Others How complete should your game be, before you start a development thread?

[dreamerquest]

Does your game need to have completed one playable level before you start a development thread?


At this stage, I have just completed a prototype in Unity.
Focusing on a few basic core game play mechanic with a few systems working together.
Player and enemies are just spheres and boxes but I do have a naked character.
There are no levels to complete or UI.



I really feels incomplete to me as a demo.
But I really want to try share it early to get some feedback.

Do you have any advice?

 

[Satori6]

Do you mean a development thread or a game thread?

I created my dev thread about 4 months after starting development, and created the game thread where I released the prototype around 2 months after the dev thread was created.

If you mean a game thread, you can do it whenever. The upside is that you'll get early feedback and bug reports. The downside is that people will complain because of the lack of content, but people here love to complain -they need the attention-, so they'd do it regardless.

The only review of my game (which was later edited) initially complained that the prototype -for a card battle game- had no story.

I'm sure some simpleton will complain that your prototype lacks an incest patch or whatever, but as long as a single person leaves some useful feedback, it'll be worth it.

 

[no_more_name]

Does your game need to have completed one playable level before you start a development thread?

At this stage, I have just completed a prototype in Unity.
Focusing on a few basic core game play mechanic with a few systems working together.
Player and enemies are just spheres and boxes but I do have a naked character.
There are no levels to complete or UI.

I really feels incomplete to me as a demo.
But I really want to try share it early to get some feedback.

Do you have any advice?

Go for it and see where it goes.

My main beef with development thread are that they are created for building exposure. Nothing wrong with that, but it's repetitive and imho quite boring to read.

There is not that much space in that huge forum to talk about game design (even if generaly VNs or porn games are de facto quite limited in general). Bad, good or terrible ideas, failures and usual problems that comes with it. I would really love to read more of that, how people iterates, where they take inspiration from, than the redondant Fix My Renpy/Daz Problem o/

 

[AlternateDreams]

Some people start their development thread before they've even begun to develop their game (by sharing a few renders and/or explaining their concept, for example).
So if you want to create one, you can do so now.

 

[dreamerquest]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I have read a few of the development posts, some of them have really good opening post.
So, in between developing my POC further, I need to develop my story a little more before sharing it here.


Satori6

The only review of my game (which was later edited) initially complained that the prototype -for a card battle game- had no story.

Hahaha. I had similar experience. I posted the POC in reddit, and someone commented on a whole lot of things as if it was a complete project. I can't blame them, the POC is full of placeholder boxes and spheres. But they did mention a few things that I wasn't aware of so all in all it's actually quite valuable.


no_more_name,

not that much space in that huge forum to talk about game design

I think I understand what you mean. Definitely the failed ideas/attempts are much more interesting to read, because the reader learn so much more from it. I'll try to approach that once I post my update.


AlternateDreams

Some people start their development thread

Yes. I read one of that. It's pretty crazy to just mention their idea before they even started. I couldn't do that. Just too much wishful thinking. But I do hope they complete their game.

 

[GNVE]

Yes. I read one of that. It's pretty crazy to just mention their idea before they even started. I couldn't do that. Just too much wishful thinking. But I do hope they complete their game.

I think it might be optimism and enthusiasm. (and probably inexperience and underestimation of how much work it is to make a game).

 

[osanaiko]

I dislike development threads that are clearly just being written as a marketing exercise.

Anything that starts with a slick banner, multiple sections explaining the story, introduces several characters with artwork... it all seems very fake.

Talking about issues, decisionmaking, processes, tribulations, asking for feedback - that is what makes it interesting.

Of the games which I have volunteered to assist, slightly less than half of those came initially from the dev thread, with me responding to the developer asking for feedback/assistance. And those were because I liked what i saw in the concept / demo, but could see the dev needed assistance with proofreading/playtesting/editing dialogue.