Feature Creep and why SimCity does not have it all

[Zpike 79]

Feature Creep

I decided to give my 2 cents because I keep spotting all these complaint posts about how...

They could have had farms easy!

Why no subways?

What no power lines?

etc...

When developing a new title the management team must make certain decisions at the start of the project. One of these decisions is what features we would like to have in the product. The list is almost always huge and impossible to implement in time to ship. So everyone sits down at a table and we figure out what we must have as opposed to what we want to have in the product. That list is much smaller. The we sit down with development and they tell us what we can really expect to get done on time. That list is smaller still.

All during the development cycle management, testing, developers, etc… find new features that would be cool to have or management decides they need to have some previously cut feature put back in. This is called feature creep. If you continue to allow feature creep the product either does not ship on time or is not stable at ship due to the lack of testing time for features added late in the cycle. At some point the product is locked to new features and features start getting cut from the list so as to make the ship date.

So…

Some easy to implement features may not make it into the final product because they were cut early due to the feature list getting paired down.

Some features that look easy may not actually be easy under the covers so they get cut.

Features that to some look essential are really not essential and get cut.

Making the statement that: “They could have easily implemented farms...” or “What no power lines?” does not take into account what really happens over a development cycle.

Look on the bright side, they made a great start on a new game and it can only get better. The next version will have more features, you can count on it. For now, play the game and have fun with what they were able to get done so far and be happy they didn’t try to get everything done in the first pass. If they had you would be playing a buggy piece of crap at launch instead of a polished, well thought out, solid title.

[Charizard 284]

Oh boy. Here it comes lol. The fact is they took out many essential core features that were in the previous games because they wanted to market this game for casual/multiplayer gamers. And when the backlash came, the devs said they will eventually address the complaints but only somewhere down the road. I can live without things like power lines, subways, pipes, etc. because they can easily be implemented in an expansion. However, there are some core underlying features that they took out such as terraforming, large cities, cities being next to eachother, etc. that makes it a dumbed down version of the previous games. These are problems that involve the underlying mechanics of how the game works and if said features are missing at release then that is very sad and worrisome. It doesn't make sense to release a game that is not polished and then claim to implement these underlying features (which were in the previous games) after it is released. Why not just delay the game and fix it? I don't want to make another lengthy post so I'll copy one from another topic I made.

You do realize that Simcity 4 only had one expansion pack that added everything that the fans wanted right? I think the main point here is that the base game of Simcity 4 provided a stable foundation from which additional content could be put in by the devs, modding could easily be implemented, and you could generally make any type of city you wanted to because of the cities being next to eachother as well as terraforming being present. Rush Hour just added some transportation options that were missing from the base game and gave more modding support. It didn't change the core mechanics of how Simcity 4 worked because it didn't need to. The base game already had 90% of the things the fans wanted and the expansion just added the finishing touches. Now compare that to SC2013 which is missing many of these core features from the previous games. If Maxis wants to address the major complaints coming from fans as well as gaming sites about missing foundational features that were already in the previous games (i.e. small city sizes, dead space between regions, lack of terraforming, lack of modding support at launch, if modding is even possible because the game is online, etc.), they would have to change the underlying mechanics of how the game works. Think about that for a second. Why would a professional gaming company plan to release additional content (which was already present in previous games) that changes the basic foundations of the whole game? Reboot or not, there are certain aspects of the game that should and could have already been implemented which were in the previous iterations and the devs saying that they will add that all as DLC boggles my mind since the underlying mechanics of the game would have to be completely changed. That sets the stage for a disaster. If they had already planned to eventually implement said features like they claim to, then why didn't the developers just delay the game and put them in so that it would be easier for them and they wouldn't have to mess around with an established foundation later on? As they say, don't build a house's foundation on sand if you expect it to last for a long time.

