Not A Blog Redux II

[paksoldat]

The only thing that really bothers me at this point is how the devs refer to finishing game features and all the stuff necessary for a complete game as "polish". Adding monster and player skills and finishing Acts isn't "polish" at all. At least not to me. When I hear the word "polish" I picture some minor bug squashing and streamlining of game systems.

At a first glance it really devalues the perception of what is actually being worked on and makes it sound like time isn't being spent well. Which makes the wait that much harder to bear.

[claniraq]

Adding monster skills and that sort of work is most definitely "polish". I've spent countless enough hours doing exactly that. You could take your first draft designs and release them in a pinch, and maybe youll have a game slightly better than big rigs. But its a real iterative process where you go back, tweak content, shuffle it around, add some, cut some, revamp some entirely.

Development constraints are the largest factor into what kind of quality you get. When the devs are on a tough deadline, you might see whole sections of content removed, not just enemies or skills but all the way up to whole game modes. Its a very good sign indeed for TL2 if their critical path is still on time and they have the option to gold plate it at all.

[Arkham]

The only thing that really bothers me at this point is how the devs refer to finishing game features and all the stuff necessary for a complete game as "polish". Adding monster and player skills and finishing Acts isn't "polish" at all. At least not to me. When I hear the word "polish" I picture some minor bug squashing and streamlining of game systems.

Not everyone on the team is going to be squashing bugs and "streamlining game systems." Some people have skill sets in areas that don't directly apply to those sorts of processes.
If, say, the character artists are unoccupied with other things during the polish phase, as they likely are, why not make some new monster variants, since they have the time to do so? It's more content in the game. Which, one could argue, constitutes polishing the product; but, even if you don't think of that as polish, are you really going to complain about a) the game having more stuff in it, and b) Runic team members keeping themselves useful at all parts of the production pipeline?
As far as skills go, they're improving the way we gain skills and the way they function. That definitely constitutes polish.
As far as acts, they're not "finishing" them in the sense that they're just now getting important parts of the act done. They've said the game is technically playable all the way through. Any act polishing has to do with improving what is already there.

[Wildman]

The only thing that really bothers me at this point is how the devs refer to finishing game features and all the stuff necessary for a complete game as "polish". Adding monster and player skills and finishing Acts isn't "polish" at all. At least not to me. When I hear the word "polish" I picture some minor bug squashing and streamlining of game systems.

Not everyone on the team is going to be squashing bugs and "streamlining game systems." Some people have skill sets in areas that don't directly apply to those sorts of processes.
If, say, the character artists are unoccupied with other things during the polish phase, as they likely are, why not make some new monster variants, since they have the time to do so? It's more content in the game. Which, one could argue, constitutes polishing the product; but, even if you don't think of that as polish, are you really going to complain about a) the game having more stuff in it, and b) Runic team members keeping themselves useful at all parts of the production pipeline?

Well put.

[ZehDon]

I'm still amazed at the reaction this thread has received from some of the community members.
A developer - not a PR Peon, an actual honest to the Good Lord developer - replies to the community, and addresses what some feel is a lack of information. Honestly, what more can you hope for?

Communities, some that shall not be named, would literally murder their children for the honour of speaking to a Developer of the game.

I say delay the game 6 months for arbitrary reasons and turn the next instalment in the series into a Console-centric Military FPS. "Torchlight 3: Tango Down". That'll learn 'em

[Farnham]

literally murder their children for the honour of speaking to a Developer of the game.

lol

[Josephflemming]

I'm still amazed at the reaction this thread has received from some of the community members.
A developer - not a PR Peon, an actual honest to the Good Lord developer - replies to the community, and addresses what some feel is a lack of information. Honestly, what more can you hope for?

Communities, some that shall not be named, would literally murder their children for the honour of speaking to a Developer of the game.

I say delay the game 6 months for arbitrary reasons and turn the next instalment in the series into a Console-centric Military FPS. "Torchlight 3: Tango Down". That'll learn 'em

Funny!!

[Flakk]

Guys guys guys... no need for this blog post, counting numbers... you had me at Torchlight 2

[ElderWraith]

Travis,

...anyone can believe we're just messing around and holding off on release for arbitrary reasons...

I mean, yeah, we could just dump it out there. But you wouldn't be happy with the result, because we wouldn't.

Anyone is just sad too much in my opinion. I am not thinking that you just messing around and holding off releasing game. I know well how much work it needs to be done. It is not like a clap with hands and this will be done. It needs a time consuming work to fix or change something and make sure that works in proper way.

Do not just dump out incomplete game. I am impatient as well, because I love what you do and I can't wait for your next results. When you posted your latest news about a scale and differences between Torchlight 1 and Torchlight 2 I got even more impatient, because it seems you left a lot more effort to produce the Torchlight 2 which obviously will be much better than the Torchlight 1.

In this point it is odd to me that people start being upset, mad and even not cultured. In compare to Diablo 3; the Torchlight 2 will be done in much quicker time than the Diablo 3. I can't believe in that people just forgoting about fact; the Diablo 3 has been released over 12 years later after Diablo 2. The Torchlight 2 will be released about three years after the Torchlight 1. In my opinion, in this time scale between those two games the Torchlight 2 is even more than equal to Diablo 3. Torchlight 2 will be much better than Diablo 3. Yeah, we could say that the Diablo 3 is may better with some points, but thats in fact scales to the budget and to how much company will spent for extra help. I appreciate that Runic is independent company and do not waste money for external organisation just to produce better code, animation and so on. Also, they go their own graphic engine which I really love.

What Runic needs to get their sh!t togehter and deliver what is CLEARLY a simplistic realtime rogulike? That Travis has done BEFORE?? I'll admit to confusion otgherwise, bujt this is just BS dragging on release dates like they are, and I'm damned well saddened that I bit on their pre-order only to be continuously phailed.

I think John is in fact teenager who suppose to come back to school to learn proper grammar. In just this first stupid sententence I have counted about 6 spelling errors. I would not accept fact that someone write fast, because I am writing fast and I do not make so much errors like you... In addition, your bullshit is not encouraging. You and couple people more need to understand that creating game is not like a drawing on a paper and needs a lot of time to be done. I would suggest to read some books or even articles in web about game productions before you next time dump another bullshit here.

PS: Good job Travis and I hope your wife haven't "killed" you when you told her about moving date of your anniversary

[SeekDWay]

Unreasonable people are unreasonable.

Just walk it off and get some fresh air, John. You'll feel better.

No, cancelling my pre-order feels better, especially given the INCREDIBLY weak response by Travis a few minutes ago..

I'm glad that you are able to refund your preorder.

I am curious what sort of response you would have liked to hear, apart from the obvious immediate release of the game. Is there any other response you would have had interest in? Honest question.

Balls of Steel, huh ?

[BrianW]

Check out the latest Not-a-Blog here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=31177