TheSmocking tire video is up !!

[PMP1337]

Yes, we are aware of that. We are focusing on marketing what the game can already do, more than what it will do.

The plan is also that the marketing and Steam release will make us enough sales to hire some more people.

70% of the community just a bunch of fanboys? I don't even know what you're trying to say there..

Good to know. I'm already happy with what I got for my money. But it would be a shame if this unique game was too sit in the shadows forever.

Fanboys are people that cannot accept that there is any flaw to the game. And that will outcast anyone that has personal suggestions on how the game would be better.
Right now we have a tight community. It seems good but if everyone is happy there wont be new different ideas. As the community grows you get people suggesting different things to make the game more to their style. This is good, generates discussion about things that weren't talked before. Even if there will be contrary ideas when consensus the game moves forward. But upsets the fanboys that don't like change.

Right now since the game is incomplete this doesn't apply yet. But when the final version comes people will have more specific features that they miss.

[TrackpadUser]

The majority of the people that are active in the community are fairly happy with what they currently have, in part because they know there is a lot more to come.

I imagine you are saying that because you are annoyed that a lot of people don't agree with you with the transmission ratio thing?

[USDMFTW]

Yes, we are aware of that. We are focusing on marketing what the game can already do, more than what it will do.

The plan is also that the marketing and Steam release will make us enough sales to hire some more people.

70% of the community just a bunch of fanboys? I don't even know what you're trying to say there..

Good to know. I'm already happy with what I got for my money. But it would be a shame if this unique game was too sit in the shadows forever.

Fanboys are people that cannot accept that there is any flaw to the game. And that will outcast anyone that has personal suggestions on how the game would be better.
Right now we have a tight community. It seems good but if everyone is happy there wont be new different ideas. As the community grows you get people suggesting different things to make the game more to their style. This is good, generates discussion about things that weren't talked before. Even if there will be contrary ideas when consensus the game moves forward. But upsets the fanboys that don't like change.

Right now since the game is incomplete this doesn't apply yet. But when the final version comes people will have more specific features that they miss.

This applies to every single game in existence.
Only a positive result can come from the smoking tire, its not like the automation team marketed their campaign through random adverts, the new people coming will be like minded players with new ideas.

[WizzyThaMan]

The majority of the people that are active in the community are fairly happy with what they currently have, in part because they know there is a lot more to come.

I imagine you are saying that because you are annoyed that a lot of people don't agree with you with the transmission ratio thing?

Funny that I actually thought that too when I was reading his comment.
I would reckon that I would be a fanboy (hobby project like AutomationHub, anyone?) and I wouldn't mind changing the game, but only for the better. Any change to the current setup of the game, puts the developers back in time before they can release the final game. Like Daffy always says: First get the core of the game done; Engine deisnger; Car designer; Tycoon and then they get to adding stuff and optimizing things.

I think this marketing campaign they are going to run is fabulous and well thought out. It will really put them on the map for anyone that has any affiliation with cars. Together with going to Steam, I think this will end up being a real decent step that will speed up the whole process and make the developers able to release the game earlier than 5 years from now.

[dasherk]

Will there be a schedule for release on the videos? As in, every monday, or every day, etc? I was really hoping there would be more posted by now, but I do know first hands the painstaking tediousness care what must be taken with video editing lol. Rushed work shows.

Anyhow, I too hope we see more core content released in the short term. We've had a lot little dev updates and other goodies shown on Youtube that never seen to transpire into updates to the game client. I know why, I don't need an explanation. But this leads me to wonder. In my own experience, I'm pretty much done with supporting alphas/betas/early access projects. There is just far, far too many promises followed by excuses and not enough delivery. My point in saying this, is that watching the communities of many games across many genre, I'm seeing that I'm not alone as of late. A lot have been burned by EA from Steam, or failed Kickstarters. From Godus to Spacebase. Even Valve has shown it's concern (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/21/steam-early-access-rules/), which is something not to be taken lightly.

When it comes to automation, I think we have a team that has a lot of passion and a lot riding on making this game work. I'm not worried about seeing a return on my investment, as I see myself burning the midnight oil a great deal with this one. In otherwords, despite a slower pace than I'd like, I'm quite optomistic. I do worry about the fickle nature of Steam gamers, and the current level of exhaustion gamers have in seeing their dollars take forever to mature into (fairly) bug-free production-ready titles. I think that will wane heavily on the excitement that will be sparked the forth coming reviews, no matter how clever the marketing might be; that's not anyones fault either per se, but of course, gamers more than any other consumer are quick to tell everything how they feel about a title.

[Daffyflyer]

I'm not sure on the release schedule for the videos, I'd imagine similar to the usual few videos a week that The Smoking Tire does. Apparently it's about 30hrs of editing per 10min video, so that might take a while considering how much footage we took!


I think a lot of people are starting to realize the realities of early access, and that game development is a much slower and less predictable process than they might like. That same thing will of course impact us, but there isn't much we can do about that beyond keeping everyone updated about what we're working on, and continuing to work on finishing the game