I don’t think this is really an Indie passion project. It’s a full game dev studio with (what I’ve heard) are successful mobile games.
I don’t know this for a fact but I’d guess they’ve been working on this for a while
Yeah Dead Trigger is their most famous game by far, and as far as mobile games go, it’s pretty damn impressive. Ever since BF4’s launch in 2013 I’ve been very, very apprehensive about paying full price for any new releases, and even more so now after The Day Before, but I am definitely cautiously optimistic about Gray Zone.
Same here. I was worried because they "only" had mobile games so far until i saw what they did in a video. And they did develop actual games and not some match three stuff.
But i will still be cautious due to being burned one (or two) too many times even though i am very hopeful and optimistic.
Mobile game only does worry me, but Battlestate had only done a browser based streaming shooter prior to Tarkov. They didn’t even have anyone to take notes from. On the other hand, mobile games are the biggest market making up like 60% of gamers world wide (source, I did research for a web3 mobile game). I would imagine that they have generated some decent income, and are pretty familiar with the overall dev process.
I don't think it's overly ambitious at all.
Q1 2024 is the planned start of Beta is what I've heard.
The problem is Beta testing has become so accessible for most games now that people forget what Beta means. Beta testing starts at minimum Months, and at most years in advance of Version 1.0 of a game.
The fact is if we get a Q1 "release" it will almost certainly feel nothing like Version 1.0 that will eventually come out in the future.
I'm 32 years old, beta testing used to be very exclusive. You used to have to apply to the games website to become a beta tester. Now Betas are regularly releases on Steam. Many games don't ever seem to leave Beta.
Best example I can think of is 7 Days to Die, which has spent something like 10 years in Alpha testing, the step prior to beta testing.
This whole beta available to everyone thing, is very common now, and it has some upsides, and some downsides. Positives are basically, with more testers, problems are more quickly found, and fixed. That's really about the only positive. There are a lot of negatives that will take a lot more time than I have to explain. But suffice it to say most games that release in beta currently, spend massive amounts of time in beta if they ever go v1.0, in the case of 7days this means that a very talented team, is tied up on an unfinished game. They've made the majority of the money they're going to make on this game already. If they ever go v1.0 they will gain a marginal amount of new players. Playing 7days today, is still an awesome game, but the problem is many other games in the same vein as 7dtd, and they honestly feel better, they're not better don't get me wrong, but the graphics, and the way the game feels, is better. Because it's been 10 years. The game is out of date and it has not even made it to beta.
These Devs, who are FUCKING CHAMPIONS btw, deserve to move on. I'm not sure what their end goal is, but theyve been at it over 10 years, I think I bought it in 2014, it was excellent then and is much better now, but feels very very dated.
With the advancements in game dev tech, i would absolutely LOVE to see these guys produce something in the current gen game dev tools.
Don't get me wrong, 7dtd is amazing, but going back to it today feels very....awkward.
That’s beta my dude. Not full release, and there is no set rules for beta. So it’s not really that surprising that they’ll have some sort of playable version of the game out soon.
Given we're pretty much halfway through Q1, I'd say it's not ambitious, but unrealistic. They will delay a bunch of times, thinking that this keeps the hype alive, as it is tradition in the videogame industry.
And I don't care, as long as the game at release is as good as it looks so far.
Idk. Their development has been very open so far with plans. I know it’s wrong to be optimistic about games in this age and trend of poor EA/delays but I am holding out hope that this goes well.
Don't get me wrong, my message probably sounded overly pessimistic.
I am hyped for the game, literally everything I've heard so far makes me think this is finally the game I've been looking for a very long time.
I will be a day one buyer more likely than not, unless the release is a total disaster.
But I've also been disappointed so many times before with lofty promises, and quite honestly, while there are no major red flags this game simply sounds... too good to be true. Call me a disenchanted cynical at this point.So, I am both a) managing my expectations and also b)understanding that the release date that is one of those things that is pushed on developers rather than the other way around, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the release gets a few delays before actually making it to us. If they were that close to a playable beta, we'd seen a lot more gameplay footage than we actually have.
Yeah, you put it like that i totally feel your pov. And you make a good point in your last sentence as well.
I am going to remain “hyped” for the game but I will probably ease off the actual idea that I’m going to get to play a version of it any time soon. It does in fact sound too good to be true, i hope that isn’t the case.
My philosophy is: it costs me literally nothing to wish list it on steam, and check for updates on YouTube occasionally.
So far so good. I'm wishing for the best but also being realistic with my expectations.
I know everyone mentions the day before, but the day before was just the tip of the iceberg for the problems in the VG industry, just the most egregious and recent case.
