State of the Game update?

I know it is too early for a release date announcement. I know it is too early for reveals on systems, mechanics, etc. I know it is too early for a lot of things.

Can we at least get some sort of a State-of-the-Game update? Some kind of status update that starts to open communication with the fans and community? Maybe a bare-bones road map, but more of "these are the (very general things) we're working on?" A good update might be the progress on getting a PR/Community Manager individual hired and up-and-running.

There's the pre-alpha closed test sticky up at the top, so clearly we've got movement going on. A 30-minute-total-effort weekly from the devs hopefully wouldn't be too much of a stretch. It might not include very much either, but we'd at least get some communication lines open.

Devs, what say you? @Jellyfoosh @sharkxpunch

Hello.

Thank you for the message. We understand the principle here, that we have been quiet throughout development, with minimal updates.

The real thing about game development that sometimes people talk about enough of, is the idea of over promising and under delivering, which sometimes happens quite often. It would not be right of us to show "very general" or very rough things, as things change at an incredible pace.

It also depends on the value of the 30mins update. Sometimes a week goes by with little change, and then 3 weeks a BAM a ton of things update that need testing, fixing etc.

Please, allow us to build a communication roadmap that is efficient and we'll start talking when we have some super solid things to share.

Thank you.

@sharkxpunch said in State of the Game update?:

Hello.
Thank you for the message. We understand the principle here, that we have been quiet throughout development, with minimal updates.
The real thing about game development that sometimes people talk about enough of, is the idea of over promising and under delivering, which sometimes happens quite often. It would not be right of us to show "very general" or very rough things, as things change at an incredible pace.
It also depends on the value of the 30mins update. Sometimes a week goes by with little change, and then 3 weeks a BAM a ton of things update that need testing, fixing etc.
Please, allow us to build a communication roadmap that is efficient and we'll start talking when we have some super solid things to share.
Thank you.

It's ok but we are not insisting on some screenshots or smth like this,
Just tell us a bit about the process - are u doing well, can hope to get into CBT or OBT in the first part of the year.
Mb u need some community oppiniouns? C:

@sharkxpunch Completely understand that too. I am/was thinking of the community updates that Squad did with Kerbal Space Program. They would have a weekly blurb compiled by one of the community managers of "X devs worked on Y this week," with X being the QA guys, or the artists team, or the engine guys, or whatever. Of course, in that particular case, they had an early-access game where nothing was secret or prevented disclosure from NDAs. It is likely that this doesn't really apply here.

Here are some examples from some of their weekly updates:

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/176095903514/ksp-weekly-the-eagle-has-landed

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/175853875575/ksp-weekly-the-ghost-particle

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/175616761537/ksp-weekly-the-asteroid-miners

You can see there is some general-purpose "news and commentary" that the community may be interested in to start out with. The update is mostly just a bit of community interaction and part of just sharing something cool/neat/interesting with like-minded folks. Then the blurb of the overall development news is very, very general and brief, but gives a sense of progression and a feeling of camaraderie that they are sharing info, even when that info consists of nothing much more than "they worked on bug fixes this week, and added a wiki page."

For sure, and the future candidate will be responsible for building a community engagement roadmap, with what I personally would hope for, something like you've described above.

Thanks!

@sharkxpunch

Is there any possibility of mentioning how many months it may be until we are able to hear some more about the game?
Mount and blade bannerlord is another good example to me of how a dev blog might be handled.

Come on guys, just let them work. They'll show us something/reveal more details when they're ready. I know there are a lot of people excited by Necromunda Underhive Wars, but since this is the 1st (and possibly only) Necromunda video game adaption out there, I for one am prepared to wait until it's ready. Personally, even if the title had to be delayed until 2020 or beyond to make it the best possible title it can be, it'd be worth it.

@dantihero Can't disagree with that either. I'd like it to be the best, most amazing game it can possibly be. Since they did set expectations with a published delivery date of 2018, it would be nice if they could adjust expectations. It sounds like that is in the works, and if they don't have the personnel to manage those expectations yet, they don't have the personnel.

The fans of Necromunda at this stage are going to be a bit more intense than the average game development. Necromunda was a niche game, but always had a hardcore and devoted following. People continued playing it (and kept it alive) for decades after GW dumped it. To those people, this video game has a lot of promise and emotion and even decades of "what-ifs" already put into it.

Right now, no news for this long has been generally taken as bad news. As news starts to come out, the hype is going to ramp. I can't wait to play the game myself.