Holy shit Mother 4 got turned into Oddity, Earthbound 64 turned into Mother 3. Mother 3 took forever to come out Oddity will take forever to come out!!
@@atwistedb Mother 3 never got an official localization for the West. Oddity will never get an official localization for the East. The West made fan accurate translations for Mother 3 The East will also make fan accurate translations Oddity. Oh yeah, It's all coming full circle.
At this point I think I'm more excited on a theoretical post-mortem documentary about what the hell happened with Oddity's development than I am for the actual game itself. We are nearing the point where I have been spent more of my life waiting for this game than I have not waiting for it lmao
I *was* looking forward to this at one point, well over 10 years ago... i just remembered it while looking up 'fan games' to see what's new, if anything. Most fan games don't end up being completed for whatever the reasons are, so now i believe it only when i see it. Fan games though, almost always turn out amazing, like metroid 2 for example. The fan game was better than the official remake. Wish that we could have more of them. Especially the ones that never came to be.
6:27 I can't be undersold how fuckin' strong this trailer was and still is. I had to pause this video and go rewatch it. If they dropped this on kickstarter, I swear on my very life that it would clean the fuck up and clear that goal 2-4 days tops. Jesus that trailer was amazing.
That is true, but that also come with more stress. Right now since no one is paying, they don’t hold the same responsibilities compared to when they have gotten a ton of money through kickstarter.
@neek01 yeah cuz if someone gave money, they would actually be owed a game. And you cant take over 10 years to deliver that promise because the backer could very well have died by then.
The thing that always gets to me is the lack of updates. Literally just a 10s gif of a character running around a map like once every 6 months would give many much more hope. Personally, I think they've come too far for it to die. Those passionate among the devs would publicly complain/leak otherwise.
Whike I do wish updates where more frequant and should be, i think the reason so many indie titles/crowd stop makimg updates is because of 2 things: 1: sometimes interesting things dont happen that they feel is worth an update. So much of game dev is backroom twiddling that doesnt have tangible things to show in a post or describe without having to describe coding jargon. 2: game dev is rarely a linear process of building 1 thing and moving to the next piece. More often its bug fixing or makimg the new component cooperate with the rest of the system,only to find out its messed something up that you worked on weeks ago. Theres many times where game progress is sent backwards and thats not the kimda news to share with an audiance to build confidence in the project. Especially when that project is already infamous for falling behind amd having a lot of pressure to be finished sooner than later.
@@Elonyx.studios they could literally just say "we are still making the game" every month. no one cares what they give us at this point literally anything even just reassuring people the game is actually being worked on is enough.
@@ialwayswatchyoutube812 just give up on this goddamn game, it will never come out, that's even MOther encore demo out and and a lot of other fan games with people actually working on it
The first time I heard about this project was in middle school. Now I’m a postgrad pursuing masters. If it’s *still* in development after all this time, I can only imagine how much the game was impacted by the pandemic.
I think my bitterness comes less from the slowdown and more from the radio silence... Like I'd be fine if I had to wait another decade to get Oddity. The problem personally however is that there' been no updates in 20 months. For something plagued with issues, I just start to give up on the entire project. I know things take time, but I really wonder how hard it is to just send one message every... say 3 months that's just a "Hey! We're alive!" I don't need updates personally, I just want confirmation that the project is still in progress, in hiatus, or terminated. Anything. I want to know the devs are *STILL* there. Bleh, that's my main pain point for me.
Nice video! I was a little unhopeful about Oddity ever coming out, but your game dev's perspective definitely helped me see the development in another light.
Looking at Oddity as a dev, it really seems like the constant reconstruction of the game is what is causing to take so long. They're stuck in that thing a lot of devs do where they want to go back and make things better, with a larger scope. That sentiment is nice, but it leads to failed projects and burnout. That is part of what has caused me to only have 2 games under my belt, both of which were created with strict deadlines. It's also why games like Duke Nukem Forever and Cyberpunk 2077 took so long to make and when they finally released, were unpolished.
Scope creep is so annoying. What it means for me is that as a dev, you have to temper realistically what can be achieved of your vision in a certain time and what you're realistically willing to sacrifice to meet that vision. "11:34 "The fact is, you're going to be able to think up ideas way quicker than you're ever going to be able to implement ideas." Holy snap, you just summed up what I've been thinking a lot of lately. I think this is why the ideas stage and planning is so important. Figure out what you REALLY want or most of it before actually trying to finalize any implementation as that will take so much longer to do. As scope creep occurs and new functionality and ideas come up, having to go back and scale your previous code and design is so much harder, messier, and prone to bugs and delays.
Not to mention we don’t know how much the Covid pandemic has impacted development. I hope it hasn’t been bad for them but I would imagine that it would put a substantial delay on the game
Oh yeah for sure! I forgot to mention that in the video but their last statement was kinda hinting that covid hurt development. I do wonder though how much of the game is developed in person or just online. Hard to say how much it impacted them but it definitely did to some extent.
Remember those moles in EarthBound that all claimed to be the 3rd strongest? We need more Mother 4s. Like every Mother fan game should just agree to call itself Mother 4.
"I am the true Mother 4! Bow before me" "It is I! The game that serves as a true sequel to Mother 3!" "Get ready to play the game that takes place between Mother 3 and Mother 5!" "Tremble before me... Earthbound 3!"
I know alot of people are frustrated with how long the previous Mother 4/Oddity has been in development but... 1. These are amatuer devs. 2. They are not paid, and prioritize paid work over this game to ensure they have stable income. 3. It is a passion project by FANS. 4. Devs and directors have come and gone over the years which significantly impacts the scope of the game. The same people who started are not the same people working on it now. 5. The rebrand requires a complete rework of the entire game, not just redone sprites. Entire sequences, characters, and mechanics must be cut. 6. This was not crowdfunded, so nobody is owed a game. Even if you've chosen to follow since its announcement. 7. At no point have the devs shown interest in monetizing the game even after rebranding. They are not out to scam you. 8. The sheer amount of impatient and angry fans berating them for updates and release dates is likely why the devs prefer radio silence. This is common with triple AAA development aswell. 9. You aren't going to get a release date until the game is actually finished. They've failed to meet every prior deadline they've set for themselves so it makes zero sense to keep doing it and risk pissing off fans even more with another "winter 2014." 10. Covid affected everyone.
