrepid are palyers too and have had the disapointment of never arriving launch days and I think it is important to them to not allow that to happen here.
  • Intrepid is handling the scope creep problem quite well tbh. Steven is the voice for us, the gaming community and Jeffery and the other devs are the rational ones. they keep an eye on the required development time and let him know if it's too hard to release it before 2020( all problems included) the hype train can't last long if it hits the scope creep, so devs certainly know that.
  • You can see steven all enfused.
    You can see the bard torn between being enfused, and then curtailing himself when he things about the work involved and trying to reign steven in.
    It is both amusing and endearing.

    I think stevens business acumen will bring him back to ground with the bard there.
    They know the price of promising the impossible and breaking expectations.
    There is probably one or two broken hearts there too, given the companies they worked for.
  • It's really all hype.
    There's no way for us to determine whether Intrepid can pull off their design until they actually release the game.
    I've been here before, listening to the same hype with Kingdoms of Amalur and EQNext and Revival and Hero's Song and No Man's Sky.

    Even when you have enough assets for a whole game, like Reckoning and Landmark, that doesn't mean that the MMORPG you're developing won't become vaporware. And even when you can demo 75% of the game and/or you have people playing through and alpha or beta doesn't mean that the game will release in a state that fulfills the design.
    No Man's Sky released with about 85%-90% of their design and the consumers were outraged... and even now that NMS is at 96% of the original design plus 15% brand new features... tons of people are still mad.

    Dave Georgeson was even more excited and enthusiastic as Steven. Sean Murray was at least as enthusiastic as Steven, is not more so.
    The EQNext designers were as enthusiastic and optimistic as Jeffrey... and all more enthusiastic than Peter.

    The Ashes devs are confident. They're excited about the work they've completed so far. They love hyping their game - just like the devs for Star Citizen and Dual Universe and the games I mentioned earlier.
    That doesn't tell us anything about whether they will actually be able to release their game in a state that we will actually have fun playing. No way to know until we get into alpha and beta - and even that's not a guarantee the game will release with of the originally promised features, let alone the stretch goals.

    Hope is great. I'm hopeful Intrepid will succeed.
    Hype? I'm not really jumping on the hype train again.
  • Just out of interest.
    How many of them are self made millionaires funding out their own pocket ?
    @Dygz
    I have no idea personally.
  • Curt Schilling was for Kingdoms of Amalur
  • Hype is a joke, we do it to ourselves and then we try to blame the devs for a lot of the things we wanted in the game, but didn't get. (No Man's Sky being the exception)

    As long as we understand that the game will not be perfect, even on final release, and stick with it, as well as provide great feedback, it will grow into something amazing. Trying to keep this in mind, when playing or on the forums, is key to helping speed along development and stopping yourself from getting easily dissapointed.
  • SleepyDrifter,

    Very True! We listen to what Devs say. We read what Devs write, We are all people with huge imaginations as MMO fans, maybe old TT players but bottom line we are all active dreamers. We take what they release and we put all kinds of shiney expectations around all of the features and game elements that are shared with us. That is the real HYPE.
  • Like other mention above they stated! Every Stretch goal that they make they said they will be able to do other wise we wouldn't put it on!

    @SleepyDrifter Thats true! I really do Believe its our own down fall because we get so hype! in our mind about how this game going to be how its going to run! etc.. and thats our downfall Not everyone share the exact mind! so we get into the game and be like this not what I've expected at all!

    @Rune_Relic You can totally tell Steven is the Dreamer! and Jeff is trying to keep him from floating into the sky by tying him down xD

    Favorite thing ever was last stream! Someone ask if their will be "Bikini armor" and all you hear in the background is Yaviey Immediately Responding like Please god no

    I was in tears of laughter!

    https://clips.twitch.tv/ArborealFitPigeonJonCarnage
  • I think the developers answered this question directly. Taken from the community discord.

    - Noting that the kickstarter is absolutely killing it (congrats btw); how do you plan on handling all the extra content without extending the delivery date? If the answer to this is "more staff", how are you going to ensure the vision/quality etc is maintained to the current high standard?

    +Existing staff and we made sure to only include stretch goals that we can achieve within our delivery date. And just in case we don't (which we will) we won't delay the release of the game.

    That answer sounds great. :D
  • They seem like experienced crew.

    I'm sure they will be careful not to stretch more than they can handle. :)
    They even said so in live stream.
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