Can we have a product update?

I see no updates on where things are currently. Considering the shaky history of Bolt, I would think you might realize how important it is to re-establish regular communication with customers.

Comments

  • Agreed. Some kind of status report every other week would be great.
  • And of course, as soon as there is an indication that the Bolt 1.0 release is nearing completion, that would be important news to share.
  • Agreed..
  • We are on the same page. We will try to improve things. Right now, everything settles in...
  • Then that is what you should be saying in regular updates every week. "Hi folks, just a small update, everything is still on track internally and we plan to have something more substantial to discuss in the near future. For now, rest assured we are committed, it just takes a bit of time to settle things down."

    Literally costs you next to nothing to say this. If you're not saying even that, people on my team lose confidence and start to question your strategy. Other products / companies are discussed more readily.

    If you cannot give more information, at least give an indication of when you will be able to.
  • That's valid feedback. Can't argue with that.
    Rest assured we work on Bolt and get up to speed asap. It was quite a bit of work and discussion to get Bolt and Exit Games aligned and we didn't do that to get rid of Bolt. On the contrary.
  • Okay Tobias. Looking forward to hearing more.
  • Hey Tobias,

    I (and any other serious Bolt user) would really appreciate it if you stopped with the poor attempts at generic PR responses like you and Christof have been giving recently, and actually showed some respect towards Bolt customers.

    The level of commitment that you've promised in words has so far been completely unfulfilled, and it's obvious that you don't even understand the product that you've purchased (no release build for 4.33 and 4.3 - there is simply no excuse for this). There is an obvious disconnect between where Photon think Bolt is and where it actually is as well - it's not production ready (beyond buggy early access implementations), and needs constant updates & core fixes, which we simply haven't received.

    What you could've had is a large, active Bolt community, and the best networking system (by far) for Unity. Instead, 80% of Bolt owners no longer log onto jabbr, most have moved to forge or uNET (which, by the way, are vastly inferior to Bolt in their core design - but they're actually being updated, with signs that they will reach a production-ready state).

    I've been holding off on writing something like this because I have a vested interest in Bolt - I'm using it in my released game at the moment, and have been working with it for just about 12 months now. The fact is, there is no logical reason for anyone to purchase or start/continue working with Bolt as it stands, it's as simple as that.
  • Hey Tobias,

    I (and any other serious Bolt user) would really appreciate it if you stopped with the poor attempts at generic PR responses like you and Christof have been giving recently, and actually showed some respect towards Bolt customers.

    The level of commitment that you've promised in words has so far been completely unfulfilled, and it's obvious that you don't even understand the product that you've purchased (no release build for 4.33 and 4.3 - there is simply no excuse for this). There is an obvious disconnect between where Photon think Bolt is and where it actually is as well - it's not production ready (beyond buggy early access implementations), and needs constant updates & core fixes, which we simply haven't received.

    What you could've had is a large, active Bolt community, and the best networking system (by far) for Unity. Instead, 80% of Bolt owners no longer log onto jabbr, most have moved to forge or uNET (which, by the way, are vastly inferior to Bolt in their core design - but they're actually being updated, with signs that they will reach a production-ready state).

    I've been holding off on writing something like this because I have a vested interest in Bolt - I'm using it in my released game at the moment, and have been working with it for just about 12 months now. The fact is, there is no logical reason for anyone to purchase or start/continue working with Bolt as it stands, it's as simple as that.

    I agree 100%

    Also, isn't this a form of false advertising?
    * Runs on most Unity platforms: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, Web Player, PSVita and PlayStation 4. Xbox One and Wii U support is in development.
  • My guess is that fholm abandoned bolt and exit-games and now they are having a hard time replacing him to continue development.
  • I take a 3 month break, and during that time I had hoped that fholm's comments on small weekly updates, ExitGames general talk of getting Bolt situated, fixing bugs, and having some releases would all be true. I am very annoyed that in all the time I was away, there appears to be very little development. 4.3.3 was released. Nice I guess. I see all the positive messages of how things are being aligned, bugs are being recorded, Bolt is not being abandoned, it wasn't purchased to just fester, etc. Then I see what has been developed and the actual communication and it is rather pathetic. As I like to say, "At least with uLink I expected no support."