I feel like everyone who follows this game should know this. I do hope it comes out one day. But it isn't their priority to ever finish it. Making a game is...hard. And if they decide well maybe we should just not, we should accept that.
Bullshit. I don't mind them taking a long time or delaying the game. I do mind them literally disappearing for 2 years. It would take them 5 seconds to clarify "hey this game still exists!" Stop making excuses, I know they aren't professional devs and are working out of their pockets, but it's just a lack of human decency at this point. Nobody asked them to work for free, I would have paid for it. Sorry to be so angry, but at LEAST update us every 6 months. That is the bare minimum. The update doesn't even have to be substantial. Maybe share some artwork or something. But don't just ditch the people who have been giving you free advertising for almost a decade.
yea im a general asst. retail manager and taught my self ruby python then c over the last 15 years, I wanted to make video games but only things I've ever programed is boring math and statistics sim stuff, I implemented a zip and unzip for. zip in pure ruby script, i took the aes cryptograph to a retardedly convoluted level...... but the only game I've ever actually completed was a bad version of the first green pokemon object data engine
Rpg maker MV actually wasn’t released until 2015. By then, the new mother 4 website was out and we had the winter 2014 meme So it was probably rpg maker xp or vx
If you're still wondering the specific RPG Maker they started on was xp. Eventually they realized that wouldn't work so they changed to a different engine, then after that one didn't work they settled on a custom C++ engine.
Been waiting for this since day one. That's 15 years now... I really hope the team get to release the game they worked on for so long. It would mean a lot to me as well. Just thinking about it kinda makes me a bit emotional haha
Excited to watch this video. I stopped following the fan projects a couple years back. Been waiting for a 4th game since I finished Tomatoes Fan Translation back in 2009. It's been a long 12 years of waiting, so I've given up lol.
I think it's understandable entirely that Oddity hasn't seen an update, given COVID and the time game development just takes. I'd be surprised (if it's not dead) if we hear about them next year at all.
It's great to see such passion for a fan-made-game-turned-standalone. I don't know much about the creators and their backgrounds, but I do know that sometimes ambitious art (which this is and it looks incredibly good) sometimes out-strips the work ethic especially with the friction of maybe not knowing how to produce certain aspects of the game which have to be learned on the fly ( or maintaining creative relationships): Whether that be a story that doesn't have a well written ending yet, a lack of human resources that's needed to flesh out incredibly odd, tangented, and fun ideas that's snowballed into something like a gigantic ant, or just passion that's subsisted on the reputation of a great looking work in progress. Maybe it's been a string of personal things in their lives that sap out the happiness of their passion projects, and that type of thing tends to sour works. Maybe they've grown and chased down their careers. Maybe they dont' want to accept money from people just yet, because along with that brings a feeling of obligation to constantly work on the project, which if their passion wains while working on it, will produce a stale game. It seems that this is something they absolutely have wanted to avoid, because I mean LOOK AT the thing. It's Awesome! And you can tell it's been worked on while at their best. Maybe it's a case of that it's THEIR baby, and they love it so much that they're afraid it might change if others work on it. Totally relatable. If this is the case, if the devs are reading this; I hope yall are doing alright and the life is treating everyone well outside of this passion project. IF nothing else, still ... Thank-you for the ride. With all our energy and courage we wish yall the best.
Wow, I came to this video after seeing them retweet some fan art today, its 10 years late. As much respect as I have for the devs I feel like they should at least say they're still working on it
I think this is a interesting video so I tried to look at it more from an objective point of view of "How likely is it that this game will actually be completed?" Instead of focusing on the "when" like most people do I want to question the "how" and if it's realistic. To explain what I mean let's make a quick hypothetical with two teams: Team A is a professional team of game devs that take 4.5 years to make a RPG. They have to be consistently working in those 4.5 years to where eventually progress > setbacks. Now given Oddity's past setbacks let's say it takes indie dev Team B around two times this work time, 9 years. Goal is that progress > setbacks. I'm not trying to say that 9 years is a long time, it's asking this: Will both of those teams able to maintain their drive/motivation/consistency for that 4.5/9 years and not give up before they're finished? The answer is "yes" for Team A because of experience/monetary compensation/smaller amount of time. To be honest, I just find it hard to answer that question yes for the hypothetical Oddity team. People will mention things like "The game has changed lead directions and other members multiple times" or "These other games have also spent a long time in development" but neither of those statements really rebuttal to my argument about whether its possible. It doesn't genuinely question the thing that needs to be questioned, and that's the problem. Regarding the stress or fan pressure, I feel it needs to reminded that their use of a subreddit/discord is a personal decision. One thing I immediately noticed about the new Mother 4 is that they don't have a subreddit or discord server. That was a smart decision on their part. Why gather a bunch of fans in one waiting place solely for the purpose of a hypothetical game only to not provide any updates? I feel the Oddity devs should not of joined that subreddit/fan discord and made official updates with how infrequently they post updates. Just a RUclips channel (and Twitter) are serviceable when progress is this limited. I don't know maybe it's just me but I can't even ask "when" since the "how" is so shaky at this point in time.
This is a great point, and honestly didn’t think about it like that. The oddity team put themselves in the position they are currently in, intentional or not.
They started in 2008,its been 15 YEARS and according to their discord,two devs jumped ship and whoever remained hasnt done anything (also,it seems some one stole assets),they lacked direction and a clear line of command to get things done,so i guess its safe to assume it will never be finished,just another failure,which sucks,for some reason teams of fans trying to make a fan game always fail and lonely devs take ages and have 50/50 chance of actually releasing their creation,but when they do we get gems like undertale. And the other fan game,i just checked and it seems dead too,im sad to say it but i doubt we will ever get a mother 4 in any way shape or form,its like a curse.
you NEED to play jimmy and the pulsating mass and do a video on it. seriously, it's utterly depressing hearing all these people who are stuck waiting for a proper mother 4 equivalent to finally finish development when jimmy's been out for a few years now. it's an absolutely amazing game that's totally flown under people's radars.
What's crazy to me is the fact that there were clearly plenty of people working HARD on this game for a long time. Do any of those people feel super bummed out too?
