Also working on updated UI, farming
Rust is still doing its development thing and though it sees no update to the software this week, creator Gary Newman has posted what the team is up to on the game’s official blog.
Of note is the suggestion of an internet-based submission system for game items, allowing players the opportunity to create potential new items. Submitted items would be reviewed by Facepunch Studios and voted on by the community before implementation. Newman also showed a mock-up of the web interface, but warned that it may be some weeks yet before it becomes available, as some of Rust‘s systems will need to be redesigned to accommodate it.
Other tasks in progress include an overhaul of the user interface and the game’s farming system has been started but has been slowed by performance issues.
I have heard the argument against this kind of practice which suggests that it’s the developer getting the community to make the game for them while they sit back and collect the money for the work. While that certainly may sound insidious, I think that view is ill-informed and dismissive of the work which goes into game development.
Certainly, user-generated content provides an avenue for ideas the developers may have never considered before, but more ideas simply create more work in refinement. You then have to sift through those ideas, take the ones which have merit and incorporate them into your own in a way that make sense and doesn’t unbalance the rest of your work. That’s not easy, people.
