Cloud Imperium have provided an update as to why news of Squadron 42, the single-player module of Star Citizen, was delayed, citing a video which wasn’t up to their usual standard.
The post is actually quite lengthy and discusses a few different Squadron 42 videos in addition to their regular monthly reports and updates. However, the meat of the communication arrives in the middle of the post,
“Originally, we thought we could simply splice in fresh b-roll, but as we spent the next few days reviewing the show, we saw the need to update our visuals to better reflect what we were discussing, and that led us to the realization that we still didn’t have the right footage, at our quality bar, to tell the story we wanted to tell. So, we ended up deciding to re-shoot the entire episode with our usual quality standards. As mentioned, The Briefing Room was never meant to be such a disruption to the team that we would prioritize footage for the show above our internal milestones for development. Therefore, our SQ42 art team could only work on capturing new footage after normal work hours. Add to the mix that key personnel were actually out sick for over a week, and you can see how our schedule kept getting pushed back further and further.”
They continue, citing the effort required to create quality content which is up to their own internal standards,
“Something that’s often not seen externally is the actual amount of time and effort it takes to put together the video content we regularly release. Delivering the updates to the standards we want takes time, and despite those saying they would be fine with a rough cut of talking heads, we get endless complaints when that’s what we deliver, example being that the Monthly Reports or linked examples above are quickly dismissed or forgotten. The SQ42 video is still coming (probably in the next few weeks), along with an assortment of other updates, including an overhaul to our Public Roadmap.”
They conclude, discussing how they want to deliver communications moving forward:
- Give an explanation of the goals of our new Roadmap and what to expect from it
- Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
- Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of our core teams
- And then finally transition to this new Roadmap
