I'm very nervous for this community..

[Slycan]

Some of you have been watching this game develop for 10 years, if you include Lugaru 2 as a baby version of OverGrowth. I love the commitment and loyalty you guys have for the Devs. Most of you that were in your 20's are now in your 30's.. just wow. It's been a long bumpy road for you guys and I only jumped on the wagon about 3 years ago.

The most drama I've seen was that "Gamer Gate" incident, and of course the occasional flux of post regarding "Lack of updates", not only in OverGrowth, but games like Stomping Lands aswell. This actually brings up the point of this post.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/18/806221 ... rly-access
This was a prime sample why Dev team needs to, and I mean NEEDS to stay in touch with their community. Are you sick? Post it. Are you having Art-Block? Post it. Are you sick of the game? Yes, Post it. You have 10 years of supporters here, no ones going to have a mental break down if you need to take a break. People just don't want to feel you are going to ditch the project and take their money, to be blunt.

I know there's been post on the forum of updates and rumors, I mean for people like me ( or potential buyers, typical critics, or lurkers on Steam with all the recent down-votes OG has gotten) that don't come on the forum and prefer official blogs from OFFICIAL sources, not"rumors".

I've seen this pattern with Stomping Land, Cube World, Carnivores, and many others that the Dev 1- Stops talking to their committed paying community.
2.a - Disappears with the money.
2.b - Hands over the development to another company ( Notch->Minecraft-<Microsoft, for sample)
I'm hoping the latter happens honestly...

The Q and A video's are great, in a fun way, to communicate with the community on what they "wish" to add to the game. But I think blogs on what CURRENTLY being done would be great too. Also note to the devs, not every single video you upload has to be appealing or exciting. Did you make the frame rate faster? Post a 10 second video. Make the ears on the Rabbit model slightly more wiggly? Post a 5 second video. You don't need trailer quality updates each time just to get updates.

Call this another "shit post" or bicker at me to "stop QQ and get a refund", I'm just scared for us at this point, I've seen this happened one too many times before..

[EPR89]

I'm not really sure what you're concerned about exactly. Overgrowth is nothing like the other games you have listed. The devs have never abandoned the community. On the contrary. The Q&As are an attempt to give us an insight while they are working on updates that cannot be published bit by bit. I don't see even the slightest possibility for this project to go one of the ways you have listed.

I also don't really see why you are concerned about this community. Her on this website there is basically n one who has really lost hope or faith. On Steam it'S a bit different, but there's also a tendency for people not to do any research over there. Not sure why people like that would even invest in Early Access titles, but you can't really force people to be reasonable.

[Constance]

Well, unless you count the tens of hundreds of users who waited for a week for an update and then post "WTF? Why is this game dead? I want a refund."

[Van]

Don't worry, most of the people here are assholes and rude people , not the funny rude but the mean and unnecessary rude

[Dammasta]

Don't worry, most of the people here are assholes and rude people , not the funny rude but the mean and unnecessary rude

Not rude, just tired of seeing the same bullshit over and over again from people who don't know what they're talking about.

[Constance]

Most of the people here like RagdollZombie, EPR, Anton, Spudy, akazi, Markuss, etc are pretty cool really. It's just the newbies that expect a full game in their hands that complain and I do understand that, but really, in order to like Overgrowth and play it to the extent that the forum does you have to like the game for what it is now.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have around a thousand custom maps, characters, etc.
And dare I say I like the exclusivity, it's almost like being in a club for a game nobody else does. We can still have meaningful discussion about the game and really do things with it.
Something I'm making in Overgrowth right now is really big and it's still a big WIP, but when it's released I hope it instills a 'golden age' of sorts in this forum. Hopefully it'll start getting everyone to post more custom maps, and more with storylines and narratives attached. Of course I don't wanna say outright that it will get released, because nothing's set in stone other then the fact that I'll try to work on it as much as I can and want to.
Hell, who knows, my PC could just fry up and I'd lose all progress on it.
Heh heh, everyone knows that won't happen! R-right, yeah, I'm making backups every two days! Like the proper map maker I am…
*fear grows*

[Endoperez]

Some of you have been watching this game develop for 10 years, if you include Lugaru 2 as a baby version of OverGrowth. I love the commitment and loyalty you guys have for the Devs. Most of you that were in your 20's are now in your 30's.. just wow. It's been a long bumpy road for you guys and I only jumped on the wagon about 3 years ago.

