VSOH - Vanguard Producer's Letter - January 2008 : Vanguard News

Vanguard's Producer, Thom Terrazas, posted this producer's letter to give us a heads up on what's coming with Game Update #4, and what the dev team is looking to do to improve Vanguard. You can read the full post here.


Hello Vanguard!

It's been too long since we've talked. Holy smokes it's nice to see you again! You guys have to visit more often and at the very least, please call once in a while to let us know how you're doing. Heck, we never hear from you anymore!

I was driving to work this morning and I was thinking how I was going to wrap up all of the details into a letter that really represented the good work that we're doing right now. The same thoughts I have had for about a week now but haven't carved out the appropriate time to write it down in a consumable format. What I was really doing was over thinking the process. Not to simplify things to the point of having no depth but I think by the time you read down to the bottom, all you really want to know is what we're working on and how does that affect the game, you, your character and your play experience.

"Under Promise and Over Deliver"

This process can be a convoluted progression though (and I have many people here that will back me up on this). "Don't give out dates!" "Don't give out quantities!" "Don't promise anything!" These are the comments that remind me not to stick my head out too far or it will get lopped off. Internally and externally. Holy Smokes, I'm afraid of my own shadow at the moment. I'm afraid that if I promise you the sword of 1,000 lies or potentially a feature that was promised by a previous developer/producer/, I will be setting myself up for failure. We all know what happens when promises are made without any thought to implementation. That's why I'm NOT going to tell you a single thing about what we're working on right now. That's right - Nothing! How do you like those apples?

But, if I were to say something, it might look like this....

Update 4

Everyone knows that we just published Update 3 at the end of the year and the next update can only be Update 4 by chronological standards. ...And also, we may have already stated that we've been working on Update 4 so there isn't anything I can take back now and say we aren't working on Update 4. So yes, "I" let the cat out of the bag. Number 4 follows number 3...shhhh!

"Put a stake in the ground"

Seriously though, I made mention that we are working on a few things in a previous post and we are targeting the end of February to publish it live. Maybe I should not have done that but let's be honest about this for a minute... Below, you'll read through some of the items we are working on. If by some unexpected reason one or all of those items are not ready at the end of February, we will publish without it or hold off the update a few more days until it is done right. End of February - We have to have a target or we'll never hit the mark. If we miss the mark, we'll find out why and correct for the next time.

"We're past the point of publishing something that is incomplete"

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts ... c_id=26193