On release dates, features and other things

Dear Friends,

As some of you have already noticed we have decided to publish the game later than the hoped-for July release, and will now release the game in the Fall. After some serious thought we decided this was the best course of action due to a number of factors, all to do with providing an extra high quality experience.

Modding/Scripting
While working on the new game content and seeing the work done by the greatly appreciated modders on the forum we realized that we wanted to facilitate modding and scripting to a much higher degree than we do now. To do so we decided to integrate Lua script in the game at a fundamental level. This has massive positive consequences and potential. For us it makes it possible to create much more varied gameplay and really boost the variation in the gameplay goals of the levels, among other things. For the fans of the game it means that they will be able to heavily mod the game in ways that are really quite fundamental and should guarantee additional content being created for the game for a long time after the initial release. It therefore really adds to the game as a whole.

Playmodes
To make sure people have a real blast playing the game we wanted to include an extra playmode. This is now progressing apace, but this choice also added some more time to the schedule. The extra ways to enjoy the game and the added longevity are really important to us and hopefully will make sure that more people with different play styles will enjoy the game.

Playtesting
The added functionality, depth, and content has also meant that the play testing time has increased manifold. In fact, we will invite play testers to help us with this the moment we have progressed to a slightly more finalized build of the game. Watch this spot :)

Capacity
Not meant as a cry for sympathy but it is also good to remember that we are just two game developers and audio guy, so we have only so much capacity to do all the work that needs doing. We are trying very very hard though to make this game as good as it can be. Hopefully it is understood that the expanded scope, and subsequent delay, comes out of a desire to give you something that is really worthwhile.

News Updates
Finally, I think we will start to release some more details about the game (starting with this news post as you can see) so things are going to be a bit less tightlipped from now on. We want to be careful not to promise things we can’t deliver, so as things get implemented we have a bit more scope for news on the game itself.

Wow, long post, but I think this covers it for now. Thanks for your patience!

Rudolf

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Dev Diary, Dyson. You can feed this entry. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses

  1. Definitely worth the wait. :)

    Tim - July 17th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

  2. You. Are. Great!

    nuitei - July 17th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

  3. I’m sure the wait will be worthwhile. Are we likely to see any additional open-beta updates for the new content, or are you going to be testing purely in-house?

    Ross - July 18th, 2009 at 10:49 am

  4. sigh.. as if you’d want to spend more time making the game better!
    Anyways I’m really stoked and looking forward to this

    alastair - July 18th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

  5. Sweet, a new update. I agree with the view on the custom maps, there didn’t seem to be enough control. Not to worried about the delay, it’ll be worthwhile.

    Also, an open beta would be nice ; )

    B3nno - July 18th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

  6. I was rather deceived to see this future gem get pushed back by almost 3 months, bet hey… do your thing, take your time and do it with passion.

    We’re waiting… :)

    Vagrant - July 18th, 2009 at 8:13 pm

  7. Awww, I’ve been looking forward to the latest build for months. : (

    Keep up the hard work, I’m not seriously disappointed, ’cause the wait’ll make the final product just that much sweeter.

    Evan - July 19th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

  8. Really looking forward to it. Great game and great people making it. Just bidin’ my time with these custom levels right now.

    jimbo jones - July 21st, 2009 at 5:57 am

  9. Thanks for all the support guys/gals. It means a lot to us.

    Rudolf - July 21st, 2009 at 11:43 am

  10. [...] serene, minimalist strategy game that emerged from the TIGSource Procedural Generation Competition, has been delayed from its original date of late July to sometime in October. While it may be sad that the game is [...]

    artgrafi.com » Blog Archive » Dyson delayed until October, adds new features - July 22nd, 2009 at 10:32 pm

  11. this is really addictive and beautiful. it’s like an artistic meditation. sometimes I just watch the screen and let the things go. the music reminds me the cliff martinez theme of the soderbergh’s solaris. I really love your work. I hope you’ll keep the abstract and pure design of the 1.2
    I heard somewhere you won’t code a multiplayer mode ? with a simple chat tool with your oponent it would be so quiet, so relaxing to speak.. I would delete my trillian and other aim for such an application. sorry for the odd english. will auto-replicate your game around me, 2 lings for the moment [from starcraft zerglings? ] :-)

    (also nice the town generator algo you did.. I’m also working about a city engine for blender since 10 months, gpl)

    jerome - August 18th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

  12. oh btw the update feature crashed the game (on xp, zonealarm firewall, firefox and another opengl app [blender] was running)

    jerome - August 18th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

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