This is vaporware ?

[Night]

Hi everyone, I have been following this project for more than a year, but since June there seems to be no more information from the Dev. Honestly, this is one of the two best projects for an RPG I've seen in a very long time so I would really hate it if it became Vaporware. Does anyone know anything more about the fate of this wonderful game? Is there something we fans can do to help the project in some way?

Thanks to everyone in advance for any information you can give.

[Sapistas]

Devs are hard at work with their demo, which is supposed to launch this month. They talk regurarily in their discord channel, though most of the talk is casual chat. Unfortunately they don't update often, but the project is being worked (hopefully! - this is how it seems!).

Supposedly they'll be more active after the demo is out.

[Archmage]

Thursday, 03 October 2019

Ceres Games

"Hey everbody,

just a quick status update from us:

We're currently quite busy finishing all the required parts for the combat beta. Especially the character creation process took more time than estimated since we decided to already implement the final design of it. In general, the creation part requires many different components we need to complete now (portraits, biographies, feat/spell descriptions).

Another update will arrive within the next weeks, so please stay tuned.


All our team members are developers occupied with the combat beta and therefore we currently don't have so much capacity to write news/updates as would like to have.

But after the beta, we can finally work on all the other dev updates related to different aspects of the game."


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceresgames/realms-beyond-ashes-of-the-fallen/comments

[Night]

Thank you very much for the wonderful news. I didn't know there was a Discord channel. If it's not too much trouble can you pass me the link so I also connect to hear what is being said?

[Vision]

This game was a part of the first project called Chaos Chronicle.. So We can consider as a Vaporware

[Sapistas]

Thank you very much for the wonderful news. I didn't know there was a Discord channel. If it's not too much trouble can you pass me the link so I also connect to hear what is being said?

Many knew very few of the progress of the project since devs don;t do much other than development. Here's the Discord link, hope it's right
https://discordapp.com/channels/428297337652248577/512682973422682112

To the devs: I know you are few and hard at work with the beta, but I don't really believe a weekly or even monthly "hey, we're still here, working on stuff - here's a couple of screenshots" of a note is too much of a distratction from your work. People need to be reminded that this project still exists - we/they have paid money in advance after all
Also, talking regurarily, brings more new people in

[daveyd]

Well, Sapistas, as you noted, they plan to do more regular updates once the combat beta is out. I didn't pledge enough for the beta but I'm very interested in watching some video clips of combat once it's out.  Let's hope it is out by the end of the year.

[LordValerius]

Well, I hate to be pessimistic, but....

I'm not sure of the size of the team working on this project, but I do know that I also backed a tiny team of "hobby programmers" recently working on a little project called "Talespire".  They are a very small team and two of the devs, who are actually working on components of the software, regularly Tweet updates and I get an email indicating they have made a post.  Regular, informational updates, sometime 2-3 times a week.

They don't request that you go to a Discord channel or anything else.  They just regularly update their progress.  If I didn't force myself to come here and check for some sort of indication that it is still being worked on, I would have forgot about it altogether already.

When I think of past Vaporware products and compare the activities of the two teams above, unfortunately this product seems to be going nowhere, fast. 

Of course, I could be wrong (and hope I am) and maybe this team just doesn't care to share info...Website itself is lacking any recent news or updates and we shouldn't have to log into Discord to get updates.  They've already missed one thing, that being the Combat Beta, estimated July 2019.  I know it was estimated, but wow...bad estimate.  It's almost November now.   I'm not very optimistic at this point.

[rjshae]

From what they've shown us, their basic system seems pretty far along, so it's a bit early to be accusing them of making vaporware. Of course, building an extended campaign is a lot of work, so it remains to be seen how much we'll actually get at release.

[LordValerius]

I'm not really accusing them of making Vaporware,  but as I stated in my post, their lack of communication to the general public is severely lacking. 

As you stated, "their basic system seems pretty far along"...true, but the "basic system" was already in existence, being assets purchased by Ceres from another game that was in development in 2013 called Chaos Chronicles, so creating the game from the ground floor was not an issue.

So, creating the world and extended campaign is and should be time consuming for a small group, but really should not keep them from occasionally posting screenshots or just a small shout out to let those of us who don't see the need to have to log into Discord to get updates when they have a web presence.  They were making Project Updates via Kickstarter, but the last one I got was in Feb. of this year, and the last post of any significance here was around June, I think?

Don't get me wrong, I backed the project and want it to succeed, but the signs (or lack thereof) speak loudly of...something.  I encourage the devs to at least post "something" to show "anything"...

[HobGoblin42]

Definition of Vaporware:

In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled

Our team is actually working on the game 5-6 days a week, so, by definition, I would say the answer is: No, it's not vaporware.

But the combat beta came with significantly much more work as we originally planned and at the moment we try to complete all the many pieces we need to deliver a good experience for the player. We could release what we have right now, but then many backers would (rightly) complain about the unfinished game.

Regarding updates: we don't have prepared any meaningful and completed content to release a quality update since we're all busy working on the game right now. We still have a few topics to write about but it takes times to prepare that. Please consider that we're still quite a small indie team especially in regard to RPGs which takes much manpower to develop. But just to send a sign of activity, I think we'll waive our original idea to release only "meaningful" content updates and go for a screenshot+status update very soon.

[Night]

Definition of Vaporware:

In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled

Our team is actually working on the game 5-6 days a week, so, by definition, I would say the answer is: No, it's not vaporware.

But the combat beta came with significantly much more work as we originally planned and at the moment we try to complete all the many pieces we need to deliver a good experience for the player. We could release what we have right now, but then many backers would (rightly) complain about the unfinished game.

Regarding updates: we don't have prepared any meaningful and completed content to release a quality update since we're all busy working on the game right now. We still have a few topics to write about but it takes times to prepare that. Please consider that we're quite a small indie team especially in regard to RPGs which takes much manpower to developer. But just to send a sign of activity, I think we'll waive our original idea to release only "meaningful" content updates and go for a screenshot+status update very soon.

For me a post like this is already great news. Knowing that you are at work is all that interests me then if you still need time to finish things ... no problem you calmly do and I believe your other fun too we know that you are a small studio and you need time to do things.

[LordValerius]

As I stated above, I wasn't accusing the devs of abandoning the project, merely the lack of any sign of (dev) life on these boards was disheartening.  I know you've stated that folks should come to the Discord channel, but this is only an option for some.  Many, myself included, don't see the benefit of yet one more Discord channel (in the case of those who do use Discord) or who don't use Discord at all.

I love the project, which is why I backed it, but let's be real...it is 2019 and the Internet can be a Wild West when it comes to con artists and being taken for a ride.  It happens all too often.  Glad to at least see a dev response to this.   Thank you.  Sorry to coax you out of your caves, but your response does indeed help shift the pessimistic more towards the optimistic.

Thanks again!

[Vision]

I remember Heroes of MM7 (ofc i never bought it, i m 36 old...)... For sure it wasn t a vaporware, there were so many news everydays, but the game was soooo bad...

[Speculator]

Great update from the developers today! Hopefully dispels some of the vaporware fears.