I don't want nor can speak for Dan here, but it seems to me he's not upset by people calling him lazy, but by people claiming he has no right to be lazy because they paid $20 for his game.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I happily call myself lazy! It's my way of enjoying my life to the fullest. I just become upset when people get upset over broken promises that I didn't make in the first place.

I certainly do feel like a victim when the result of my simple lack of communication results in ad hominem attacks and questions raised about how I use my personal time and money.. I'm just reminded of why I stay the hell clear of forums in general, and am always hesitant to interact with the public on the internet, in any context (fans included).

This time, however, I couldn't resist actively defending myself and the game, as a shitstorm from the disgruntled veteran CC fans might also spill over and reflect poorly upon the Humble Bundle project and its organizers.. which is something I care about beyond just my company's share of the revenue from this iteration of the HIB. I'd hate to have this (to some extent understandable) whinefest, which is really unrelated to the bundle, close the door to other work-in-progress projects in future HIBs.

Cool, I'll take you up on that SVN doohickey

yeah I've considered somehow piping the SVN code commit comments into a twitter feed.. that would be a nicely automated system to expose development progress. Anyone feel like helping me set that up?? 

Melly, that was in response to Matthew's focus (obsession?) purely on the time interval between releases, not my failure in communication, which I have repeatedly admitted, regretted, and apologized for, in this thread and others..

Speaking of my failure to communicate - I REALLY need to finish this devlog post!$@$% 

[slembcke]

slembcke: I agree that attitude is important. Unfortunately, my attitude has been eroded by years of nagging, pleading, sarcasm, and negative attitude directed towards me and our chosen pace of development. It's really hard to maintain a cheerful attitude in the middle of a weeklong shitstorm full of unwarranted personal attacks on my character, triggered by combo of veteran fan disappointment in the latest build (understandable due to my lack of communication), general immaturity, and what I suspect is widespread jealousy about the very successful bundle sale.
The wording on our sales page hasn't been changed in three years.. If it is unclear and you or anyone else feel they've bought the game under false pretenses, you are welcome to ask for a refund through the payment processor, and it will be promptly granted in full, no questions asked.

Matthew: I am defending my right to take 580 years to write one line of code, if I so choose.

Smithy: I hope you had at least half as much fun playing that session as I had just reading about it!! The type of almost slapstick crazyness that constantly happens in the game is what I enjoy most about it, myself. The 'one-man-army' mode goes a bit against the design philosophy of Cortex Command, however, as your guys are actually supposed to be completely expendable and throw-away puppets, not one to keep alive and nurture.. it's a fun way to mix things up though.

[Speeder]

Speeder, thank you for your honesty. If it makes you feel better at all, I am in a comparable amount of debt right now. By the looks of the bundle sales stats, it won't be for much longer, but I was also in the same situation when I first started selling Cortex Command exactly three years ago. That sales event fixed my financial situation back then too. However, if your game projects are really not generating much interest right now, I would suggest you consider a temporary strategy to right your finances before coming back and giving living off of gamedev another go.. If you have the technical chops to put a computer game together, there's lots of boring but lucrative contracting/freelancing opportunities you can get into.

Matthew: Arbitrary because the point where you go from finding the release interval to be 'acceptable' to 'unacceptable' is arbitrarily and subjectively set by you. As a game developer yourself, you happen to be exceptionally well-informed about what it takes to make a game, but I still feel it is unfair and unwarranted for you to project your own development time estimates and expectations onto me and how quickly I choose to make progress on my project. Your Blurst games were made in ~8 weeks each, but Cactus churns out a complete game in a weekend.. Does that make you Blurst guys unacceptably lazy bastards? The average game consumer has an even less of an idea - let alone justification - to project their progress expectations onto me or any developer.

I understand people's wishful thinking, and I'd also be delighted if I could make my games in one tenth of the time!! Alas, it won't happen, based on an endless list of variables, such as: how I design the scope of my projects, the tools I use, my work habits, how I choose to balance gamedev in my overall life, etc, etc.. and no amount of sarcastic comments, snide remarks, or outright fan forum rage is going to really change any of those variables.. but instead cause irritation and probably less motivation in me to work.

As for the "implicit contracts" of communities and all that jazz, I only have to say this: I am voluntarily making the game for MY fun and profit. The customers are voluntarily playing, modding, and evangelizing it for THEIR fun and "profit" (if not monetary, then psychic and social profit). They are not doing those things for my sake, c'mon! I don't owe them anything for doing that, just as they don't owe me anything for building the damn thing and enabling their community to exist in the first place.