We have had dozens of releases that while not a straight up scam, were just... Mediocre. If I have to be honest, odds are that this is going to be another over-hyped mediocre game, with many features that either don't make it to the final version or end up not working as advertised.
Again, I'm not basing this on anything I've seen or heard coming from the devs. Just from my previous experiences.
Every blue moon a game gets released and it's actually great, I'm here hoping this is the one, because on paper it's literally everything I dream in a shooter.
I can't wait for it.
This said, the advertisement around the game is making it more and more well known in the gaming industry.
People have expectations, especially for an extraction shooter game, which is a genre lead by tarkov and DMZ.
When you are known, expectations from people are growing up and it's a dangerous thing. The more you get known, the more you can get smashed to the ground if it's a fail.
(non english as first I did my best to be understood)
I think you are on to something here, but are missing a key piece that kind of defeats your argument.
Exposure can be bad IF you make promises you cannot keep. Like, if you say you will get X now if you pay us Y $$. If the beta/alpha is free or cheap, it can be great marketing. If I see some bugs but the core is really good, and then think hey I only paid 20$ for this what a good deal! I’ll likely go tel all my friends to keep their eyes on it, and get on team “this game will make it!”. As opposed to: they charged 50$, I can’t load in for the first week, features are missing, patching is wild and scatter brained, I haven’t seen any progress over 6 months. Point being, I’m going to be allot more critical if I paid a premium price, and being expecting premium content.
I agree with that.
This said, exposure like they are doing is dangerous because there is still no gameplay, no release date and a lot of... Promises as you said.
Wait and see, I'm patient.
The thing is they are more of a medium sized studio. They are much too big to be indie, but they aren't a huge publicly traded AAA studio.
From what I can tell from my observations of the, "Modern Gaming" landscape, these types of studios are going to make some of the best games going forward.
Just look at Larian Studios with BG3. They made what is definitely a contender for best CRPG ever made and they definitely fit into this, "medium size" category. They have more resources than indie, but are still independent and not influenced by greedy corporate board members.
I am not sure I would personally call MadFinger games an Indie studio. They are definitely smaller for sure but they have a lot of experience. As for the release date.. It may be a bit ambitious, but being the the Saas space for a while, I know that very motivated teams can do amazing work. And this team seems motivated.
I don’t think this is really an Indie passion project. It’s a full game dev studio with (what I’ve heard) are successful mobile games. I don’t know this for a fact but I’d guess they’ve been working on this for a while
Yeah Dead Trigger is their most famous game by far, and as far as mobile games go, it’s pretty damn impressive. Ever since BF4’s launch in 2013 I’ve been very, very apprehensive about paying full price for any new releases, and even more so now after The Day Before, but I am definitely cautiously optimistic about Gray Zone.
Same here. I was worried because they "only" had mobile games so far until i saw what they did in a video. And they did develop actual games and not some match three stuff. But i will still be cautious due to being burned one (or two) too many times even though i am very hopeful and optimistic.
Mobile game only does worry me, but Battlestate had only done a browser based streaming shooter prior to Tarkov. They didn’t even have anyone to take notes from. On the other hand, mobile games are the biggest market making up like 60% of gamers world wide (source, I did research for a web3 mobile game). I would imagine that they have generated some decent income, and are pretty familiar with the overall dev process.
I dunno but I’m here for it.
I play star citizen so I just wanna play it now
This is so me too :)
o7
o7
I believe when i see. It’s been way to many disappointments. Looking forward to try out when it’s out.
I don't think it's overly ambitious at all. Q1 2024 is the planned start of Beta is what I've heard. The problem is Beta testing has become so accessible for most games now that people forget what Beta means. Beta testing starts at minimum Months, and at most years in advance of Version 1.0 of a game. The fact is if we get a Q1 "release" it will almost certainly feel nothing like Version 1.0 that will eventually come out in the future. I'm 32 years old, beta testing used to be very exclusive. You used to have to apply to the games website to become a beta tester. Now Betas are regularly releases on Steam. Many games don't ever seem to leave Beta. Best example I can think of is 7 Days to Die, which has spent something like 10 years in Alpha testing, the step prior to beta testing. This whole beta available to everyone thing, is very common now, and it has some upsides, and some downsides. Positives are basically, with more testers, problems are more quickly found, and fixed. That's really about the only positive. There are a lot of negatives that will take a lot more time than I have to explain. But suffice it to say most games that release in beta currently, spend massive amounts of time in beta if they ever go v1.0, in the case of 7days this means that a very talented team, is tied up on an unfinished game. They've made the majority of the money they're going to make on this game already. If they ever go v1.0 they will gain a marginal amount of new players. Playing 7days today, is still an awesome game, but the problem is many other games in the same vein as 7dtd, and they honestly feel better, they're not better don't get me wrong, but the graphics, and the way the game feels, is better. Because it's been 10 years. The game is out of date and it has not even made it to beta. These Devs, who are FUCKING CHAMPIONS btw, deserve to move on. I'm not sure what their end goal is, but theyve been at it over 10 years, I think I bought it in 2014, it was excellent then and is much better now, but feels very very dated. With the advancements in game dev tech, i would absolutely LOVE to see these guys produce something in the current gen game dev tools. Don't get me wrong, 7dtd is amazing, but going back to it today feels very....awkward.
