The Current State Of Development - DayZ - Understanding the Development Process

[Irish. 4886]

I am writing this, and using other sources for most of the body, to help people to understand why Alpha is not an excuse and exactly why the current state of DayZ should be expected and not something to be concerned over. Please feel free to not respond if you cannot handle being polite and/or constructive. 

 

First, I will allow you to read over a short synopsis of what goes into video game development. Then I will explain why BIS has a history that we can look back on, and hopefully use as an example to rely on seeing similar if not better results for DayZ. Last but not least I will show a roadmap of what we should see from the DayZ dev team down the line. 

 

Understanding the Development Process

 

Programming

 

The programming department is responsible for implementing the game design. Different companies have different working practices but in general the programmers read about a feature in the design document, ask the game designers relevant questions and then make a plan to implement the feature. Any gaps are filled in during meetings and the plan is approved so the programmer can begin work on it. They work on implementing each feature in the document and these are then tested and refined as necessary. Programmers often specialise in specific areas but this depends entirely on the size of the company and the type of projects they produce.

 

Art

 

The art department is responsible for the visual style of the game. There are various roles within the art department and everything starts with the concept artist. The concepts can be simple sketches or full color detailed paintings. They set the visual style of a game and give the rest of the art team inspiration to create characters and environments. Character artists take 2D concepts and use them to create 3D models. Environment artists craft the textures and models to bring each level to life. Visual Effects artists create graphics for things like explosions and weather. Animators create individual character animations which are then triggered in code by programmers. Each simple process in the game requires collaboration. For example even something as simple as making a character walk involves all three departments. The animator will create a walk cycle for a character which is a looping animation of a few frames of a character walking, and the programmers will ensure that the character moves the correct distance and speed and triggers that animation when you press the W key. The specific parameters will have been decided upon by a designer.

 

Production

 

The production department sets the schedule and controls the budget. They create a job list and time estimates for every aspect of the game’s development. It is their job to ensure that every staff member knows what they need to do, has what they need to do it and knows when it is supposed to be done by. They provide frequent progress reports, deal with staffing and purchases and generally ensure the project runs as it should.

 

Testing

 

The final department to get their hands on the game are the testers. It is good practice to begin testing your game as early as possible but in reality this process is often left until late in the day. Game testers play the game and try to find bugs which they report. The rest of the team work on fixing the bugs assigned to them until the game works well enough that it is ready for final release. This decision is usually made by senior management or the publisher.

 

Crunch Time

 

This is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the game development process but it does at least give you a basic overview. It is very common for games to be under funded and for them to run over schedule due to unforeseen problems or change requests. This means most projects enter a period of crunch towards the end of production and the development team is expected to work long hours. The vast majority of developers work long and hard to bring you games and they rarely get the rewards they deserve. Most game developers are in the industry because they are passionate about making great games. When it goes well game development can be the most enjoyable career on the planet. When it goes badly….well that’s a different story.

 

BIS History with Early Access Releases

 

When Arma 3 was released by BIS, it had a similar release structure as DayZ SA. We should expect at least the final pricing to be similar, but the timeline should be very different between the 2 games. 

 

Arma 3 (pricing and timeline): 

$32.99 - March 5, 2013 (Alpha)

$44.99 - June 25th, 2013 (Beta)

$59.99 - September 12, 2013 (Final Release.. lacking some content, promised later as DLC)

 

There were obvious delays, as the game was released in a somewhat unfinished state. But the roadmap deadline was met to an extent. Promises were kept, and overall the game has received good reviews and is being played and modded heavily by the Arma community. We should expect similar results with the DayZ SA as time progresses.

 

Timeline for DayZ Standalone Development

 

So , roadmap. We have one. Here it is written out for you to read. Pay close attention to 2nd quarter, and 3rd quarter statements. This says what time they HOPE to have it implemented by.

 

• Crossbows, bows and arrows
  Are due in the immediate future according to the developer, who described them as a “labour of love” by the team. Players will be able to track their arrows and bolts and reclaim them. This will lead into better hunting mechanics further down the line, said Hall, who noted that The Elder Scrolls Skyrim has been a big influence in terms of hunting and skinning animals.