If this gets released ever then itoi is gonna have a field day, he said he’s not continuing the mother series cause he wants ANYONE else to pick it up so he could enjoy the series himself or something along the lines I don’t remember what he said exactly cause that interview came out way before I even read it but after mother 3
Mother 3 took ten years to release Oddity was announced 15 years ago However the original release date was 7 years ago If the game doesn't release in the next 4 years I'm giving up on it
I really wished this rebrand of mother 4 to oddity could give devs an oportunity to publish it not only on pc for free, it could also reach to other platforms to give a bigger impact.
Its not cancelled, People are still saying that but is actually ongoing and it still getting working on, just developers are not saying anything because of some stuff happening like the pressure from part of the Fans and that stuff
Developers are still making it, and they said they do In a oddity server (yes theres are a server about the game) Also sorry if my English is not that good
This is actually a pretty good video! The editing is well done, though i feel as though you might slur your words out a bit if that makes sense, other than that it's again pretty good!
Thanks! I noticed that a bit with the recording too. It’s mostly just cuz it’s been a while since I’ve made a video like this. Just gotta get used to it again
I wouldnt mind if they actually did a full release on systems like the switch, pc and both high end consoles. So, people can choose to get it for free online, or if they wanted to they could support the devs by buying the game itself. That would honestly be such a heartwarming story, where the fans actually them choose to give to the team. Could become another FFXIV.
I have been waiting since the game was 2 years into development. I remember I was in high-school when they dropped the release window for winter and summer. God.... I don't know if I can hold on much longer.
Honestly? Maybe a pep talk from Shegesato Itoi would boost the team's moral and spirits. Though it's a known fact that Mr. Itoi stated that he wouldn't mind seeing a Mother 4 in the future from fans or anyone
For years I said that they should rebrand their game and I'm glad they did. Not only for copyright purposes but so they can actually sell it. I would gladly pay for something like this. It should be sold on the Switch eshop, PSN, and Steam. It deserves more attention than what a free fan game would normally get
Honestly, I think Oddity shedding the Mother tag was a good thing. I think the Mother trilogy is good as it is with Mother 3's ending, it doesn't need a 4th. And I always felt Mother 3 having Andonuts and Mr Saturn felt shoehorned, so whatever EB references that were going to appear in Oddity won't feel forced
I believe Dr. Andonuts and the Mr. Saturns are in it due to Porky stealing them from the time period _EarthBound_ took place in and bringing them to the Nowhere Islands.
look after so many years of radio silent from the devs I just gonna assume oddity/mother 4 is simply a dead project. but that other mother game look promising tho
I feel like with the rebrand, they could start up some kind of kickstarter and/or maybe sell it. I do admire them making something so wonderful and ambitious for free but I honestly wouldn't mind paying for it and supporting the development. If it helps the team make the process smoother and motivate them, it would be worth considering imo.
@@brya9681hmm being realistic it won’t come out, at least not at the pace it’s being worked at anytime soon. but I do think that if it is true that the project is ongoing like people are saying, it would be good to step back and revitalize it with a different approach. my attitude is, if it comes out cool, if not, sad but it happens… I suppose we can’t truly know what’s going on with the lack of communication so i will not have expectations.
I don't care about it anymore. I've waited for it for so long, but I've discovered and played countless other indie games that, in my opinion, are much better than what Oddity was originally offering when it was still known as Mother 4. And what makes it sad is how a lot of them were made solely by one person. Toby Fox made Undertale by himself, and it's arguably one of the most popular indie videogames ever created. Oddity's apparently being made by a whole team, and they've working on it for nearly a decade and it's still not out. And honestly, while I had incredibly high hopes for it when I first heard about it, and I do like how it's improved graphics- and music-wise... If it isn't released by at least the end of this year, then it's never going to be released, ever.
I fucking love the Mother series, and hearing about this now and how they've gone radio silent makes me a bit worried. I really hope we get something soon. I don't care if they make a Kickstarter, I'll give them whatever I can to help them work on it. I want the final product so bad.
See, I’m hopeful this game is coming out at some point and it’s not gonna be another DNF or Yandere Simulator. This game is both a) a passion project, this is something the devs want to make and b) not profitable to the devs for it to remain in development, cuz I don’t know much they get (if anything) from donations.
Like any multi-faceted project you need unselfish, talented, unbiased, unburdened, people equally passionate about the same goal. This is hard in any realm, but in my experience I have found that many folks in the gaming community have issues with the first and third of those parameters. This is frustrating when one considers how talented, unburdened, and passionate many of these people are.
Hopefully this project doesn't die. Ive gave up on mine due to not having much time, plus went through 2 hard drive crashes. I did upload my progress in here though. It was inspired both final fantasy 7 & phantasy star 4.
This game is dead, just compare it to Mother Encore: The Encore team gave updates once in a while, they didnt hype the game too much to not put pressure on the devs, and now we have a playable demo The Oddity team gave updates almost daily before going radio silent, they hyped the game for years, made several trailers, several websites, even clay figures of the characters and still the game has no updates and the devs just keep saying "we are working on it" despite not giving any type of updates
I really hope this game comes out. I haven't finished any of the Mother games but from what little I've played of them, and what I know about them, I love the Mother series and I think they're beautiful works of art. There are a lot of great RPGs that have come out because of Mother and have left a huge impact and I hope one day we can say the same about Oddity. I've been following this project since it was first announced so it'd be great to one day finally see it in all its greatness.
When this game comes out and we get to learn more about the creation of it think it'll be one of the most legendary fan game development stories in gaming.
@@DaNovaFRFX My bad, I'm really spoiler sensitive so the second I hear the word leak I click off stuff. I just assumed I'd get spoilers to some degree, and the gta6 things been on my mind so I gotba little charged. Great video.
@@vinceisproducing2002 All good! I don’t remember if I mention it in the video but from what the devs have mentioned of the leaks, basically whatever plot stuff is out there is so out of date that it doesn’t spoil the current/final game.
I don't think I'll ever understand a PRE-EMPTIVE re-brand when there were no C&D threats in sight. Sorry, but, putting all my chips on the new Mother 4 now. Itoi said he wanted the fans to make the next one, and someone's gotta do it.
