Unfinished Games

Opinion
Releasing unfinished games: The perfect storm of hubris and ambitious deadlines
By Josiah Sapp

    My very first gaming console that I remember playing was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Playing games like Donkey Kong Country and Mega Man X to my heart’s content. As a young lad, it would be incredibly disappointing to get half way through the game to only find out that I could never finish it unless I paid for another cartridge. Unfortunately, games today do have that problem and it’s infecting the industry as a whole. With the invention of beta demos and live updates, unfinished games are going up for sale and people still buy them. Why do gamers buy into a practice that is blatantly hurting the gaming community and why do game developers/producers feel like they can get away with it? It’s a combination of excessive pride and ambitious deadlines.
    In today’s fast paced world of gaming, not being able to put out a game by the deadline is almost certain death for a developer or game. Putting out a game that doesn’t live up to the hype is equally as devastating. Developers are caught in this balancing act where they have to weigh these two questions; “Do we release an unfinished game or do we push back development?” The trend in games within the last 5 years has been to release an unfinished product. In 2016, a small indie developer called Hello Games promised a brand new game called No Man’s Sky. A procedurally generated never ending concept that has never been seen before was promised. What was delivered was a boring and never ending unfinished product. Produced and hyped by Sony, the small developer seemed to feel pressure to release what they had before it was done. A year later with some tweaks and added content, the game plays how it was promised but the reputation it gained at release is stopping new players from picking it up.
    Another game with a bumpy development and release is Fortnite. Developed by People Can Fly and published by Epic Games, Fortnite is mash up of all kinds of games. It’s a wave based (Gears of War), fort designing (Plants vs. Zombies) RPG with an emphasis on cooperative play and exploration (Minecraft). It’s got a lot going for it and it embodies the saying “A jack of all trades is a master of none”. Reviews are in and it seems like a middle of the road kind of game except for one thing. It isn’t done... And yet physical copies are being sold on store shelves as of July 21st. What’s even stranger is that it’s confirmed to be free to play by 2018. People can buy this game now when it’s not finished or wait until next year and get a finished product for free. Fortnite is only following the tried and true pattern of early access.
    To a developer, early access is a tempting proposition. They often can get information from their player base on how to develop the game while it’s being made. Not only that, they can get free publicity from YouTubers who stumble upon their title. Games are getting “released” earlier and earlier with the hopes of getting that precious player feedback. Take one look at Valve’s streaming service Steam and look at the list of early access games. People are obviously buying into this because the list grows each day and yet there is still the possibility that these games will never get finished. Funding could dry out, the fanbase could walk away, developers could even quit before the game is done or they didn’t intend to finish it at all. Early access isn’t necessarily a risk but it is sloppy development standards. Planning to sell an alpha or beta build of a game seems lazy at best and greedy at worst.
    Alpha and beta builds were first seen as a demo of an unfinished game. A little tease to wet the palates of the fans and give them a glimpse of what’s to come. When you got your shot at a beta, you felt like you were a part of the development of the game. You got to be part of a smaller community who had a say in how the game would be made.  Early access games are now sold at full price with the promise of updates and maybe being finished but studies have shown that only 25% of early access games get completed. The slippery slope of early access is a steep one and it appears that no one is getting out any time soon.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Difficulty

Image
 Opinion Difficult video games: The resurgence of punishing gameplay  By Josiah Sapp     Games are fun right? They’re made to be enjoyed by an individual, a collective group or an entire community. People play games for all kinds of reasons. High score chase, a means to relax, or even to escape into a whole other world. Recently, however, a specific style of gaming has emerged over the past few years and it’s not the kind that first catch your attention. Difficult games have been on the rise and there are no signs of slowing down this community. These aren’t just difficult titles. They’re punishing. Brutal. So frustratingly hard that it will have you question why you’re playing it even after you’ve tried the same task for hours. Why do gamers put themselves through this torture? The history of challenging games is in our DNA and in the genealogy of game design.  Dragon's Lair Death Screen     Pick out an...
Read more

Player Retention

Image
Opinion Mods not microtransactions: How to keep players engaged. By Josiah Sapp     Players invest a lot of their time and money in games that they believe in. We want the best experience for the investment. Developers and publishers make a living because we spend money on their product and spend time in their creation. It’s a highly competitive market and the tactics are cut throat. If a studio isn’t on top of the gaming trends, they get shut down or reallocated elsewhere. That’s why we get stories like Visceral studios being disbanded and their projects getting canceled. What they were working on, in theory, wasn’t being developed in line with future trends of the marketplace. Studios want their customers to return to their game while spending money on extra content. The avenue in which developers have achieved this retention and spending is through paid DLC and microtransactions to varying degrees of success. It seems, however, that all games are doome...
Read more

Why We Game: Part 1

Image
Opinion Why we play games; Experiencing the impossible. By Josiah Sapp     I find it interesting to step back and to not only observe the world around me but to also ask why the world is the way it is. What compels people to do what they do? What are all the ways we communicate with each other? Why are cultural norms different across countries? It’s fun and enlightening to ask big questions but the answers aren’t always what they first appear to be. This post starts a three week journey into one of those big questions. Why do we play games? The answer to that question is varied and broad. It depends on all manner of factors including age, race, culture, lifestyle, and gender to name a few. In recent years, researchers have found that there’s a lot that goes on in our brains when we play video games.     In a brief description, gaming is a form of entertainment. A type of media that people pay for and consume much like movies, mu...
Read more