• Fireplaces
  Are also due imminently, with the team consulting with the developers of Project Zomboid, with plans to upgrade fireplaces to ovens.

• Ragdoll physics, neutral animals and persistent objects
  Are due around the second quarter of the year, and Hall briefly revealed an image of an AK-47 for the third quarter update.

• Advanced animals
  Will come later (quarter 3) such as wolves and bears, as well as companions including dogs and horses.

• Zombie behaviour
  Will be stabilised in the second quarter and advanced in the third quarter. And loot will be controlled centrally – Hall said the team has been paying attention to game such as EVE Online to ensure balancing is fair.

• Barricading
  Putting woods on doors to protect buildings – “will dramatically changed the game,” said Hall, particularly combined with better and more aggressive zombie behaviour.

• Vehicles
  Will roll out in the third quarter – just simple bicycles, ATVs or small cars to begin with but in the fourth quarter and beyond the team will roll out advanced vehicles – helicopters, boats, planes, trucks with upgradable components. Attachments for weapons will also be upgradable in a similar way to vehicles, confirmed Hall.

 

EDIT: This is from Hicks regarding the timeframe of BETA, etc..

 

 http://forums.dayzgame.com/index.php?/topic/193291-reddit-hicks-206-on-early-access-games-and-discounts-in-the-light-of-recent-abandoned-towns-game/?hl=beta

 

To be fair, the scope of DayZ easily puts it closer to a full 3 year development cycle. We're four and a half months in from the initial Early Access offering, the project has made several large leaps forward on the infrastructure side. (These might be things that don't jump out at people as super visible, but they are core systems that will enable us to support a rich feature set in beta, and release) I feel perfectly comfortable with the estimated 1.5 year Alpha/Beta/Release candidate phase we've discussed publicly with the consumers, and while sure it can get distracting dealing with people insisting they get their favorite up-coming feature "now, now, now", I tend to just focus on the work at hand and look forward to playing the released title with that type of passionate user in the future.

 

 

 

*** Also, please do not think I wrote this because I am a huge fan and only think good things about DayZ.. it simply is not true. I have experience with game development and knowledge of what to expect. I am not a fanboy, just a realist. I am not an undereducated pessimist, troll, starry eyed fanboy, or any other example. I am just someone who thinks people should be informed, rather than led blindly. Thank you, and carry on. 

Edited May 15, 2014 by lrish

[Etherious 907]

Irish, another good post from you. ;) You're on a roll.

 

Edited May 15, 2014 by kichilron
Spoilers!

[MarchHare 184]

Nice synopsis. Well packaged and easy to digest.

You're poking the tiger though.

Edited May 15, 2014 by MarchHare

[Irish. 4886]

Nice synopsis. Well packaged and easy to digest.

You're poking the tiger though.

Thank you.. and I like Tigers. ;)

 

[MarchHare 184]

Twang on!

[jameslennoxhood 74]

To sum up DayZ development in one word - Slow! 

Edited May 15, 2014 by JamesLennoxHood

[Irish. 4886]

To sum up DayZ development complainers in one word - Slow! 

es fixed mang..  :P

 

Just kidding btw..also, its only been out for about 5 months. That is not slow for early access alpha. Fyi. 

Edited May 15, 2014 by lrish

[C0bbler 17]

2nd quarter ends in about 7 weeks. Hope they get busy.

[meiz22 17]

So all the actual information is just copy and pasted? You could have like referenced the sources or something.

 

My teachers back at school would tell us to at least change the words a bit lol.

Edited May 15, 2014 by meiz22

[chrismgtis (DayZ) 35]

Anytime I see a "Current State of Development" for DayZ, I must chuckle. The newer DayZ players actually think there is measurable progress and they'll take a bite, hook, line and sinker.

 

That's also a pretty hilarious disclaimer.

 

Considering DayZ's development timeframes, it would take the development team something like 30 years to do what a small team has been able to accomplish so many times over the years.

