View Full Version : Development Team Size
Airget
10-14-2011, 05:47 PM
I"m just gonna put this here for fun just cause I saw it on the XIV manifesto of changes and such. So apparently they have over 250 working on the game and if you look at everything noted it shows. It really does make me wonder how much the XI team has working for them. Based on content release and mainly focusing on balancing the game I would imagine the numbers are low, but how low exactly. A part of me wants to say 50, though that may be generous. It just makes you think, if XI had 250 working on it like XIV we'd prolly have all the continents released by now. Though I guess on the plus they are going to start charging them in novemeber/december so they won't really be bleeding as much money as they were before.
On a slight edit, the other reason why I"m posting this is because it's just disheartening while XIV gets this extravagant and quite beautiful looking adjustment over the next few months all we know about XI is they are still doing the pumpkin contest. .. . Hurray? It be nice if perhaps we could get some news to blow us out of the water and revitalize the game.
Atomic_Skull
10-14-2011, 05:51 PM
I"m just gonna put this here for fun just cause I saw it on the XIV manifesto of changes and such. So apparently they have over 250 working on the game and if you look at everything noted it shows. It really does make me wonder how much the XI team has working for them. Based on content release and mainly focusing on balancing the game I would imagine the numbers are low, but how low exactly. A part of me wants to say 50, though that may be generous. It just makes you think, if XI had 250 working on it like XIV we'd prolly have all the continents released by now. Though I guess on the plus they are going to start charging them in novemeber/december so they won't really be bleeding as much money as they were before.
On a slight edit, the other reason why I"m posting this is because it's just disheartening while XIV gets this extravagant and quite beautiful looking adjustment over the next few months all we know about XI is they are still doing the pumpkin contest. .. . Hurray? It be nice if perhaps we could get some news to blow us out of the water and revitalize the game.
With only around 30k subscribers (and that number likely to go down once they start charging) I imagine it will be bleeding money only slightly less than it is now.
Krashport
10-14-2011, 05:53 PM
Once SE start charging them, I'd say about 80% of FFXIV members will jump ship and quit, most are there just for the free ride.
Rearden
10-14-2011, 06:04 PM
So November/December is when the FFXI subscription rate increases? Got ya.
Runespider
10-14-2011, 08:28 PM
When you have your playerbase addicted is the point you can treat them like crap, the sub fee has remained the same since release and the quality and amount of content we get in updates gets less and less all the time.
FFXIV is a whole different situation though, they are putting so much effort it to fix it because it's all about saving face. If they actually do manage to turn it around they will syphon almost all that staff off and run it the same as they run FFXI.
Greatguardian
10-15-2011, 12:01 AM
I'd guess at closer to 5 people on the FFXI Dev team. Maybe 10. It's not like they're making a new game or expansion, they're just working with a development toolkit and existing code.
Runespider
10-15-2011, 02:30 AM
I'd guess at closer to 5 people on the FFXI Dev team. Maybe 10. It's not like they're making a new game or expansion, they're just working with a development toolkit and existing code.
As sad as it is, this is probably very close to the number. Last patch was laughable and they didnt even add what they said they would.
Didn't they say the had 6 people on 11?
minimum size for a dev team doing this much work is about 20-30. any less and the updates would take 3 times as long, and they would be biannually. (and tiny by comparison)
They said that the last patch was a "major one", apparently. (Sept 19) I read this when going over a mod's quoted post and couldn't believe what I read. ._.
svengalis
10-15-2011, 07:38 AM
Once SE start charging them, I'd say about 80% of FFXIV members will jump ship and quit, most are there just for the free ride.
Technically I am a subscriber although I have not logged in in months. And yeah I wont be paying for a game that wont be finished until the end of next year.
Greatguardian
10-15-2011, 07:55 AM
minimum size for a dev team doing this much work is about 20-30. any less and the updates would take 3 times as long, and they would be biannually. (and tiny by comparison)
Where in the world are you getting those numbers from? They don't need artists or engine work done. They just need a few people to work with a pre-developed toolkit to generate new content.
Rearden
10-15-2011, 07:57 AM
The only new skin I can think of since Abyssea is Mantis, Harpie and Hahava and that's probably something they already had and just never released.
coder's ( new abilities/adjustments) artists (mobs/gear) animators, effects artists, writers, internal testing, just to name a few of the basics. a lot is recycled, but it all has to go through different parts of the team. there is also the overhead people, and localization which isnt always concidered, but actually contributes to development. as well as the various directors (battle, quest, systems) and finally the producer.
if you count the directors into doing multiple parts covering some code, and doubling as writers, that's still much much more work than a 6 man team could feasibly carry.. doing 4 major/3 minor updates a year. putting 2-3 people per area, leads to between 20 and 30 people. i didn't list all of the jobs required, just the ones involved per patch off the top of my head.
