In a Curtained Industry, Transparency is a Game-Changer

Official Star Citizen Concept Art (Source)

Imagine yourself walking down the street when suddenly, you come across a stall advertising an enamoring, non-descript product.

“Check out this cool thing we’re making!” says the man at the stall. “It’s going to have all these cool features and revolutionize the non-descript market!”

“Wow! Amazing!” you say in awe. “When’s it coming out?”

“Next year!” the stall man says. “We’ll have more information for you in the coming months!”

“Ok!” You say, excited for what might be coming next.

Months later, you visit the stall again. It’s been some time since you’ve heard anything about the product.

“Hello, stall man!” You say with an optimistic grin. “Got any news for me?”

“Nope!” the stall man says enthusiastically. “Maybe in another month or so, though!”

“Oh… ok,” you say, somewhat disappointed but still hopeful.

Another set of months pass and you visit the stall once again.

“Hello, stall man. Any news?”

“Nope!” he says with his usual smile.

“…But maybe in another month or two?” you ask.

“Huh? Oh, yes! Of course!”

Irked by his lack of a confident response, you speak your mind: “But stall man, the release of this non-descript item is coming up soon and we still barely know anything!”

“Oh, yeah!” the stall man says, seemingly reminded of something. “We forgot to tell you that we’ll be delaying the release of the item by about another year. Sorry!”

In the wake of his unwarranted cheerfulness, you cannot help but stand there dumbfounded and wondering if you’ll even live to see the day this blasted thing will ever come out.

--

Chances are you were probably like the character in this story once, having gotten excited for a new release of a game, movie, etc., only to have that fervor chipped away by time and seemingly automated “maybe later” PR responses.

Maybe your version had a happy ending and it turned out to be everything you wanted and more. Alternatively, it could have ended up not being worth the wait at all. Sometimes, there’s even the risk that the thing you’ve been looking forward to never comes out at all, whether by official statement or simply disappearing off the face of the earth with its idea and whatever crowdfunding efforts accompanied it.

Of course, something getting delayed isn’t always a bad thing; technical roadblocks, studio-related shakeups, world happenings can get in the way of development no matter how hard you try to avoid them, and overworking folks to the point of unbearable conditions for the sake of a deadline often causes more problems than it will ever solve. Alas, customer patience can only go so far when you’ve got nothing but a closed curtain to look at (unless you’re a developer with a stellar reputation and/or have a very understanding playerbase).

Fortunately, there’s a very obvious fix: transparency.

Providing updates and information beyond soulless PR-speak goes a long way to the health of a development cycle. Not only are you providing fuel for the fanbase, but you’re also providing them with productive and occasionally even vital context. Everyone from first-time developers trying to sell its idea to an audience to large AAA companies trying to rebuild its reputation after a messy situation can benefit from presenting potential players and investors with a clear look at the goings-on behind a game. You won’t be shielded from warranted criticisms regarding mismanagement or controversial mechanics, nor will you be able to spare folks who have waited far too long from potential burnout, but at least then, those Statler and Waldorf types will at least have the information necessary to ensure their criticism is constructive and meaningful…most of the time.

To highlight the kind of miracle work development transparency is capable of, I’d like to present the high king of harrowing development cycles, with ten years in the works and half a billion dollars accrued through crowdfunding efforts: Star Citizen. Once intended for a 2014 release date, Star Citizen has spent the last decade building a galaxy quite literally from scratch as they design not only stars, planets, ships, and plushies, but also entire technologies in order to make the physicalized MMO universe they’ve painstakingly worked to provide.

 That much time and money with your usual amount of game studio communication and you’d probably come off as a scam artist or a do-nothing dream machine, but there’s a reason why it manages to maintain a tight-knit fanbase after all these years, and having dabbled in Star Citizen a little bit over the summer, I was able to get a good glimpse of it.

Star Citizen’s developers, Cloud Imperium Games, releases monthly roadmap updates that allow everyone to take a look at what’s being worked on, tweaked, and/or prioritized and why. Everything from technical work such as AI programming and engine optimization to narrative, art, and overall design work is covered here, as well as in specialized posts and videos to showcase the work being put into Star Citizen’s expansive universe (as well as the single-player story they are developing, if you haven’t heard about Squadron 42).

Currently, Star Citizen has one playable and fully explorable star system, with a second soon to come out and about a hundred-twenty more to go. Despite being a fraction of the intended experience eight years after the initial release date, the playable alpha (which you can play by putting down a forty-dollar “pledge” that gives you access and a  beginner spaceship) allows committed fans to get a taste of what they’re waiting so long for, and despite the glitches and errors I’ve endured for the sake of this progress, I can tell you that there’s nothing like transporting volatile materials across moons, hunting down wanted criminals, and ending a play session with a hot dog and fizzy drink.

I know there are a lot of folks who have all but given up on waiting for Star Citizen, and I get it—after all, I’ve only had a single summer with it, compared to some of these people who have waited many years for the game to be completed—but I also see other games of all shapes and sizes that have come and gone in the time Star Citizen has been getting worked on. Mount and Blade II, despite being enjoyable in this humble writer’s opinion, has its fanbase lamenting that their game will be released in October despite being barebones compared to its combat component. EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront series is a particularly infamous example due to the audacious RNG-based progression only coming to light weeks before release, followed by the notorious “Pride and Accomplishment” response by EA (Granted, the dev did their best to make it up with progression overhauls and fan-demanded content). And then you have the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Duke Nukem Forever, whose long-anticipated releases were so poorly received that I wager some of you shivered at just the sight of these name(s) alone.

Just to make absolutely sure you know, I’m not writing this to bash delaying games, or even any of the games that I mentioned in this post. I also fully understand that what I’m asking isn’t something that every single game studio/publisher/company can or even should do. Still, I want to promote the practice of game developers being more open with the community so that all these cases of long, curtained development cycles leading to outrage at the product aren’t quite as frequent as they usually are.

You don’t have to give *everything* away, but letting your audience in on the behind-the-scenes happenings will at least help them get a better grasp of the situation. Heck, it’s just as likely to help the devs out with feedback on what they should focus on or fix (so long as they remember that they are ultimately in control of their own creations).

So yeah, don’t be afraid of transparency. You’ve got nothing to lose from being honest.