What Maxis is planning to do with fixing the game is just plain silly since these features from the previous games should have already been in SC2013 from the start or if they were not Maxis should have implemented them as soon as there was an uproar about it like there was last year when the game was announced. What they're doing is a bad business strategy that'll piss off a bunch of fans. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that from the start EA had planned to make this game a multiplayer/casual game that was dumbed down from the previous iterations and Maxis had no plans to allow things like larger cities, terraforming, etc. The only reason Ocean claims that they will eventually address the problems is because of the huge uproar. Yet instead of delaying the game so that they could efficiently implement said features, EA plans to release the game on schedule and change the underlying foundations of the game after it's released, which will be a train wreck. We have no idea if these underlying game mechanic fixes will even be made, if they'll address only some of the major complaints, and how much they're going to charge us so that we can play with these features that were already in SimCity 4. I cannot buy a game where more than 50% of the things I want are missing and I only receive a faint assurance from one of the devs that they'll eventually somehow be implemented. Fans were satisfied with SimCity 4 at release since the vast majority of their concerns were addressed and the underlying foundation was there. That is certainly not the case with SC2013 and the devs should realize this instead of burying their heads in the sand. There is no excuse to release a game with such an unstable foundation with so many core features missing that were in its prequels.

Also, the idea that they will release multiple DLCs to address the various problems is ridiculous, especially when the features being added as DLC were present in previous games. Besides the fact that the problems should have been addressed when they were first brought up last year, I have no doubt that (if the game is successful) EA will go the Sims 3 route and release multiple highly-priced expansions as well as micro DLCs. Sims 3 has 20 released or planned expansions/stuff packs that all cost $500+ if bought together. And don't forget about the Sims 3 store. When it costs $500 to get the complete experience from a game, there is something wrong with the responsible gaming company. Like I said SimCity 4 only had one expansion and only needed one expansion. It addressed the problems of the base game without changing the base mechanics.The reason they won't release just one expansion for SC2013 is because they want to obviously milk out as much money as they can out of the game. I wouldn't mind if said micro DLCs were in the $5-10 range and would gladly purchase them. But each Sims 3 expansion costs $40 at release and the stuff packs cost $20 and that to me is a slap in the face especially now that there are already 20 of them (with more undoubtedly to come) and the game is already 4 years old.

And this idea that we should wait 3-5 years for a worthy successor to Simcity 4 on the glassbox engine since they're just starting out with this reboot on a completely new engine is baloney. Simcity 4's engine was different from Simcity 3000s, and Simcity 3000s was different from Simcity 2000s. Heck Simcity 4 even had some never-before-implemented 3D elements. They had to practically work from the ground up every time they made a new SimCity game. So Maxis has no excuse to be able to move forward and build upon the previous iterations on this new engine especially since they've had 10 years to do so. Instead they moved backwards to be able to make the game multiplayer/casual-friendly and tell us to wait so they can fix these underlying mechanics after release, which may never happen. And if they do get implemented I would not be surprised if said fixes are released as micro DLCs so EA can maximize their profit. Don't get me wrong. This game has some very nice simulation features such as glassbox and the ability to add modules to buildings. But in this case the negatives far outweight the positives.

[rybolton 135]

I am coming at this topic from another angle entirely. I think that one of the reasons certain features weren't added to the core game is so that they can sell us "stuff" packs and expansions like they do with The Sims 3. They could easily put together a network add-on expansion. Or come up with new city specializations to sell us, or new building sets. The list goes on and on, but one way to ensure they have more stuff to sell us is to make sure that not all the stuff we want is in the initial release. I'm not saying they will definitely do this, but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

[Joronamo 14]

I myself am not a fan of the new franchise. While I still agree with most of you are saying in terms of business, you are forgetting one very important thing in terms of business..."What will this new game have that will make people want to ditch the old for the new." That right there is problem. They thought that 3D graphics and the new simulation engine would be enough to convince people to upgrade. When i played the BETA, I did not once feel like I was upgrading my SC experience. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

[Wiimeiser 434]

The lack of power lines isn't a big deal. If everything must be connected to the region edge by road, and roads transmit power, it'd be rather redundant, except for a few exceptional circumstances.