The most drama I've seen was that "Gamer Gate" incident, and of course the occasional flux of post regarding "Lack of updates", not only in OverGrowth, but games like Stomping Lands aswell. This actually brings up the point of this post.

Hey, I've been herefor years too and the most drama I've seen is still that "Gamer Gate" incident... not much can top that IMO.

Any way, on to the meat of your post: Yes. I agree with your opinion on the importance of communication.

I started following the Wolfire blog because they did such a good job of marketing their game with no budget, through nothing but communicating their development with their fans. It was fantastic to see the number of commenters slowly grow, until they started getting the occassional Reddit front-page spikes (OpenGL vs DirectX, why you should publish games on Mac). Then they did this indie sale thing, called Humble Bundle, and it was really funny looking at how people I'd been watching build a community and a valuable PR audience managed to monetize that! It was fantastic to see how far a grass-roots PR campaign can get you.

Unfortunately, it stopped. I understand those reasons too - better to focus on the game, instead of PR, once you can afford to focus on the game more. Plus, part of the PR power is now behind Humble Bundle (AFAIK), so it's not like the PR know-how disappeared. The focus is just elsewhere.

Another failing in this case is the lack of a release date. "When it's done" can work, but I believe in this case it hasn't. I don't know why it's taken so long, and I'm not saying it will result in a worse game. The problem is, the waiting time is part of the "cost" for the consumer, too. The cost of this game keeps going up, the longer the wait.
A long incubating period such as this will also ensure that the technology is more outdated than it'd be with a shorther dev-time. Two years ago, Overgrowth would've compared better to new generic-engine releases than it does now.

[Endoperez]

Something I'm making in Overgrowth right now is really big and it's still a big WIP, but when it's released I hope it instills a 'golden age' of sorts in this forum. Hopefully it'll start getting everyone to post more custom maps, and more with storylines and narratives attached.

Hey, that's me from... 2 years ago? No, maybe 3?

If you want to inspire others to work hard, you might consider sharing your progress and your hard work, and not just the finished product. That way, even if something were to happen to your work (like, it not getting finished), you might've inspired a few more people to mod something cool.

[MetalMilitia623]

I agree, sharing can really only help. On the BeamNG forums you are encouraged to share any mods you are working on with the community but only if you have something actually to show, not just to say you are making this or that.

I don't make mods but have thought about learning how to.

[Constance]

That does make sense. I was thinking of releasing a demo but I also want to give people some peeks of what I'm gonna release, too.

[Autious]

All i feel i can add is that in the latest QnA's there has been talk about expanding the development team by hiring developers. This will likely increase the rate of production and releases.

It is amazing though how some of you have been strong fans, taking the time to contribute greats things like mods, models and maps. In fact, if you care about the game there is no better thing you can do to help the development. It helps with testing, ideas, and creates content to appeal to a greater audience meaning more purchases and more funds to spend on development.

[MetalMilitia623]

All i feel i can add is that in the latest QnA's there has been talk about expanding the development team by hiring developers. This will likely increase the rate of production and releases.

It is amazing though how some of you have been strong fans, taking the time to contribute greats things like mods, models and maps. In fact, if you care about the game there is no better thing you can do to help the development. It helps with testing, ideas, and creates content to appeal to a greater audience meaning more purchases and more funds to spend on development.

Speaking about them hiring the BeamNG guys actually hired two modders onto their dev team from their community. It was pretty cool to see and it really helped the game along in a time when they needed more people to work on things.

[underthedeep]

Don't worry, most of the people here are assholes and rude people , not the funny rude but the mean and unnecessary rude

For reference: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15595

[Dammasta]

Don't worry, most of the people here are assholes and rude people , not the funny rude but the mean and unnecessary rude

For reference: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15595

God, I wish I was around to see that. We don't have that much fun on these forums anymore . It's mostly just arguing with pre-order whiners and Phoenixwarrior now.

[rodeje25]

Don't worry, most of the people here are assholes and rude people , not the funny rude but the mean and unnecessary rude

For reference: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15595

God, I wish I was around to see that. We don't have that much fun on these forums anymore . It's mostly just arguing with pre-order whiners and Phoenixwarrior now.

i laugh my ass of watching phoenix and endo arguing their asses off