What We Lost...

[MasteroftheTDS]

Hello everyone, 

Been a long time since I have been on the forums, not sure anyone will even remember me. Regardless, I decided to come back to shed some light on certain things that occurred during the development of Hamlet and what I believe went wrong. First let me answer some basic questions:

It's years later, why would anyone care what went wrong? I think it's more for me and anyone who loves single player Don't Starve that I am making this post. 

Where have you been and how do you know all this information? I fell out of love with the game after everything that went on with Hamlet and the QOL update so I left the forums. As far as my information, I won't reveal my sources as I am not going to get anyone into trouble except possibly myself and some of the information is more speculation, based on the facts I do have. 

When the new Hamlet DLC was announced, people like myself were ecstatic because some of us fell in love with Don't Starve Single player before DST even existed. We were promised many things, and while I know the developers did their best, some of what was promised, was never realized. Many people were upset and demanded answers for why the promised changes were never implemented or made, but we were dismissed or met with silence. Here are the facts:

• There was 100% more content made for Hamlet that was not implemented. 
• The game code for single player is a mess and made it extremely difficult for bug fixes and new things to be implemented.
• The entire Hamlet DLC was used as a way to test out character mechanics for new DST characters that would be created down the line.
• Wagstaff was the main reason the DLC was created as Klei needed a way to bring this popular character from the lore into the game for their later animated shorts. 
• There was a major time crunch to get the DLC out, and the Devs were very short handed. 
• The beta testing debacle ended up forcing Klei to give out the game to many for free.
• Very little profit is made via DS single player, DST is where the money is. 

To summarize, the Hamlet DLC was left incomplete for these various reasons and while the game breaking bugs were fixed (for the most part) the game was left in an incomplete state and the devs never clarified the situation. This post might get me into trouble, but I wanted to speak my mind and I accept the repercussions. 

At the end of the day, I am one of the many who fell in love with Don't Starve from single player and I am sad to see the state it's been left in while DST goes on and spirals off into the future. DST was never my cup of tea because I felt it lacked something DS single player had. In the state it's in now, however, single player DS has lost some, but not all of it's magic. I wish the very best for Klei going forward, I just wish they could have been a little more honest about what went on and that they didn't leave the original game in the state it in. Without DS single player, DST would not exist. I hope one day, Klei decides to right their wrongs with single player so it can again be something enjoyed by many for many years to come.

Perhaps one day that will become reality, until such time, stay well my friends.

-MasteroftheTDS

 

 

[finn from human]

On 12/21/2022 at 9:20 PM, MasteroftheTDS said:

As far as my information, I won't reveal my sources as I am not going to get anyone into trouble except possibly myself

This post might get me into trouble, but I wanted to speak my mind and I accept the repercussions.

I want to start out by saying I think it's very very easy to say "I have inside sources and Klei Is Going To Hurt Me For This, but I have to speak my mind". I could do this and just have a post saying the opposite things and it'd have just as much credibility. Aside from that, though...

On 12/21/2022 at 9:20 PM, MasteroftheTDS said:

• The entire Hamlet DLC was used as a way to test out character mechanics for new DST characters that would be created down the line.

This feels like a wildly inefficient way to do what you're suggesting. Making an entire new world full of new content, which mind you all takes tons of art and animation and code to put in even without considering balancing and such, so you can test out... I don't know, werewilba? And see if you want Woodie to be like that I guess? I think it's very much true that the way characters were received and such influenced the way they started being designed in DST, but the idea that the entire world was made for it is super silly, especially when the only character there early on was Warbucks (the most standard boring DS character ever), and then pre-rework Wilba (afraid of the dark and gets twigs and grass from pigs as her only perks, basically).

On 12/21/2022 at 9:20 PM, MasteroftheTDS said:

• Wagstaff was the main reason the DLC was created as Klei needed a way to bring this popular character from the lore into the game for their later animated shorts. 

 

This also feels like such an inefficient way to do so...? Heck, he wasn't even a Hamlet character by the way! He was added to the base game alongside fences and bundling wraps and Beefalo taming. If they wanted to just toss him in there so he existed in-game (though I question why they wouldn't just wait until Eye of the Storm if they were so desperate), couldn't they have done that QoL update without making an entire new DLC world with, again, tons of art and animation and code and balancing?

[Primalflower]

the way that this post reads is so similar to like, a nintendo leaker with no actual sources other than the game itself to make either wild ridiculous claims or obvious observations from.

[Machine Reaper]

Spoiler

Klei and Tencent:

you could have learned to make a new game by yourself in the amount of time you wasted waiting for Klei to do something.
be clever, not stupid.