We’ve covered Star Command several times, and today we’ve learned that the Star Command release date has hit another delay. War Balloon had promised to release the game this month and now they’ve announced that it may not be released in January. Anyone surprised?
In case you’re not familiar with Star Command, it’s a very cool looking space sim adventure style game that was launched on Kickstarter way back in 2011 and it was successful in its campaign. So much so that the dev’s went back for round 2 to get the game funded again so they could release the game for Mac and Pc as well. Not a bad thing, especially for a game as cool as Star Command looks. This was successful as well, and the first campaign brought in around 30 thousand while the 2nd campaign brought in a staggering $ 130,000. Basically they brought in around $ 180,000 of their $ 120,000 goal between the two campaigns. Pretty successful I’d say.
I won’t go through how many times snags the Star Command release date has seen, just keep in mind the “mobile†version of Star Command’s funding was finished in October of 2011 we we’re told that the game would receive a “soft launch†this month. According to a Facebook post on the company’s page which I won’t quote verbatim, we’re being told that they did do some play testing with “average gamers†in Colorado and they’ve discovered that the tutorial is confusing and players were getting lost. Now they are going to revise it, thus the delay.
Needless to say this has irritated quite a few backers while others are more of the “keep calm and carry on†type. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the ball was dropped (multiple times) with this game, and as for that pesky tutorial there are thousands of Kairosoft fans that happily play sims that are only in Japanese for months while waiting for the English version to drop… just sayin’.
Normally I would keep my opinion on this to myself until Star Command is actually released, but this time I’m just going to call it like I see it. I believe the developers have the best intentions in the world, but have been in over their heads for quite some time. As an artistic type myself, I know you can “pick things to death†when it’s something you care about and I believe there’s been a lot of that going on as well. I can’t blame the developers for wanting to put out the perfect game, but there comes a time when you’ve just got to put it out there and let the chips fall where they may.
I’ve not seen many mobile games get a perfect release, and it’s pretty standard these days for developers to issue a patch within a few days. With the (total) amount of money raised, this sucker should have been already been put out if things we’re handled correctly. You can always hit a snag, but it seems like they may have been in over their heads. One of the things that stood out to me with their recent comment was the phrase “testing with average gamers from Coloradoâ€. So it’s wise to use people from your local area that don’t game much and are “average†to test a game like Star Command? Not likely. I hope I’m totally wrong about everything and they put out he best game I’ve ever played in my life, but you’ve gotta’ have your doubts if you’ve been a part of the wild ride known as Star Command.
I’ve been just as disappointed as everyone else about the delays, and I really look forward to seeing Star Command come out. It will happen, we just don’t’ know when. If the final product isn’t “up to snuff†when it is finally released or this drags out into summer…watch out it’ll probably get nasty with all those backers and supporters. If you want to get your Space Simulation fix now you can go play the old Sega rom Buck Rodgers Countdown to Doomsday; great game and it was out in 1991. If you don’t have an old Sega lying around or an emulator, you can always drool over the Star Command screenshots above. War Balloon hasn’t confirmed a new Star Command release date yet, we’ll update you as soon as they do.
Star Command
Star Command Facebook’s Page
Source Cited â€" Pocket Tactics
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