Update #72 - Release window and Vita announcement

Yeah, you obviously have a point there. One of the things this project's shown, I think, is that there's a certain gap in how the devs expect the fans to react, versus how they actually react.

Some examples...

A) They were really afraid of announcing the first delay, with the developer switch, and fans were like "cool, take your time."

B) They decided to delay the demo for only a week, but they let us know the original release date and we were like "uhm, no, you need to tell us beforehand."

C) They decided not to mention that lots of their shaders & textures were not included in the demo. And we were like "WTF the game looks worse than before!"

D) They announce the delay to 2019 reaction is split down the middle. But I'm willing to bet they might have been a bit surprised that some of the negative reaction was because of the vagueness of the date - they might have been expecting more people to be upset, but at the delay itself, versus the vagueness of the date.

And lets not forget that people weren't thrilled at the fact that there was no release date announced during E3 - I'll bet not everyone saw that coming, either.

I once chided Angel-Corlux for teasing a "deluge" of information that never materialized - well, I was trying to offer constructive feedback, because you shouldn't get people's hopes up and then not deliver... and I think that with the release date, that's their primary fear: getting it wrong. So they say "OK, we know it'll be delayed, but we know it'll be ready in 2019, so lets just say 2019. The important thing is to let them know there is going to be a delay as soon as we're sure of the delay (not making the same mistake of staying quiet until the last minute, like with the demo)."

... Well, turns out fans would like a more specific release window, or a more concrete reason as to why they can't provide a specific window.

They might think, at this point, that giving more specifics will satisfy a few people but not convince others ... which I think is a real possibility.

Who knows.

Whatever the case, both 505 and Artplay are new at this Kickstarter thing. Well, everyone is, really. Everyone's more used to the "silent publisher" model of PR management. And sometimes, when the community staff has broken the mold, the results have not always been good (see: deluge of information). So to me it's not surprising they tend to be conservative (from our point of view) when talking about the project.

Personally? I think fans would be far more receptive to even more communication with devs. They might react better to a more detailed explanation of the problems the devs are dealing with, what features require more time, etc... but devs have never shared this information before, and there's always a gamble when you air your "dirty laundry"... and at the end of the day, I'm not the one responsible for the project, so I can speculate freely on this without repercussions.

What I would urge the devs, Angel-Corlux , Question , Mana , is to look at all of our different reactions - which I've no doubt they're doing - and consider whether or not there's anything that can be shared on the status of the project without running the risk of giving the wrong impression or causing the team to backtrack on their promises... which is way easier said than done, but just discussing where some of the changes are happening and why, what some of the better suggestions were... just try to keep people assured that the game's on track ... I think people would be OK with a certain degree of vagueness, so long as there's lots of conversation happening.

Anyway, two more cents.

Well put as always dareka .

Sure, something I consider important is not something that another backer would care at all. That's the hard part of communication I think, everyone wants to know what they want to know which means basically, well, everything.
We all know that's not possible, so... I really appreciate what our community management team has done so far, but there are more challenges ahead (or right now).

However, to add my own thoughts on this, I hope you refund guys consider changing your mind before 9/20. You may not have a shot at a backer edition again for something you once really cared to fund. Don't let anger or a stint of disappointment rob you of something you would otherwise enjoy. Just my .02 on that.

Hmmmm. Mr. Welldone, if address information can still be altered, maybe you could "buy" someone's no-longer-wanted can't-be-Vita backer edition and set it to the form you want instead?

Not sure if anyone really thinks going all secondary market is a good idea, though.

Not at all. It's a gray area, after all.

Precisely (among other issues).

Well, now I can't play the game. Se ya!

I wish people would stop bringing up that stale Miyamoto quote whenever a delay is announced. I know it's in good faith (and I think a delay was due in this case so I have zero problems about it) but that quote is ludicrous and seeing it repeated over and over and over again like it's gospel just because it's by Miyamoto is killing me

There are situations and situations. There are rushed games that are obviously incomplete at launch and leave a sour taste in the customer's mouth (FF XV, Street Fighter V, the list is long) and there are extensively delayed games that turned out to be masterpieces in the end (the last update from Enter the Gungeon comes to mind, and I also hope Bloodstained will be part of the group).

BUT there are immensely delayed games which, despite this fact, were ranging from horrible to disappointing nonetheless (Duke Nukem Forever anyone? The Last Guardian was plagued by a myriad technical issues despite being in development for ages, Death's Gambit has been a massive disappointment for me, and I'm not even bringing up everyone's favorite spiritual successor because honestly it's tiresome to hear about it), as there are terribly rushed game that are still masterpieces anyway (Soul Reaver was delayed multiple times but then hastily released cutting a good chunk of content, and it's still a classic; as is Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines).

So yeah that quote may be true in SOME cases but please just don't bring it up everytime something like this occurs like it's the ultimate truth.

I mean no offense especially towards Pure Miriam who's the poster in this case but I just had to voice this thought.

Johnny Millennium used it as well in discussing Bloodstained.