Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced!

[Slippery Jim]

There are a lot of gamers, even the indieish ones who take the impression of an alpha or beta as the final product and almost never revisit it.

I agree that it has to be done carefully. What if Chris and team were to concentrate on making it more stable over the next while instead of adding new features? Deal with the crashing? Do you think it would still be a bad idea? Releasing an early demo certainly would get more news headlines and free adverts.

Perhaps gamers are a little more used to the indie way with games like Minecraft releasing weekly updates (containing bugs).

Just spit-balling ideas. My ideas aren't all gems

[bdgscotland]

I saw this and just HAD to support the cause.
Nice to see Firaxis bringing out a modern version though, if you look at it objectively. Pity about the timing.

I can't wait to download this build (8.6?) and try the game out. Chris/Goldhawk, your vision and existence alone is worth my $30.
I need to play the game extensively first but perhaps there's opportunity here to do something Firaxis doesn't. Have you considered alternative business models Chris?

You can probably guess where I'm coming from.. I don't really want to say too much on a public forum, anyway.

[TheTuninator]

Hmm, perhaps this is a crazy idea but what about the idea of releasing a limited demo of the alpha or the beta?

Do you think it will help in the rush to compete against the Firaxis version by gaining more fans earlier on? Be the first out the door and have a screen in the demo that explains that it is in development, that it is indie made out of love, and that includes a link to the site & pre-orders. Perhaps it would hurt (or maybe even help) pre-orders?

If they built for a specific demo build with minimized crashing, night missions, some research, and some enemy variety, I think that could succeed.

It'd probably be better and more feasible simply to get a build out to review sites, though, because reviewers will generally be more understanding of the fact that it's a alpha/beta version and just comment on the actual features of the game.

[Gorlom]

Wouldnt ensureing stability before refining the feutures make the whole thing take longer time? Adding new futures might cause new instabilities or reopen old ones that was fixed earlier, right? Makeing the time invested in the Beta not acctually affect the completed game. I am worried such a beta would be slowing Chris down and have too little an impact to be worth it.

Granted i dont know all that much about codeing or what Chris is proiritizing atm. Maybe he is already focusing on ensureing the stability of the game as a top priority. in that case disregard my post.

[Slippery Jim]

Was just reading that Firaxis' version is expected to be released Fall 2012...so that probably translates as the next holiday season (probably November if they don't have too many slips). Xenonauts has until then I guess.

[Chris]

Yeah, I'm starting to draw up some plans and beating them to market is a good idea. Really, the game should be completely feature complete in 6 months and we'd just be doing general polishing and balance work at that point - which means we should be able to release demos and preview builds etc to make it clear we also still exist. Assuming we're not already out by then.

[Straker]

Mainstream release dates can be taken with a grain of NaCl2. Still, is there anything we can do to help speed things up?

[Gorlom]

Mainstream release dates can be taken with a grain of NaCl2. Still, is there anything we can do to help speed things up?

Sure do free marketing and get a few thousand preorders so Chris can hire additional programmers fulltime =P

Or just spread the word around a bit =)

[Jean-Luc]

I must admit I didn't know about this project until I came across the story on Blue's News about the Firaxis version...someone posted in the comments about this game so I had to come see it.

The system does work!

[MerzZz]

Chris,

I think you should consider the fact that a lot of people are going to remember about XCOM and remakes after such an announcement.
I, for one, played original XCOM yesterday (yay for steam sale!), and then went for the remakes (UFO:AI, UFO:ET, which i didn't find good enough on various points), and this is when i remembered about Xenonauts (visited your website when it just opened, before preorders even started, decided to wait for at least something). Bought the game just now and am happy with it (except AI and stability, of course, plus everyone wants missing features). You also made me start using desura, and i've bought some other "alphafunding" games along with Xenonauts (Project Zomboid and others).

So, who knows.

God bless you for your work.