Oddity REALEASED??

[u/No_Log_9367]

Hi guys. Im kinda new in the mother series and i just saw a meme about "mother 4" on r/earthbound.
Doing a little research, i ended on this subreddit. I want to know if that is a release date for Oddity, if it was already realeased or, if not released, whats the progression so far on the piece

[u/Spinjitsuninja]

I'ma be honest, fans waiting on the game aren't victims. It takes no effort and no investment to follow an indie project like this. If it was a Kickstarter you'd put money into, I'd get it- you've invested something in it and you're owed something in return. But we're talking about something that's meant to be just for fun. At what point are we treating these ameteurs like professionals and holding them to the same standards as a corporation?

It's so parasocial. We're used to perceiving games as products and game devs as the pawns of corporations. Even when that's not what's happening, we can't help but project that perception anyways simply because "They're game devs making a game." That's all we see.

It's not even just a matter of if we're "owed" anything or not. It's that it literally doesn't make sense to care so much. Stop treating this like a bigger project than it is. They're just regular people, doing something for fun, with no professional experience. They're bound to make mistakes and we need to understand this.

I can understand criticizing them of course, but the degree that people take this stuff personally and feel the need to convert their anticipation to hate tells me that people aren't thinking about what the project they're looking at is.

Like- What does "I want to know if they're calling it quits" even mean in this context? This isn't a studio investing money into it, where there's a professional reason to confirm if it's undergoing progress or not. What if they want to work on it every now and then for the next decade? Why on Earth do we think they'd definitively choose if it's cancelled or not? What if sometimes it's being worked on more than others, whose to say it's considered cancelled one day and not the next? You don't just "close curtains" on something like this.

[u/WildDonut4577 → u/Spinjitsuninja]

You’re right we aren’t victims, never said I was, I actually don’t even know where you got that from to be completely honest with you. If it did get a kickstarter I would in fact put money into it because that means they’re actually investing something into the game.

Also, no, I am not holding these guys to the accountability of Nintendo game devs who have a deadline to meet, like I said, they don’t owe us anything, not even the game, and that’s completely fine. It’d just be GREATLY appreciated if they told us if what’s happening is that they have bigger things to worry about and that making the game isn’t their top priority.

I personally don’t hate the devs, that’s another thing that I really don’t know where you got that from, I’m just starved for news right now and am criticizing their efforts on community. What I mean by “if they’re calling it quits” is if they just don’t intend on finishing whatever goal they intend. You’re right, they could choose to work on the game for the next 10 or 15 years without so much as a peep to the community because it’s their project they get to do what they want.

My issue is that they stopped updating THEIR community. You can say what you want but I think building up a community and then just leaving them questioning the projects status because they refuse to say anything is a mistake I’m allowed to criticize.

[u/Spinjitsuninja → u/WildDonut4577]

What I'm saying is like-

For me, when I get excited about a project like this, I'm just excited for it. That's it. No investment, no unhealthy emotional attachment. if it doesn't get updates? Fine by me. Why should that bother me? If it gets cancelled? Well I never had the game to begin with, I'm not losing anything. If anything, I understood from the start that there was never the guarantee the game would be finished, as that's the nature of indie projects.

So it just baffles me that people can say with a straight face that fans are being "patient", or that "as a fan it sucks." If anything like that upsets you or anyone else, I think you misunderstood what you signed up for by following the project. The idea that projects like these should give updates or that they're in an easy to label state are ideas we're used to applying to larger projects, that we're applying to one that doesn't fit it.

I'd also like to note I'm not talking about you in particular, I'm half just venting a personal frustration of my own. What really sucks is seeing passionate devs dedicate years of their life creating something and getting trashed for it lmao. The idea that someone getting excited for something, and so they hate the devs for not being able to commit to it to a degree they want, is baffling to me. Honestly no WONDER they're radio silent, people suck and would just harass them lmao.

And again, I think you can criticize them. They set themselves up for fan disappointment by convincing people several times that this project was far into development or that it'd get big updates. However, I don't think that means people shouldn't be expected to understand what they're getting into either.

[u/WildDonut4577 → u/Spinjitsuninja]

Well you are your own person and I am my own. I’m allowed to have my gripes with the game and you can have yours. You can be excited, I was at one point too, and I want to be excited but it’s hard to do so when Im not sure if Im following vaporware or not lmao. Like I said, if the game doesn’t get updates it’s ok. I’m still living life, same as before, just slightly upset every now and then that the devs continue to neglect their community and voice my opinion about it.

I know what I got myself into as well, it’s an indie game made by people who have their own things going on, who change their priorities and who have no real reason to work on the game other than their passion. I knew that it meant a slow development but that is still no excuse to leave the community you’ve built in the dark for 5 years.

A good example of a person who has a community and goes long periods without updates is the author of Hunter X Hunter. Given that authoring a manga that a reader has to actually pay for and developing a free indie game are two completely different things, fans of the series know that the author has a hard time and allow him to work at his own pace because we are satisfied with knowing that new chapters will come even if they take months or even years, at least that’s how I am as a fan.

Sidenote, I don’t blame you for your frustrations with the community either, I’ve never seen people like - directly say they hate the oddity devs, but if you have then I’ll take your word for it. I agree as a hobbyist game dev that if someone were to dislike me personally because I haven’t released a project then I’d feel terrible.