Controversial Development Timeline?

[TiggyPooh 134]

Hi Brian,

 

I am confused as to what you mean when you wrote: "DayZ is 11 months into principle development, on what should be a 3 year standard development cycle."

Many of us here played the DayZ Mod and remember when Dean joined Bohemia in August 2012, let aside Dean's claim the game would be released the same year.

My excuse for being nit picky, but I can't help myself but wonder what happened between August 2012 and October-November 2013, more than a Year we all assumed the game was being developed.

Again my excuse for nit picking this post you made and pointing my finger at that specific sentence.

I am a fan of the game and have the patience to wait until it's finished and love the fact I can play and participate in it's early development.  

 

P.S. You guys are doing a great job and keep up the fantastic work  :thumbsup:

[anderswhk 23]

This would not be the first time a game gets delayed, or the developers underestimate the time needed to finish a project. Happens all the time.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

They first tried to deliver standalone that was just a refined mod in 2012 but they scrapped it and started the whole thing again. So 2012 really didn't deliver anything and the whole project started from the beginning.

At the beginning of 2013 the scope was changed and this time they wanted to deliver real standalone that is made from scratch. They delivered it at the end of 2013 but the scope was changed again and now they're making still huge changes in the engine.

 

It was always developed but things got scrapped and scope changed.

[TiggyPooh 134]

They first tried to deliver standalone that was just a refined mod in 2012 but they scrapped it and started the whole thing again. So 2012 really didn't deliver anything and the whole project started from the beginning.

At the beginning of 2013 the scope was changed and this time they wanted to deliver real standalone that is made from scratch. They delivered it at the end of 2013 but the scope was changed again and now they're making still huge changes in the engine.

 

It was always developed but things got scrapped and scope changed.

 

Hi, I can understand that maybe not much was developed during 2012, but the first Dev Blog from Dean was in February 2013, where you can see a whole bunch of stuff that had already been developed.

What I don't understand is why Brian would say "DayZ is 11 months into principle development" when it clearly was much longer and from looking at Dean's first DayZ DevBlog February 2013, we can assume that they have been working on the project before that date.

 

[Parazight 1594]

Dayz roadmap is released.

Alpha is opened and money starts coming in.

More money comes in.

Scope of the game changes.

BI decides to drastically ballon the workforce.

Game technology and architecture is upgraded.

Old roadmap becomes obsolete.

New workforce still being integrated.

Massive retooling of current mechanics.

Setbacks due to massive growth.

Issues arise because a new game genre is being made all while a new development process is used which also is now obligated to produce a playable product while all of this happens.

I don't really see anything controversial. They hold all the keys and own the locked doors.

[Evil Minion 943]

Game developers always make the mistake of being far too optimistic. Instead of having a realistic internal deadline and a "just to be sure" official one they go with an unrealistic official one - it does not matter if they say "if everything goes perfect" - because people will simply ignore this kind of statement.

 

Same with features - developer say "will add XY soon". What he means: "If everything goes perfectly fine we will include a prototype of XY in 2 months". What the community interprets: "XY will be released in final state with the next update which will be next week.".

[Deathlove 2280]

Im just glad the zombies are getting some decent animation changes and new faces and stuff.

 

Have you tried the experimental yet? There are lots of improvements coming to the system already.

[TiggyPooh 134]

HI Guys,

 

It doesn't really matter if game developers make mistakes about release dates and things get pushed back or not... Mummies and Daddies make promises they have to brake, because it it was raining or whatever  ;) ... no need to be all traumatic about it when we do finally get to go to the amusement park a week later when the sun is shining.

DayZ is going to go down in the history books of gaming and years from now people will be arguing when the game was made/developed and how long it took.

Someone is going to pull out that comment Hicks made and use it as an example of proof.

 

Yeah maybe Dean went to Bohemia August 2012, but according to Hicks from a comment he made September 2014, the game was 11 months in development! 

 

I hope you get my point and that it needs to be explained what Brian meant when he said "11 months into principle development", because I don't understand what that means, or if it is just some mistake.

[Zombie Milkman 167]

Much like what Parazight said, I don't see a problem here.  But I want to add an important piece to the entire picture:

 

Competition is coming and while 30 to 60 million in development money is impressive on a crowd source game, Sony is Sony and they can throw enough money at this thing to beat BI.  There, I said it, and it is reality.  So either BI makes a better game than Sony (who can screw it up, that can't be ignored), or they get out-developed by the competition...  And it may not matter to BI in the end since they already made a ton of money off the game as is.  So who knows.  None of us do, and honestly I don't see it as something worth complaining about.  I have over 200 hours in on an alpha at this point, and that isn't because I hate it or because BI lied to me, etc.  It is because despite the warts and alpha thing and the 10 year olds with beards and sickos and KOS clans I still enjoy the game.  If you are here posting a rant because of continued play I strongly suspect you do too.

 

See you out there, and may 180 png save your life!

[OrLoK 16182]

Hello there

 

The issue is that folk like to find holes and take things out of context.

 

No matter how many 20 foot neon signs we erect outside every users home stating all the facts someone, somewhere will find a quote or will piece together some "logic" which disproves something we've said.

 

Factor in general human error and "loose lips" and you can pretty much furnish the conspiracy theorist with as much ammo as the need to make up almost any narrative.

 

Look at the moon landings. people still think they didnt happen. And there's a lot more facts and logic out there about that than the game.

 

Trust Hick's word for he speaketh the truth.

 

IMHO he's no spin doctor and is a pretty straight up guy. I annoy him often and greatly and I still think that for a PR esque kind of chap he's still fairly human and decent.

 

Rggds

 

LoK

[St. Jimmy 1631]

Hello there

 

The issue is that folk like to find holes and take things out of context.

 

No matter how many 20 foot neon signs we erect outside every users home stating all the facts someone, somewhere will find a quote or will piece together some "logic" which disproves something we've said.

 

Factor in general human error and "loose lips" and you can pretty much furnish the conspiracy theorist with as much ammo as the need to make up almost any narrative.

 

Look at the moon landings. people still think they didnt happen. And there's a lot more facts and logic out there about that than the game.

 

Trust Hick's word for he speaketh the truth.

 

IMHO he's no spin doctor and is a pretty straight up guy. I annoy him often and greatly and I still think that for a PR esque kind of chap he's still fairly human and decent.

 

Rggds

 

LoK

Did you just necro an old thread or what? :huh:

[OrLoK 16182]

well, bugger me.

 

It came up as a new thread.

 

Holy mod necro, batman!

 

LoK

[Accolyte 1727]

And that's how Lok got fired..