The Outerra engine looks amazing thus far in the screenshots. I have loved the prospect of planet-wide rendering in some sort of simulator of a type. This looks like it really has that potential. However, most have come and gone as just screenshots and little more than vaporware. While I am thankful for your incredible work (from the screenshots) I believe your logic is somewhat flawed...
From what I see, you guys have been working on this for more than 2 years without putting out anything rather than pretty screenshots and videos. When asked about release it seems to always be too buggy or "this summer", etc. It seems that the Summer release has already been passed.
I believe the problem is that you guys want "perfection" for the demo release or not release anything at all. This is where your logic becomes flawed. People like me find videos of this amazing tech time and time again. After further investigation, it is nearly always vaporware that will never actually come out and has no sort of demo to try. The problem is that we move on, once again disappointed, and forget completely about your engine when the next video about planet wide rendering comes out on Youtube. People need something to play with and physically see for their interest to be kept. People don't expect zero-bugs when they download a demo--its part of what a demo is.
I personally can care less if something this awesome has a CTD once in a while or doesn't work completely right on a certain computer. I would still be amazed, and because I have something to play with (the demo) I can tell my friends how amazing it is. This means more publicity for you. I am not inclined to spread the word about this in its current state because it is vaporware in my mind.
This brings me to my next point. As of now you are two (I believe) people building an immense project that companies take many more people to make. How can you guys expect to find every bug on your own? No game releases without a larger test with many people and many different configurations. If you guys released the demo as is, you would have thousands and thousands of bug finders. 5000 people can find bugs a lot faster than 2. Without this, you'll only be releasing something that works on your computers, but not 4998 others.
And this finally brings me to the topic of "Minecraft" and its comparisons (indie, small developer, etc.). Minecraft has always been up for download ever since it first began. Notch (the dev of MC) did not wait until every bug was gone before releasing a demo (in which case we would still be waiting 2 years). Do you recall how buggy Minecraft was originally? It was nearly unplayable. But players didn't care. It was amazing and worth playing. The players reported bugs and before long it became the best selling indie game ever. The secret was always having something to play and show your friends what you have done.
Imagine if we only could see screenshots of Notch playing Minecraft for more than 2 years. They would look boring and not fun at all. From screenshots alone, Minecraft just looks like horrible graphics and trees. It was the demo that actually brought popularity. Please keep this in mind.
I hope you take no offense from my post and I apologize for its length. However, this is yet another "vaporware" project I have stumbled across that I will never be able to try. Sure, it looks cool, but I've seen 100s like it. None of them actually let me try, just look at pretty screenshots. From what it looks like, I'm just going to move on from an otherwise awesome project and ultimately forget about it like many others. You'll get some loyal people I'm sure, but the general public isn't interested in just screenshots.
Please prove me wrong. Once again, keep up the great work, it looks beautiful. But please reconsider your publicity tactics. I would be willing to pay $60+ on this engine alone, but only if I can try it myself--before I forget about it.