It was fine as long as it release next year. But if they plan to update it, could it be better to have 5 present characters until the end of the game, and also add one other lady character so that Meryl could not be the only lady in the team. So it would have 6 characters with only one temporary joined the team.
the Nintendo taking down fan games paranoia is ridiculous, there are thousands of fan games/ romhacks out there, old and new, that are just fine. also, i believe they do own mother, they just respect Itoi
The difference is that the Yellow team actually communicated with the playerbase. They released OSTS, Status updates, team communication on social media and an ACTUAL DEMO. Everything with Oddity/Mother 4 has been radio silent. The most we've really gotten is that one Trailer. Not to mention the wait for Yellow has been far shorter.
I can’t wait to come back to this and see that it’s wrong. Hopefully sooner rather than later or just straight up in the next 5 years for the funniness lol
Is sad but well that's the thing with fan games based on a franchise, especially a franchise from Nintendo, well known for their cease and desists. Perhaps they were really trying to release a game based on Mother and after the rebranding to Oddity they started losing interest in it because having to refactor code and redesing assets to remove Mother references is always tiring to any developer / artist. O simple life happens and now they have to work for a living or now they have a family. These days I think the best approach is to release a game on its own as a spiritual successor / influenced like Toby Fox did with Undertale instead of making a fan game, specially one from Nintendo, so you can make a kickstarter and sell the game and even start a franchise.
Bruh don't diss RPG maker MV. It's a good engine for making RPGs, and there are a lot of good games made in it, it's just overshadowed by the amount of garbage released by noob developers who have no clue what they're doing. That aside, great video, I've been curious about the game's status for awhile. hopefully it'll release. . . eventually.
When the first mother 4 trailer came out, I made a comment stating how risky it was to piggy back off of a major IP associated with Nintendo, and I got plenty of replies telling me I was wrong. I think the people who started this project might have been a bit clueless and immature.
I wouldnt doubt it. Fangames are usually started by amatuer devs. But its worth acknowledging the people who started Mother 4/Oddity arent the same people who are working on it now. Its gone through many hands over the years and the scope of the project keeps changing. Its hard to dissociate your project with the IP it was previously based on when it has this 10+ year legacy already behind it. Rebranding was still probably the best decision they could have made. Even though you risk pissing off those who followed expecting a direct follow up to Mother 3 and not a spiritual successor.
@@ians_parks iirc the rebranding was actually the worst decision they could've done since it came out from nowhere to the community and the team itself thus many people quit making the game
Oddity's development cycle is actually just a Mother 3 reference.
I understood that, lol x2
Holy shit Mother 4 got turned into Oddity, Earthbound 64 turned into Mother 3. Mother 3 took forever to come out Oddity will take forever to come out!!
@@atwistedb Mother 3 never got an official localization for the West.
Oddity will never get an official localization for the East.
The West made fan accurate translations for Mother 3
The East will also make fan accurate translations Oddity.
Oh yeah, It's all coming full circle.
@@Aaaa-g6u8e
Like god intended
IT MAKES SENSE NOW
At this point I think I'm more excited on a theoretical post-mortem documentary about what the hell happened with Oddity's development than I am for the actual game itself. We are nearing the point where I have been spent more of my life waiting for this game than I have not waiting for it lmao
i actually remember being excited for winter 2014 when that first trailer dropped
I *was* looking forward to this at one point, well over 10 years ago... i just remembered it while looking up 'fan games' to see what's new, if anything. Most fan games don't end up being completed for whatever the reasons are, so now i believe it only when i see it.
Fan games though, almost always turn out amazing, like metroid 2 for example. The fan game was better than the official remake. Wish that we could have more of them. Especially the ones that never came to be.
Omori came out so there's hope
@@derealized797 Mother encore demo says hi
Development started in '08 when I was 6, I'm 22 now, this game has been in development for almost 3/4 of my life
When Oddity (M4) was first announced, George W Bush was president.
Simpler times?
@@patrickbaker1457 Not really with the Great Repression I believe it was called.
Really? I remember it being when George was king.
And Putin was still in office.
Wait...
@@franciscomendez8314 You're thinking of Donald Trump I believe. The confusion is understandable.
6:27 I can't be undersold how fuckin' strong this trailer was and still is. I had to pause this video and go rewatch it. If they dropped this on kickstarter, I swear on my very life that it would clean the fuck up and clear that goal 2-4 days tops. Jesus that trailer was amazing.
That is true, but that also come with more stress. Right now since no one is paying, they don’t hold the same responsibilities compared to when they have gotten a ton of money through kickstarter.
@neek01 yeah cuz if someone gave money, they would actually be owed a game. And you cant take over 10 years to deliver that promise because the backer could very well have died by then.
Glad you like the trailer because that's the only thing you're gonna get!
The thing that always gets to me is the lack of updates.
Literally just a 10s gif of a character running around a map like once every 6 months would give many much more hope.
Personally, I think they've come too far for it to die. Those passionate among the devs would publicly complain/leak otherwise.
Whike I do wish updates where more frequant and should be, i think the reason so many indie titles/crowd stop makimg updates is because of 2 things:
1: sometimes interesting things dont happen that they feel is worth an update. So much of game dev is backroom twiddling that doesnt have tangible things to show in a post or describe without having to describe coding jargon.
2: game dev is rarely a linear process of building 1 thing and moving to the next piece. More often its bug fixing or makimg the new component cooperate with the rest of the system,only to find out its messed something up that you worked on weeks ago.
Theres many times where game progress is sent backwards and thats not the kimda news to share with an audiance to build confidence in the project. Especially when that project is already infamous for falling behind amd having a lot of pressure to be finished sooner than later.
@@Elonyx.studios they could literally just say "we are still making the game" every month. no one cares what they give us at this point literally anything even just reassuring people the game is actually being worked on is enough.
@@ialwayswatchyoutube812 just give up on this goddamn game, it will never come out, that's even MOther encore demo out and and a lot of other fan games with people actually working on it
The first time I heard about this project was in middle school. Now I’m a postgrad pursuing masters. If it’s *still* in development after all this time, I can only imagine how much the game was impacted by the pandemic.
