Re: Anyone on this list?

["Stephen J Baker" <sjbaker@link.com>]

On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, Jan Ekholm wrote:

> On 29 Oct 2002, Ingo Ruhnke wrote:
>
> >Forget this 'release early, release often', it doesn't work for games.
> >Instead release something that works and gives a good overview over
> >the project, something that shows it from its best site. Offer CVS
> >access to the people and developers who really want early&often and
> >probally want to get their hands dirty. but the don't really care that
> >much about early&often for your normal tarballs.
>
> This is actually a valid point. I've tried "a few" 10% finished games that
> didn't work, were a hassle to install/compile/run, just to see them crash.
> The result has been that I've got a mental image of the project as
> "immature", even though a lot of time may have passed, and the game may
> have matured into something very playable. This is the reason I want to
> lay low on anything I work on. When we/I have something that's close to
> a vision of an 1.0 version, then it's time to release.

Yes.  Also, many games have a short active life - often a lot shorter than
the development time.  It's nice to come out with a slick finished product.

However, there is a big difference between announcing on HappyPenguin
and FreshMeat versus releasing the sources early and often to allow a
few people to do trial installations and ports.

----
Steve Baker                      (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
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