Originally posted by sarteck:

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

To be quite frank, a year to get 2-3 new team members "up to speed" on what was previously the work of 5 people is probably... just about right.

Uh, no, not at all. I know you've mentioned having done coding since the mid-80's, but this is DEFINITELY not actual job experience. If it takes you a YEAR to contribute to the team, your team is crap or you are.

Don't forget that we're talking an indie team, here, not a triple-A megacorp. I wasn't trying to say that was typical, I was saying it could easily be the case.

You're right, though, a year is a long time... but I'm guessing the coding standards aren't exactly "maximally efficient", and there could be any number of other issues, such as not having a standardized workflow or toolchain, some people keeping "secret" code stashes, or any number of other... "less than completely professional" development practices.

We've already seen that the development process isn't anywhere near as efficient as it could be (even before adding more chefs to the kitchen), but some of us simply accept that as the completely reasonable down-side of buying into an indie Early-Access title. This is actually typical for studios being published by Coffee Stain, and often the "it'll release when it's finished" mentality results in a superior finished product...

... eventually.