    Random thought: if you did take out one of your upstart competitors in a buyout, it creates long term implications that Bolt is no longer viable. Sure, other products such as UNet or Forge may take that niche, but some of those potential Bolt customers may just go use PUN now. In my eyes, there is actual value in purchasing Bolt, doing little-to-no-development, and promising things.

    So here we are, months later, and it seems like nothing has changed. We've had two small releases in... half a year? More?

    .. what is my recourse? I can write a bad review, I can write a forum post, and I can spend 1-3 months reworking my game to accommodate a new networking engine that I have to learn. My money is taken, and I really should not expect anything more out of an asset than what is there. Great. I still feel cheated and let down. I would have paid $750 USD for working Bolt product. I was going to pay that much for uLink and I enjoyed working with Bolt 10x more.

    (sidenote: so that argument about how cheap Bolt is for what it does... make it work and charge more. Need iOS to work? Sell it as an add-on for $40. People will get over it because Il2CPP didn't exist when Bolt was created and it will take actual work to resolve. Sell Wii-U add-on for $30. Sell WebGL for $20. It isn't rocket surgery.)

    It would be very nice, and appreciative, if Tobias/Admins/Whoever were just brutally blunt and honest with us. It would create some arguments, some discontent; however, the honesty would be refreshing, the knowledge inviting, and it would build some trust - because currently there is none.
  • Bolt is a big, ambitious project for a dev to take on, and I could certainly understand it if fholm got burnt out on it and is struggling to finish it. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and I'm sure the final miles are the hardest.

    I believe fholm can finish it. However, even if he can't, there ought to be some news to share. We need to know if Bolt is more likely to be finished in September, by the end of the year, or never, so we can act appropriately for our projects.

    I think I'm going to give Photon / Bolt another week or two, and if there's no news by then, I'll have to assume the worst.
  • There is a new update online: 0.4.3.4
    http://www.boltengine.com/bolt-release-notes/bolt-0-4-3-4/

    IL2CPP:
    - depends on bugs in Unity
    - we test all new patches

    Focus on Q4 this year is Steam and Consoles (PS4, XB1).
  • @GoGoGadget thanks for your rant and feedback. Based on our email/offline conversation: Good that you commit to Bolt and help us to drive the product forward. Appreciate it.

    @Yukichu
    Yukichu said:

    It would be very nice, and appreciative, if Tobias/Admins/Whoever were just brutally blunt and honest with us. It would create some arguments, some discontent; however, the honesty would be refreshing, the knowledge inviting, and it would build some trust - because currently there is none.

    There is nothing really brutal ...

    1) We (mainly fholm) runs through the major github issues and fix as much as we are able to repro.

    2) We target bi-weekly releases:
    http://www.boltengine.com/bolt-release-notes/bolt-0-4-3-4/

    3) Once major issues are fixed we focus on Steam and Consoles in Q4/2015


    We will work with advanced Bolt users/teams (@stanchion , @GoGoGadget ...) to help us with the community, priorities etc. If you think you should be part of this group ping me.

    We have a long term plan with Bolt.
  • Hi Bertel, welcome back from vacation. :)

    If I am parsing what you've said correctly, the current projection is that Bolt should be at a stable v1.0 point before the end of the year, but probably not much before that.

    Is this correct?

    I'm not trying to pin you down so much as to try to get a sense of it.

    I gather that a September or October date for v1.0 seems premature.
  • Bertel, thanks for the update. I hope there are somewhat-reliable bi-weekly updates, and communication on how things are progressing or issues if there are not. Thanks!
  • please see bolt updates for current and future updates.
  • hopeful said:

    ... projection is that Bolt should be at a stable v1.0 point before the end of the year, but probably not much before that. Is this correct?
    ...
    I gather that a September or October date for v1.0 seems premature.

    I tend to say yes. But it depends on showstopper bugs you have in YOUR game. Known issues/bugs are tracked in github: https://github.com/BoltEngine/bolt/issues

    Issues are assigned to milestones. We plan a bi-weekly release (next one is 0.4.3.5).
  • Thanks, Bertel! Looking forward to more updates. :)