Edited May 15, 2014 by chrismgtis

[skill89 23]

Some people in this community need this kind of explanations. You got my beans sir!

[calabam 55]

Dayz will never be worth much more than 30 quid even fully finished so you can strike that part out from the kick off !

[lemmi 8]

I would like to add onto this explanation by talking a little more about programming. You see, programming is a little like building a house, in the sense that 90% of the work is building up the foundations; establishing a rock solid base to expand upon, so that when the product is finished, it won't come crashing down because the foundations were too weak or haphazardly put  together. Granted, maybe this is a weak analogue, but it's pretty much what we're seeing here.

 

The DayZ team is doing very much work behind the scenes, with stuff like rebuilding the server architecture, AI system, physics system. Everything's currently in the "invisible scaffolding building" part of development, the part that you as a normal player won't see the results of until much later. Be assured though that when they finally release the new systems, you'll be happy that they spent this much time doing it the right and proper way, because else you'll get shitty bugs and bad performance that will plague the game for years to come.

 

If anyone here is familiar with Path of Exile, their famous desync problem is probably a result of this sort of thing. Once upon a time when they were still building the game, they designed their network system poorly, and when the game was finished, the flawed system was so deeply embedded with everything else that it's near impossible to rework it without breaking everything else. Thus you get awful desync that you pretty much can't fix. We don't want this to happen to DayZ.

[scriptfactory 620]

I was a big critic of the DayZ development process in the past. The dev team was kinda' amateurish in regards to their community interactions and communication. Also, they added things like the login/logout timers to address problems that will be different (or not exist) in the final version of the game. They rushed the release of certain versions of the game and certain features to make the community happy but it just ended breaking the game on multiple occasions.

That being said, the DayZ dev team has made huge strides, in my opinion. Communication is better (but it happens infrequently.) Rocket released a development roadmap (of sorts.) They are working on making the engine work well and THEN fast (which is how most software is developed.) I'm happy with their current progress.

There are only 2 things I would wish for:

 

1. Hire a fucking community manager. Or two. WTF? Rocket and Hicks interact with the community all the time but it is fairly simple to tell they don't know what the fuck they are doing. Some of the statements (and promises) they make just piss a lot of people off. A community manager, generally, knows how to interact with the community in a positive way while giving steady updates on the current status of a game.
2. Give us a real roadmap and update us as often as possible on the current progress of DayZ development. Something like "Server network architecture (50%), Server memory optimizations (90%)". Numbers.

 

Anytime I see a "Current State of Development" for DayZ, I must chuckle. The newer DayZ players actually think there is measurable progress and they'll take a bite, hook, line and sinker.

 

That's also a pretty hilarious disclaimer.

 

Considering DayZ's development timeframes, it would take the development team something like 30 years to do what a small team has been able to accomplish so many times over the years.

Once the problems with the core client/server engine are sorted development progress will increase quite rapidly. The main problem they are having now it getting a working engine together.

It, honestly, isn't that hard to add things like item persistence to the engine (if my A2/A3 modding knowledge is up-to-date.) If I use community mods I could add to it DayZ in a day. Writing it all myself would take about 1-2 weeks. But there is no point in adding features like this when the core engine has so many problems.

[Vigilante_Gamer 101]

es fixed mang..  :P

 

Just kidding btw..also, its only been out for about 5 months. That is not slow for early access alpha. Fyi. 

 

They perceive it as slow because they have nothing to compare it to. They're simply coming from a place of ignorance - I remember about 4 months after the mod was released, there were people saying shit like "why the hell isn't there are standalone yet? Why is progress so slow??"

 

If you have no idea how long it usually takes to develop a game, any amount of time can seem like too long. No point of reference.

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

I had posted this in Boneboys stickied rant thread but I think it will fit in perfect here.  

 

Rust - Alpha : December 8, 2013 - present
Starforge - Alpha : May 30th 2012 - Still in Alpha
Interstellar Marines - Alpha : Early Access July 2, 2013 - present
Planetside 2 - Released November 20, 2012 - Still plays like it's in beta.

