Weekly Update #30

Hey everyone time for another weekly update. This week we want to take some time to talk about scheduling. Our next release is Alpha which is currently scheduled for October 29th, 2016. The Alpha release is supposed to contain rough implementations for all major gameplay systems which includes networking, distribution, patching, UI, weapons, small-ship flight mechanics, capital ship flight mechanics, radar, intra-solar jumping, and resource management. At this moment in time many of these are partially implemented however a few of them haven’t been started yet.

Editor shot of the final touches being put on the NPC hauler

You may recall that our deliverable to Developer Access backers at the beginning of the year was delayed by 2 months. If you go back through our January/February 2016 weekly updates you can read why. Full production started on February 1st and the Developer Access milestone was announced on February 28th. Back in February people were asking if the delay would affect the timeline for our Alpha release and while we knew it obviously would one way or another we decided to stick with the original timeline until we were absolutely sure we couldn’t hit it. Well, we now know we won’t be able to stick to our original timeline and release the Alpha on October 29th as we had planned. Instead we expect to release it sometime in early 2017.

Editor shot of the front of the NPC hauler

The delay is primarily due to a lack of programmers and being unable to get as much gameplay implemented over the summer as we had hoped due to fixing up core systems like physics, networking, distribution, patching, and pledge upgrading. Fortunately, the work on those systems, which are all very important for providing a polished experience in the final game, is nearly complete and we’ll be getting back to iterating on gameplay soon. Our art team is also still on schedule cranking out quality content.

Editor shot of the NPC hauler engines

Let’s talk a little bit about financials. Our Kickstarter campaign raised $332,620 which is $32,620 over our minimum goal of $300k. After paying fees to Kickstarter of ~10% that left us with ~$300k to build the game – or exactly our minimum which meant that building the game was going to be a hard slog – something we were expecting when we launched the Kickstarter. Full production started on February 1st so we didn’t really spend much of anything until then. Since our Kickstarter completed we’ve also raised an additional $21,830 through our IndieGoGo InDemand campaign (before paying ~10% in fees).

One more editor shot of the NPC hauler

Due to additional sacrifices made by the members of the team we’ve been spending money a little bit less than we had budgeted for so financially we’re in pretty good shape. Since the art team is currently on-schedule we expect that the majority of additional costs caused by delays beyond our target retail ship date of September 2017 will primarily go toward programmers. At the moment Flavien is the only programmer getting paid so as long as we can raise an additional ~$25k between now and September 2017 we should be able to cover a 6-month delay without any problems.

Final geometry pass on the corvette cockpit

So where does this leave us right now? Well, if you’re a Developer Access+ backer then congratulations, you get longer exclusivity. If you’re not a Developer Access backer and you don’t want to wait our pledge upgrade system will be finished soon and you will be able to upgrade to get immediate access to the game. If you don’t want to upgrade then please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay. While it may not be going as fast as we would prefer we’re making steady progress (see our weekly updates), the artwork is coming together great, the game is going to get finished and we can’t wait to play it with all of you!

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I’ve got my upgrade funds locked in and ready to go. :rocket:

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Shared to ED, SC, LTT and Descent Underground forums.

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Knew this would be coming when we didn’t manage to get to gameplay over the summer. Glad I’ve got devtier access, and if there are disappointed Alpha folks out there I’d highly recommend considering upgrading your pledge once it’s available!

To all the team, keep up the good work. What you’ve made so far is already amazing, so keep delivering and we’ll keep testing! Good to hear you’re in reasonable shape financially even with minimum funding.

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Screenshots look awesome as usual.
Regarding the alpha access delay: Have you considered giving alpha backers access to the dev version ahead of planned alpha release? Even with the most reasonable explainations why a date could not be met, people are going to be butthurt once october comes around and they can’t join the fun. You could just give them access to the game and not the dev forum and an explaination that this isn’t yet alpha but to reward them in the original time shedule they can play the version as it is at that time. I as a dev level backer wouldn’t mind. Not sure how other dev backers feel about that though.

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In the grand scheme of things this is not unexpected given their excellent communication. I think it’s a good opportunity to let the pledge upgrade system do it’s work for those who are eager to shortcut the extra wait. INS need the funds.

I personally would never undermine that kind of potential income for the sake of a group of people who, quite frankly, don’t have much of a reason to demand access. If this delay happened during late alpha then yes I would understand bringing forward the beta tier, but not during pre-alpha.

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The fans that are willing to pay 250 dollars for dec access already did that for the most part. Without new marketable media (that likely won’t come into existance until gameplay is developed) there likely will be no significant number of new pledges at that level anyway. I believe people are more ready to upgrade from beta to alpha access, giving alpha backers a reward in time of the original shedule, even if it is not yet the alpha version, is IMO the better and financially smarter option.

I also believe that a lot of people feel entitled to receiving something come october, risking complaints and butthurt probably is not the best option. Lets take a look at star citizen, had they waited to reward their backers at the corresponding times during developement people would have executed Chris Roberts by now.

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You are correct, but I wonder how many alpha backers are willing to upgrade when its available. The whole reason I backed at alpha was so that I could spread out the cost so I wonder what percentage of alpha backers have that in mind.

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Kind of expected. No sweat off my spaceballs though…just means I’ll be making more ships. :grin:

And greatly appreciate all the hard work Devs - keep up the great work! And thanks for everyone’s patience…this game is definitely worth the wait. :vulcan:

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Ready to upgrade anytime.
And I love these new screenshots :slight_smile:

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I like the new screen shots.

Here hoping you get some new funds once the new pledge system up and running, then it may be time to put together a new trailer showing off the current state of the game.

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I keep it like I do with every game, may it be I:BS, SC, another AAA title or whatever, I don’t care for the longer wait, just take your time to polish and add the missing elements you think they’re worth it. Thank you for the early communication.
And yeah, the screenshots look nice, the NPC Hauler is really amazing.

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Dear Santa or God, I’m sure you’re working together
i wish a get more money, a beautiful girl, and all the best for me.

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I would say Alpha backers should get access only when there is an Alpha ready - but I think this should come with a condition: If the delay lasts longer than (insert appropriate timespan here) then they get access whatever the current build is.

So say to them “yes, there’s a delay, but whatever happens you’ll be able to play what we’ve got so far no later than (this date).”

Reassurance balanced with actually having something to give them.

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@INovaeKeith Y u no share dis 1, is my fav 1, bru y?

Explanation: Background has poor resolution, due to being in the I-Novae Editor :wink: not as pretty, but still pretty


Cred to @spAce “Kristian Agren”

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Low res background can easily be explained away:
“Why’s the background so meh-looking?”
“Doug did his thing with space-instagram again.”
“Ah…”

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Did we just jump from pre-beta to alpha, or have I missed something?

Alpha is pre-Beta. There hasn’t been any jump, Alpha was originally scheduled to release on October 29th but we announced yesterday that it has been delayed to early 2017.

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Thanks for clearing that confusion up for me :slight_smile:

No worries =)