When's "Tears of the Burning Sky" Coming?

[Morrus]

I'm just asking you to keep us informed, nothing else.

OK, I do understand. So I'll say - three months! If we get it in next week that'll be a bonus! But I now feel scared to mention any time period at all! I suddebnly understand why computer games companies refuse to give release dates!

I'm in exactly the same situation as you. Honestly, I sit here waiting to hear just like you do. I do know it takes us about 6 weeks do complete an adventure - barring unforeseen events - but that we've not yet experienced an adventure without unforeseen events.

What we need is redundancy - a situation where the absence of a staff member doesn't hold up the entire queue - but I don't have any employees, and thus zero redundancy. If one person is delayed, everyone is delayed.

I know it sucks. But that is how it is. There's never been any intention to mislead, merely to cope with situations as they crop up.

One day, I hope we'll have enough people that these things won't affect the overall workflow.

 

[EugeneZ]

Sorry to keep this going but my intentions are once again unclear. I wasn't asking to be kept informed of release dates. For a variety of reasons, they are clearly not working. So three months, one week, a month a half -- they all essentially translate to "we don't know" in EnWorld speak. That sucks but its okay, you have good reasons.

What I'm asking to be informed about is the STATE of each adventure. I mean, this thread has made it sufficiently clear that you're doing all you can to get #6 asap, so that's that. I just wish this thread wasn't neccessary. When #7's month-and-a-half date comes up, would you mind dropping by the forums and laying it on us what the deal is with the adventure? Is it going to be on time? Are you just waiting for a couple things and gonna release it in the short term? Are you a long way away from releasing? If so, give us another update in a month.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I too am patiently awaiting the next adventures.. but in my case I am running a self-converted version of Adventure 7.... and really wish I had something from y'all to help me out!

I feel the pain of converting these adventures, as I am basically only converting some of the combat encounters and making up half of it as I go. This month I am trying to set up the battle with Rhuarc and design the 'enemy' group for the Temple....

I can lend a hand with the NPCs I created and saved, as well as possibly post my thoughts on the set peice encounters (as I did with the Black Widow), but don't want to put too much out there..

Anyway, off to find the Jousting supplement!

 

[Blackbrrd]

Having release schedules that reflects reality is quite hard business. I am in the software business and everybody knows it's know for ridiculous slips. Think: Duke Nukem 3D.

Anyway, something that could be done is for you to have a thread about a new release which you update about every 2 weeks. The first thing you have to do is _guessing_ at how much work (in time) it is going to take. Two weeks later you update the original post saying how much work was done and how much work it takes to complete the job. Giving reasons for nothing happening (sickness, personal issues, etc), can be given if no work was done. Or, if you find the project larger you can add to the total amount of weeks it takes to finish a project.

You would have a series of updated posts looking a bit like this:
1. March: 0/8 weeks of work to finish module done
15. March: 1/10 weeks of work to finish module done
1. April: 2/10 weeks of work to finish module done
15. April: 2/10 weeks of work to finish module done (no work done due to sickness)
1. Mai: 6/11 weeks of work to finish module done

Now it's up to the people relying on you finishing the module to assess when it's getting finished. Most people are quite reasonable if they get updated information and don't need a specific date.

A small not - I am talking about work-weeks, not actual dates, something that needs to be explained at the start of such a post. Coordinating between 3-4 people can give you a lot of waiting-time so a 8 week job can take 5 months. On the other hand, if it's done in parallel with 4 people it can take as little as 2 weeks.

 

[EugeneZ]

I work in the software business as well. And I'm coming from precisely the opposite side of the table from you, Blackbrrd. I think accurate release dates are a critical but difficult part of releases. Duke Nukem is but one example of horribly slipped release dates, there are hundreds of others. That doesn't excuse a company that doesn't communicate with their customers. Especially after commiting to a timeline.

There's a company called AGD Interactive (they also go by Himalaya Studios) that released remakes of old Sierra adventure games that never got converted to VGA. There were quite a few companies that did this sort of thing (still are) but these guys were featured on Slashdot and other news aggregators because of the professional quality of their releases. They were a three-person team.

They released their King Quest 1 remake with no release date because that was the first anyone heard that they exist: when they completed their project. They then also released KQ2 without any release dates. Then they promised to remake Quest for Glory 2, and announced a rough date. They missed it. They announced another rough date, and missed it again. Of course, every time they missed a date, their messageboard was flooded with posts like mine. Unhelpful posts from people who were expecting something they were promised. After that, they said "it's done when it's done" and gave no more dates. After that, no one complained; there was no longer an expectation. When they finally released QFG2 years later (it was a complex project), it was greeted with much fanfare.

I'll let that story stand for itself except to add that their remakes were free, so complaining about the slipped dates was far more selfish than when complaining about a paid product. In fact, AGD said that was one of the reasons they didn't charge (aside from the legal implications): they didn't want the additional pressure. And they STILL felt honesty and communication with their "customers" was important. Second difference: Wanting the remake to a game you already own is very different from wanting the next adventure in a series. There is no time dependancy with the game. You can play it any time. But with adventures, if you see EnWorld say they'll release them a month apart, you think "I don't mind paying for this now and starting the adventure right away."

 

[Jdvn1]

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