I spent a lot of extra effort to design my game to be as moddable as I possibly could make it, and am super happy and excited that what I've made is being used and enjoyed by so many people. It gives me joy to see it bring joy to others. That doesn't mean they owe me. Their enjoyment and enthusiasm doesn't mean I owe them. It's a wonderful thing when people can come together and voluntarily partake in the fun of making, playing, modifying, and sharing experiences about a game. This is the sole reason and justification for the existence of the fan community. Vague, creepy concepts like "emotional investments" and "implicit contracts" have no rightful place in this picture at all.

As far as I'm concerned, such phrases are just shitty rhetorical tools to try to guilt me into working harder, communicating more, and otherwise do things I prefer not to do, just so the wishes (faster progress, more info) of the fans can be served. As I've already said, I am sympathetic to the fans' desire for more transparency into the dev process, and am willing to compromise and come up with better solutions that work for both me and them. All I ask in return is that there is a modicum of respect for how I choose to live my life, spend my time/money, and run my project.

Thanks!
- D

Matthew, the trap is that it's arbitrary.

I am aware that I have failed to communicate progress, and that it has caused dashed hopes and expectations among the veteran fans.. I already explained, apologized and showed sincere intention to remedy this, both here and directly to the community on the Data Realms forums. Can I get a break now please?

What if it was 58 days - would you've been happy? or 5800 days - 10x as upset? Who is anyone to tell us what our release schedule should be? Seriously, what is your right??

No, it is clearly marked as a better than an "as-is" transaction. Not only are you getting the as-is current version, you're also getting ANY and ALL future updates. WHEN isn't implied or promised in any goddamn way, only that we are in fact planning on continuing work on it. That's the entire transaction, and it ends there.

This bullshit about us automatically owing a debt to the customer's "emotional investment" is so ridiculous that I don't even know where to begin. How about my "emotional investment" in my own time, life, and project? How about we call these debts even and cancel them out, ok?? It's a very generous offer on my part.

I love you guise.   

Hey guys, I'm truly sorry you're not satisfied with the current state of the game. I was approached many months ago about having it included in the bundle, and I made it clear to them that it wouldn't be a "finished" product by the time of their launch. They were OK with that, because the game IS in active development (despite exaggerated rumors to the contrary) and they would clearly state that on the bundle page - which they have.

As with any work in progress, there's unfortunately rough edges and crash bugs in there. Even so, I am getting a lot of positive feedback from new customers exposed to Cortex Command through the bundle, so I am still proud of what the Data Realms team and I have put together so far!

- D

chrknudsen: Aye, a break would be nice. Said PR person (Andy Moore of SteamBirds fame) moved on because he became an active developer himself (which is awesome!).. it didn't make sense to try to find and hire someone else right away afterward.

I'm not opposed to giving it another shot though, should the right person come along. The Wolfire guys are super lucky to have someone as awesome (and bearded) as John Graham for their PR hero.. this thing isn't as easy as you make it out to be!

It's only dishonest if it's not true.

I have been working on this on and off for literally a decade now, with several year-long lulls in development as other things in my life have periodically diverted my attention (school, jobs, divorce, etc). This game isn't 100% of my life, and 'Indie Game Developer' isn't 100% of who I am. No amount of pleading and complaining is going to change that

All I know is that I am still passionate about finishing the vision Arne and I have for this project, and I'm truly enjoying working on it as I see fit. Unfortunately, I'm just not as passionate about keeping everyone else in the loop.. and that leads to a lack of expectation management, which easily leads to disappointment among the fans who are eager for more.

I understand and sympathize with all this, and I have tried to come up with solutions, including hiring a PR person to write blog posts etc..(tough job when there's not much to report during one of my development lulls). Maybe we'll try a twitter feed or something where there's a lower barrier of effort for me to write about what we're working on. (quick 140 character blast vs a full-blown blog post with image, formatting etc).. we'll see.

However, to say that I have done literally nothing to show progress is to exaggerate. There are several posts in the dev log showing the campaign metagame, and the latest build has a lot of changes under the hood in preparation to support the metagame mode. I am hoping to finish the devlog post detailing these changes if I can take a break from running around and wasting time putting out PR fires like these. Needless to say, I'm not making any progress on the actual game while writing forum and blog posts, which is exactly why I do so little of both!

- D

'cause they yelled at me FIRST!!!

Deal with it, folks. If you don't like it, I invite you to go make your own project and finish it as fast as you wish!

It amazes me how some people who buy a license for a game that is clearly stated as, and obviously is, a work-in-progress then feel entitled to dictate how the developers use their time thereafter.. I'm tempted to take another decade finishing this, just to make a point!

harumph!  

(That said, for those interested, I'm currently writing a dev log post about why the metagame didn't make it into the bundle build etc etc.)

Also: Bring swim trunks - indie nerd pool party at the data mansion might be in the cards.