[Zukunftstraume 220]

Forget about the tiny details like power lines and water pipes... That's nothing compared to the things they left out.

It's like comparing having the hiccups for 10 minutes to having someone ram a titanium nail encrusted with cyanide straight through your arm. I'd rather have these tiny features be left out instead of having things as essential as God-Mode, city tiles being right next to each other, and modifiable regions be left out. How do they expect to fix something as big city tiles being unrealistically far apart from each other and tiles themselves acting as nothing more than small towns as opposed to being districts within a vibrant, mature, and realistic region like in SC4? They probably won't bother fixing it since they also made the regions have pre-made highways, railroads, etc... and also never even bothered making a tool for us to use in which we can make our own regions. If they do try to fix it, it'll be incomplete at most before the launch date (unless by some miracle they postpone the date for a few more months), if they don't try to fix it... Well, there goes their sales, and with that, there goes the SimCity series... Knowing EA though, they won't fix these things and just throw more pointless stuff at us while avoiding the larger issue(s) at hand. So, with that said:

RIP SimCity... Hopefully someone will avenge your death by taking over the genre

[Herdervriend 46]

I do not believe any off this. I do believe EA did this (not Maxis). Because they wanna earn money! Nothing more then that. There just ripping us off! Like all big companies/banks do:S

[lew1984 231]

I am coming at this topic from another angle entirely. I think that one of the reasons certain features weren't added to the core game is so that they can sell us "stuff" packs and expansions like they do with The Sims 3. They could easily put together a network add-on expansion. Or come up with new city specializations to sell us, or new building sets. The list goes on and on, but one way to ensure they have more stuff to sell us is to make sure that not all the stuff we want is in the initial release. I'm not saying they will definitely do this, but I wouldn't be at all surprised.

I agree that this will be a likely scenario for good or bad, depends how much extra content you get for your buck. My biggest problems with this game are the city sizes and always online requirements.

[DmainEvent 195]

They do indeed intend on ripping us off. I have no problem with people selling software or anything else for profit, as developers need to eat too. But the way they are going about this is just completely out of whack. As one poster on here pointed out, EA or Maxis initially thought that they could convince people to buy their new Sim City with the Glass Box engine and a couple of nice-to-haves like curvey roads alone. It will probably work with the fly-by-night casual gamers who have the attention span of 4 year-olds (nothing personal if you are that type of person, but you know it's true). Those are the type of gamer who really cares about where sim #658,232 is going to work today, where he works, what he does etc. I on the other hand could care less what an individual sim is doing at any given moment, I care about simulating a city! If you can simulate a real city (a metro-area preferably, but Ill take a city for now) and also have that level of granularity than that is a nice-to-have for me.

I must have said this a thousands times already, but once more can't hurt me... This game should have been designed with SCALABILITY OF THE SIMULATION IN MIND FROM DAY ONE. If you want to simulate everything you better make sure that it can be done on a large scale. And with today's modern computers, that means you can't literally simulate the entire region at one time. There will have to be some static (-Dead-as the devs put it), districts (I call them "focuses" because a different focus allows you to achieve a different level of simulation granularity), but you will give the allusion of one big happy metro region. IE, if the tiny maps were allowed to be contiguous (and not necessarily be square-another nice-to-have) they would have to be static, but you would have the illusion of a grand metro region when you zoomed out. When you zoom in, glassbox works its magic. That would be two "focus levels" by the way. If you design this carefully, you can have more, and make the simulation more seamless and realistic. I go into more detail about this in my other posts, if you care enough search what I have to say to learn more, but needless to say, if they thought about this when they sat down and hashed this game out, we would be in a much different place now. I suspect they might have thought about this, because the solution to tiny maps and other problems seem obvious to me (a non game developer but an application developer none-the-less). For whatever reason, they thought tiny maps wouldn't be noticed by the buying public.

