ExEn Release Strategy
If you read my last two blog posts (here and here), you’ll know that my schedule for ExEn fell out from under me for a few reasons. Between illness, bugs in Mono for Android and other projects eating all my contingency time and then some, I managed to lose about a month from my schedule.
While the easy thing to do would be to simply slip the release date by a month, I promised the community funding ExEn that there would be a public release on the 21st of June, and I have no intention of failing to meet that.
What I will be doing – which I hinted at in my last post – is this: Instead of having the big release on June 21, I will simply be posting a stable “preview” version (with source, of course). Then, one month later, on July 21 I will plan to have all the fanfare of a full open-source 1.0 release. In between I may do additional preview releases.
(One of the preview releases will have a stable version of ExEn for Android. I am still expecting it to be the first one, if nothing goes wrong.)
As I’ve discussed before, I’d like to be able to continue working on this project – but as an independent developer I can only do so if it is generating an income. So I plan to keep the pre-release program available during this “preview” month and, if it remains a viable way to fund ExEn development, into the future.
As well as helping fund development, the pre-release program will give you access to my personal ExEn development repository, wiki and bug-tracker, as well as a dedicated ExEn discussion group. Being in the pre-release program gives you access to the bleeding-edge of ExEn development – important for serious developers.
During development I was hoping to fund a Mac OS X port of ExEn before the June 21 release. That doesn’t look like it will happen at this stage. But I am going to extend the funding period until July 21 (and possibly beyond) and see what happens. I’d still like to do an OS X port.
There are only a few more days until the first ExEn preview release. So stay tuned!
| Twitter
Comments
Dominique
So, as a paying customer, I would be asking, what happened to the funding already raised – http://rockethub.com/projects/752-exen-xna-for-iphone-android-and-silverlight – what are customers/clients who paid for this development getting for their investment compared to say MonoGame?
Andrew Russell
@Dominique I answered this on Twitter: here, here and here. Reposting here:
The planned feature set of ExEn has not changed – all features promised there are either done or will be done. ExEn has always been about quality (stability, performance, conformance to XNA). It specifically exists to improve on MonoGame. That is why I am not rushing out a final version that I am not happy with next week. (Just a “preview” to meet the date.)
Dave
“As I’ve discussed before, I’d like to be able to continue working on this project – but as an independent developer I can only do so if it is generating an income.” <– this is a little worrying. I know you've said above the planned feature set of ExEn has not changed etc, which is great. But this HAS generated you an income. A promise was made, a price of ten grand was set and met and really there should not be alot more to it. As long as what was promised in exchange for that ten grand is given – no problem. But if thats always been the case then why do you need to even mention "it generating income" ? Further income past the target YOU personally set is -not- part of the deal. Ofc you're due more for any extras 😉
Andrew Russell
@Dave:
Just to be extremely clear about it: Every feature that was planned as part of the RocketHub funding will be delivered, even if ExEn never earns a single additional cent.
Additional features (eg: OS X port, 3D support, etc) will be evaluated on an ongoing basis. I can’t work forever on a single payment of $10k 😉
Dave
Thanks for being clear – it always pays to make sure there are no misunderstandings! I’m looking forward to playing with the preview version when I get home from work tonight. You seem to be doing a great job 🙂