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Steam News19 December 20169y ago

Lootfest is a failure

I've now been working on Lootfest for 8 years! The complexity of the game has grown and is now far too big, specially for a single person project.

Full notes

Full Lootfest update

Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.

What changed

0 fixes0 additions2 changes1 removal
  • Performance
  • Gameplay
  • Store
changedEarly access doesn't work for me. I get almost no feedback, people don't report bugs/crashes. People expect a almost complete game and just get a negative experience. My end goal has always been to make people happy, and this is the opposite.
removedBy streamlining the game, removing crafting and collecting, I killed what many enjoyed about the original game.
changedWhat will happen now: I will continue working on the game, but not at full time, it will be a side project. I am thinking about making some big changes. For one I want to make a big change to the art style, and try move away from "just another Minecraft clone" as much as possible. I will not leave early access until I am happy with the result. I am thinking about hiding the store page until it is a full release, haven't decided yet. I will at least change the game description to warn about these issues. I will answer any questions you got in the comments below.

Lootfest changes

changedEarly access doesn't work for me. I get almost no feedback, people don't report bugs/crashes. People expect a almost complete game and just get a negative experience. My end goal has always been to make people happy, and this is the opposite.
removedBy streamlining the game, removing crafting and collecting, I killed what many enjoyed about the original game.
changedWhat will happen now: I will continue working on the game, but not at full time, it will be a side project. I am thinking about making some big changes. For one I want to make a big change to the art style, and try move away from "just another Minecraft clone" as much as possible. I will not leave early access until I am happy with the result. I am thinking about hiding the store page until it is a full release, haven't decided yet. I will at least change the game description to warn about these issues. I will answer any questions you got in the comments below.

I've now been working on Lootfest for 8 years! The complexity of the game has grown and is now far too big, specially for a single person project. It is clear to me now that the game will never become what I initially planned. What mistakes has been made:

  • Early access doesn't work for me. I get almost no feedback, people don't report bugs/crashes. People expect a almost complete game and just get a negative experience. My end goal has always been to make people happy, and this is the opposite.

  • I started planning a full 16 hour experience. Should have started much smaller.

  • By streamlining the game, removing crafting and collecting, I killed what many enjoyed about the original game.

  • I thought more persons would play with a controller. It is too much of a console game.

  • The person I hired did not work out, had to throw away most of the code, mainly for the level layout and start over from scratch.

What will happen now: I will continue working on the game, but not at full time, it will be a side project. I am thinking about making some big changes. For one I want to make a big change to the art style, and try move away from "just another Minecraft clone" as much as possible. I will not leave early access until I am happy with the result. I am thinking about hiding the store page until it is a full release, haven't decided yet. I will at least change the game description to warn about these issues. I will answer any questions you got in the comments below.

Source

Steam News / 19 December 2016

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