Managing Developer and Customer Expectations

[SneerfulWater57]

Taken from a thread that was discussing stages and i think it’s pretty relevant here…

@SneerfulWater57

Locke:
Title says it all. IG said, I believe, that they didn’t have time in the schedule to make the other stages. Yet, here we have all this Shadow Lords stuff and now new chars, but IMO, we shouldn’t be moving on before we finish what was started.

Locke:
Also, in one of the official posts from the team, they said they knew people were asking for stages for Mira and Eyedol. No no no. The people asking for stages are asking for ALL the chars.

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Firstly, the final product given out has been great. I’m no game developer, just a consumer. I’ve been relatively pretty ■■■■ happy with their efforts.

Secondly, this stage clamor is getting to me, so i went and did some digging…

Killer Instinct - 26 characters - 21 stages
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 - 50 characters - 20 stages?
Mortal Kombat XL - 33 characters - 14 stages?
Guilty Gear Revelator - 23 characters - 19 stages?
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round - 34 characters - 34 stages?**
King of Fighters 14 - 50 characters - 18 stages?
Super Smash Bros for WiiU - 58 characters (including 3 Mii-type custom fighters) - 55 stages***
Marvel vs Capcom 2 - 56 characters - 13-14’ish stages?

All are popular games, all most of us know of, all maybe less of us have played or seen played. There are two games listed that match the number of characters to the number of stages out of seven. Not even a majority. And half the time, especially in games like Mortal Kombat XL, Injustice, and Smash, the stages have a direct bearing on how you fight the match. Killer Instinct is not entitled to make one stage per character, especially guests to whom the holder of their rights has, likely, every say in how their character is presented.

New stages are gonna keep being demanded because IG has opened themselves up to hearing about the good and the bad from these forums. In the game on the whole, in my opinion, stages are not unfinished business. They’re a sexy element that adds onto and expands how deep this game is. They’re not nearly the core of what makes this game great, and that’s been what they, and we, have focused our attention on.

Having said that, i know the demand is not gonna stop…

/endrant

**I think some stages of DOA are only playable in certain modes, and are variations of one another
***Obviously, Smash is a unique game in how it’s interactables, limits and platform style stages are a core to its experience.

Far as connecting developers and consumers, this is my thought and i have to draw a parallel to explain it. I work as a Chef in real life. So my general job duty is to cook for a customer. Much like a developer creates games, a chef creates food. A developer (i think) has tons of job freedom to make a game so long as a consumer buys it, same with being a chef; make whatever you want as long as people will buy it. You get the general idea.

So how many times have you been the guy or girl, or seen a guy or girl go to a restaurant and say “i’d like a steak, but can you add some of the stuff from this other dish to it?”

Certainly it can be done. But what get overlooked is how much that one dish change derails the flow of everything else that the restaurant is producing. I feel like it’s something similar to game development, yes, IG can make more stages, but for them what is going to produce more money/customers/interest?

I’m not sure of a means to fix that, however. If anything, i’ve relied more on a compassion and understanding from a consumer than any outright communication.