Current Status as of March 2018

[mentaltyranny]

Jessie Black (or whomever),

I was wondering what is the current status of the game? I have been patiently waiting since Gamestop took preorders in 2013 (and then returned them in early 2014). Although I am a lawyer, I do have associate's degree in Game design, so I was wondering if maybe I could ask a couple questions, that if answered, might give us an idea what's going on here.

What development stage is UFO: Battle for Mercury in? Pre-alpha, alpha, beta, or (if we are all really lucky) gold?
What version number is current build of UFO: Battle for Mercury in?
Does the development team include any exclusive, full-time coder or game programmer not working elsewhere?
How many pages is your game Bible?
What is your current estimated release date?

I really believe answering these questions will help ease the community's mind over this game. As kickstarter has proven, people are willing to wait as long as expectations don't change frequently. Having release dates ever pushing forward by six-month intervals is very frustrating and damaging to the community. Bottom line, people loved UFO: Extraterrestrials, so you know they loved your work, don't ruin it by bad community management. If this game will be released until 2022, just say it! Trust me, the community will slowly grow by then…

I'm sure many people have already suggested this, but I'm going to go ahead and offer. Being both a lawyer and game designer, I would love to help you guys. I have some other questions, which I think might be the cause of your problems, but I don't want to go into them here. Let me know…

[Centro]

As you can see they don't visit here often. They finally stopped listing the quarter of the release date and switched it to just "2018". So I'd say they have no idea of when (if ever) it will be released. I also anticipated the game in 2013. Well. Here we are 5 YEARS later and no game. So basically I would have serious reservations about this title even if it is eventually released. Calling this "bad community management" is an understatement. I'd call it terrible community management. Can you imagine how long we would have to wait if it needed to be patched? I'm wondering if the team is actually one person. That would explain a lot. You make a good point though. Just tell us what's actually going on devs if anything. That would be a gift.

[Godwin]

Please just tell us.

UFO: Extraterrestrials gold (with bman's additions) is still the BEST EVER in its genre, just reinstalled it for another playthrough.

Would very much like this sequal (if it's near or better than UFO:ET gold).

[Workbench]

Sometimes, small game developers get help with grants from areas like Go-Fundme or Kick-Starter. However, in order to legally keep these grants, they have to be at least developing the game. Otherwise, those providing the grants will attempt to claw them back. In some countries, the legal pressure to abide by your promise of why you asked and received your funds can get somewhat serious. Right to the point of committing a crime and being dealt with through the criminal court system. I hoping this is not the case here. I do know that many people who pre-ordered their game back in 2013 through Electronic Boutique never received any refund as EB never received any refund payments. Again, I hope this is not the case.

I’ve seen many games released well within a timeline much smaller than here.

Just release the game already. If part of it isn’t complete, turn that part off and continue development and release that in an update like a patch or DLC. But just release it already. You may have to redevelop the game as the PC may not be around that much longer. Or most of us that played the original Microprose game may not be around that much longer.

[mentaltyranny]

I don't know of any grant this game may have received... I thought the developers would check in once per month at least. What's is so weird is that the game does not appear completely abandoned. I thankfully did get a refund from Gamestop in 2014 I believe. It's sad because UFOextraterrestrials Gold + grayfiend's mod was simply amazing. I really hope we hear from Jessie Black soon.