What Happened To Oddity? - DaNovaFRFX 

Oddity's development cycle is actually just a Mother 3 reference.

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

When Oddity (M4) was first announced, George W Bush was president.

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.

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.

* drops an amazing trailer for oddity * refuses to elaborate further * leaves

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.

It's gonna release in Winter 2014, I can't wait

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

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.

i remember seeing this back in 2012, i was only 12 years old at the time. now look at where we are.

This video came out two years ago dog what the fuck

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 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.

cant wait for winter 2014!!!!!

Development Hell: The Game

Im glad its still doing good, I love earthbound and am looking forward to this game

Great video! This fills a void in my heart

Oddity account tweeted lets go

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.

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.

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

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 RU-vid 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.

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

It’s pulling a silksong

"Old But Gold" I have faith in you guys, the earthbound legacy is yours!

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.

This is almost 2 years old now.

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

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?

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

3 years later on and damn still no updates

I need an ex-dev to come out and reveal what the fuck was happening that the game still isn't anywhere near completion

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

Watching this again since there is no update

I'm pretty sure we'll get mother 64 before oddity

Game development is a lot more complicated than “keep programming until it’s done”. I understand that now.

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".

I think one of the main artist said the twitter account will start posting again in a few weeks

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.

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

God I can't wait these will be a blast and il be amazed when it comes out

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

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 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.

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

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!

Speaking of Omori and Undertale. Did you guys forgot Lisa the Painful?, where it was made with RPG maker and also have small development.

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.

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.

underrated channel

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

can't wait for winter 2014

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

Winter 2024 is gonna be a grand old time

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.

They canceled it D':

Bro they can release Oddity on Steam with a 20 or 30 dollars price tag and I don't think anybody would complain.

I desperately hope that Oddity comes out someday. It has such insane potential!

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.

crazy that stardew valley, omori, lisa and deltarune were all released way before oddity/m4 has been released

If I had a nickel for every time someone said fustrating, I would have 2 nickels, which isnt a lot but its kinda weird it happened twice.

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.

Devs why, why did you set me on fire devs! Why didn't you just release Oddity? STOP WASTING TIME!

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 NEED THIS GAME! 😩

This video is still relevant sadly 😢

I've never been more impatient about a game coming out

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.

bro it's already 2023 and it started in 2008 bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!

I still miss that subtitle (“Under the Moon”)

the game has gone longer than this without an update so i still have hope. there's no use not having hope, right?

very very wise words at 11:00 of this video

Don't worry! It'll come in Winter, 2014

I will cry manly tears when oddity is finally released to the public

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.

didnt everyone leading the project leave? is it just the devs now?

Between this and Tears of Magic, I’m on board

Where do I find this Oddity fan discord?

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.

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.

if the original creator left then the project is doomed

Honestly love the music, details and sprites, such a shame hope for the project seems to have died out after a decade of wait

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.

this is the part with the car

Do you have to download the game? Or know the current status of the game?

Uuugh. I Gotta play dis again

Oddity started in rpgmakerxp, mv came out in 2015

Ah yes my favorite RU-vid channel "Press Continue to Start"

All these good looking Mother fan games and they always seem to disappear with little to no word.