As SE4 isnt really a 'mass market' game...ie not available in stores...I seriously doubt that 'pushing it out for the holidays' was any real factor. If you followed the development of previous SE games you'd see a similar cycle of patches and updates in the early months. I hope this continues with SE4 so we can get it to be a far better game than it already is.
Yes, I'm quite sure MM does operate on shoestring budget. This isnt always a bad thing, though. Mainstream publishers tend to cut off support for their games within a few months of release to free up people for the next project etc. Small developers tend to look upon their release as more of a 'labor of love' and often continue to tweak and refine for a LONG time afterwards.
I'm sure if MM had unlimited resources in coding and testing that SE4 would be a far different game. But if that difference came at the price of more glitz and less substance I'll take the 'one man show' approach any day! FWIW, I think SE4 (and MM) would benefit from having someone go through and apply 'flavor items' to the game. This would not require any major coding, just gruntwork and therefore would not be a productive use of the main coder's (and designer's) time. Things like the AI tweaks per race and differing speech etc could all be handled by a non-programmer. I doubt that MMs budget could afford to employ such a person for long though.
The good news is that apparently, SE4 is selling VERY well compared to projections. I would tend to think that that means more revenue and thus more time can be spent on perfecting the game. Lets hope it continues to do well!
Talenn
Re: When You have it.......
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