I agree an update is long overdue and a few words and a few screenshots can hardly take more than 10 minutes to do. If you can work on a game like this in your spare time, you surely shave 10 minutes to do this.

And being vocal about this isnt being ungrateful, it s fairly normal to feed the interest of your community. Otherwise it vanishes. How many potential customer could they build up during development if they were doing basic communication ? Beyond this forum, it s material you can get people to spread across the internet. In the end it s more money for devs rewarding their work.

It s a win win no one can argue otherwise

Totally agree! In my line of work (and I'm not saying that xstoryplayer is "work" to X Moon Productions... cough), a client comes to us with a request. Sometimes that request is as simple as designing a business card using their own existing branding (though you still have to use your knowledge of the 6 fundamental basics of design, as well as know how to bend those basic rules to make the cards look good, but after 15 years of experience and utilizing illustration and typography skills, this is second nature).

Sometimes, large corporate organizations approach us for a re-brand. With large re-brand projectss, you have to take into account how much physical material they have out in the real world, that uses their existing branding - billboards, posters, magazines, bus stop ads, the list is endless. It sometimes takes months of planning to work out just how much the re-brand might cost to get it started, before anyone's even talked a bout creative ideas or actually done any sketching/vizualisation. Sometimes, projects like this can take years. Literally. We're still working with a firm (albeit on smaller, more regular projects) who approached us in 2003!!!

Sometimes, a new-start company comes to us and they don't even have a brand. We need to build their marketing materials, the language behind their brand copy, their photography/pack shots/product shots, their logo, brand patter (Copy), their website, their social media presence and help to package their products. They might want uniforms, they might want interior design support for their offices. They might call on us to help find the right team to BUILD their offices.

Every single one of the projects our small, 3 man team takes on is HUGE. Huge. But, it's not just us who works on them. We collaborate with third parties all the time, in order to help keep the plates spinning and to end up with a finished product that the client is 100% happy with.

SOMETIMES, we do spec work - meaning we work for FREE until we've convinced the client that we're the right guys for the job. 9 out of 10 times, this leads to us getting paid. That other 1 out of 10 times is some chancer looking for free ideas.


TLDR:
The point is - Whatever the scope, length, breadth, width or cost of the projects we take on, we communicate every single day with every single one of our clients, whether it's a short text message at 4 in the morning after working a 15 hour day, or a 5-man teleconference, or a face-to-face meeting with a board of directors. We always find the time to communicate, whether it's good news or bad, or whether we know we're getting paid or not. It's just good practice. Not just on a business level but a moral, human level.

At this point, the lack of communication just feels like a big, rude "f***k you" to everyone here who's bought, played and loved X Story Player so far.

The Artist
https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/PeartVision

And one of the models.
https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d ... iri/655866

Sorry, but your analogies suck. You have some form of contract with all your customers. Somebody agreed on an amount of work for a sum of money. No communication in this context is simply a break of contract or you gonna be out of business soon.

This isn't a customer project, it is somebodies pet project that makes a little money on the side but in no way compensates the investment of time.

I'm saying this because if xmoon operated as a business and had to pay salaries they would probably be bankrupt or the game would have cost 1000$ or they would need 100'000 customers to pay for all the time they invested.
You do realize that there is many 1000s of hours sunk into 3.5 alone, and you think a couple 100, maybe 1000s of buyers who paid like 20$ will make this a viable business?

I would like to have frequent and in depth updates too, or at least a sign from them that they are still alive & working on it but I don't demand it from them like it was my goddamn god-given right. Cause it's not.
Sure, they could communicate (much) better. They good at writing adult 3d physic game engines though. Personally I think the later is more important.

This thread has 25 pages already, don't you all think if these are compelling reasons for xpadmin to say something he would have done so about 20 pages back?

You mention it's someones hobby project however it's a company producing this.

Small company but a company none the less.

Yes. He just hasn't.



Thanks



I realise that, hence me gently nodding toward that fact in my previous post.

My point is that it's not difficult to communicate, really. I appreciate the work that goes in to these things, it's a real labor of love. Please don't think I'm being selfish or entitled, I'm a skilled creative in my mid-30's, not some millennial trust fund baby. I work hard (too hard, sometimes) as I'm sure the X Moon team does. Like you said - we just want a very brief "hey, we're alive, this thing's still going on...", that's not much to ask.

These are great, but aren't these from 3.5?

Well, if you earn over some amount you will need to pay taxes as a self employed entity. In most countries it is advisable to form a company for that. Or the tax man will fuck you over.
I didn't say they aren't a legal company, I'm just saying that I believe if we had to compensate them for the time they invested in this, the game wouldn't be 20$ or there need to be a million customers.

If you ask an investor to dump 10 million $ into your "thing", he will want a business plan from you about how you gonna earn that back (+ the investors surplus) If you then say "Well, I got 1000 people paying 20$" he wont fund your project.
Things like this, in my experience, only come to life because somebody has a personal interest in something and has fun doing it.



As I guy who works with software developers and someone who developed software myself I can tell you, it can be very, very hard. Some of the devs I know happily churn out 10'000 lines of code but have sleepless nights when they have to call somebody on the phone.

Nonetheless, I agree that dropping a line like "we are still on it, hang in there" or "sorry, we abandoned this, disperse" is little to ask but it has been done already so I don't think asking it over and over again helps. In fact I even think it's counter productive.


Yeah. I think people don't realize that xmoon announced full body in game character customization for which they probably can't use these models or there will be a lot of work in making them fit for dynamic customization.

This, 1000 times.

thank you for clearing some of this up maybe they will leave him alone now