I've been hearing about it for a while on the blogs/messageboards, but I can't find a date anywhere.
Goblin Squad Member
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You must be new to the internet gaming community, or at least the pre-release game community.
It will be finished when it is finished.
The last thing you want to do is rush a mmo or set a date. Internet communities take predictions as law, and you create much less flack if you never tell people when things will be done and only give general estimates. Setting a release date is a sure way to kill your game, you never want to be bound to a date, you never know when a fatal bug will pop up.
It has been about a month since the tech demo was started, and to my knowledge the estimate was 'a few months'.
Put it in your mind that the release date will be November 11th, 2015. You will be much more excited when it comes out earlier than you expected, than if it comes out later than you expected.
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Goblin Squad Member
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You must be new to the internet gaming community, or at least the pre-release game community.
It will be finished when it is finished.
The last thing you want to do is rush a mmo or set a date. Internet communities take predictions as law, and you create much less flack if you never tell people when things will be done and only give general estimates. Setting a release date is a sure way to kill your game, you never want to be bound to a date, you never know when a fatal bug will pop up.
It has been about a month since the tech demo was started, and to my knowledge the estimate was 'a few months'.
Put it in your mind that the release date will be November 11th, 2015. You will be much more excited when it comes out earlier than you expected, than if it comes out later than you expected.
Well in terms of the tech demo... that actually is one case where a date should be set, and probably is in existance behind the scenes. That's part of the purpose of the demo is to prove to investors what they can do with a budget and a timeframe.
That being said it isn't really a priority for us to know it at all. That's just a temptation for us to know when we have still another year or so to go.
@Hanz, Ryan has said "end of September".
Ah, thank you. I could have sworn I heard something about September, but I wasn't sure. Damn it, I can't wait.
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Goblin Squad Member
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But what is a "tech" demo?
The Middleware Situation:We have finalized our middleware selection. The process was lengthier and more complicated than we expected. We first pursued a unique opportunity which required some fairly complicated legal maneuvers; in the end, we were unable to complete that deal, although we made some great friends along the way, and it's already clear that the effort will pay off in the long run in ways we didn't anticipate at the start.
Our second take on a middleware contract is also a fairly complicated deal to structure and execute, but the terms are finalized, and there is no concern on the part of any of the parties that the final documents won't be executed.
There's a lot of talk in the MMO community about the pros and cons of various engines and options. What middleware is and is not is widely misunderstood; it's such a complicated thing to explain that discussions tend to fall down a hole and lose context with the actual impact that middleware can have on a specific project. We know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and we've decided that instead of just telling you about the middleware, we really want to show you what we can do with it, so we'll be announcing the middleware platform at the same time we show off the first visuals from the Technology Demo. (Soon!)
The Technology Demo Team
For the Technology Demo, in addition to myself and Mark, we're going to have 8 full-time developers. We've brought in a team that already has experience with the engine we've selected, so things will happen swiftly. We also have a couple of interns who will be getting some "on the job" experience—that's actually one of those unanticipated benefits of the initial middleware licensing effort that fell through!
A big focus of the Tech Demo is on bringing the look of Pathfinder into the digital world; the demo is going to be "art heavy." And while the visual style is being established, we'll also be building out our game design team. They're doing a lot of system design that won't have a tremendous impact on the Tech Demo, but some of the basic concepts they'll be developing may make an appearance. We're expecting to announce our lead designer shortly.
On the engineering side, the middleware has options and extensions that need to be selected and developed. Because we want a certain look for the visuals, we're going to be focusing on graphics engine performance. The middleware vendor is making pretty significant upgrades to their graphic systems in the near future, and we intend to be ready to take advantage of those changes when they become available.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This thread was asking specifically about the Tech Demo, not the game itself.End of September, 2015.
If they get it finished before then, I'll be happy.
I think the joke was that, while the devs were specific about the month, they were vague about the year precisely because of the way the internet treats everything as written in stone.
heh.. I was thinking of the same joke, btw.
