I have been a backer of Phoenix Point for a while now, but more one of the quiet sit back and read the developer communication and poke around with backer builds to see how the project matures, backers.
Up until a few months ago I felt Snapshot were really handling engaging everyone really well, there was a clear effort to keep backers in the loop and get them involved with feedback and staging major milestone build releases to show progress and also get critical impressions on how new layers of the game were being designed.
However after waiting a few months now, ever since the whole Epic partnership it feels as if engaging with the backers and keeping them involved has pretty much gone out of the window⌠now itâs important to emphasise the âIt feelsâ part of this, as this is just purely how I personally feel as a backer and how in my eyes Snapshot have done a complete 180 and become completely detached from the backers and keeping them involved⌠so itâs purely a subjective thing, but it is something that I feel that is based on my observations of conduct over the last few months.
So what exactly is going on with the project? Can we expect any further involvement and interaction before September? And if it is planned what kind of âinvolvementâ might we expect?
If there are no further backer engagement plans prior to the intended September release (assuming September is still an accurate time table) I got to say this whole thing will probably leave a rather sour impression of Snapshot going forward and kind of sends the message that now that Epic have given the project a ton of money, everyone of us could refund if we wanted but theyâre better off either way so they just shuttered down and to do their thing and what any of us think despite supporting the project financially when no one else was really interested and extending understanding and often encouragement during development delays suddenly doesnât hold any importance anymore.
Edit: Case in point. The âRoadmapâ established via Trello has seen no activity or changes since April 24th and that was just to appoint new administrators. The last time any actual development progress information was added to it was March 15th (Which was just the inclusion of a disclaimer note that not everything can be shared openly).
And the last actual development progress update to the roadmap was done January 31st.
We have another backer update coming to the website very soon. Just a few small teasers in this one, as itâs all hands on deck at the moment. With the addition of a new head of marketing, weâve wanted to take stock of all the things we havenât shown yet. Itâs important to both hold some things back so as not to reveal everything in the game before itâs been released, but also so we have some exclusive reveals we can give to press outlets for extra publicity before launch.
We will be producing more of these updates (and extra video content) hopefully every couple of weeks between now and release.
The person originally responsible for maintaining the roadmap Trello board is no longer with Snapshot. Our new head of marketing will be taking over this responsibility - but heâs only a few weeks into the job and has a mountain of other stuff heâs working on too - but itâs definitely on his to-do list.
Weâre still very responsive to answering questions both here, on our Discord server, Facebook, Twitter and email - though as we get a lot of toxicity from people over the Epic deal, weâve tried to give some people time to cool down a little before resuming frequent posting.
Good to hear about the upcoming the update, looking forward to it.
Somewhat disappointed there was no mention of a sneak peak build over the base building UI and such for backers to sink their teeth into and give feedback on but can certainly understand that a dozen or so weeks from the approximate release, the developers have got more important things to focus on than trimming out âNot suitable for public consumptionâ elements just for a single throw away build.
Personally the Epic deal is what it is. Epic have the funds and the incentives, and developers need all the additional security of mind they can get so they know they can keep on moving forward. No need for toxicity over it as long as engaging the community and backers doesnât get pushed aside as consequence.
Thanks for the reply and sharing whatâs been happening and why.
Itâs certainly true that preparing a build for backers (getting the right amount of content in that all works together, and making sure there are no game breaking bugs) eats up weeks of development time that can be spent on getting the game ready for launch. This is the reason why we havenât given a date for the next backer build or any hint of included features.
Weâre at the stage where weâre putting all of the elements together, and this is usually where a lot of bug-fixing is done getting everything to work together.
If youâre ever worried that weâre not engaging with or that we no longer care for our community and backers, remember that I am here at 3:50am on Saturday morning, replying to forum posts
Will the physics (gravity primarily) be applied to turrets and crates or resource containers? It is strange that they hang in the air when building beneath them is destroyed.