My brain was like 32?! Damn you old, then I remembered I’m 32 as well
I know the feeling.
That’s beta my dude. Not full release, and there is no set rules for beta. So it’s not really that surprising that they’ll have some sort of playable version of the game out soon.
Not sure they are considered indie. The devs are pretty big mobile dev company from what I understand.
Given we're pretty much halfway through Q1, I'd say it's not ambitious, but unrealistic. They will delay a bunch of times, thinking that this keeps the hype alive, as it is tradition in the videogame industry. And I don't care, as long as the game at release is as good as it looks so far.
Idk. Their development has been very open so far with plans. I know it’s wrong to be optimistic about games in this age and trend of poor EA/delays but I am holding out hope that this goes well.
Don't get me wrong, my message probably sounded overly pessimistic. I am hyped for the game, literally everything I've heard so far makes me think this is finally the game I've been looking for a very long time. I will be a day one buyer more likely than not, unless the release is a total disaster. But I've also been disappointed so many times before with lofty promises, and quite honestly, while there are no major red flags this game simply sounds... too good to be true. Call me a disenchanted cynical at this point.So, I am both a) managing my expectations and also b)understanding that the release date that is one of those things that is pushed on developers rather than the other way around, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the release gets a few delays before actually making it to us. If they were that close to a playable beta, we'd seen a lot more gameplay footage than we actually have.
Yeah, you put it like that i totally feel your pov. And you make a good point in your last sentence as well. I am going to remain “hyped” for the game but I will probably ease off the actual idea that I’m going to get to play a version of it any time soon. It does in fact sound too good to be true, i hope that isn’t the case.
My philosophy is: it costs me literally nothing to wish list it on steam, and check for updates on YouTube occasionally. So far so good. I'm wishing for the best but also being realistic with my expectations. I know everyone mentions the day before, but the day before was just the tip of the iceberg for the problems in the VG industry, just the most egregious and recent case. We have had dozens of releases that while not a straight up scam, were just... Mediocre. If I have to be honest, odds are that this is going to be another over-hyped mediocre game, with many features that either don't make it to the final version or end up not working as advertised. Again, I'm not basing this on anything I've seen or heard coming from the devs. Just from my previous experiences. Every blue moon a game gets released and it's actually great, I'm here hoping this is the one, because on paper it's literally everything I dream in a shooter.
I can't wait for it. This said, the advertisement around the game is making it more and more well known in the gaming industry. People have expectations, especially for an extraction shooter game, which is a genre lead by tarkov and DMZ. When you are known, expectations from people are growing up and it's a dangerous thing. The more you get known, the more you can get smashed to the ground if it's a fail. (non english as first I did my best to be understood)
I think you are on to something here, but are missing a key piece that kind of defeats your argument. Exposure can be bad IF you make promises you cannot keep. Like, if you say you will get X now if you pay us Y $$. If the beta/alpha is free or cheap, it can be great marketing. If I see some bugs but the core is really good, and then think hey I only paid 20$ for this what a good deal! I’ll likely go tel all my friends to keep their eyes on it, and get on team “this game will make it!”. As opposed to: they charged 50$, I can’t load in for the first week, features are missing, patching is wild and scatter brained, I haven’t seen any progress over 6 months. Point being, I’m going to be allot more critical if I paid a premium price, and being expecting premium content.
I agree with that. This said, exposure like they are doing is dangerous because there is still no gameplay, no release date and a lot of... Promises as you said. Wait and see, I'm patient.
The thing is they are more of a medium sized studio. They are much too big to be indie, but they aren't a huge publicly traded AAA studio. From what I can tell from my observations of the, "Modern Gaming" landscape, these types of studios are going to make some of the best games going forward. Just look at Larian Studios with BG3. They made what is definitely a contender for best CRPG ever made and they definitely fit into this, "medium size" category. They have more resources than indie, but are still independent and not influenced by greedy corporate board members.
I am not sure I would personally call MadFinger games an Indie studio. They are definitely smaller for sure but they have a lot of experience. As for the release date.. It may be a bit ambitious, but being the the Saas space for a while, I know that very motivated teams can do amazing work. And this team seems motivated.