This would have Expanded and Improved on the region concept they pioneered in SimCity 4. This game does not come close. Instead, they went back to Simcity 2000's model of simulating one tiny city (simulating EVERYTHING in one tiny city to be precise). Make a network of those cities, and viola, you have an always online multiplayer experience, that you can now charge monthly for expansions. But each of those cities is autonomous, and independent, but you can see each of the cities growing and improving. #SlapsForheadInFrustration.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great things in this new game that are impressive. And I am sure someone will come in here and claim that this game will be the greatest Simcity ever. Well, the game disappoints me on so many levels because it could have better with a little proper planning and maybe some community input. The defenders of this game have some points as well, but there is no doubt that it does not meet my expectations.

[Spearhead44 11]

Again, they are lying to your face when they say they will implement certain things down the road. In other games they have taken out key features and said they will address it later, only to never do so.

[croxis 150]

Random muse: What makes a feature an essential feature in SimCity?

Think about the code that computed land value in sim city classic (which also used grid-based simulation even though the grid wasn't visibily drawn). It was a formula that took in parks, pollution, crime, etc and calculated land value. I'm sure quite a bit of time was spent balancing the forumula so it made sense and was fun to play the game with. SimCity2k came around. They could take the code from sim city classic, which was already playtested and balanced, and just tweek it. They could then use the extra time and resources to add new features. This brings us to SC4 which had over a decade of playbalance, code, and testing.

EA/Maxis didn't want to use the grid simulation for SC2013. That means all of that playtesting, code, and knowledge is thrown out the window. Everything has to be redone from scratch. That is the cost of doing a simulation system that isn't on a grid. You want curvy roads? It comes at a price. This is the price.

I really do think the simulation can scale larger before it breaks. I think the issue is that EA wants an even playing field due to the cooperative/competative nature (ie the leaderboard). Because of that they limited the size so the lower end machine and the higher end machine runs the same. This is just my hunch.

[craigio86 12]

I do not believe any off this. I do believe EA did this (not Maxis). Because they wanna earn money! Nothing more then that. There just ripping us off! Like all big companies/banks do:S

Well, EA being a business and all, it's hardly surprising is it? If you worked for EA, or held shares in them, would you like to think they weren't interested in generating the revenue necessary to pay you?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Lower end machines will not be able to hit high levels of population, therefore they will be lower on leader-boards. I am almost certain an expansion pack with higher minimum requirements will further the "Pay to Win" model.

I know for a fact that High Voltage Power lines were in the alpha of the game! One of the developers mentioned an early bug that had cars fly above them. They said that they fixed that bug. I thought that meant they made Power Lines functional but it could have meant that they removed or dummied them out.

Then again, Cities XL had 20x20m, 20x40m, and 40x20m lots as part of its early zoning feature, the Mass Placement Tool.

--Ocram

[Zukunftstraume 220]

Again, they are lying to your face when they say they will implement certain things down the road. In other games they have taken out key features and said they will address it later, only to never do so.

They're only saying that because they're trying to milk as much money out of us as possible. I'm not buying that either.

[Cob92 360]

Lower end machines will not be able to hit high levels of population, therefore they will be lower on leader-boards. I am almost certain an expansion pack with higher minimum requirements will further the "Pay to Win" model.

I know for a fact that High Voltage Power lines were in the alpha of the game! One of the developers mentioned an early bug that had cars fly above them. They said that they fixed that bug. I thought that meant they made Power Lines functional but it could have meant that they removed or dummied them out.

Then again, Cities XL had 20x20m, 20x40m, and 40x20m lots as part of its early zoning feature, the Mass Placement Tool.

--Ocram

Yeah, I remember seeing power lines being built in one of the early videos last year. Seems that they just vanished afterward.

