A New Chapter for The Fun Pimps and 7 Days to Die

Roland said:
You mean "become" hopeful. To remain hopeful you have to already be hopeful and your small selection of posts don't exactly radiate hope...haha



Faatal is one of the senior programmers. The designers who have final say are Joel and Rick Huenink. Most decisions are highly collaborative and team decided but there are times when a final say has to be given and when Joel gives it, it is final unless his brother knuckle rubs him into submission. As for focus groups, we are the focus group. They make adjustments based on our feedback and have done so many times in the past. The imminent update is the culmination of many many years of community feedback.

Now that the merger has happened, ultimate say will be the Behavior Execs. Whether they will micromanage or let TFP be TFP remains to be seen. So far, there hasn't been a peep of anything from behavior in terms of direction. To Grandpa Minion's utter dismay, nobody has come to overrule the Hueninks on how much emphasis should be spent on PvP, for example.
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there hasn't been a "peep of anything" could mean alot of things including, we have no idea who has already been fired to give a peep, one thing is for sure bE is taking applications to fullfull jobs pertaining to 7d2d, when a company starts looking for a lead designer to me that screams someone else has already been let go or the company is looking to do some replacing.
 
Grandpa Minion said:
there hasn't been a "peep of anything" could mean alot of things including, we have no idea who has already been fired to give a peep, one thing is for sure bE is taking applications to fullfull jobs pertaining to 7d2d, when a company starts looking for a lead designer to me that screams someone else has already been let go or the company is looking to do some replacing.
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Yep, could mean allot of things. Could mean they are completely happy with how things are going or could mean a fate similar to Midwinter Entertainment's fate. I'm going to tray and take the positive side here. I'm going to assume Pimps doesn't get Midwintered and the roadmap continues.
 
Grandpa Minion said:
there hasn't been a "peep of anything" could mean alot of things including, we have no idea who has already been fired to give a peep, one thing is for sure bE is taking applications to fullfull jobs pertaining to 7d2d, when a company starts looking for a lead designer to me that screams someone else has already been let go or the company is looking to do some replacing.
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Heh…spoken truly from a PvP perspective. It could also very likely be a new position for restructuring aspects of the game development into new departments. Since the announcement stated that BI would be augmenting the staff rather than replacing the staff I find it far more plausible that the new jobs are, in fact, new openings to grow the team and distribute the load.

Grandpa Minion is a pure example of someone who remains hopeful…..
 
Grandpa Minion said:
there hasn't been a "peep of anything" could mean alot of things including, we have no idea who has already been fired to give a peep, one thing is for sure bE is taking applications to fullfull jobs pertaining to 7d2d, when a company starts looking for a lead designer to me that screams someone else has already been let go or the company is looking to do some replacing.
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One thing for sure, Behaviour wants someone in house in Montreal, QC, CANADA, so I don't think anyone from The Fun Pimps would be moving there permanently since many are in the U.S. and others are scattered all over the world.
My guess is, nobody is losing their jobs with TFP; Behaviour wants other people for the extra help to finish the game (as it was mentioned for after 4.0 where more people would be involved with 7 Days to Die).
 
JustBrowsing said:
Yep, could mean allot of things. Could mean they are completely happy with how things are going or could mean a fate similar to Midwinter Entertainment's fate. I'm going to tray and take the positive side here. I'm going to assume Pimps doesn't get Midwintered and the roadmap continues.
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There's no indication at all that they plan to scrap the roadmap.

In fact, we know they are already working on 4.0 and beyond.
 
Treb said:
There's no indication at all that they plan to scrap the roadmap.

In fact, we know they are already working on 4.0 and beyond.
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well...I believe we've been told that 3.0 and 4.0 are both supposed to done this year...and that 4.0 is as far as the plan remains the same. it's hazy at best what we "know". but the "plan" IS supposed to change.
 
I can see the Pimps in negotiation in my minds eye. When sitting at the negotiation table, they handed Behaviour a spreadsheet and said: "Look at this. We launched three basic cosmetic armor sets, and within 90 days, 8% of our active player base bought them. If you inject your live-service marketing team, that number will triple." This data significantly inflated the valuation of the studio, driving up the acquisition price. So at the end of the day, I am pretty positive this will continue to viable for 8-10 ish years through these monetization's which is not necessarily what I call a road map, but I understand the math and realize this was in place long before March of this year. Now move on the my complaints about "Bandits" really hope it's done right and instead of being labelled as "bandits" maybe "bandits" could be only one type of NPC that can be added to fill the world. Surely, there ar epeople in the zombie apocalypse that are not out to slice yoiur throat for a basket of fresh eggs. Surely there are those who will be both indifferent to your character or even helpful. Sure would be nice to have a team of skilled helpers to fend off the horde.
 
Grandpa Minion said:
when a company starts looking for a lead designer to me that screams someone else has already been let go or the company is looking to do some replacing
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I've never been under the impression the game had a lead designer, at least initially. Right now, it feels like a potpourri of developer and player, mostly mechanical, input. It's design is haphazard, as though they've been making it up and learning as they go; throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks, etc.; as opposed to structuring it around a set design document with an established identity/purpose and specific design pillars, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but is...let's say...a somewhat unconventional way to go about it that I, at least, can somewhat appreciate. It's been experimental, ergo I haven't felt it necessary to hold TFP to the same standard I would hold some other development studios.

Novels generally start out with an outline. Video games generally start out with a design document. 7DTD seems to have started out with a rough idea of what it would be like -- namely, a survival game with RPG elements: something manageable in scope, though I think they may have lost sight of that scope at some point, ambition overriding practicality. TFP always struck me as a smallish, family-owned business much like one for which I used to work. It started out as a middle eastern retailer; became an export company when the family (whom I came to consider family) relocated to the States; and transformed into a SaaS developer with a commercial real estate wing. (<-- Yeah, I know.) So, my impressions may be biased.

If it ever was, it is a smallish to medium-sized, independently and family-owned business no longer. Now, it's owned by an investment firm (essentially) and it's apparently time to get "professional." I imagine a lead designer will be tasked with pulling all its facets together and into a coherent whole, providing it a recognizable identity, and sign off on any future development after story and bandits are in as (I imagine) a live service game given BI is looking for someone with live service experience. BI will be guiding TFP from now on in my understanding -- communications, marketing, development. Not sure how I feel about that, actually. Most video game development studio owners don't guide so much as dominate and interfere from what I can tell despite their promises not to dominate and interfere.

Of course, my impressions of TFP as formerly a smallish, independently and family-owned business could be wrong. So much for impressions. I only know for sure the game is headed in a specific direction. There will be an audience for it whether or not I'm in it, so good luck with that, I say.
 
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InfiniteWarrior said:
Most video game development studio owners don't guide so much as dominate and interfere from what I can tell despite their promises not to dominate and interfere.
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True outside of the video game space. Been through several acquisitions over the course of my career. One of my hard-earned lessons has been:

Beware the "we are benevolent and will not change your company's culture" speech.

Good human beings do not call for all hands meetings to say those words.
 
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