Weekly Update #30

Battlescape
21

I figured out what the hauler was be fore I read the name. Good job. :slight_smile:

22

Hi. Can you please explain this part? “The delay is primarily due to a lack of programmers”
Why is there a lack of programmers in the first place?

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23

Because they’re a very small team, of which only one is actually getting a salary from this. So they’re relying on goodwill and people volunteering their skills for the project. They simply do not have the money to hire more programmers so everyone else has to multitask somewhat and do what they can!

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24

Thanks. But then why was the 300,000 thought as enough? Would be great if this could be confirmed by the devs themselves.

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25

Just search the name Kimmo.

26

Keith and Hutchings are pretty regular on here so you may well hear from one of them. 300,000 was the minimum they needed to make the game in the planned timeframe. As with any project, there may be a few unexpected delays! But the money should see the game released, whereas before it was just a kind of ongoing maybe.

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27

When we launched our Kickstarter we had 3 programmers. A few days after the Kickstarter completed one of our programmers left the team. All of our release dates were estimates based on having 3 programmers whereas now we only have 2. We haven’t replaced the 3rd programmer because it’s incredibly difficult to find the type of person we’re looking for who’s willing to work for well below industry standard pay. As @Sab1e mentioned we only raised our minimum during the Kickstarter which, as its name implies, was the absolute bare minimum we needed to complete this game. It doesn’t give us a lot of leeway.

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28

Thanks. Please forgive me for the insistence, but the optimistic budgeting and estimates mismanagement I am seeing in other crowdfunded projects around are making me very wary and sensitive to this kind of situations: Any particular reason why you budgeted the 300,000 kickstarter based on "well below industry standard pay", instead of a more realistic number wrt attracting/retaining programmers? Didnt you foresee the inherent risk of retaining key personnel, especially if 1 position loss represents 33% of the workforce?

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29

I’ll PM you with some details, @Viejoviajero.

30

We would have had to raise around $1 million if we were paying market rates - a sum that’s obviously well above what we did raise. We knew we could build the game for $300k with people making significant personal sacrifice though it would be a bit of a death march. There was no indication prior to launching the KS that our 3rd programmer was considering quitting. When he did quit he didn’t give us a reason, I can only speculate it’s because he knew that with only raising our minimum it was going to be a 2 year death march but it’s possible I’m way off the mark. Unfortunately his departure made the march more deathly for the rest of us but such is life.

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31

Thanks for the response.

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32

We’re all here cheering you on Keith! #youarenotalone

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33

Haha thanks, we appreciate it =).

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34

You have to keep in mind that a the lack of a 3rd programmer also means that we’re spending money at a lower rate than anticipated. So in terms of budget it doesn’t affect our ability to produce the game, it simply makes it take longer ( which explains part of the delays we’ve suffered already ).

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35

A productive death march though, yes!

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36

…yeah and we were nagging em for years to launch KS :laughing:

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37

Also, a little shift with regards to how the development phase is promoted. I wrote some ideas in this thread here if they are of any use. I hope so. And I’m happy to help.

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38

Well, considering SC’s never ending delays and NMS’s fall from grace, I think Battlescape was lucky regarding the Kickstarter. Look at DU’s attempt to raise 500,000 pounds - it’s only been a few days but it’s the initial weekend that sees a good bulk of support; it’s a bit early and still 31 days to go but don’t see how they can raise that much, even with 31 days left. I think supporters are tired of not getting what was advertised and it will be much harder to raise money on Kickstarters for future startup companies.

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39

Would it be any help to advertise the position on forums? Or would the work involved in hiring a “low paid” job like this be too time consuming?

40

So be it, to be honest. I know crowdfunded teams like this one for IN:B may frown at my statement but I think that pre-orders, pledges and crowdfunds should be the product of a track record and not just faith and hype. If a dev team has a solid track record of delivery that is properly communicated at the Kickstarter time that should generate a corresponding amount of crowdfunded pledges.

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