[macvirt 361]

Welcome to our wonderful industry.

When engaging in a project we create an as complete as possible design and project specification which incorporates a flexible but - again - as complete as possible branching structure of features, functionality, content and the various interdependancies between these and requirements rooted in marketing and sales directives.

To make a long story short, we have learned that not only is it cheaper to not release a full game by means of cutting out (feature creep, limits of resource allocations but most of the time conscious decisions to move elements to the side) parts which we can then take back from the shelve and sell to you for increasingly more financial gain than the actual sales of the core game itself.

We do this because it works. Y'all buy everything anyway, pretty much because of a whole lot of marketing & psychology but we can summarise it as we do everything to ensure that y'all "want to believe".

Farming, power lines, terraforming, underground infrastructure elements, regions supporting agent scaling, larger maps, modding tools, it does not matter what it is or even why something slipped down on a priority list, was sidetracked or ended up as part of a post-mortem. What matters is that we know that the reasons have zero significance, because we know that anything we chipped off we can wrap up and sell you seperately.

Come on people, it does not matter whether there is a morality attached to that or not, that is entirely subjective and individually determined. But these things should be clear to anyone who ever buys a game these days.

The people who do the hard work of design and development, they want to make a game, they make the effort to try and create entertainment. But they are not the ones who make these decisions, because it is not just about making a game and having fun with that. It is business. There are a lot of you out there, you are easy to reach and easy to lure, so we emphasise on strategy based on zero-sum thinking.

Like every industry this one is subject to change, yet as we are here and now and for the next decade a few simple things are cast in iron and gold alike:

- we do not have to make a complete game

- we do not have to make a niche game

- all we have to do is build, market and sell as cheap as possible

There are exceptions. Sometimes because a company does not want to be a sheep, sometimes because they have discovered a niche that is a match for their ability to secure funding and serve that niche. Most of the time such companies are small and independant, on occasion there's one that is big and who sees through the illusions of the DRM mentality. Overall there is an interesting observation to make: the larger a company and the more complex the ties to investment funding the more likely the guarantee that it will treat you, the customer, as nothing but a resource.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

One problem with farming is that if food is not an imported resource that is a necessity for life (funcioning/happiness of restaurants, grocers and residents), it will be that much harder to add agriculture to the game later on.

Power lines and terraforming are already in the game, even if they are unusable for consumers. Agent Scaling seems to be impossible but one thing that I heard a ton about in the early press releases is that the Glass Box can support boxes of (virtually) any size, which means that demos have small (possibly 1x1km) sizes, the full game will have medium sizes (2x2km) and later down the line, we might see large or huge sizes (3x3km, 4x4km+). The dev team never seemed to have underground mode in mind so subways would be impossible unless the player can visibly look at road tunnels for themselves (which was how Metro was possible in Cities XL 2011).

--Ocram

[Zukunftstraume 220]

Welcome to our wonderful industry.

When engaging in a project we create an as complete as possible design and project specification which incorporates a flexible but - again - as complete as possible branching structure of features, functionality, content and the various interdependancies between these and requirements rooted in marketing and sales directives.

To make a long story short, we have learned that not only is it cheaper to not release a full game by means of cutting out (feature creep, limits of resource allocations but most of the time conscious decisions to move elements to the side) parts which we can then take back from the shelve and sell to you for increasingly more financial gain than the actual sales of the core game itself.

We do this because it works. Y'all buy everything anyway, pretty much because of a whole lot of marketing & psychology but we can summarise it as we do everything to ensure that y'all "want to believe".

Farming, power lines, terraforming, underground infrastructure elements, regions supporting agent scaling, larger maps, modding tools, it does not matter what it is or even why something slipped down on a priority list, was sidetracked or ended up as part of a post-mortem. What matters is that we know that the reasons have zero significance, because we know that anything we chipped off we can wrap up and sell you seperately.

