Hey Farsight, Take a Break!

[Trenchbroom]

Maybe I am just too old, but for 25 years before the latest consoles were released, software had to be bug free from the beginning. Games on masked ROM cartridges = WAY too much expense to get it wrong the first time. A company that put out a bug-ridden game was not around for long.

Now that all gaming electronics have internet connections and storage, people have become comfortable in purchasing buggy software and waiting for a patch to be issued to make the program fully functional. That's not the right way of doing business IMO.

 

[rob3d]

So, you want Diner?

Well played, Captain.

Indeed, and yes Diner would be awesome.

 

[warh0g]

I still think FarSight interact alot more with the users and lsiten to suggestions compared to a lot of ö
Large game studios. Let's not forget that digitalpinballfans.com is not FS. Would you rather have them answer to every single post in here or actually work on TPA.
No one in this forum knows FS business strategy or incomes, it is just wild guessing and back seat driving. So just calm down.

A quick comparison would be a number of well documented bugs in Battlefield 3, a AAA title from one of the largest game companys in the world, where the reporter bugs after more than 1 and a half years still are present. And bug fixes that does get implemented only gets fixed a few times a year (because of x360 and PS3 update costs).

Well this post was perhaps not so constructive, but it is my opinion

 

[Mike Lindsey]

Haha I just read the olive garden post as-well. I guess I will put this under 'research'.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Haha I just read the olive garden post as-well. I guess I will put this under 'research'.

 

[smooverr]

+100 to both Mark and MonkeyGrass. Well said gentlemen. Over and out.

(Sorry, i was late to the party and missed all the fun)

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

I love TPA. You work on that one?

I worked on all the backyard games and PHOF games as a Sr Programmer. And was Lead Programmer on Game Party 2, 3 and In Motion, as well as PHOF: Williams for 360/PS3 and Pinball Arcade. And while the Game Party games are the lowest rated games I ever worked on, they were also the best selling (5+ million copies sold), so I can't complain.

My first 6 years here at FarSight I shipped 15 titles. Not many programmers can say that.

"Also, the 360 is the primary development platform from which the other platforms' tables are ported, not the PS3."

Mike when will development switch over to the PC as your preferred development platform choice instead of the 360? I know you had mentioned something about that in a prior post. Will that still be happening?

I'm not sure when. Biggest issue is I've gotten used to doing it all on Xbox 360 so it's like a habit that's hard to change. In the future PC will make even more sense cause we'll have some beta users we can get bug reports from, so it makes sense to switch over soon.

Mike, was that the brunswick bowling for wii/ps3/360? I've been in the fence regarding that one bit I'm for sure picking it up. I isually bowl in 3-5 leagues a year so I'm gonna pick it apart

Yes, it is that one.

 

[superballs]

Maybe I am just too old, but for 25 years before the latest consoles were released, software had to be bug free from the beginning. Games on masked ROM cartridges = WAY too much expense to get it wrong the first time. A company that put out a bug-ridden game was not around for long.

Now that all gaming electronics have internet connections and storage, people have become comfortable in purchasing buggy software and waiting for a patch to be issued to make the program fully functional. That's not the right way of doing business IMO.

LJN

I shouldn't have to elaborate

 

[Clawhammer]

I don't mean this to sound rude (I can't convey inflection over the internet) but this topic has been talked to death on here. There is really no way of knowing whether or not this option is financially viable for FS, and my guess based on their table release schedule is that it simply isn't.

 

[DarkAkatosh]

I don't mean this to sound rude (I can't convey inflection over the internet) but this topic has been talked to death on here. There is really no way of knowing whether or not this option is financially viable for FS, and my guess based on their table release schedule is that it simply isn't.

Money doesn't grow on trees y'know...these people that are providing the entertainment for us have families to support. Less revenue means financial constraints which could mean layoffs which would mean a lower quality product. We don't want that, do we?

Lets face it no game is really completely glitch free. If you think a game is glitch free then it probably has problems that the average Joe doesn't notice. I can bang out a list of bugs like a son of a gun for my favorite games of all time. ALL TIME.

