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As far as my screenshot releasing methods, let me explain my reasoning for this. Recently I posted a new screenshot of harvest here (http://www.moddb.com/mods/obsidian-conf ... 135-forest) and someone posted the following comment:
Now of course, the map isn't any bigger. Yes it has many new features, but as far as being physically bigger it is not, there aren't any new areas. But from this screenshot this person assumed from the mountains that the map is now so big that there should be a new spa. Now once 1.35 is released and he sees that the mountains are purely graphical, he will be disappointed. Maybe not completely let down, but he'll just look around and think "Oh. Guess it's not any bigger."if there's gonna be a bigger map, maybe another spa or something would help.
Obviously this small instance isn't a big deal, but this is what happens when you release too much media and information about something without it being actually playable yet. People get too excited about new supposed features and improvements and begin to extrapolate the improvements far beyond what they actually are, and end up disappointed when the the product is actually released and it doesn't meet up to their unrealistic expectations. This happens especially when you exaggerate information or post deceiving screenshots.
And its not just about the content you have. So far I've been pretty quiet about the new features in harvest because I can't always be sure if they will be in the final release; they may cause too much crashing to I may have pushed the entity limit to far. So far nothing has had to be removed, but if I did post information about one of the bigger new things and then suddenly removed them from the actual release, that's the kind of thing that really lets people down.
On top of that, its always important to have something in a map to "surprise" the players. For anyone who has played oc_wildfire, you'll notice that nowhere have I ever posted any media or given any information about the finale section of that map. That is because I worked to make that section's gameplay rather unexpected to give players a fresh experience and didn't want it given away by the official media. Then again, now see what I've just done? Now for anyone who hasn't played oc_wildfire I've given the notion of this "mysterious finale section" which in their minds could be anything. I'm hoping players will like it but of course its not going to be the damn second coming of Christ. But in the minds of those who haven't played, it could be anything.
So that's basically why I don't release much information. I'm definitely not saying my way is the best, in fact it's very flawed in that it's become obvious the importance of advertising and sometimes you have to give away some of your best stuff to get people's attention to play in the first place. Recently I have been posting more often compared to before as I do agree that I sometimes am overly quiet about what I'm working on. It's hard to maintain a balance between getting people excited for your creations and spoiling it for them.
