Friday, July 15, 2011

The completeness of JADE

Since I continue to be surprised a little about some questions like "Why is there no gold in the game?", "Why did you miss this bug or that bug?", "Why is there so little content?" I just wanted to remind folks of what I wrote a couple of weeks ago here and here.

To repeat it:

  • JADE 0.1.0 is not a complete game but a technology preview of what is to come.
  • JADE 0.2.0 probably will be the first really enjoyable version to play with lots of content and a lot more detail. Only for fighters probably, too (maybe one or two other combat classes - we will have to see).
  • If I had added all the things a few people cry for now, there still would be no JADE release and the 50+ bugs found by you great folks out there still wouldn't be fixed because I probably still would have missed them.
So though I am sorry that you will have to be patient it's the best I can do. And I'm already spending more time on JADE than I should be (ask my wife and she's right). It's big fun and I like it the way things are happening right now. The next JADE release is just around the corner (one more ugly bug to smash) and then the next and the next and the next and... you get it. At some point JADE hopefully will be the totally amazing game I envision it to be.

I also mentioned somewhere else: Spending an hour on JADE is like spending 20 hours on ADOM as far as productivity goes. So you shouldn't be surprised that I prefer working on JADE right now given my limited time frame.

Thanks for listening. Next time we probably are going to talk here about the release of JADE 0.1.1 ;-)

7 comments:

  1. Remeber that for every complainer you have atleast 10 people loving your work! Keep strong!

    Regards
    Martin

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  2. Also, even though it's just a technology demo, it is immensely enjoyable for us who have waited patiently for years to play and quest for bugs :)

    You are doing great work on JADE, while at the same time keeping in contact with the community, and still trying to live a life. It's impressive!

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  3. Keep up the good work, Thomas. :) JADE has all the potential to be the most detailed and enjoyable roguelike ever, and I'm really glad to see you so keen on making it so.

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  4. I can't believe JADE is finally being developed properly. I totally wrote it off as vapourware.

    If you get it to a more playable state, I will definitely buy a copy! Any plans to do that, as Minecraft did?

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  5. Although it might scare some people off, I feel a lot of people who enjoy ADOM would gladly pay a few € to play JADE and contribute to the development that way, so what Alistair said is not impossible.

    Some people might not pay - I among others could not pay for ADOM when I started playing it, as I were only 11-12 years old. Things have changed over the years, so now I would gladly pay.

    What I'm trying to say, is that many people in the community would have no problem paying a sum to play the game, especially once it starts reaching a more playable sate (0.2 or 0.3). And that is a very viable way to generate money to give JADE an even higher priority. On the other hand, demanding money would hinder recruitment of new fans, so be careful. (However, ADOM might be a recruitment platform).

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  6. As Deyja says. There are always people who complain, but the majority of us are enjoying the release and know that using the "release early, release often" philosophy will accelerate development and help you bring us full versions earlier.

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  7. I guess for now I'll just have to be content with donating =)

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