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First off, I've met many on the FarSight team. I've visited their studio twice up in Big Bear. There are some really great people working there, a few who are genuine pinball fanatics. I believe they have less than 35 people on staff, which is insane for the amount of work they have each month. I remember going into one guy's office and seeing a stack of 5 or 6 Android devices that he needed to make sure the game performed on with each release. They used to only have one programmer, might be 2 now, and he was not the same person that worked on the engine. So it's not like there are dedicated PC, Playstation, Xbox, iOS, Android, etc, teams. Everybody is working on everything. Nod ideal, but good enough.The building and releasing of tables takes precedent. They've gotten much better at addressing bugs prior to release, and do manage the time to fix a few each month. Everything else they manage to do with the game is pure gravy. It's not an excuse, just reality. As for people offering up their services for "free", well it's more than just whipping up a pretty looking UI. You've gotta make it functional within the game as determined by FarSight. They would like it to look the same on all platforms. It must function for touch, mouse, controller, and keyboard. It's no easy task and not something that can "be thrown together in a few hours" as I've seen some people mention. I'm sure none of these people have actually contacted FarSight to drop off an application either.A few years back, I decided to accept the game for what it was, not what it could be. Any improvements that happened became nice additions rather than exasperated "took them long enough" moments. I loved the game when it first came out, and sure the honeymoon period is long over, but I still do love it. Boneheaded decisions and all.Now, regarding Stern Pinball Arcade...you must view FarSight as a hired gun here. Stern is making the decisions about release, while FarSight takes all the criticism. The same team responsible for TPA is simultaneously working on a completely separate game with SPA. We beta testers for PC never even saw the build of SPA before it got released, and I can only assume that's because Stern didn't want us to. Maybe FS missed the deadline promised to Stern, but Stern ultimately was the one saying to release it, not FS. It's been this way with info and press release, no reason it isn't the same with the actual game.Ultimately my feelings are as such. FarSight, great group of people, produce a game I love, eyes are bigger than their stomachs. Playing the woulda, coulda, shoulda game is pointless, though none of us can help it. Go to a pinball expo, find the FarSight booth, talk to Mike and Norman, you'll see that FarSight is not some evil cash grab studio that doesn't give a crap about you or your pinball obsession. They've been making this version of pinball for 5 years. How many other games do you play that are actively developed for that long? Exactly.
First off, I've met many on the FarSight team. I've visited their studio twice up in Big Bear. There are some really great people working there, a few who are genuine pinball fanatics. I believe they have less than 35 people on staff, which is insane for the amount of work they have each month. I remember going into one guy's office and seeing a stack of 5 or 6 Android devices that he needed to make sure the game performed on with each release. They used to only have one programmer, might be 2 now, and he was not the same person that worked on the engine. So it's not like there are dedicated PC, Playstation, Xbox, iOS, Android, etc, teams. Everybody is working on everything. Nod ideal, but good enough.
The building and releasing of tables takes precedent. They've gotten much better at addressing bugs prior to release, and do manage the time to fix a few each month. Everything else they manage to do with the game is pure gravy. It's not an excuse, just reality. As for people offering up their services for "free", well it's more than just whipping up a pretty looking UI. You've gotta make it functional within the game as determined by FarSight. They would like it to look the same on all platforms. It must function for touch, mouse, controller, and keyboard. It's no easy task and not something that can "be thrown together in a few hours" as I've seen some people mention. I'm sure none of these people have actually contacted FarSight to drop off an application either.
A few years back, I decided to accept the game for what it was, not what it could be. Any improvements that happened became nice additions rather than exasperated "took them long enough" moments. I loved the game when it first came out, and sure the honeymoon period is long over, but I still do love it. Boneheaded decisions and all.
Now, regarding Stern Pinball Arcade...you must view FarSight as a hired gun here. Stern is making the decisions about release, while FarSight takes all the criticism. The same team responsible for TPA is simultaneously working on a completely separate game with SPA. We beta testers for PC never even saw the build of SPA before it got released, and I can only assume that's because Stern didn't want us to. Maybe FS missed the deadline promised to Stern, but Stern ultimately was the one saying to release it, not FS. It's been this way with info and press release, no reason it isn't the same with the actual game.
Ultimately my feelings are as such. FarSight, great group of people, produce a game I love, eyes are bigger than their stomachs. Playing the woulda, coulda, shoulda game is pointless, though none of us can help it. Go to a pinball expo, find the FarSight booth, talk to Mike and Norman, you'll see that FarSight is not some evil cash grab studio that doesn't give a crap about you or your pinball obsession. They've been making this version of pinball for 5 years. How many other games do you play that are actively developed for that long? Exactly.
