Vintagestory 2 - features, improvements and a solid architecture from start

[dot]

As an experienced firmware engineer usually being called in with my team when companies are on the wrong track heading towards (multi million dollar) deadlines they cannot possibly hold on to with their past choices, I have seen my fair share of, well, "interesting architectures and management decisions". 

That being said, I appreciate this game with all its flaws. However, there is a reason games were released with a defined scope - and deadlines are important. This translates to everything: game quality and "polishedness", especially considering a team's knowledge and skill. You and your team know "the corpses in your basement" the best and some might be fixable with architecture hacks - breaking most mods and other ingame features. If you have not mastered test driven development - and it really is easy in C# to do so - look into it. Since you all have left the ranks of junior developers, but are far from senior positions - knowledge and project management wise - I urge you to consider the future: updating and reworking a flawed architecture when you are not bound to physical devices/hardware is to some extend ok, but will cripple and possibly break your entire company if done for too long: the cash inflow will die down.

To financially secure your company, your team and project for years to come and to start - this time - from a rock solid foundation, meaning solid architecture (without breaking most interfaces on every major release)

I must ask:

will there be a VintageStory 2, are there plans to switch developement over to VS2?

 

I'd rather pay again for a new title with improved features and know the company and development will continue, than having the company die of bankruptcy thanks to a never ending "fix feature fix" dev cycle.

 

 

[Thorfinn]

Based on the kinds of discounts the team offers to people from less affluent countries, I'd guess they are targeting the kinds of architectures that might be found there. That's why I was a little surprised at the switch to .Net7 because it wasn't that long before that someone was having issues on Core 2 Duo. Heck, I've seen someone who was able to get it "working" on an old Pentium laptop, though it had been updated to some flavor of Windows 8.

Thing is, not everyone who plays this game is an experienced firmware engineer with commensurate salary. Based on the discounts, it looks to me as though they are trying to get further into the market where an i5 would be a luxury item. I'm not convinced it's so much being locked into a flawed architecture as it is conscious decision.

And the results are rather impressive. To be able to expand something as core as the atlas as they did, in a single rev, and get a performance boost at the same time? Not too shabby. As an experienced firmware engineer, I'm sure you can appreciate that was evidently pretty well thought out.

Yes, I would hate to see a bankruptcy, too, and it's a heck of a bargain at this price point, but I'm sure they will let us know if they are running into money issues. Last I heard, sales are fairly brisk.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Thorfinn

[Maelstrom]

In the past the devs posted the number of copies sold in the prior 24 hours.  It average between 50 and 75 whenever I checked which works out to about 1,500 copies a month.  I'm not worried that the small development team will go bankrupt on this project.

[Thorfinn]

Right, @Maelstrom and further, they have resisted the call to put it on Steam, which, if you are short on cash, is probably a decent way to get a windfall. Though to judge from other projects, is often the end of the development cycle, too...

[Tyron]

No, there won't be a Vintage Story 2, as there is no need for it. The planned content on the roadmap is enough for 2 decades of a great many content, and none of it is limited by the engine, as far as I can forsee. For what its worth, I am easily annoyed by bad code, so there are component rewrites in most major updates of VS.
 

On 11/12/2023 at 12:11 PM, dot said:

having the company die of bankruptcy thanks to a never ending "fix feature fix" dev cycle.

If you have this concern because we seem to publish bugfix patches notably more often than other gamedev companies - it is because (at least) I follow the RERO principle, and in my opinion, is one of the reasons why we can produce new content faster than other gamedev companies.

I don't see how we could possibly end up in a bankruptcy position. Bankruptcy happens when you cannot pay back debt - Anego Studios SIA has no debt. Should we, contrary to the 6 year long trend of growing sales, really end up with a drop in sales, we can quite smoothly scale back development. Before it even gets to that - releasing on Steam would likely also increase sales multifold. And contrary to the usual startup culture, we are not doing stupid financial decisions, grow at breackneck speeds, get millions from investors, take on large liabilities and then sell off the company for billions...

When I set out to create the best sandbox survival experience that I can, I not only look at the players in-game experience, but also everything involved in that creating experience, including engine architecture and long term financial viability.

 

 

[dot]

A lot of content to be desired and a lot of features to come. Thanks for your insights, sounds solid, thanks for the anwser! 

23 hours ago, Tyron said:

No, there won't be a Vintage Story 2, as there is no need for it. The planned content on the roadmap is enough for 2 decades of a great many content, and none of it is limited by the engine, as far as I can forsee. For what its worth, I am easily annoyed by bad code, so there are component rewrites in most major updates of VS.
 

If you have this concern because we seem to publish bugfix patches notably more often than other gamedev companies - it is because (at least) I follow the RERO principle, and in my opinion, is one of the reasons why we can produce new content faster than other gamedev companies.

I don't see how we could possibly end up in a bankruptcy position. Bankruptcy happens when you cannot pay back debt - Anego Studios SIA has no debt. Should we, contrary to the 6 year long trend of growing sales, really end up with a drop in sales, we can quite smoothly scale back development. Before it even gets to that - releasing on Steam would likely also increase sales multifold. And contrary to the usual startup culture, we are not doing stupid financial decisions, grow at breackneck speeds, get millions from investors, take on large liabilities and then sell off the company for billions...

When I set out to create the best sandbox survival experience that I can, I not only look at the players in-game experience, but also everything involved in that creating experience, including engine architecture and long term financial viability.