* drops an amazing trailer for oddity
* refuses to elaborate further
* leaves
I think my bitterness comes less from the slowdown and more from the radio silence... Like I'd be fine if I had to wait another decade to get Oddity. The problem personally however is that there' been no updates in 20 months. For something plagued with issues, I just start to give up on the entire project. I know things take time, but I really wonder how hard it is to just send one message every... say 3 months that's just a "Hey! We're alive!"
I don't need updates personally, I just want confirmation that the project is still in progress, in hiatus, or terminated. Anything. I want to know the devs are *STILL* there. Bleh, that's my main pain point for me.
It's gonna release in Winter 2014, I can't wait
Nice video! I was a little unhopeful about Oddity ever coming out, but your game dev's perspective definitely helped me see the development in another light.
Looking at Oddity as a dev, it really seems like the constant reconstruction of the game is what is causing to take so long. They're stuck in that thing a lot of devs do where they want to go back and make things better, with a larger scope. That sentiment is nice, but it leads to failed projects and burnout. That is part of what has caused me to only have 2 games under my belt, both of which were created with strict deadlines. It's also why games like Duke Nukem Forever and Cyberpunk 2077 took so long to make and when they finally released, were unpolished.
Scope creep is so annoying. What it means for me is that as a dev, you have to temper realistically what can be achieved of your vision in a certain time and what you're realistically willing to sacrifice to meet that vision.
"11:34 "The fact is, you're going to be able to think up ideas way quicker than you're ever going to be able to implement ideas."
Holy snap, you just summed up what I've been thinking a lot of lately. I think this is why the ideas stage and planning is so important. Figure out what you REALLY want or most of it before actually trying to finalize any implementation as that will take so much longer to do. As scope creep occurs and new functionality and ideas come up, having to go back and scale your previous code and design is so much harder, messier, and prone to bugs and delays.
Not to mention we don’t know how much the Covid pandemic has impacted development. I hope it hasn’t been bad for them but I would imagine that it would put a substantial delay on the game
Oh yeah for sure! I forgot to mention that in the video but their last statement was kinda hinting that covid hurt development. I do wonder though how much of the game is developed in person or just online. Hard to say how much it impacted them but it definitely did to some extent.
Why would covid mess up a project like this? I'm assuming all the developers work from home anyway.
@@patrickbaker1457 Covid is the universal scapegoat of DOOOOOOOOOOOOM so it gets blamed for everything even if it doesn't make sense.
@@bluebirdsigma exactly
@@bluebirdsigma Funnily enough it only doesn't make sense to snowflakes and contrarians.
That's the best part for convenience.
Remember those moles in EarthBound that all claimed to be the 3rd strongest?
We need more Mother 4s. Like every Mother fan game should just agree to call itself Mother 4.
Good bit
"I am the true Mother 4! Bow before me"
"It is I! The game that serves as a true sequel to Mother 3!"
"Get ready to play the game that takes place between Mother 3 and Mother 5!"
"Tremble before me... Earthbound 3!"
I know alot of people are frustrated with how long the previous Mother 4/Oddity has been in development but...
1. These are amatuer devs.
2. They are not paid, and prioritize paid work over this game to ensure they have stable income.
3. It is a passion project by FANS.
4. Devs and directors have come and gone over the years which significantly impacts the scope of the game. The same people who started are not the same people working on it now.
5. The rebrand requires a complete rework of the entire game, not just redone sprites. Entire sequences, characters, and mechanics must be cut.
6. This was not crowdfunded, so nobody is owed a game. Even if you've chosen to follow since its announcement.
7. At no point have the devs shown interest in monetizing the game even after rebranding. They are not out to scam you.
8. The sheer amount of impatient and angry fans berating them for updates and release dates is likely why the devs prefer radio silence. This is common with triple AAA development aswell.
9. You aren't going to get a release date until the game is actually finished. They've failed to meet every prior deadline they've set for themselves so it makes zero sense to keep doing it and risk pissing off fans even more with another "winter 2014."
10. Covid affected everyone.
I feel like everyone who follows this game should know this. I do hope it comes out one day. But it isn't their priority to ever finish it. Making a game is...hard. And if they decide well maybe we should just not, we should accept that.
Bullshit. I don't mind them taking a long time or delaying the game. I do mind them literally disappearing for 2 years. It would take them 5 seconds to clarify "hey this game still exists!" Stop making excuses, I know they aren't professional devs and are working out of their pockets, but it's just a lack of human decency at this point. Nobody asked them to work for free, I would have paid for it. Sorry to be so angry, but at LEAST update us every 6 months. That is the bare minimum. The update doesn't even have to be substantial. Maybe share some artwork or something. But don't just ditch the people who have been giving you free advertising for almost a decade.
@@blacktainfalcon7097 free advertising?
@@blacktainfalcon7097 you might not understand this but its a free game, 'free advertising' means nothing
yea im a general asst. retail manager and taught my self ruby python then c over the last 15 years, I wanted to make video games but only things I've ever programed is boring math and statistics sim stuff, I implemented a zip and unzip for. zip in pure ruby script, i took the aes cryptograph to a retardedly convoluted level...... but the only game I've ever actually completed was a bad version of the first green pokemon object data engine
i remember seeing this back in 2012, i was only 12 years old at the time. now look at where we are.
Rpg maker MV actually wasn’t released until 2015.
By then, the new mother 4 website was out and we had the winter 2014 meme
So it was probably rpg maker xp or vx
Yeah probably. I think I got bad info along the way. My bad
@@DaNovaFRFX no worries! It doesn’t matter too much, but just wanted to let you know
If you're still wondering the specific RPG Maker they started on was xp. Eventually they realized that wouldn't work so they changed to a different engine, then after that one didn't work they settled on a custom C++ engine.
Great video! This fills a void in my heart
Been waiting for this since day one. That's 15 years now... I really hope the team get to release the game they worked on for so long. It would mean a lot to me as well. Just thinking about it kinda makes me a bit emotional haha
No. Screw you and yiur hopes and dreams. Wait another 15 years then MAAAAAYBE you get a demo
Excited to watch this video. I stopped following the fan projects a couple years back. Been waiting for a 4th game since I finished Tomatoes Fan Translation back in 2009.
It's been a long 12 years of waiting, so I've given up lol.
