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Dual Universe - 9/17/2016 - Stream Interview / markeedragon Inteview with JC!


StoneLegionYT

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This was a summery of the Interview:

 

 

 

Here is the full Interview if my voice is annoying or you want to hear it from JC Himself :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5OVsDZN0c

 

 

Thanks to Yamamushi for hosting it!

 

 

markeedragon Interview as well:

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I had to leave bout half way through this morning's interview and was really happy to see this post.  I just finished listening to the full summary and Kane, you did an awesome job!  Very clear, to the point and I think you must have a good mic!

 

Also, I have a really good feeling about JC.  I've watched all his videos (listened to his interviews) and he comes across (as you said), very honest, down to earth and most importantly, transparent.  He doesn't bullshit and he really listens.  Investors see through BS and the character of the team and company, which carries just as much weight as the product when it comes to decision making.  It's also especially interesting to see someone with a background in robotics and AI transition to this kind of a project.

 

One thing that stands out to me (outside of this morning's chat) is the low amount of capital (500k) they are shooting for in kickstarter.  Either it shows they are already heavily financed privately, or perhaps they are a wealthy group and have invested a ton of their own money.  I find it hard to believe that they are low-balling what they need.  Perhaps an abundance of caution and feature expectation.  Who knows.  *shrugs*  Software Development is REALLY expensive.  500k won't even cover a year of salary for a team of 24.  There have been other start-ups on kickstarter with lower ambitions that have raised twice as much and beyond with little sweat.  I think they will exceed their goal tho.

 

I guess the biggest surprise of the Q&A for me was the admission of no ship pvp at release.  (unless I heard that wrong).  If so, I think it's a gamble.  This is a tough business to be in.  Tech is changing so rapidly that perhaps it won't be an issue in 2018-19.  

 

Also, thank you DUExplorers for hosting the Q&A on twitch.  Well done guys.

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The low startup is quite low. Maybe they have had past funding or some money before. Maybe this was more of a risk assessment to see if people will fund it and if so they would keep going with the current plans.

 

I was a bit confused with that as well Hunter. When I heard Ship vs Ship stretch goal I was like I assume it's some sort of Arena thing but everyone said no so I was like damn.. I feel it's risky. For me I'm fine with it but for the rest of the Space Dwellers who been waiting on decent Elite/SC game etc.. How will they react. 

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Kickstarter isn't always about the actual funds acquired during the Kickstarter. Those funds -almost no matter what could be reasonably pledged in one month- will only be a drop in the bucket for an MMO.

A successful Kickstarter can be a PR tool that shows private backers that there is enough public interest to warrant investment.

 

One thing I really loved about Revival development was their use of Stages of development rather than Alpha and Beta. Alpha and Beta are really obsolete terms.

I'm pretty sure NovaQuark is using Agile development and no longer have true Alpha and Beta - they're just still using obsolete terms.

Staged development is really the better model for what JC described:

Alpha/Stage 1 - Beta/Stage 2 - Launch/Stage 3 - Expansion 1/Stage 4, etc

 

Then it's easier to discuss what is planned for each stage and when. And we will have a clearer view that this is ongoing development rather than "Launch" being a finished product. Each Stage will allow more people in but, while Stage 3 is open access with a sub... it's still just one stage in an ongoing development that will probably include ship-to-ship combat in Stage 4 or Stage 5.

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Hi Dygz,

 

re: Revival... perhaps they had a good handle on development but someone in the marketing or finance division went on a bender.  Those guys crashed and burned so hard last May.  A fair amount of ppl purchased some of those virtual houses with RL cash.  What a mess that was.  Too bad cause I thought that game looked pretty dam cool.  Most of the fans ended up over at CoE.

 

re: Agile... Newer MMO shops by necessity migrated to changed SDLC approaches and  perhaps NQ is using Agile as their methodology.   I think you are so spot on with Kickstarter as a PR tool.  I had that in the back of my mind as well.  It would make sense judging from the kind of shop they are, ie. they really seem to know what the hell they're doing.  They have recruited some really good people.  One example is Benoit Pothier running operations.  10 yrs experience in managing start ups, MBA, Masters in Engineering, Project Management... etc etc.  

 

You are probably correct about ship-to-ship in the latter stages but it's still a major gamble if they don't handle the market perception correctly.  I really admire these guys for taking such a big risk with new technology and tweaking it in with whats available to us now.    It's one of the many things that just gives me a strong (positive) gut feeling.  They quickly got the attention of everyone including u-know-who that just raised 100 million last December.  :/

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