Here you go, read it and come back to us with your thoughts. The thread is open for any kind of discussion related to these latest news.
https://www.airportceo.com/devlog-81-testing-testing-postponing/
Now, per usual, back to the code.
19 Likes
This was expected i guess, external testing started a bit late. Might be worthy to invite some of the trustworthy community members or leaders and give them a branch to test along with your family and friends?
5 Likes
I completely understand having to postpone but is there any rough estimate on when it may be released or maybe a cost?
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It’s very frustrating hopefully we get constant communication, even outside the once a week devlog. People want to play and expected it way back in April. However, it is understandable but hopefully we get more communication and hopefully it’ll be September. I’d hate to see people lose interest in a potentially great game, because of constant postponement. Still have faith though, but definitely frustrating. Perhaps selected forum members could help with further testing to get ball rolling faster?
Edit: Olof and Fredrik have been open on a lot of things I understand that and I applaud them for it. But I’m just asking that we get consistent updates on the release. I don’t know if I can wait past September into October. I’ll buy the game for sure but starting school in October and I’d love to play this before my life is taken up. The frustration is directly due to ridiculous amount of excitement to play this great looking game. Most devs care only about the money not the greater picture.
12 Likes
I respect the decision of the developers, 1000%. Thats a very hard decision to make. My only thing is that i’m just slightly annoyed of the amount of confidence they had in when they would release the game. But they didnt reslly have another option. I very respect them for the amount of hard work and effort they have put into making the best game possible. Lets give them luck in being able to fix those bugs as soon as poosible!
4 Likes
Small bugs, we can live with. Game breaking bugs, take your time to solve them before you release.
We may be desperate to get our hands on the gane, but it is your reputation at stake. Get it right the 1st time.
13 Likes
Pretty understandable. In that case take your time, I would rather have a bug free clean game to play for a while rather than have it buggy and constantly need to wait for an update of cleared bugs. Maybe it’s just me. Good job anyways!
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While this sucks, I for one completely understand this decision. External testing is a vital part of the product release process. It is often overlooked and as a result exposes game breaking bugs at or close to release. Missed deadlines suck, but broken product is much worse. Take your time and meet your standards. People will buy this game when it’s released whether it is now or later!
Thanks for the transparency and keep up the great work!
7 Likes
There is another way actually and one could consider it a compromise between the two paths.
1.) Have a vote amongst those that have already tested it, with the question being analogous to something like, “Do you think Airport CEO is ready to be released as an Early Access Alpha game?” The vote should be completely advisory.
2.) If the vote is yes, explain the reasons, explain the condition of the game and than think about it to yourselves about releasing.
3.) If the vote is no, same as above.
@Olof @Fredrik You guys have been amazing and open and you should be commended it for it in every way possible for your openness and inclusiveness. You guys have made some mistakes in the past, but have absolutely honest, humble and open. Traits rare these days it seems.
I’m not criticizing and I hope my suggestion isn’t seen in that fashion, indeed, game breaking bugs should be solved prior to release, but minor bugs, believe me, from the amount of support I have seen, and the levels of interest that have been expressed by many members of this community, you will all weather it just fine.
Another factor that you guys may want to consider from a marketing standpoint is that, hype is high due to being near release. Dampening that hype to may have also have negative consequences if not careful.
You guys, regardless of what happens, regardless of the decision made, will go incredibly far with this title for the thoughtfulness, inclusiveness and quality of work shown thus far.
18 Likes
Perfectly well said
1 Like
Disappointed but I completely understand. I would much rather have a game with game breaking bugs taken care of than not. Totally agree that a huge majority of people that buy EA titles don’t realize or want to accept that it can, and most often does, mean bugs and unfinished/un-implimented items.
While the community would most likely accept the game right now, if it hit steam with major bugs, the reviews would quickly hit negative and any positive reviews would be seen as "fan boy’ reviews.
Agree with what was said in a few comments before me, minor bugs, release, major bugs hold off. @Olof an @Fredrik, just keep open with the fan/community and most of us (hopefully) will be okay with pushed release dates to fix major bugs. Keep up the hard work.
7 Likes
i think you should postpone the relese that way you can get a great review for the hard work you all have done. A great way to get better feedback is by giving a paid tech demo so its like preorder! I love what you guys are doing!!
3 Likes
I want to provide a bit of advice as someone who bought into Prison Architect ¶ all the way back in 2012 when it was in alpha version 1. As most are aware, this game sold millions of copies and received widespread acclaim. I consider them to in general be a good model for others going down a similar path, particularly with systems-driven, construction and management games like PA (such as ACEO).
1. The game at initial release needs to have minimal functionality: playable, not bug free. PA in alpha 1 was playable but it was bare bones. You could barely build a prison and that’s about it. Prisoners had little presence and you had few options to interact with them, but the game was already fun to play because I could sense the possibilities and understood that the developers, like @Olof and @Fredrik, knew what they were doing and were committed to making the game better over time.
2. Don’t add new features or change existing ones at all until release. Do the minimum required to fix game breaking bugs and that’s it. People have given suggestions and you have graciously implemented some of them, but really no one truly knows what they want yet. Virtually none of those offering such suggestions have played the game, so they can’t really know what they want. The more you change the more bugs you’ll introduce and that will only delay things further. People would take a playable but incomplete game over no game at all any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
3. Remember that adding new features is easier with a huge community playing the game that can identify bugs and help you reproduce them. People buying into early access don’t just want to play the game, they want to be part of the process, and that can’t happen until the game is available. PA was broken many times when new features were added well into its time in early access, it was fine. The community identified them, the devs fixed them quickly and all was well.
4. And whatever everyone says, release the game when you feel it’s playable not before. I totally get that it’s your reputation on the line. On the other hand, don’t worry about negative Steam reviews. There are thousands of people that want to play your game, are already ready to buy it, and won’t care about bugs. Even some game-breaking bugs are forgivable in early access. Early Access means active development, which means we know that at some point, no matter how clean the game is on release, it will become messier and have to be cleaned up again. When it comes to Early Access, good enough is the new perfect.
32 Likes
Better to wait for a playable game than suffer the frustration of a seriously broken one.Regardless of when its released, I for one am well and truly hooked and even if it took a year, I would still be here, waiting patiently and participating in conversations here on the forum. 
3 Likes
Disappointed. 
Nothing more to say.
9 Likes
Disappointed as well I feel like that should have been a community decision to vote … Telling people the game is not what you expect it to be and its major bugs … You could also start giving copies away to famous YouTube people to help bridge the gap so we can be entertained while you guys are still are working on the game.
5 Likes
@pderuiter So now you’ve gotta tell us how you got 25th and whether your skills as an oracle can tell us when the new internal date is 
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I’m more than willing to help you test and find bugs.
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Yeah, you know, my friend pointed this out to me; We would be more than willing to sign an NDA, buy the game as-is, and help bug squash.
With an NDA, no videos, no posting, no word of mouth of any kind about the game (except to you devs) until it is lifted, and help you with testing. I would love to do that actually.
3 Likes
I would be willing to do this. I can sit and play for hours on end help get bugs bashed
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