For developers: How long it took you to release the fisrt version of your fisrt game?

[Adabelitoo]

Hello everyone, I am another guy trying to make his own game.

I was always the kind of person who has one idea out of nowhere and it suddenly starts developing by itself in my head and I just NEED to write it somewhere or my mind will not focus on anything else, and when I met this world (just in time for the last chapter of Dreams Of Desires, the first and still best game I ever played) I started having and developing stories and ideas for this kind of games too. I had the main idea of the game I'm developing around November 2018 but I didn't took it seriously and decided a few key things until February/March 2019 and since then I have been working (in my free time) almost non-stop

In that moment I said to myself that I should have the first version of the game by June/July because I thought 5 months should be a reasonable amount of time to create my first game from zero and right now (05/12/2019) I feel like I should be in time for that and even do it early or add more content in the first version than what now I have planned for the first version (ideas that are already scripted)

One of my many problems is that I totally lack of confidence in myself for everthing and I started questioning if those 5 months are really a reasonable amount of time to learn everthing I had to learn and do everything I have to do to create my first game, or if the idea of 5 months was just a placebo for my mind and I should spend way more time than that.

Also, I realized a few weeks ago that I almost never play v0.1 games, so I don't know how much content is the prudential amount of content for a v0.1 game. Lastly, right now I'm backing up my project and I realized it is half a GB, and I'm not even in the middle of adding and codding all the CGs and animations I planned for my first version and I just had to check the games on my pc to notice that, if this goes on, my first version will be as heavy as some v0.4 games or further, and I totally don't feel like my v0.1 will have as much content as those games.

So, my question to any developer is: How long it took you to release the fisrt version of your first game? How much time it took you to learn everthing you needed about RenPy/RPGM/Unity/whatever? How much time it took you to create and decided the main idea of your game? How much time it took you to learn how to use DAZ/Honey Select/ whatever program you picked to do your game? and I guess that if you drew for your game, I suppose you didn't learned to draw just to do a game, but any experience you want to share about that regard I will gladly read it. Those questions are about the first game you ever created, not necessarily the game you are developing right now

Lastly, please don't be afraid to mention your own game. Thanks for reading.

PS: some images of my game (Complex Society) just to prove I'm not a fraud (?)

Spoiler: Images

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[danteworks]

I learned honey select in a few months. I had composed a few songs already in the past so that was taken care of. Learned post processing/lightroom from photography. Got the idea to make a game. Learned renpy as I was making the game and released a version 0.1 in around a week.

 

[Winterfire]

Everyone has their own time, the only thing you should decide is when to release that first version... Getting feedback as early as possible vs having a lot of content to get a first good impression.
It seems like you are aiming for the second option which is fine.

 

[anne O'nymous]

It depend of so many things. Your actual knowledge, the time you'll need to learn what you don't know yet, your advancement in the writing of the story... Oh and also the amount of free time you have. There's authors around there that took a whole year, other that needed only few weeks. Personally I started thinking/working about my game six months ago, and I'm still far from the first release.
Just, please, don't be one of those devs that release their games too early and pass the next two years restarting it every six months. You'll learn many things while working on your game, and if you started it with the knowledge you'll have the day you'll finish it, it would have been a totally different game. But you need to deal with this, and accept that your first game will not be this great. It's not easy, but you'll be seen as more serious than if you decided to restart it every now and then to include your fresh knowledge.

 

[mickydoo]

One year from the first time I downloaded daz, and renpy, I knew nothing about either and had not even heard of the later. Renpy is an ongoing learning process but once you have learned how to do something in it you don't need to practise over and over to get it to look right. Daz how ever, I rendered, read, watched, re rendered read again, watched shit again until I ran out of things to watch and read basically, then I started the game making process about 5 times, my thought was if I was going to make something, make it as good as possible from the get go. Every release the lighting changes a bit on some scenes cos I finder better ways to set it up, the code is isolated to some degree in each release as I pick up tips on better ways to do things, but who knows when, a year from now when it's finished the last chapter should be a masterpiece.

 

[J..D]

I started writing the story over 10 years ago ...

Started creating my game 2 years ago in Ren'Py
Started all over again 1.5 years ago in Unity.
Started testing a couple months ago

And over 4000 renders, over 300 animations, more words then the first two books of LotR combined.. Later.
I am 2 days away from releasing my game to my Testers, backers and close friends.

So my first update of the game(That's already bigger then 99.9% of the games on this site)took me around 2 years..
And next update will probably take around that same amount of time.

