Ship Date?

[cfulbright]

What is your current prognosis? I won't hold you tightly to it, but I'm wondering if you think it's July, Sept, Dec, or 2004?

Cary

[IronManBeta]

Originally posted by cfulbright
What is your current prognosis? I won't hold you tightly to it, but I'm wondering if you think it's July, Sept, Dec, or 2004?

Cary

This is being actively discussed by the Matrix brass but I would probably be shot if I talked about it now. Lucky for you I'm not afraid of dying.

There was another thread here where I was talking about some of the recent ins and outs of the development process and also one of my favourite movies. Let me just say "two months" and let it go at that. Part of the hold up is me and my nitpicky perfectionism, and part of it is that there are other projects ahead of me in the pipeline that are getting priority for the creative guys like Iain, my map maker. There are so many glitches that can still come up in this project and the others ahead of me that any estimate is far from scientific at this point.

I want to see results as much as anyone and dream of getting it shipped. Then I look at the to-do list and realize it will be a good two months yet even if all goes well. Two months from now it may still be two months from now, but rest assured that I am working on it harder than I am on my day job and that it will see the light of day as soon as it possibly can!

What else can I say? Cheers, Rob.

[David Heath]

Bang Bang Bang!

[IronManBeta]

Originally posted by David Heath
Bang Bang Bang!

Aw, sugar! I wish I didn't have a death wish a mile wide - it keeps getting me into trouble....

Skulking off in a very chastised frame of mind, Rob.

[cfulbright]

Don't shoot him. It's the difference between "holding my breathe" for this game, or not. Based on his reply, I'm willing to hold my breathe till this ships, whenever that is.

Thanks,

Cary

[byron13]

Okay, it's now a year later. What's the poop, Robert? How's this thing coming along?

Once War in the Pacific comes out, I'm going to be occupied for a good six months!

[IronManBeta]

ORIGINAL: byron13

Okay, it's now a year later. What's the poop, Robert? How's this thing coming along?

Once War in the Pacific comes out, I'm going to be occupied for a good six months!

A whole year! Yikes. I don't know what to say - we keep thinking we are almost done and yet the horizon moves away again as fast as we move along. Things that we thought would take just a few days or weeks at the very end of the process are dragging out into months and other things that we thought were 'done' keep coming back for revision. If there were half a dozen of us working on it full time then it would have been out a year ago, but full time work is just a fantasy.

I am trying really, really hard to get my end of it done this month. Other games are bumping us back by competing for resources but I know that David is trying extremely hard to get this one out the door soon. It takes an amazing number of hours to produce a computer wargame and the effort is out of all proportion to the expected financial return. That makes it really hard to motivate people and get them to meet aggressive deadlines but we are trying. Bart could tell you more about the frustrations than I. Being in the wargame business is definitely no piece of cake!

There has been a lot of progress in the last six weeks but an awful lot remains to be done to finish testing and scenario validation. The artwork is only just starting and I have no firm idea on when the sound effects will start. Those can all be done in a week but only if the person has the time available and that is what we seem to be waiting for.

On the plus side, people who have seen it recently think it is a worthwhile treatment and the constant revisions are improving it. I am really looking forward to seeing some third party scenarios being designed too. That should be a lot of fun!

Keep the faith, Rob.

[byron13]

I get the feeling that you think my question was kind of snotty or accusatory. It wasn't meant to be; I know you guys are working hard. I was just looking for an update. You know, like: we're going gold next week.

I'm looking forward to its release. Good luck and keep the spirits up.

[Marines]

Byron does have a point... this games release date has been on various websites as well as in PC Gamer multiple times since before I left the Marine Corps in October of 03 I can actually remember it being scheduled for a January release date. I know you guys must be playtesting it to hell and gone but WTF over.

Semper Fi

[IronManBeta]

ORIGINAL: byron13

I get the feeling that you think my question was kind of snotty or accusatory. It wasn't meant to be; I know you guys are working hard. I was just looking for an update. You know, like: we're going gold next week.

I'm looking forward to its release. Good luck and keep the spirits up.

No, sorry, not at all! Maybe you just picked up that I'm just frustrated that it is taking so long too.

Happily, Rob.

[Greyshaft]

The betatesting Forum is quite active on this game but our work as betatesters seems to catch only visual bugs and some essential game tweaks that have slipped through the cracks. That doesn't mean that the game will ship within any particular time frame, but I don't think any hold-up will be because of required rewrites of coding. The game components seem to be "all there" and working well.