I think it's understandable entirely that Oddity hasn't seen an update, given COVID and the time game development just takes. I'd be surprised (if it's not dead) if we hear about them next year at all.
This game is never coming out
At this point, even Yandev gives more consistant updates
@@blacktainfalcon7097 it’s just a sweet sweet fantasy baby… 😢
@@blacktainfalcon7097 hope this ages poorly but you could be right
@@spaceace9103 it aged like wine
Im glad its still doing good, I love earthbound and am looking forward to this game
"Old But Gold"
I have faith in you guys, the earthbound legacy is yours!
it'll come out when it's ready, and if not, i hope they learned from it. there's no such thing as wasted time. awesome video
Last time I saw a trailer that ended with "Coming out when it's ready" was Cyberpunk 2077...
Wow, I learned so much from this video alone... I had no idea that Undertale was released in only 2-3 years of development
It's great to see such passion for a fan-made-game-turned-standalone. I don't know much about the creators and their backgrounds, but I do know that sometimes ambitious art (which this is and it looks incredibly good) sometimes out-strips the work ethic especially with the friction of maybe not knowing how to produce certain aspects of the game which have to be learned on the fly ( or maintaining creative relationships): Whether that be a story that doesn't have a well written ending yet, a lack of human resources that's needed to flesh out incredibly odd, tangented, and fun ideas that's snowballed into something like a gigantic ant, or just passion that's subsisted on the reputation of a great looking work in progress. Maybe it's been a string of personal things in their lives that sap out the happiness of their passion projects, and that type of thing tends to sour works. Maybe they've grown and chased down their careers. Maybe they dont' want to accept money from people just yet, because along with that brings a feeling of obligation to constantly work on the project, which if their passion wains while working on it, will produce a stale game. It seems that this is something they absolutely have wanted to avoid, because I mean LOOK AT the thing. It's Awesome! And you can tell it's been worked on while at their best. Maybe it's a case of that it's THEIR baby, and they love it so much that they're afraid it might change if others work on it. Totally relatable. If this is the case, if the devs are reading this; I hope yall are doing alright and the life is treating everyone well outside of this passion project. IF nothing else, still ... Thank-you for the ride. With all our energy and courage we wish yall the best.
Since this game’s never coming out, should I get Mother Encore?
Yes
Development Hell: The Game
Wow, I came to this video after seeing them retweet some fan art today, its 10 years late. As much respect as I have for the devs I feel like they should at least say they're still working on it
I think this is a interesting video so I tried to look at it more from an objective point of view of "How likely is it that this game will actually be completed?" Instead of focusing on the "when" like most people do I want to question the "how" and if it's realistic. To explain what I mean let's make a quick hypothetical with two teams: Team A is a professional team of game devs that take 4.5 years to make a RPG. They have to be consistently working in those 4.5 years to where eventually progress > setbacks. Now given Oddity's past setbacks let's say it takes indie dev Team B around two times this work time, 9 years. Goal is that progress > setbacks. I'm not trying to say that 9 years is a long time, it's asking this:
Will both of those teams able to maintain their drive/motivation/consistency for that 4.5/9 years and not give up before they're finished?
The answer is "yes" for Team A because of experience/monetary compensation/smaller amount of time. To be honest, I just find it hard to answer that question yes for the hypothetical Oddity team. People will mention things like "The game has changed lead directions and other members multiple times" or "These other games have also spent a long time in development" but neither of those statements really rebuttal to my argument about whether its possible. It doesn't genuinely question the thing that needs to be questioned, and that's the problem.
Regarding the stress or fan pressure, I feel it needs to reminded that their use of a subreddit/discord is a personal decision. One thing I immediately noticed about the new Mother 4 is that they don't have a subreddit or discord server. That was a smart decision on their part. Why gather a bunch of fans in one waiting place solely for the purpose of a hypothetical game only to not provide any updates? I feel the Oddity devs should not of joined that subreddit/fan discord and made official updates with how infrequently they post updates. Just a RUclips channel (and Twitter) are serviceable when progress is this limited.
I don't know maybe it's just me but I can't even ask "when" since the "how" is so shaky at this point in time.
This is a great point, and honestly didn’t think about it like that. The oddity team put themselves in the position they are currently in, intentional or not.
cant wait for winter 2014!!!!!
They started in 2008,its been 15 YEARS and according to their discord,two devs jumped ship and whoever remained hasnt done anything (also,it seems some one stole assets),they lacked direction and a clear line of command to get things done,so i guess its safe to assume it will never be finished,just another failure,which sucks,for some reason teams of fans trying to make a fan game always fail and lonely devs take ages and have 50/50 chance of actually releasing their creation,but when they do we get gems like undertale.
And the other fan game,i just checked and it seems dead too,im sad to say it but i doubt we will ever get a mother 4 in any way shape or form,its like a curse.
the other mother 4 just had an update on Twitter in July so definitely not dead
Game development is a lot more complicated than “keep programming until it’s done”. I understand that now.
You do realize a lot of it is just because tgey keep going back to "revise" right?
you NEED to play jimmy and the pulsating mass and do a video on it. seriously, it's utterly depressing hearing all these people who are stuck waiting for a proper mother 4 equivalent to finally finish development when jimmy's been out for a few years now. it's an absolutely amazing game that's totally flown under people's radars.
I’ve never heard of it actually! Immediately added it to my wishlist. I’ll check it out for sure!
i'm personally just not a huge fan of most of the "quirky inspired-by-earthbound" rpg maker games out there, pulsating mass included
@@lolita_cat that's not what Jimmy is at all, and you know it
@@lolita_cat Me when I ask examples of "quirky-earthbound-like-RPGs":
It’s pulling a silksong
I think one of the main artist said the twitter account will start posting again in a few weeks
Do you know their @?
@@DaNovaFRFX mcmaxxis. he said it on one of his streams. You can find more info easily on the fan server.
mcmaxxis. it was on a livestream @@DaNovaFRFX
this aged well 😔
What's crazy to me is the fact that there were clearly plenty of people working HARD on this game for a long time. Do any of those people feel super bummed out too?
Speaking of Omori and Undertale. Did you guys forgot Lisa the Painful?, where it was made with RPG maker and also have small development.