 

[HopesGaming]

Not something I remember clearly as it was just something I did without thinking but I would say I worked on and off for around 4-6 months. This just worked whenever I felt like it and a lot of it was learning and writing a good story.
And then I had a 3-4 months 'break' in between those months as I didn't think the game would go anywhere. So more like temporarily abandon status. Until I picked it up again due to boredom.

The amount of time is not important. It can differ a lot.
Just have a decent amount of content for 0.01 (intro is done, story premise clear, code framework is done, etc.) and you're set.

 

[Domiek]

I asked Philly the other day "how the hell do you have x number of renders in 3 weeks when it's taken me 2 months to do that"? His response was to not worry about it or else you'll go insane. Probably the best advice.

Everyone has different circumstances, whether it's other life commitments like work, school, family, renders equipment, etc. If this dev life was a regular job where everyone on the same equipment and software put in 40 hours a week, then comparisons would make sense.

Work on your game, as long as you're enjoying what you're doing, try not to worry about it to much. You'll start cutting corners like I did to meet deadlines and realize that you'll never grow your skills that way.

 

[Ryder77]

It took me about 14 months, including learning DAZ and renpy (to the extent I really learned either). However, I had the game pretty much finished before I started posting it.

 

[SeventhVixen]

Trying to add up learning time, even more from various programs, and in the same time "time needed to make the first release", it's just gonna give more different timeframes than the already base difference of how many hours a week different devs give to their games.

So, if you trying to know if your timeframe is reasonable comparing to others, is not gonna give you an answer of any type, because all answer are good (or bad).

Best advice, just work on it and release it when you fell its gonna offer the first experience you want to offer.

 

[Zippity]

Many factors will come into play that might effect a first release and the length of time to get it done... From learning to use all the tools involved, to determining the game play style, to writing all the text, to making all the visuals, to designing all the code, to putting it all together, to testing it, to ensuring continuity, etc... And depending on your real life available time, along with everything else life might throw at you, when you add it all up, that can be months to years... It also depends if your solo, or working in a group (and all the headaches that might incur)… Then add in how much content you want to include in your first release... And the list goes on and on...

You also have to consider your goals with a first release, as I've seen all sorts of examples from varying developers over the years... Some might release a Proof of Concept with only the very basic of the games mechanics included as content... No real story or plot, just the working elements, in order to get peoples opinions if the system seems to work ok or not... I've seen some developers release a Demo, Prelude, and/or Introduction either to test the waters, in order to get feedback (negative and positive), and/or to throw out a donation net, to try catching readers/players willing to donate... Some initial releases include both an introduction/prelude as well as a decent amount of initial content... And depending on how well put together they are, those types of initial releases typically catch the most attention from the broader readership/player base...

The trouble I see with most initial releases I've experienced, is that they don't tell the readers/players enough sometimes... There are some that have great initial releases overall... But most are typically (not always) too short to really know if the product will be good going forward or not... Mostly because many developers spend more time tweaking and perfecting an initial release, then they normally will do with future content releases, probably because they want to make a good first impression... There are some developers who's first release is top notch, and chopped full of initial content, that draws in a broader spectrum of players/readers... But there are many more that, primarily, just include basic teaser visuals/events meant to entice porn only seekers into either donating or giving great initial reviews... Problem is that the broader market is full of both porn seekers (people just looking to masturbate) and entertainment seekers (folks looking for good story and/or gameplay to go along with the erotic sexual stuff)… I believe the market is full of more entertainment seekers then pure porn seekers... It's just that the pure porn seekers tend to be more publicly boisterous, with their opinions and desires... You could blame that on age/maturity, body chemistry, state of mind, and the list goes on... Also, you will never generally hear from most players/readers in places like this, or other public areas... The vast majority of overall players/readers, tend to keep to themselves... So you will only ever really hear opinions and get feedback from a minority of the overall players/readers, in forums and public social areas... That's just the nature of the overall adult market...

In any case, it will always boil down to your goals as the developer, as to how long an initial release will take... It's awesome that you set yourself a time frame goal... But that doesn't mean you have to stringently stick to it... It's not like you have to bow to the demands of a corporate entity... If it takes longer, then it takes longer... If you get it done early, then so be it... Don't put unnecessary pressures on yourself, as it will only just end up leading to things like burnout, writers block, making mistakes, and so on... It's your baby to make and nurture... Do it at your own pace, regardless of outside pressures as well...

Zip

 

[DandyBoyOni]

Right about two years... Small advice, post it sooner than that!