Eventual delays caused by Kickastarter?

Gameplay
#1

Hi all,

could you please estimate the actual (time) cost of the kickstarter campaign ?

I know that if there wouldn’t be this campaign then there wouldn’t be this game, but could you please estimate how much strain on your small team is this endeavour putting and whether you have time reserve in your planning for this or whether it could possibly negatively influence the delivery date ?

E.g. instead of doing all those video updates there could be already solved some problem or designed new quest / latrine or other whatnot ?

Also do you look forward when this will be all over and then you will get back to your open-space and start again working full-time, limiting the outside communication ?

Or you plan to hire some community manager that would shield you ?

Thanks.

1 Like
#2

On similar note - are you (Warhorse) going to hire more people to make the stretch-goals content, or will they prolong the game development, possibly pushing back release?

#3

Anyway, they should take their time. I would rather wait a few more months instead of getting an unpolished game.

2 Likes
#4

No argument there. I was just wondering if by pledging towards additional content, we are at the same time prolonging the torment of waiting for release :slight_smile:

#5

As far as I know Warhorse are planning to staff up to around 70 people, from current 35 or so.
I just hope they manage to find capable people who do not need micromanaging all the time :slight_smile:

#6

This is a…negligible complaint. The video that was just released was about an hour long. You really think that taking away an hour from dev. time will cause a significant delay in release?

#7

I have little to no concern that the Kickstarter stuff will cause any kinds of delays.

#8

Since the campaign lasts for a month, assuming they’ve been working on nothing else the entire time (which I find unlikely), any resulting delay will presumably be no more than a month. Doesn’t seem like a big problem to me, especially when you consider that the game wouldn’t exist at all without the Kickstarter.

#9

I’d wish they continue a funding campaign after Kickstarter end so they can continue working on this thing for 2 or 3 years. The better it get the happier I’ll be.

#10

They will continue it, through Paypal. I’m not sure how long, though.

#11

First - why I asked -

  • i have some experience in project management (different IT industry, team of 10-15 people, probably not so complex ‘system’, delivered internationally) therefore I’m genuinely interested in how it works in these situations in game industry
  • Mr. Vavra mentioned in one of his first blog entries the shitty crunch-overtimes that are mostly forced by shitty plannig and how he would like to avoid such situations
  • aaand this looks like one of the unplanned situations that needs to be handled by overtimes, especially by currently very small team (?)
  • most of us here are ‘INVESTORS’, therefore we should care about the promissed / expected deadlines and any possible delays ( caused by no matter what ); I presume that Warhorse team is unfortunately not in situation of Valve that can claim (e.g. for their HL3) - ‘to be delivered when it is done’

That being said I can also only repeat - I understand that without the kick-campaing there wouldn’t be any game and also that they have my wholesome support.
Still - we should speculatively check also any possible negative impact of this campaign (which is similar to the ‘missing opportunities’ concept).

As far as I understood + from comments from the team + from my own experience

  • there were some (4?) team-members that (at least at the begining of the campain ?) just answered all the kick-questions (?)
  • i would expect that it should take 4-5 Man-Hours to prepare one ‘larger’ video update - someone must think about the content / script -> making of the video ( + different takes) -> post-editing etc.
  • most experienced gray-heads / brains (Mr. Vavra, Bocan, Blaho, Klima (?) must be available for the interviews - one interview can take up to 1-2 MHs (?)
  • you have to check EVERYTHING before any presentation - nothing works ‘as usual’, no matter how many times it was tried before; therefore for 1 hour of live-stream you shall need additional 1-2 hours of preparations / checks of equipment + environment / game
  • work interuptions by all above - someone must be really flexible to instantly switch focus / attention between phone-video call interview and answering some detailed conteptual development questions…

On other hand

  • Dean Hall also managed to squeeze into his tight DayZ schedule ‘visit’ of Mt. Everest, therefore I expect that experienced team can fly for some time on auto-pilot, while the management is occupied ‘elsewhere’…
  • some of the information in the interviews is repeated, which reduces some of the ‘presentation effort’

So I would expect that Mr. Vavra + Bocan were taxed the most by the campaign + they needed support from all necessary colleagues (when / where needed) - so i would estimate that roughly approximately 20 Man-Days were ‘lost’ by all the kick-activities ?

Which is probably nothing in the grand-scope of the game delivery till december 2015 - still I ask - is the project plan ready for such ‘interruptions’ or there will be some weekend shifts needed ? :wink:

#12

I would also not mind to wait for some of the stretch goals to be implemented later, even much later asI am sure the the main goal of the dev team will be to make the core game as good as possible.
I also believe in take your time and not rush it. Don’t let the backers become the new ‘whip swingers’ which most games have in form of classic publishers which give damn on a game but care just for shares and deadlines.

#13

I think that the studio stated on a couple of occasions that they have the production process for after the end of the Kickstarter campaign carefully planned in advance, based on their previous experience with delays and obstacles in development from the projects they have been working on in their previous employments.

If I understood it correctly, the timespan of the Kickstarter campaign was planned mainly for this buildup of further communication lines with the community and presenting what they are really working on to the public. The main game developing process is probably planned go full throttle only after the Kickstarter campaign finishes and the associated matters (like the further long-term funding by their main investor) get fully resolved…

It doesn’t seem they took the Kickstarter campaign as a kind of delay exactly.

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