 

[ER777]

indeed, and yes diner would be awesome.

^^yes!!

 

[DaPinballWizard]

Well TPA is my favorite game of all time. Even going all the way back to pong.

 

[starck]

My first 6 years here at FarSight I shipped 15 titles. Not many programmers can say that.

Yes, but how many of them were relatively bug-free? There's quantity and there's quality. And there's a balance between the two. To me what you said just reads: 'farsight = quantity.' Now, remember, that's my subjective interpretation of what you described.

I don't mean any disrespect; just find the business model that appears to be farsight's main modus operandi interesting. And of course, this is just my humble opinion. Personally, I have never even played any of those 15 other titles. Honestly, I've never even heard of them either.

On another note- something that is so great about you guys at Farsight- you actually read these forums. There are at least 2 employees that have replied in this very thread. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? (but, seriously).

 

[Clawhammer]

If this topic reaches 5 pages, I'm breaking out the dead horse beating .gif!

 

[starck]

3 pages doesn't qualify for deadhorse.gif?

 

[starck]

 

[superballs]

Well, before it gets out of hand...here's the gif to end all gifs...I win!

 

[LanceBoyle]

Goin' Nuts 3000: The Revenge of the Squirrels.
"Get ready for winter..."
"Hahaha!"
"... hide all your nuts ..."
"No way, give me your nuts!"
"... surrender to madness..."
"Hahahahaha!"
"... come play Goin' Nuts!!!"
[ wicked speed metal guitar solo ]

XD. Coincidentally enough I was listening to the Black Knight 2000 theme when I read this.

You admit that freely?

Well, their site has Action 52 on the games list.

...admittedly the only one FarSight did is the Genesis version (although I'm gonna assume that like all of the pre-1995 games on their site the only FS-related involvement was Jay Obernolte's, as IIRC it's the only game from that time period that actually mentions FarSight, unlike many others that were developed by other companies but had Jay as the main programmer) and not the (in)famous NES original, but still.

 

[McGuirk]

I'm with the OP, but there certainly needs to be a balance. FS needs to make money, but they also need to release games that aren't littered with bugs, both big and small.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

Yes, but how many of them were relatively bug-free? There's quantity and there's quality. And there's a balance between the two. To me what you said just reads: 'farsight = quantity.' Now, remember, that's my subjective interpretation of what you described.

I don't mean any disrespect; just find the business model that appears to be farsight's main modus operandi interesting. And of course, this is just my humble opinion. Personally, I have never even played any of those 15 other titles. Honestly, I've never even heard of them either.

On another note- something that is so great about you guys at Farsight- you actually read these forums. There are at least 2 employees that have replied in this very thread. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy? (but, seriously).

Yes, in the past FarSight has been mostly quantity. I feel our Pinball games have always been high quality though (also our highest rated games). Many game studios do one game at a time...and if the publisher drops the project or goes bankrupt (has happened to me in previous jobs), the studio usually ends up going out of business. So we've always done multiple games at the same time. Always good to have a backup plan. =). Many of the games we have done (aside from Pinball), the publishers either pushed to get it done really quickly, or the budgets just weren't there to make a A or AAA game.

Of my entire career (13+ years now), I am most proud of Pinball Arcade. Partly because I got to write much of the game play code from scratch using previous knowledge, which allowed us to put tables together quickly. But also partly cause of the fan base like in this forum. The appreciation feels good. Even the criticism and suggestions are good, because we do want to make a better game.

And on the topic of making the game better. Stuart has been doing a great job at fixing bugs in the time periods between new iOS submissions.

As for the financials, I can't comment on those. I don't know the details of the business side. I can say though when I see games get pitched on Kickstarter requesting an amount like $300,000 (Double Fine comes to mind) to make an entire game, I'm kinda blown away. In typical game development, that would only fund about 2-6 months if you were really really small. Salaries and benefits of two dozen employees adds up quick. Not to mention utilities (electric bill for example would blow you mind), then add on licensing costs, hardware, office space rent, taxes, etc...and you can blow through $300k in no time.