“Eric Kieron Davis, John Crewe, and Erin Roberts discuss the idea of staggered development as it relates to quarterly releases, and the next evolution in Star Citizen development. For more information on Staggered Development visit: Staggered Development FAQ - Star Citizen Spectrum”
In this episode of Pillar Talk, the team discusses the development process of Star Citizen and how they have been adjusting it. They have noticed that in the last two deliveries, some features were coming in late, causing a lack of proper QA time and resulting in features not working properly. To address this issue, they have decided to give themselves more time for development, rather than trying to squeeze everything into a few weeks. They will be implementing a staggered development process, where teams work on smaller groups for six months to deliver each patch. This will allow them to have more time to polish features and ensure they are fun and functional.
The video also highlights that this new development approach will not change their release schedule, but rather improve the quality of the releases. They want to ensure that every delivery is better than the last one, and they want to move away from just checking off features on a list and instead focus on creating a great experience. They believe that by giving themselves more time for development and polishing, they can deliver features and content that will provide an amazing gameplay experience for years to come.
The team emphasizes that their goal is to make sure that every delivery is better than the previous one, and they want to create a game that is more gameplay-oriented than anything else out there. The staggered development plan will also benefit the team working on Squadron 42, as they will have less downtime since they won’t have to support the PU development as much. In the long term, there will be changes to the roadmap as they break down each feature and focus on getting them to where they need to be. Lastly, the team reiterates that their plan is to have a game with persistence, core features, and properly working organizations before considering it complete, and they will continue to build on the game for years to come.
Overall, the video highlights the team’s commitment to improving the development process, delivering high-quality features, and creating a great gameplay experience. They believe that giving themselves more time for development and polishing will result in a game that players can truly enjoy and love.