Come on people, it does not matter whether there is a morality attached to that or not, that is entirely subjective and individually determined. But these things should be clear to anyone who ever buys a game these days.

The people who do the hard work of design and development, they want to make a game, they make the effort to try and create entertainment. But they are not the ones who make these decisions, because it is not just about making a game and having fun with that. It is business. There are a lot of you out there, you are easy to reach and easy to lure, so we emphasise on strategy based on zero-sum thinking.

Like every industry this one is subject to change, yet as we are here and now and for the next decade a few simple things are cast in iron and gold alike:

- we do not have to make a complete game

- we do not have to make a niche game

- all we have to do is build, market and sell as cheap as possible

There are exceptions. Sometimes because a company does not want to be a sheep, sometimes because they have discovered a niche that is a match for their ability to secure funding and serve that niche. Most of the time such companies are small and independant, on occasion there's one that is big and who sees through the illusions of the DRM mentality. Overall there is an interesting observation to make: the larger a company and the more complex the ties to investment funding the more likely the guarantee that it will treat you, the customer, as nothing but a resource.

I still have my doubts that they'll add in all our demands... But regardless, EA probably has a joint secret contract with Wal-Mart somewhere, because that's EXACTLY how they're acting right now. Bloody over-capitalistic knuckledraggers...

[Marines 3]

First post and all.

I recently purchased SC4 via Steam. I hadn't played it in years and decided to give it a go again. I'm really enjoying it. That said, I don't foresee this iteration being a success at all for a variety of reasons. After reading the posts over at the EA forums I canceled my pre-order, and I'm glad I did. The maps are small, the visuals overtly cartoonish, the DRM scheme a no go, and the forced social/online component is not warranted in a game like this. What I find truely ridiculous is that so many people keep pointing to the Maxis statement on modding, that it'll somehow vastly improve and or save the game. Yeah well, good luck with that. Not only have they been absolutely vague on how and what can be modded, but does anyone actually think they'll allow anything into the game (via modders) that will hamper DLC sales? I think not.

I'm passing on this iteration in the series, and from what I can tell, so are a great many others.

[nuyokcity 22]

It seems like there are a variety of reasosns why any and all features that various fans would like to be included in their dream version of the game can or can't be included...  That said it does seem there has been a trend among various game genres in recent years or the past decade of simplifying games (in some good) and bad ways, forcing always online internet connections, creating half-finished games as money can be charged for additional features later which aren't always up to quality as a good quality expansion might be, etc...

 

Another recent example is Diablo 3, you can read a lot of the critical comments out there and some of them mention similar issues of companies that become too big and greedy.  So they don't have to make a good quality game that puts the power into the creativity of the users with modding capabilities and building community.

 

A side thought is how maybe they "took too long" to make follow ups to series like Simcity and Diablo, there could have been new games in between now and the last in the series so maybe in some past setting there was a chance to make a better game than the new "not up to expectations" or potential versions.

 

However I also wanted to point out that Simcity 4 still has a great modding community and there are many, many attempts and succeses at making independent mods and modern city building games.  You can check out a list of these indie games and others and people are still discussing the possibility of making an independent Simcity game to rival Simcity 5 here.  So maybe there's potential for the missing features to become a reality in a community-made and kickstarted version?

[Urban Cartographer 601]

The largest (and most ambitious) of the independent projects to rival SimCity 2013 is Buggi's Boomtown.  I help Buggi with coming up with some ideas regarding Boomtown.

[nuyokcity 22]

The largest (and most ambitious) of the independent projects to rival SimCity 2013 is Buggi's Boomtown.  I help Buggi with coming up with some ideas regarding Boomtown.

 

Yeah I forgot about this one as well!  As there are a bunch of projects still ongoing...  Any increased support or at least more visibility of the independent games is a good thing.  I'll try to do what I can but since I'm not wealthy I can just gather info and post links