From the newest kickstarter email: "We're close folks. Bunch of stuff to cover, so let's get to it. We will start with what you want to know first, then reverse engineer. So release date. It's looking like January. How confident are we of this? We can guarantee the game will be out in January, but on a limited basis. We will being doing a soft-launch in a couple of western territories. We're not really going to bring attention to it and we will be doing bug squashing and gameplay fixes based on these results for the big USA and UK launches. This is a big reason we do not have an exact date - we don't know what may come up yet. It's very dependent on how smoothly those soft launches go. Why soft launch? We are a first time release company for a game that has quite a bit of hype and with a large scope to boot. We currently have 17 m issions, 10 races, tons of ships, classes etc. That's all very good but there is a lot that can go wrong as well. We still are a very small team and massive QA testing is very difficult for us and would push our release date significantly - so this is the path we have chosen. We fear a Pocket Planes scenario where a small percentage of phones are aging saved-games wiped - y'know tiny bugs like that."
Quick Q for Warballoon devs: Of the missions, most will no-doubt be combat, how much research and diplomacy missions will we get? I like the idea it's the full "Kirk" experience
missions Quick Q for Warballoon devs: Of the missions, most will no-doubt be combat, how much research and diplomacy missions will we get? I like the idea it's the full "Kirk" experience So there are 17 missions in the final game. The first thing we think people will notice is the game is short - maybe 3-5 hours. OK - don't panic. So these 17 are literally each a unique alien, with a unique hail background, ships, enemy etc. So think of Star Command release as a very full and intense game - with a remaining todo of more diverse missions. The game will be fun, well balanced, entertaining - and you'll understand that each of those 17 or so alien species will be more than enough content for more diverse missions down the road. TLDR: Initial launch will be very simplistic missions, with a long-term strategy of having MUCH more complex/interesting missions
3 hour tech demo and a promise of more? Most promises on the app store never come to fruition, I'm not as keen to get this game as much as I was before now.
My unsolicited opinion is to develop some more missions then launch a more fleshed out release without feeling like you need to promise more to come. Launch impressions and reviews can make a big difference so go all out for it.
Dear Santa... Thanks for getting back. I appreciate the expectation setting. If 17 missions means a ton of different assets AND the challenge is interesting, then I'm game for that. Once you get this out there, the modding community will surely be able to add much more? One of the main things I want to experience from this game, is a sense of discovering the galaxy. With the New Trek Trailer out, that's the sort of vibe I hope happens - I'm confident the actual gameplay, crew dieing and ship slowly becoming more uber will all be fine. But some, fly around the galaxy with your own "enterprise of pixel guys" is really what I'd happily pay 2-5$/£ on. What about starting new games, will each run through throw up different stories/experiences/choices? That too!
"We will being doing a soft-launch in a couple of western territories." Right, a "soft launch" and you pick the United States and Canada? That is not 'soft launch'. Nevertheless, life goes on...
I just hope you can go through with the strategy 17 different species seems like plenty in terms of fleshing out each type. Just adding more missions to the existing species with some storylines digging deeper into their culture/history/religion, etc would be awesome. Are there any technical hurdles preventing an endless survival mode with leaderboards? Even if it's repetitive at the moment it'll add some replay value. Comparisons with roguelikes have already been made and they're still enjoyable in their repetition.
Yes exactly our thoughts on expanding on the initial guys for future missions- agreed. Yes - we are trying to have like MAIN MISSIOn then like MISSION B and C - so that you can come back and have as many generic battles using B and C as you'd like - to level up your dudes
I'm sorry but I'm done with this game. I've been waiting for over a year following it everystep of the way. 17 missions... 3-5 hours of gameplay... It's been almost two years and two different kickstarters and now it's hopefully going to soft launch in Janurary. Soft launch. Why? It's not an online/server based game. What are you testing for? Ultra beta? And the ridiculous low gameplay time. What a disappointment.
There has to be some sort of replay value for the game. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would like this