Gennadi
10-15-2011, 04:53 PM
all we know about XI is they are still doing the pumpkin contest. .. ..
I lub pumpkins
Buffy
10-15-2011, 11:40 PM
The only thing I'm certain is that none of us have a damn clue how many people are currently responsible for the development of future content for FFXI.
Well I think it's a given that there are "a lot" of people involved in videogames. But I think whenever someone around here mentions the word developers, we're just thinking of the hand full of people that are responsible for what we get, and not so much everyone involved in getting what we get to us. Basically the bare bones of it all. But do remember SE has mentioned that FFXI has a small crew and they work "overtime" to do their jobs.
In regards to those people, I very much appreciate the work that they do. Whenever I talk smack my guns are pretty much aimed straight at the people in charge. Leaders are held responsible for success and failure. And the leaders at SE have many black marks in the MMO 'verse as far as I am concerned. Too much "we know what WE want/we know what's best for you" and not enough "we want to know what YOU want/what you say is best for you". Their worst mistake - treating MMOs like they're offline games and not listening to what their paying customers want. I guess it's a rough ride for any newbie to get into a new market but there's not many excuses to be had when your second MMO flops because you didn't learn anything the first time around and decided you wanted to reinvent the wheel.
Catsby
10-16-2011, 06:20 AM
I remember asking about the FFXI developers some time ago. The names listed in the credits suggest there are a ton of people still working on it but they could easily be credited for expansion work years ago.
As far as I'm concerned though it's a skeleton crew.
Babekeke
10-16-2011, 07:07 AM
For some reason, I'm sure that we were told at some point that there are 15 people on the dev team for ffxi.
Also I'm surprised that they plan to charge from nov/dec, when they're completely revamping the game (from what a friend told me - I didn't read the ffxiv stuff) in Jan 2013.
I'm technically a subscriber, but since I never bought any crista, or submitted my account details for ffxiv (I hope) they won't be taking any money from me, and my account will simply fade away. Assuming that the new payment method that we made for ffxi doesn't allow payments for ffxiv too. I'll have to keep an eye out for any additional payments being taken, I guess.
Hashmalum
10-16-2011, 07:58 AM
Personally, I am willing to bet that FFXIV has ten times the number of personnel devoted to its development as FFXI.
Personally, I am willing to bet that we will never, ever, be officially given information on just how few people FFXI has at this point.
Personally, I am willing to bet that if the facts were known, there would be a major player revolt.
Buffy
10-16-2011, 08:03 AM
Personally, I am willing to bet that FFXIV has ten times the number of personnel devoted to its development as FFXI.
Personally, I am willing to bet that we will never, ever, be officially given information on just how few people FFXI has at this point.
Personally, I am willing to bet that if the facts were known, there would be a major player revolt.
.......... You started each 3 of your sentences "Personally,"
Personally, I find that annoying.
As for a major player revolt...lol? They banned people for salvage duping and they came back. They ban people for fish botting, and they come back. They ban people on the forums for 48 hours, and they come back.
I think they could tell us they have a retarted monkey and a rabbit on a ferris wheel doing updates and we would still pay.
the most recent credits screen was wotg i believe? and most of the team was stripped during/after the completion of wotg i think. so i doubt those numbers are accurate, as it probably includes people that changed projects a year ago.
I"m just gonna put this here for fun just cause I saw it on the XIV manifesto of changes and such. So apparently they have over 250 working on the game and if you look at everything noted it shows. It really does make me wonder how much the XI team has working for them. Based on content release and mainly focusing on balancing the game I would imagine the numbers are low, but how low exactly. A part of me wants to say 50, though that may be generous. It just makes you think, if XI had 250 working on it like XIV we'd prolly have all the continents released by now. Though I guess on the plus they are going to start charging them in novemeber/december so they won't really be bleeding as much money as they were before.
On a slight edit, the other reason why I"m posting this is because it's just disheartening while XIV gets this extravagant and quite beautiful looking adjustment over the next few months all we know about XI is they are still doing the pumpkin contest. .. . Hurray? It be nice if perhaps we could get some news to blow us out of the water and revitalize the game.
Some news to blow us out of the water? I thought they haven't even finished implementing the level 99cap news that blew us out the water.