[2021] Still in Alpha

Erm.... It's actually pretty much the opposite. It's abnormally short for a team of their size working on a game with the scope of 7DTD. TFP is not a huge corporation- It started as a group of like, 6-10 people who got together and wanted to do something cool, and even now is only up to around 40-50 people, ish.

They are not EA. Nor Bioware, nor Ubisoft, nor any other massive AAA company that have endlesslky deep pockets, practically unlimited resources and connections throughout the industry.


And that's before we even discuss that many AAA companies can't put out a game of this scope in a shorter timeframe. There's numerous examples of games taking as long or longer to develop in entirety.

To quote myself from another thread:

Originally posted by Shurenai: Resident Evil 4 -- 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4 Development began 1999, Released 2005.
Starcraft 2 -- 6-7~ years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft Work began in 2004 after the shutdown of Ghost; Game announced 2007, released 2010.
Mafia II -- 7 years. https://kotaku.com/the-troubled-story-behind-mafia-ii-1447716549 Work began 2003, release 2010.
L.A. Noire -- 7 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_L.A._Noire Began in 2004, released 2011.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified -- 7 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bureau:_XCOM_Declassified Originally began in 2006, Later finished in 2013
Spore -- 8 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Spore DEvelopment began in 2000, Released 2008.
Spec Ops the Line -- 8 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spec_Ops:_The_Line Originally began development in 2003 at the latest; possibly before, Cancelled in 2004, picked up around a year later, released 2012- 8 years is generous, could be considered longer.

The following are generally some longer lived ones; Typically due to some kind of developmental issues.
Too Human -- 9-10 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Human Work began as early as 1997-1998; Later released 2008.
Team Fortress 2 -- 8-9 years. https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_2 First announced 1998, Released late 2007.
The Last Guardian -- 9 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Guardian Development began in 2007, Later released 2016.
Diablo 3 -- 11 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_III Development began 2001, Announced 2008ish Later released 2012
Duke Nukem Forever -- 15 years. Not the greatest example, but true. Many people are already familiar with it's storied development- Not too hard to look up sources on it if you're keen.

Borderlands 3, A more recent example, Right around 7 years while working with many existing assets and ideas that came before it's time from Borderlands games leading up to it.

And that is not an exhaustive list, all from companies significantly larger than TFP, that have more access to resources, and started from a good place to begin with. TFP started with a kickstarter and had limited funds for the first couple years of development.

Game development takes time.