If this gets released ever then itoi is gonna have a field day, he said he’s not continuing the mother series cause he wants ANYONE else to pick it up so he could enjoy the series himself or something along the lines
I don’t remember what he said exactly cause that interview came out way before I even read it but after mother 3
I need an ex-dev to come out and reveal what the fuck was happening that the game still isn't anywhere near completion
We are going to get GTA 6 before any Earthbound fangame releases bruh.
Mother 3 took ten years to release Oddity was announced 15 years ago
However the original release date was 7 years ago
If the game doesn't release in the next 4 years I'm giving up on it
We really shouldn't discourage the creator by putting out leaks, we should also consider the fact that people don't want to get spoiled
For a game they'll never live to see?
I really wished this rebrand of mother 4 to oddity could give devs an oportunity to publish it not only on pc for free, it could also reach to other platforms to give a bigger impact.
So I'm hearing they cancelled it? What a crock, I know Shane Mesa created an awesome unused soundtrack when it was still "Mother 4".
Its not cancelled, People are still saying that but is actually ongoing and it still getting working on, just developers are not saying anything because of some stuff happening like the pressure from part of the Fans and that stuff
Developers are still making it, and they said they do In a oddity server (yes theres are a server about the game)
Also sorry if my English is not that good
@@VOXArtsIf they’re still making it, then they should put out a vertical slice.
This is almost 2 years old now.
This is actually a pretty good video! The editing is well done, though i feel as though you might slur your words out a bit if that makes sense, other than that it's again pretty good!
Thanks! I noticed that a bit with the recording too. It’s mostly just cuz it’s been a while since I’ve made a video like this. Just gotta get used to it again
@@DaNovaFRFX fair enough lol
I wouldnt mind if they actually did a full release on systems like the switch, pc and both high end consoles. So, people can choose to get it for free online, or if they wanted to they could support the devs by buying the game itself. That would honestly be such a heartwarming story, where the fans actually them choose to give to the team. Could become another FFXIV.
I have been waiting since the game was 2 years into development. I remember I was in high-school when they dropped the release window for winter and summer. God.... I don't know if I can hold on much longer.
Honestly? Maybe a pep talk from Shegesato Itoi would boost the team's moral and spirits. Though it's a known fact that Mr. Itoi stated that he wouldn't mind seeing a Mother 4 in the future from fans or anyone
For years I said that they should rebrand their game and I'm glad they did. Not only for copyright purposes but so they can actually sell it. I would gladly pay for something like this. It should be sold on the Switch eshop, PSN, and Steam. It deserves more attention than what a free fan game would normally get
Watching this again since there is no update
Oddity account tweeted lets go
Honestly, I think Oddity shedding the Mother tag was a good thing. I think the Mother trilogy is good as it is with Mother 3's ending, it doesn't need a 4th. And I always felt Mother 3 having Andonuts and Mr Saturn felt shoehorned, so whatever EB references that were going to appear in Oddity won't feel forced
I believe Dr. Andonuts and the Mr. Saturns are in it due to Porky stealing them from the time period _EarthBound_ took place in and bringing them to the Nowhere Islands.
look after so many years of radio silent from the devs I just gonna assume oddity/mother 4 is simply a dead project. but that other mother game look promising tho
It is in development hell
Winter 2014.
Frankly at this point I'm more interested in a behind the scenes look at how this project has been managed than the game itself.
Reworded version of one of the top comments. Ya love to see it
I feel like with the rebrand, they could start up some kind of kickstarter and/or maybe sell it. I do admire them making something so wonderful and ambitious for free but I honestly wouldn't mind paying for it and supporting the development. If it helps the team make the process smoother and motivate them, it would be worth considering imo.
You seem to be under the impression this game is real and not abandonedware
@@brya9681hmm being realistic it won’t come out, at least not at the pace it’s being worked at anytime soon.
but I do think that if it is true that the project is ongoing like people are saying, it would be good to step back and revitalize it with a different approach.
my attitude is, if it comes out cool, if not, sad but it happens… I suppose we can’t truly know what’s going on with the lack of communication so i will not have expectations.
Oddity is gonna be something new to all Mother series fans when it comes out, so let's give it the time it needs to be perfect.
3 years later on and damn still no updates
I do feel its pretty rude of the developers to either not just cancel or give updates... ever.
I don't care about it anymore. I've waited for it for so long, but I've discovered and played countless other indie games that, in my opinion, are much better than what Oddity was originally offering when it was still known as Mother 4. And what makes it sad is how a lot of them were made solely by one person. Toby Fox made Undertale by himself, and it's arguably one of the most popular indie videogames ever created. Oddity's apparently being made by a whole team, and they've working on it for nearly a decade and it's still not out.
And honestly, while I had incredibly high hopes for it when I first heard about it, and I do like how it's improved graphics- and music-wise... If it isn't released by at least the end of this year, then it's never going to be released, ever.
All I wanted was a damn demo
I fucking love the Mother series, and hearing about this now and how they've gone radio silent makes me a bit worried. I really hope we get something soon. I don't care if they make a Kickstarter, I'll give them whatever I can to help them work on it. I want the final product so bad.
See, I’m hopeful this game is coming out at some point and it’s not gonna be another DNF or Yandere Simulator. This game is both a) a passion project, this is something the devs want to make and b) not profitable to the devs for it to remain in development, cuz I don’t know much they get (if anything) from donations.
DNF?
What the hell is a DNF?
@@seant1326 donut nope fall?
@@GrimDim declined night flower?
@@GrimDim "Did not Finished"
Like any multi-faceted project you need unselfish, talented, unbiased, unburdened, people equally passionate about the same goal.
This is hard in any realm, but in my experience I have found that many folks in the gaming community have issues with the first and third of those parameters. This is frustrating when one considers how talented, unburdened, and passionate many of these people are.
I'm pretty sure we'll get mother 64 before oddity
I desperately hope that Oddity comes out someday. It has such insane potential!
crazy that stardew valley, omori, lisa and deltarune were all released way before oddity/m4 has been released
God I can't wait these will be a blast and il be amazed when it comes out
This video came out two years ago dog what the fuck
Bro I was finishing middle school when I heard about this game. It's now been 4 years since highschool.
you know what.. if the fans aren't not getting oddity.. it's up to the fans to make oddity..
