Hey folks,
About a month ago, we posted a lengthy Founder’s Update on the anniversary of the day our Kickstarter campaign began. The focus of that post, in summary, was “Look where we started.”
Today, this week, we wanted to follow up with a natural follow-up to that post, “Look how far we’ve come!”
With a big project like Crowfall®, it’s tempting (far too tempting!) to spend all of your time fixating on the list of things-that-still-need-to-be-done. Having worked on many MMOs in the past, we can say with some authority that this is always the case… even up to, and after, launch. MMOs are a black hole of time and energy; because the game lasts forever, there is no moment when you click that “final checkbox” on the list of things you want to add. Instead, there is only an endless series of updates that make the game better. For us, we started these updates within months of our campaign ending, we’ll do them up to the point of launch, and we’ll keep doing them (hopefully) for many years to come!
Occasionally, though, it’s worthwhile to pause a moment and look back at the progress we’ve made. Our friends over at Crowfall-Community in Germany put together a timeline that outlines the major updates, from the original “teaser site” until today.
Obviously, this chart shows how much we have accomplished, and that’s great to see! … but it also shows something MUCH more important: it shows a cadence, an unrelenting series of updates that make the game a little better every month. Much like the Japanese management theory of kaizen, or “continual progress,” this chart shows the power of a team maintaining laser-sharp focus on a singular vision and what happens when you march – without fail, every day – to make that vision real.
Has everything gone exactly according to plan? Of course not. Our experimental physics controller proved to be much more challenging than we hoped. We spent more time (a lot more!) than we wanted to polish combat. And we still have more challenges, like performance and balance and improving our visuals.
BUT if that cadence proves anything, it’s that these challenges will also be tackled in due time. This game will emerge, and when it does, it’s going to be awesome. Thank you for joining us on this wonderful adventure.
We can’t wait to see you in game!
Todd, Gordon and the ArtCraft team