Listen you little snot... you asked, and I gave you my best current estimate. Small games like Jetpack Joyride have 11 developers working on it, and Fargoal 2 (which is much MUCH more complex BTW) has just me, and another guy who works very occasionally. You've already payed and played what we've put out in 1.x, and if you can wait patiently for the FREE 2.0 update, then feel free to move right along. I've got enough shit to deal with from my own delinquent team as it is. DON'T ASK AGAIN.
Wow.... I have to agree with Womble on this, I understand updates can take awhile but it seems every time someone ask it's always "next month" I know you have a small team, but look at rocketcatgames, they have 3 people and 1 of them lives overseas, but they released updates (big ones) fairly often. Plus their releasing their next game sometime in the next week or so. Womble was just asking a question and I think you went way overboard with a answer. (let's keep this clean like mature adults here.)
Awesome service, well done! It's such a shame that a dev resorts to sarcasm at best and outright abuse at the very core when responding to honest, factual criticism. I'm sorry if you don't like my views, I don't care if truth be told. None of it changes the points I made though and whilst apps like 100 rogues and Legends of Yore get updated regularly and the dev's actually participate openly with the customers, you instead sledge someone who has paid for your product for daring to present you with some cold, hard facts. Such a pity.
I bought SoF what seems like aeons ago for my iPhone. I've had an iPad since the spring, though, and I'm looking forward to giving 2.0 a go when it is available. I may be wrong, but I get the sense that the feature list for the 2.0 update has grown considerably from late last year, hence the reason for the delays.
pwnd. And you quite deserve it for not understanding the most basic principles of developing a great game
Don't get involved in something you know nothing about the history. @Womble - you are on wobbly ground.
Glad to see this thread pop-up, as I had a question about the next update. Madgarden, Is there going to be an option for a virtual D-pad control scheme in the next update? I have one of these neat little gadgets arriving soon and I'd love to be able to use it in Fargoal. Thanks for any info.
Yes, little snot was a bit overboard. Some things should be said inside the head only. This is all pretty sad though, just this afternoon Madgarden said "I understand fans like wobblez just really want to play the game and I wish I could give them a more concrete answer"...AND then we open TA up to find this. Ugh. Makes Mrs. Madgarden want to call the whole project off. But, honestly...We (Madgarden and myself) have been very active in these threads answering questions whenever we're asked. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't mean the best answer at the time hadn't been given to you.
Well this thread has takin a turn, let's get back OT: What has been added so far to 2.0 (been a while since I was on this thread.)
I think Rocketcat Games is a bad example, really. Our newest game has taken over 7 months at this point. We were expecting to have released it about a month ago. Actually, we we expecting to submit the game last week, Wednesday, and that didn't work out too well, either. Game development is hard. Fixing a bug or tweaking a system exposes other problems that must be fixed. Fixing these new problems can expose more problems. It gets worse the nearer you get to the end. Time slips away. Hell, look at the PC/Xbox indie development scene. Fez has been in dev for 3 or 4 years now. Look at all the fairly simple games that have a year of development time or more. It's not that uncommon. I think the lessons here to take away are: Never say what your planned release date is, unless the game is actually already done and about to be submitted. Updates are strangely hard to make, possibly harder than just making a new game. Especially if your game is complex. Updates are also extremely questionable on iOS, and perhaps not worth doing from a business/sanity perspective unless your game is in the top 10 *and* extremely simple.
Yes, little snot was a bit overboard. Some things should be said inside the head only. This is all pretty sad though, just this afternoon Madgarden said "I understand fans like wobblez just really want to play the game and I wish I could give them a more concrete answer" But, honestly...We (Madgarden and myself) have been very active in these threads answering questions whenever we're asked. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't mean the best answer at the time hadn't been given to you. That's not the point though is it.....?? Look through my original post - its was good for early Jan, then the end of Feb, then Spring, then end of August looked good, now another 6 weeks. Come on, it's only a game but if you can't handle customers asking when it'll be ready then you're in the wrong business. You may well be active answering questions etc but apart from some screens there hasn't been any information of substance about progress and then he gets all abusive when someone dares to enquire. Like I said, awesome service! /sarcasm
bluewomble, as a developer who has been in similar situation... the point is this: Nobody wants the update to done more than Madgarden. Seriously. Not you, him. And he wants it to be done WAAAAY more than you ever will. Your post sounded like you were saying: "I want this game to be done more than you do, you're not working hard enough". Can't you understand why that would be frustrating? To put it another way: Your total investment in Fargoal 2: $0.99 Madgarden's total investment in Fargoal 2: A year of his life Does that clear it up?
It won't likely be in 2.0, but nothing's saying we can't add a d-pad later if we can get it working to our satisfaction with Fargoal's style of play. Heh, nah... I'm over it. Got work to do. Can't believe you guys are still talking about it. ElectricGrandpa: So true. MAN ALIVE I can't wait to finish this update... >_<
You act like access to the developers of a game you play is some kind of right. You should count yourself lucky that you have any insight into its development at all. Our job is to develop games, not to justify our every action and decision to the public. After you get through middle school and high school you should try a career in game development, maybe then you would be able to see it from our side.
I'm trying DARN hard to see your point. Honestly. Do you want us to release it unfinished? Do you really want an unfinished game? I don't understand what you want. You wanted us before to release it as a "new" game and charge for it, (a few pages back) Do you think that would make it release any time sooner? Because it won't. To the bolded. Tad bit of over exaggeration? We have no problem with people asking when it will be ready. What I don't understand is your flying off the handle when we do give an answer...What did you expect would come from that? That we'd say "fine! We'll release it tomorrow, unfinished. JUST FOR YOU!!!"*sparkly rainbows*. I just can't imagine sending a post, like the one you did, to any of my favorite developers, demanding anything from them. I just can't. So, in short, I don't understand what answer you are looking for. I don't know what else I or Madgarden can say. Nothing will make you happy. And that is something he and I will just have to learn to deal with, and we'll continue to enjoy the conversation and questions from our other supporters, newbies and ole pro's like. Anyway, thanks for the support everyone (else). I just wanted to remind anyone that might stumble in here because of this mini rant and rave, that Madgarden doesn't get in here to post updates as often as some might like, but he posts on twitter through the days to give little blurbs about what he's been working on in 2.0. @madgarden