Hopefully this project doesn't die. Ive gave up on mine due to not having much time, plus went through 2 hard drive crashes. I did upload my progress in here though. It was inspired both final fantasy 7 & phantasy star 4.
It's dead
it is dead
rip@@joezuru3753
Bro they can release Oddity on Steam with a 20 or 30 dollars price tag and I don't think anybody would complain.
I want it on Nintendo Switch
@@baders3274Lol @ this guy😆
Winter 2024 is gonna be a grand old time
I find it so funny and fascinating at the same time that their are two games both of them fan games that are technically mother 4.
This game is dead, just compare it to Mother Encore:
The Encore team gave updates once in a while, they didnt hype the game too much to not put pressure on the devs, and now we have a playable demo
The Oddity team gave updates almost daily before going radio silent, they hyped the game for years, made several trailers, several websites, even clay figures of the characters and still the game has no updates and the devs just keep saying "we are working on it" despite not giving any type of updates
Its still being developed.
@@Nothisndhdudjdjdj citation?
@@Nothisndhdudjdjdj Aged like milk
I still miss that subtitle (“Under the Moon”)
I really hope this game comes out. I haven't finished any of the Mother games but from what little I've played of them, and what I know about them, I love the Mother series and I think they're beautiful works of art. There are a lot of great RPGs that have come out because of Mother and have left a huge impact and I hope one day we can say the same about Oddity. I've been following this project since it was first announced so it'd be great to one day finally see it in all its greatness.
I have very little hope
When this game comes out and we get to learn more about the creation of it think it'll be one of the most legendary fan game development stories in gaming.
If it's good.
Clicking off the vid now, fucking lame mentioning leaks bro.
It’s a video about what happened to oddity. Leaks happened.
@@DaNovaFRFX My bad, I'm really spoiler sensitive so the second I hear the word leak I click off stuff. I just assumed I'd get spoilers to some degree, and the gta6 things been on my mind so I gotba little charged. Great video.
@@vinceisproducing2002 All good! I don’t remember if I mention it in the video but from what the devs have mentioned of the leaks, basically whatever plot stuff is out there is so out of date that it doesn’t spoil the current/final game.
I don't think I'll ever understand a PRE-EMPTIVE re-brand when there were no C&D threats in sight. Sorry, but, putting all my chips on the new Mother 4 now. Itoi said he wanted the fans to make the next one, and someone's gotta do it.
It was fine as long as it release next year.
But if they plan to update it, could it be better to have 5 present characters until the end of the game, and also add one other lady character so that Meryl could not be the only lady in the team. So it would have 6 characters with only one temporary joined the team.
the Nintendo taking down fan games paranoia is ridiculous, there are thousands of fan games/ romhacks out there, old and new, that are just fine.
also, i believe they do own mother, they just respect Itoi
didnt everyone leading the project leave? is it just the devs now?
Pastel, the lead dev, as far as I'm aware simply took a social media break.
Ah yes my favorite RUclips channel "Press Continue to Start"
This video has been out for 8 months i cant believe it took this long for someone to notice that mistake 😭
Undertale Yellow demo came out years ago and were JUST now getting the full thing in about a week or 2
The difference is that the Yellow team actually communicated with the playerbase.
They released OSTS, Status updates, team communication on social media and an ACTUAL DEMO.
Everything with Oddity/Mother 4 has been radio silent. The most we've really gotten is that one Trailer.
Not to mention the wait for Yellow has been far shorter.
Mother 1 was released in 1989, Earthbound in 1994, and Mother 3 in 2006
1994-1989=5, 2006-1994=12, 12+5=17, 2006+17=2025
Confirmed release date: 2025
I can’t wait to come back to this and see that it’s wrong. Hopefully sooner rather than later or just straight up in the next 5 years for the funniness lol
That math doesn’t even add up
the game has gone longer than this without an update so i still have hope. there's no use not having hope, right?
Nintendo doesn't deserve Mother fans.
Is sad but well that's the thing with fan games based on a franchise, especially a franchise from Nintendo, well known for their cease and desists.
Perhaps they were really trying to release a game based on Mother and after the rebranding to Oddity they started losing interest in it because having to refactor code and redesing assets to remove Mother references is always tiring to any developer / artist. O simple life happens and now they have to work for a living or now they have a family.
These days I think the best approach is to release a game on its own as a spiritual successor / influenced like Toby Fox did with Undertale instead of making a fan game, specially one from Nintendo, so you can make a kickstarter and sell the game and even start a franchise.
underrated channel
Don't worry! It'll come in Winter, 2014
This video is still relevant sadly 😢
I've never been more impatient about a game coming out
I will cry manly tears when oddity is finally released to the public
@ advancedSoul It's dead. It's Never going to come out.
They canceled it D':
Wait, what happened?
Okay. I can finally rest.
What a surpriiiiise.
They are actually working on it in secret. From what I heard
Where?
very very wise words at 11:00 of this video
if the original creator left then the project is doomed
I NEED THIS GAME! 😩
can't wait for winter 2014
All these good looking Mother fan games and they always seem to disappear with little to no word.
Bruh don't diss RPG maker MV. It's a good engine for making RPGs, and there are a lot of good games made in it, it's just overshadowed by the amount of garbage released by noob developers who have no clue what they're doing.
That aside, great video, I've been curious about the game's status for awhile. hopefully it'll release. . . eventually.
Truth be told i don't think it's coming out but i wish it was.
When the first mother 4 trailer came out, I made a comment stating how risky it was to piggy back off of a major IP associated with Nintendo, and I got plenty of replies telling me I was wrong.
I think the people who started this project might have been a bit clueless and immature.
I wouldnt doubt it. Fangames are usually started by amatuer devs. But its worth acknowledging the people who started Mother 4/Oddity arent the same people who are working on it now. Its gone through many hands over the years and the scope of the project keeps changing. Its hard to dissociate your project with the IP it was previously based on when it has this 10+ year legacy already behind it. Rebranding was still probably the best decision they could have made. Even though you risk pissing off those who followed expecting a direct follow up to Mother 3 and not a spiritual successor.
@@ians_parks iirc the rebranding was actually the worst decision they could've done since it came out from nowhere to the community and the team itself thus many people quit making the game