Get the picture yet?

[Thadius (DayZ) 40]

I think what has some people angry is that DayZ has over 2 million sold copies and the game is progressing at a perceived rate that would be normal for a medium sized mod team, tinkering on their spare time.

 

People are forgetting that this is not a kickstarter. The money earned is not guaranteed to be reinvested into the game. Actually (as I have mentioned in previous posts) it is my belief that the great sales success of DayZ SA is actively working against further investments.

 

Why would I, as the man recieving the profits, want to invest money I already have in the bank on a product that has thoroughly saturated its market and any further monetary investment will yield little to no extra profit in the long run? Better to keep the costs low.

 

I think it will hold the same pace of development through out, no matter if you are in the "its to slow" or the "its doing fine" camp.

The team will not be expanded unless there are other beneficial factors that come into play such as aquiring assets for future projects or to prevent bad publicity if people become to loud.

[agentneo 337]

Wow

 

 

1. Hire a fucking community manager. Or two. WTF? Rocket and Hicks interact with the community all the time but it is fairly simple to tell they don't know what the fuck they are doing. Some of the statements (and promises) they make just piss a lot of people off. A community manager, generally, knows how to interact with the community in a positive way while giving steady updates on the current status of a game.
2. Give us a real roadmap and update us as often as possible on the current progress of DayZ development. Something like "Server network architecture (50%), Server memory optimizations (90%)". Numbers.

 

 

I agree. Some of the updates that should have been out in April never happened without explanation..
We stil don't know the ETA on important things such as Zombie pathfinding, Persistant items such as backpacks , and changes to the other systems

 

Would be nice to have some dates added to their road map now as we are 6 months into 2014 almost and most the stuff that was penciled in hasn't been confirmed or given a date yet. The video where Rocket loosely announces things with Q2, Q3, Q4 etc , was never written up properly onto these forums or interpreted into monthly dates for example.

Would give us somethign to look forward to and less moaning if you would pencil in some approx dates for those important patches because the alpha is quite unplayable at this stage and still costs £20 for the pleasure.

Thanks!

[agentneo 337]

The team will not be expanded unless there are other beneficial factors that come into play such as aquiring assets for future projects or to prevent bad publicity if people become to loud.

I agree and all the more reason for the Alpha Police to stop swinging their dicks around and let us get on with giving constructive feedback

[Caboose187 (DayZ) 3036]

I agree and all the more reason for the Alpha Police to stop swinging their dicks around and let us get on with giving constructive feedback

Stop opening your mouth and maybe dicks would stop swinging in your direction

[Vigilante_Gamer 101]

I agree and all the more reason for the Alpha Police to stop swinging their dicks around and let us get on with giving constructive feedback

 

You can't provide constructive feedback if you have no idea what you're talking about.

[scriptfactory 620]

Edit: not worth it.

Edited May 15, 2014 by scriptfactory

[agentneo 337]

You can't provide constructive feedback if you have no idea what you're talking about.

Alpha doesn't make a game immune to critism. As I posted on the previous page, I have given many suggestions on how I believe the game can be developed into more of a survival horror game, and less of a PVP Deathmatch Simulator. However, as we all want to cry and have a fit everytime someone gives some feedback, let's just accept the game as it is and enjoy playing this until 2015 or whenever they might release a patch. Thanks :D

[Vigilante_Gamer 101]

Alpha doesn't make a game immune to critism. As I posted on the previous page, I have given many suggestions on how I believe the game can be developed into more of a survival horror game, and less of a PVP Deathmatch Simulator. However, as we all want to cry and have a fit everytime someone gives some feedback, let's just accept the game as it is and enjoy playing this until 2015 or whenever they might release a patch. Thanks :D

 

Of course, that's all fine. But there are a lot of people claiming that the game will never be finished, it's a scam, it should be done by now, it shouldn't have bugs in the alpha stage. This is all bullshit, not feedback.

[OrLoK 16186]

 

snip

Title edited for even more clarity.