Hi, I’m Michelle and I work at Ska Studios. We’re making Salt and Sanctuary which is not out yet. We’re still in development and don’t know when we’ll be done yet.
This morning I vented a bit. I’ve been holding back my frustrations. Here’s a bit of what I tweeted:
First I re-tweeted my husband who is also my development partner:
“Work a 14 hour day. Check our Facebook page. “When is this coming out 2020? Ridiculous” These feels, they are real. “
I read messages of impatience like this on a daily basis and I feel them but I try to ignore them. It’s part of the reason I hate checking our social media. And I hate hating checking because I want to interact with people and answer real questions and make a connection. But the hateful comments make it really hard because they have so much greater effect than a dozen positive comments. That is also really sad. I do really appreciate the supportive and kind comments we get.
Anyway, I read messages like these but I try to ignore them. These messages upsetting James, though, that tipped the scales. Probably one of those “you can hurt me but if you DARE hurt the one I love..” reactions.
“Dishwasher 1 and 2 took about 2 years to make. People said that was insanely fast. Charlie took about 4 years, but really 2 solid. Still fast.“
“Salt was announced ONE year ago and it’s the biggest and most complex thing to date we’ve made.”
“I read the impatient posts every day. They are frustrating but it’s good right? It means people are excited but MY GLOB stop being mean.”
“ We’re two people, the majority of the game made by one person. One year does not mean never, one year means one year and we’re working hard. “
“ So, thank you to everyone who has been supportive and patient :) It means a lot. The salt is real.”
I think to myself: “This is why so many developers stay silent during development and don’t interact with community. This is why development teams have community managers.”
How can some developers stay so calm and positive while surrounded by messages of negativity on the thing the put so much passion into? How can they just laugh it off. And why do I feel so horrible about something that’s supposed to be a good thing? Of course we know, not ALL developers handle the negativity so well. Haha haaaaa…
But is it a good thing to have people so passionate that they’re angry and leaving “why isn’t it done yet you lazy devs” messages? There are certainly worse things for the community to be angry over. I feel with the CMs that have to deal with those. We want people to be happy but we also have to consider our own happiness. As much as you tell yourself it’s just angry people on the internet, words still hit you. They’re not so easy to ignore.
Here’s the thing: games take a long time to make and we’re only two people making this game. Do you know how many people worked on your favorite big game? It was possibly 20 or even 200. We. Are. Two. People. Even less than that, James is the one making the majority of the game so for most of the time, it’s really only one person. Do you know how long your favorite big game took to make? Unless you’re active in knowing what goes into development, you probably don’t because big companies time their announcements. They have a marketing team to figure out exactly when the perfect time is to generate the most hype to best affect sales. Even then, all too often the game released isn’t finished and needs a lot of updates.
Indies often can’t do that. We need to announce early and talk about what we’re making often to be seen. If you’re here because of your interest in Salt and Sanctuary, did you know we released three major console games on the Xbox 360? Some of you do but for the most part, a huge amount of people haven’t even heard of us before. That’s why, for smaller dev studios, announcing early is important even if we have to deal with the impatient folk. (Shameless plug: did you know we do development streams three times a week? Whoaa! :D Watch us make our game here ~http://twitch.tv/skastudios)
I suspect the people who are empathizing with this post are already our supporters. You’ve been waiting patiently or sending messages of positivity, telling us to shake off the haters and that our game will be great. You tell us to take the time we need and make an awesome game. You are our pillars of light in the darkness. If by some chance, this has changed your tune and now you feel bad, that’s really not my goal. I’m sorry and please don’t feel bad. I actually do understand what it’s like to be really excited about something that isn’t out yet. It can be really hard to wait. Just take that energy and be excited for what is to come in the future and put that energy to positive things.
So please, I implore you. Just like with all things in life when interacting with other people, consider what you’re saying and what it takes to make something this big. Practice empathy and have a little faith in us. Believe us, we want the game to be finished and out there as much as the gamers. Actually, we want it more. But, we’re not about to tell each other to hurry it up already. We want a game finished but we also want it to be the best finished game it can be at launch. That being said, I can’t promise it’ll be absolutely perfect and bug free but I can promise that all of our blood, sweat and tears have been freely flowing through this game and we’ll make it the best dang game we can.
Thank you so much for your support and patience. We love ya, ska-friends.
