I'm wishing TDL devs all the best of luck and success, as I do for all indie devs, but seeing this makes me want to voice my opinion which I have kept to myself until now. I watched with interest as PZ and TDL developed side by side, since both were zombie survival themed games with the only major difference being isometric vs first person. With both games being in alpha, I was completely prepared to see game-crippling bugs, accompanied by a slow arc of progression. As PZ developed, the devs posted demos, blogs and videos, saying "Here is where we are, we acknowledge the bugs and we know we have far to go." Whilst PZ (in the early days) was getting lashed out of it by unhelpfully harsh critiques on a game they acknowledged was unfinished, TDL was generating huge hype on nothing but promises and concept art (inc fan-made concept art). Their kickstarter campaign reached almost 3 times it's goal without a single proof of concept other than a textured item or two. I sat quietly as fans in TDL forums pitched ideas and talked about the massively overreaching concepts the indie devs were going to achieve, without a single dissenting voice or skeptic on the forums. I tried to be supportive and not be condescending for the devs' sakes, since for all I knew they could pull it off. Now that videos and playable demos are out, I'm annoyed. I applaud them for undertaking such an ambitious project, but I hate the exploitative business model that is a consequence of Steam's otherwise awesome Early-Access/Greenlight system. If you pitch in on a Kickstarter project you know you are really just supporting an idea that may or may not manifest into a quality product. But a product on Early Access should have some resemblance of a playable product -- there should be some standard of quality. What TDL is now is a tech demo, or a concept demo. I'm not bothered they have not reached the overstretched goals they set themselves (hopefully they will one day) -- I'm bothered they are still selling a concept like it is a product. For two games that took off together, look at where PZ is now in comparison to TDL. I know they are not the same game and development for both have varying times, but what I am getting at is that at the stage it is i now, I see PZ as absolutely deserving of an Early Access status, yet the devs themselves don't want to exploit their game until it has passed their own standards check. TIS are still my fave indie studio because of their humility.
