GreatEmerald wrote:In my opinion, deadlines are not very useful and can lead to hasty and unfinished products more than actually working ones. A great example is 3DO itself. But a roadmap is a good idea, as long as you don't follow it blindly - if something needs polishing, you need to go and polish it instead of releasing it just because the deadline is there.
Yes, point well taken. I believe in reasonable deadlines, so all of our developers will be given plenty of time to complete their parts of the project. It's going to be my attempt at stress-free deadlines so the job not only gets done, but it gets done well or even beyond expectations. By no means will I have low standards, though.
jeff wrote:Exactly, BDJ did give when needed, but there were hard set deadlines, mostly because of issues in his real life that forced the deadlines. Unfortunately not all of Vlad's new creatures were ready for the final release, though more were going to be added (I don't how many more were included). The proof is in the result, it was finished and it ended up being pretty good. Now your project may be too early for deadlines, but when you speak of willing to work for a couple more years, that does not inspire confidence. When BDJ recruited us we knew the dates of the alph, beta and final release. We made them all.
We'll take Vlad's extra creatures

When I say the project may take a couple years, I mean it. This doesn't mean it will in reality, but I want it to take a couple of years because the result will be that much greater.
I've decided on a "release plan" where we will work on MM10 in three parts. Each part will be a continent, and essentially they will be similar in concept to World of Xeen, where players had two different lands/games to explore, as well as an abundance of crossover quests. MM10 will have the three parts/lands of Rysh, Lodwar, and Channon. If possible, we may release playable demos in the future of each of the continents, but we're nowhere near that stage yet. I remember that TCC was released in two parts. Although they weren't crossover games where you could go back and forth, it was still the equivalent of developing two separate games.
In summary, accomplishments every week and every month is one of my production goals. I think that two years with these accomplishment deadlines spread out over them is certainly possible, and with all of that work put into it, the game will be more than just excellent. Still, there's a lot of planning and outlining to be done.
-Ari