A Long Drive to Nowhere Special

Currently, I have over 40 games on my Steam Wishlist.  Most are labeled "TBA," "Coming Soon," and "To Be Announced," but one of those games is available for purchase and it's early access.  In additional to that game, I have half-a-dozen other early access titles sitting on my hard drive.  I've bought and played them a bit.  The list includes:

• Satisfactory
• Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnaughts
• ∆V: Rings of Saturn
• Songs of Conquest
• Stoneshard
• Vintage Story

I'm waiting for the full versions to launch because I figure they'll be more enjoyable in their "finished" state.  However, experience has taught me a harsh lesson: sometimes the difference between early access and the final product is disappointingly minimal.  To illustrate my point look no further than Hardspace: Shipbreaker.  It spent over two years in early access and the only real additions were two new classes of ship to dismantle (for a total of 4) and a filament of story delivered entirely through static images and audio clips.  In the case of other lackluster out-of-early-access launches like Kerbal Space Program and Darkest Dungeon, mod support can take up some of the slack, but not all that many games are mod-friendly.

As for games that have yet to be released in any form, I've noticed a troubling tendency for them to sit in development for ridiculously long amounts of time.  Sometimes they quietly disappear via delisting (such as in the case of Eitr and Routine), or eventually do come out in a state that doesn't reflect the amount of time they spent in development.  I get that in some cases the dev team are only working on the game in their spare time or had to abandon the project do to other commitments, but if that is the case why announce the game publicly?  It's clear that they don't have a clue as to when it will be done (if ever).  Just look at my aforementioned Steam Wishlist for a multitude of examples.  There's one title, in particular, I want to highlight and that is Ghost Song...nine years in development and all we got was a mediocre Metroid clone with dull layouts and clunky controls.  The most frustrating thing is there are flecks of greatness tucked into the design.  They're just mostly buried under a mound of blandness.

The last thing I want to touch on in this blog entry is release dates.  I swear the overwhelming majority of game developers couldn't adhere to them if their very lives depended on it.  Sure...they'll shove a buggy mess out the door on time, but actually delivering a fully functional running-as-intended game on the date they oftentimes set for themselves seems neigh impossible for them to do.  I can only theorize that programmers refuse to take planning seriously.  They must just start coding and hope that the fun will materialize out of some vague thoughts and half-considered ideas.  Its absurd and leads to crunch, burnout, hard to fix bugs, cut content and delays. Of course, developers love to give excuses like "making games is hard" or "no one sets out wanting to make a bad game."  All I can say in reply is if they really felt that way more of them would make greater efforts to execute on a thorough plan without overscoping.