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[Jopax]

Well that seems to be the most fun part, just exploring those giant ass caves and finding new stuff that you don't often need that much.

[Sean Mirrsen]

They've built a house, showed us the cave system a bit, explained the kind of "overarching" enemy that is the Corruption, prospected for raw materials, and showed us a deeper cave layer. There's always some new info coming up, and it's rather fun watching these people goof around in there. Also, I suspect that they're mostly stocking up on the rarer and heavier materials for now, because they're still pretty much unarmored, and with the most basic gear. I suspect kitting your character out with decent equipment requires a significant material investment. For example, you could have noticed that for all the copper they have collected over the course of six LP segments, Redigit only had enough copper to create either some greaves or some mail, not both.

[Dakk]

Is it me or Red's voice is sorta similar to Toady's? Only without the awesome stuttering and scampering, of course. And younger.

[breadbocks]

Yeah. I'm trying to place where I've heard Red's voice before. Some LPer, I just wish I knew who.

[Eagleon]

This "early release" business model is really starting to fascinate me. Say you take a game and you develop it to a stage you can call 'final' - that is, a full and complete game with goals and fun, and without too many game-breaking bugs. Then you continue developing it. I'm willing to bet people aren't going to be nearly as forgiving of lack of content as if you were to release it as an 'alpha'.

It bothers me and intrigues me at the same time - on one hand it pushes the illusion of 'old games are worth less than new ones' to the side, letting you actually raise the price as you add more content rather than lower it to ridiculous levels just to catch the outliers that refused to buy it at full price. On the other it's less pressure to actually polish out bugs and gaps in gameplay, because people will expect new features before that. DF is one example - we all learn to live with the bugs and just enjoy the game. Usually the big crashy ones get fixed, and the ones that can't handle the wait wander off to other games until their pet peeve is patched.

I wonder how soon a major developer will start doing the same. I don't really see any barrier to it, as long as the game is interesting enough to attract an early crowd.

[Hugehead]

I really like the LPs, they're organic and show what the game is like.

[nenjin]

I'm not actually enjoying their Let's Play much.

Well,

a) They're narrating.

b) They're demonstrating.

and c) they suck?!

The LPs aren't amazingly informative, but it's doing one thing perfectly. It's getting people to imagine how they would do it better, more meticulous. That alone is getting people excited. The whole "You fools, I would have built platforms and a workshop inside the cave!" is what's making me want this naow.

I wonder how soon a major developer will start doing the same. I don't really see any barrier to it, as long as the game is interesting enough to attract an early crowd.

As soon as their coders and artists are willing to work for peanuts up until release day. That's the thing about indie development. Doing it for love carries you through the times you don't make money. That's not a reality in major development. A staff of 40 developers doesn't work for three months on a game, while they have a day job, "for love."

So I don't see this model taking hold in major dev studios, anymore than I see other devs taking the Toady One approach. It's just not realistic for people who want full careers in game development, and want a regular paycheck.

On the other hand, when it's a one man show, sometimes  you hit the magic, like Toady and Notch. But they're the exception, not even close to the rule.

[breadbocks]

Yeah. These guys are masters of the striptease.

[Levi]

Hmm, their FAQ seems to have changed

Q:  When will Terraria be available to purchase?
A:  You can expect to get your hands on Terraria in less than a few months.

This makes me very happy. 

[Eagleon]

As soon as their coders and artists are willing to work for peanuts up until release day. That's the thing about indie development. Doing it for love carries you through the times you don't make money. That's not a reality in major development. A staff of 40 developers doesn't work for three months on a game, while they have a day job, "for love."

So I don't see this model taking hold in major dev studios, anymore than I see other devs taking the Toady One approach. It's just not realistic for people who want full careers in game development, and want a regular paycheck.

The thing is, games are already developed with heavy investment. Coders and artists work for a living wage for years without any profit whatsoever because the studio expects their game to obtain some kind of success. What I wonder is if a major studio couldn't have the best of both worlds - a steady stream of income as the game is developed, with increased fan devotion to an IP and much more interest in expansions when the final goal is reached. It definitely wouldn't work for most games (stuff like Mass Effect would still rely on that final polish to wow players into wanting more), but with something like Spore it probably would have saved the final game from being a steaming dumbed-down pile of shit.

[Fniff]

I used to hate what seemed like Minecraft rip-offs.

Then I remembered the first FPSs were called Doom rip-offs.

Now I am happy with this.

[nenjin]

Coders and artists work for a living wage for years without any profit whatsoever because the studio expects their game to obtain some kind of success.

No, not in the industry they don't. They get pay checks. The more successful the company, the more skill, the better the pay. But they're working for their hourly just like everyone else, and they get paid before the game comes out, not after. The LEAD developer, owner, that's a different story. Their monies are based on success, by way of their contractual agreement with the publisher.

That's why professional developers, once they're established, return to an indie form of development, because they don't need to make an hourly just to pay the bills. They can strike out for that chance at pure gold, or go broke paying their people on a game that may not sell.

What I wonder is if a major studio couldn't have the best of both worlds - a steady stream of income as the game is developed, with increased fan devotion to an IP and much more interest in expansions when the final goal is reached.

Maybe. But bigger companies and publishers aren't satisfied with a few hundred thousand sales at $10, and paying year by year to maybe sell 5% more units than they did last year. The whole industry is currently built on the "big sell". Smashing records. $60 a unit. Make your money and run. Until the people that foot the bills for these things are willing to accept a lower/different revenue stream, things are going to stay the same and they're not going to invest in a 5 year project. MMOs only get made because they can bill straight to people's credit cards and project their revenue. You can't make profit forecasts on the indie model, you really can't. No one could have predicted Minecraft would do so well, not even Notch.

And let's not forget. Fan expectations are directly proportional to how much they pay for a product. Your chances of surviving selling a $60 game in beta and slowly trying to reel in more people as it develops are pretty slim, in my mind. When you're throwing around AAA budgets, first impressions are the only ones you get.

[Duke 2.0]

I used to hate what seemed like Minecraft rip-offs.

Then I remembered the first FPSs were called Doom rip-offs.

Now I am happy with this.

Minecraft ripoffs are still terrible in most every way, missing several points that made the original good and focusing too much on pointless bullshit.

If you have your own gameplay elements in your own distinct style in a fully destructible blocky world then it isn't a Minecraft ripoff.

[Aqizzar]

If you have your own gameplay elements in your own distinct style in a fully destructible blocky world then it isn't a Minecraft ripoff.

I think it's just that we don't have a handy term to describe games where a/the central element of gameplay is breaking apart a voxel-based world to freely build it back up again, let alone when you add "crafting" to the mix.  Doom-clones were Doom-clones until there was too many of them with too many variations to keep calling them that.

So what do we call Minecraft-"clones"?  Voxelminers?

[nenjin]

Voxel-like.