James,

Welcome to the RPGSite, and thank you for taking the opportunity to communicate your perspective.

Two questions:

1. Why was the manuscript rejected at the final phases? If it was fundamentally flawed in some way, why was that not communicated to the line developer and the design team at an earlier stage when it could have been corrected? It smacks of poor leadership if you did not communicate problems clearly before then, frankly.

2. How do you intend to deliver a quality product in a reasonable time frame at this point?

I quite like Fading Suns, but my only recent exposure to the property has been this blow up, unfortunately.  Can you see how this makes it look doubtful that the resulting product will be a quality one in the eyes of people like myself?


- TGA

Hi The Good Assyrian,

Quote from: The Good Assyrian;5462461. Why was the manuscript rejected at the final phases? If it was fundamentally flawed in some way, why was that not communicated to the line developer and the design team at an earlier stage when it could have been corrected? It smacks of poor leadership if you did not communicate problems clearly before then, frankly.

That is a question for the Line Developer. Sorry, that wasn't a "cop out" response, but it's true. However, all of our manuscripts need final approval by the licensor before progressing beyond draft layout to final acceptance and then production layout. The FS3 Player's Guide didn't reach this point.

Quote from: The Good Assyrian;5462462. How do you intend to deliver a quality product in a reasonable time frame at this point?

Changes to the game won't be as sweeping as those in the leaked draft FS3 Player's Guide. "Evolutionary, not revolutionary" is one of the development mantras. However, something to bear in mind is that the FS Development Team has grown since Angus left, and the number of people actively engaged in game development has more than tripled from the number working on the FS3 Player's Guide. Part of this is that everyone is working on a "collective design vision", rather than trying to guess how things are supposed to work or look. It's proving incredibly effective.

Quote from: The Good Assyrian;546246I quite like Fading Suns, but my only recent exposure to the property has been this blow up, unfortunately.  Can you see how this makes it look doubtful that the resulting product will be a quality one in the eyes of people like myself?

I absolutely understand. As they say, "the proof is in the pudding". If it's crap, the reviews will quickly spread that information out into the ether. It's the world in which we live, after all.

Hope this answers your questions.

Kind regards, James

Quote from: Benoist;546232Thanks for showing up here to communicate with the gamers of the RPG Site, and welcome, James.

Thanks, Benoist.

Great to be here. I confess that I feel a bit guilty answering questions here when I should arguably be doing it on my own site, but my hands are somewhat tied there and I appreciate that people "want to know".

Kind regards, James

Hi Skywalker,

Quote from: Skywalker;546236That assumes that the licence is exclusive. For example, Redbrick's Eartdawn licence is not exclusive IIRC as LRG was still producing 2ed when RB took it up.

That is correct. We made no secret at the time that our Earthdawn license was not exclusive (though things have changed markedly, since then). Our take is that if we aren't "doing the job" for our licensors then we won't be playing with their toys for very long, regardless of exclusivity.

In the case of Fading Suns, we have the support of Holistic Design and look forward to working with them on Fading Suns and Noble Armada for many years to come.

Kind regards, James

Quote from: Anunnaki;546249I absolutely understand. As they say, "the proof is in the pudding". If it's crap, the reviews will quickly spread that information out into the ether. It's the world in which we live, after all.

That is an answer I can respect, James.


-TGA

Well you certainly gain credibility, Annunaki, for showing up in this pretty rough-and-tumble place.

Welcome, Mr. Sutton. :hatsoff:

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;546304Well you certainly gain credibility, Annunaki, for showing up in this pretty rough-and-tumble place.

Believe it or not, i think you'll find that we generally have a better reputation with industry pros as gamers here than certain other bigger profile sites.

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;546304Well you certainly gain credibility, Annunaki, for showing up in this pretty rough-and-tumble place.

I'd agree, it's good to see some answers on what we can expect for FS3 and I am looking forward to its release.

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;546304Well you certainly gain credibility, Annunaki, for showing up in this pretty rough-and-tumble place.

So you don't Kill Puppies for Satan around here?

In a situation where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't, I may as well be crucified by my peers here.

On a more serious note, I know that RPGPundit runs a good shop. The courteous attitude towards our licensor in the now-closed thread, spoke buckets.

Quote from: One Horse Town;546307Believe it or not, i think you'll find that we generally have a better reputation with industry pros as gamers here than certain other bigger profile sites.

I've had discussions with industry pros about certain other bigger profile sites. I don't post there any more (certain bigger profile site) and have no intentions of doing so; and there's a lot of other publishers that don't either.

Thanks for coming here to explain your side and be willing to take your medicine like this site tends to do. If you're a person that can't shoot back with something of value out you go. Personally I wasn't going to give your version of FS a look because of this drama but since you came and want to explain your side I'll give it a looksee.

Quote from: zcthu3;546308I'd agree, it's good to see some answers on what we can expect for FS3 and I am looking forward to its release.

Given what can only be called "The Curse of the Ur" (it's been a rocky ride since we picked up the license), I think getting past the starting gate and having a "Third Edition game line" in print will be a great relief to everyone.

However, I'm under no preconceptions that what we release will please everyone, much as what was going to be released wasn't going to please everyone either. The goal is to get the game back into print and into retail and distribution again, which is a target for 2013. Otherwise, like so many other games (and I include RedBrick's other game lines here also), they are essentially "dead" games.

Make the game available; get people playing them (again); get new people playing them; get more dramas into print; drum up convention play again with support for GMs; grow the game into different systems.

I definitely like that you're trying Pathfinder and SW conversions even if the Pathfinder didn't quite turn out perfect. It makes me far more likely to buy your product being a Pathfinder girl.

Quote from: Marleycat;546356Thanks for coming here to explain your side and be willing to take your medicine like this site tends to do. If you're a person that can't shoot back with something of value out you go. Personally I wasn't going to give your version of FS a look because of this drama but since you came and want to explain your side I'll give it a looksee.

Not a problem, Marleycat. I'm expecting to take a fairly healthy dose of medicine on here (I'm sure it's on its way in buckets, by helicopter). And as I've said, I'm not blameless by any means in all of this mess. However, in some circles, misery loves company. I don't like to hang around those circles and I don't think this place is a hangout for those types.

Quote from: Marleycat;546359I definitely like that you're trying Pathfinder and SW conversions even if the Pathfinder didn't quite turn out perfect. It makes me far more likely to buy your product being a Pathfinder girl.

We took some lumps with the Earthdawn releases and learned a few hard lessons. Hopefully those are behind us as we move forward with those product lines. For Fading Suns (and Blue Planet), we're spending a lot more time getting it as right as possible out of the gate. It's kinda sad being effectively "out of the industry" for a few years (or on the periphery, at least), then getting back on the horse again and making mistakes all over again. Like relearning old skills through trial and error. Unfortunately, the internet has moved onwards in the last five years and social media is a very strong change agent. So what might have been a "whoops" a few years ago, is now much more serious.