But yes, tech demo.. soon! Geologically speaking.. any day now! lol
The goal is the end of September!
THIS september? :)
The goal is the end of September!THIS september? :)
A September, but A september none the less.
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It'll be done the 10th of Octember.
Heh, enjoyed that. Anyway, only tangentially related but I'd really like to ask Goblinworks to go with substance over flashiness in their demo (and especially trailers once it is time for such things). Too often I keep seeing studios trying to awe their audience with things that any computer animation student could whip out in their spare time. Videos that look amazing and spectacular... but are composed entirely of pre-rendered animation and give us no clue to what the game is about, how it looks, or even plays. You'd think that MMOs (having few if any cutscenes due to their medium) would be immune to such things but Star Wars: The Old Republic proves differently...
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Goblin Squad Member
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It'll be done the 10th of Octember.Heh, enjoyed that. Anyway, only tangentially related but I'd really like to ask Goblinworks to go with substance over flashiness in their demo (and especially trailers once it is time for such things). Too often I keep seeing studios trying to awe their audience with things that any computer animation student could whip out in their spare time. Videos that look amazing and spectacular... but are composed entirely of pre-rendered animation and give us no clue to what the game is about, how it looks, or even plays. You'd think that MMOs (having few if any cutscenes due to their medium) would be immune to such things but Star Wars: The Old Republic proves differently...
Well at least from the descriptions of the goals of the tech demo, they pretty much described it as being a playable dungeon. (Though not released to the common folk, investors and people who paid at the extremely high tiers of the kickstarter will be playing it). So with that said, I believe what we see will be a basic prototype of the combat system etc... and what we see in it will indeed be the rough drafts of actual gameplay, and not a simple movie designed to look 10x better than the game GW intends to make.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The Technology Demo is more about proving what we can do rather than proving that the game will be awesome.
If you're an investor (or a potential player) and Goblinworks says "we can do this thing", you might say "prove it". The Technology Demo helps to prove it. It shows that we have at least basic competency in using modern tools, and that our middleware can actually do the job it is designed to do, and that we can budget a time & cost to do a fairly complex project and come at least reasonably close to hitting both.
We'll be showing some beautiful things in the Technology Demo but it's not designed to give you a sense of what it will be like to play the game. It's designed to give you a sense that Goblinworks knows what it is doing and that we're simpatico with the brand of Pathfinder.
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Technology Demo is more about proving what we can do rather than proving that the game will be awesome.
If you're an investor (or a potential player) and Goblinworks says "we can do this thing", you might say "prove it". The Technology Demo helps to prove it. It shows that we have at least basic competency in using modern tools, and that our middleware can actually do the job it is designed to do, and that we can budget a time & cost to do a fairly complex project and come at least reasonably close to hitting both.
We'll be showing some beautiful things in the Technology Demo but it's not designed to give you a sense of what it will be like to play the game. It's designed to give you a sense that Goblinworks knows what it is doing and that we're simpatico with the brand of Pathfinder.
Don't be humble now Ryan! This game will be AWESOME!
I mean how can you fail when you already at this point are listening so much to you future players?
This is exactly how you should do when you are making a game.. Listening, evaluating the feedback and the compare and try to match them with your own goals. Doing like this as you already do and never fending off a suggestion without a discussion is awesome! I believe in this project so much (quite appearant since I choosed to support via kickstarter) and the main reason for this is the leadword to all success in MMO games (imo) = communication.
Keep up the good work!
/Thrilled
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Goblin Squad Member
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It's critical to set expectations properly early; I don't expect the tech demo to be an engaging game, or to be visually stunning. I expect the tech demo to work, to handle poor connections gracefully, and to have a handful of different types of basic features.
Considering AFIK the tech demo won't be physically leaving GW HQ, I don't imagine the tech demo to be any representation of how the game handles latency.