How long did it take for you to release your Demo?

[SpoiledPrince]

How much time passed from the moment you first conceived your project and started to work on it until you obtained a version of it you felt confident enough to show the world ?
I mean proper Demos, not 5-minute-thingies with no actual content besides introducing the caracteres and showing how hot they are.

I've been working on mine for a year and sometimes it feels like an ever-expanding, neverending task...

 

[Winterfire]

A week on my first project, a little more than a week on my following ones.

 

[Zachy]

It took me 3-4 months to release my Alpha v0.1. And all that for just 1 hour of gameplay.

Don't worry if you're taking too long. You gotta prioritize quality over speed. And if no one is giving you monetary support, there's absolutely no reason to feel rushed.

 

[DelinquentProductions]

Between first tossing out the idea that maybe we should make an adult game, and actually releasing our intro it was about three months.

In that time we had to write everything up, learn how to use Ren'py and Daz, how to make ui, learn about lighting, where to put cameras, pretty much everything. It very much is an ever expanding, never ending task, and juggling quality versus speed is always hard.

At the end of the day though, having something you're proud of takes as long as its going to take, and if you're enjoying the process at all then it's a worthwhile effort.

 

[anne O'nymous]

How much time passed from the moment you first conceived your project and started to work on it until you obtained a version of it you felt confident enough to show the world ?
I mean proper Demos, not 5-minute-thingies with no actual content besides introducing the caracteres and showing how hot they are.

I've been working on mine for a year and sometimes it feels like an ever-expanding, neverending task...

More than one year, still counting. But it's not by lack of version of it I feel confident enough to show the world. It's because of a lack of time to seriously works on it.

If you wait to have something that, to your eyes, worth it, you can still be waiting in ten years. There's a moment where you've to say "stop, this one I release it whatever I think about it".
Perhaps that it will be really bad, but then you'll know it for sure. Perhaps that it will be good, and then you'll have a confidence boost. But anyway you'll have the feedback from the community, and so know what you have to improve.

 

[mickydoo]

Took me a year or so

 

[Lord Lickertaint]

Are people testing your game now or have you been working on it alone?

 

[K.T.L.]

Haven't even got that far yet. Still working on the story after countless months. Nobody's paying me to do it so I'll take as long as I feel is necessary.

 

[SpoiledPrince]

A week on my first project, a little more than a week on my following ones.

I'm officially demoralized lol

It took me 3-4 months to release my Alpha v0.1. And all that for just 1 hour of gameplay.

Don't worry if you're taking too long. You gotta prioritize quality over speed. And if no one is giving you monetary support, there's absolutely no reason to feel rushed.

Are you a solo dev or part of a team?
This is going to be a free Game with no Patreon, so... No angry clients to answer to haha.

Between first tossing out the idea that maybe we should make an adult game, and actually releasing our intro it was about three months.

In that time we had to write everything up, learn how to use Ren'py and Daz, how to make ui, learn about lighting, where to put cameras, pretty much everything. It very much is an ever expanding, never ending task, and juggling quality versus speed is always hard.

At the end of the day though, having something you're proud of takes as long as its going to take, and if you're enjoying the process at all then it's a worthwhile effort.

I'm doing 2D and learning how to draw with questionable results. I'm having some help with coding bit I'm an absolute beginner too... And a slower learner than your team lol

More than one year, still counting. But it's not by lack of version of it I feel confident enough to show the world. It's because of a lack of time to seriously works on it.

If you wait to have something that, to your eyes, worth it, you can still be waiting in ten years. There's a moment where you've to say "stop, this one I release it whatever I think about it".
Perhaps that it will be really bad, but then you'll know it for sure. Perhaps that it will be good, and then you'll have a confidence boost. But anyway you'll have the feedback from the community, and so know what you have to improve.

The main problem with mine is that I bit more than I could chew and severely underestimated the time and effort the game would require. Number of BGs, length of the " novel part". I had this nice tree with the story for the Demo, but new things kept popping out from nowhere and expanding the plot... and since they fit quite well and seemed to being me to the same point, I couldn't being myself to be firm and stick to the original structure...

Are people testing your game now or have you been working on it alone?

Testing is too strong a word for the stage where this is at, I'm afraid. I get opinions on the "art" and the writting from other people who help me when they find the time.

*Sorry about the broken English. The tablet's autocorrect function isn't helping either*

 

[Zachy]

Are you a solo dev or part of a team?
This is going to be a free Game with no Patreon, so... No angry clients to answer to haha.

I'm a solo dev.

Also, if it's taking you so long then you should try to make some profit. No one's gonna give you back all the time you spent on making that game. At least creating a Patreon when you release the demo would be a reasonable choice.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

Close to 8 months, we're still in the final lap (our first playable build is dropping in ~2 weeks).

Shit's hard, yo! Takes forever to get things looking and working the way we want them... it doesn't help that all three of us are perfectionists. Still, if you're gonna do something right, might as well try and make it the best it can be...

Every dev has their own challenges - our is that we all work regular 9-5 jobs, and this in addition to IRL responsibilities means that time is really tight for us. We've pretty much sacrificed our social lives for the better part of this last year, since we started seriously working on our project. It's just not humanly possible to hold steady employment, deal with family/friend/significant-other issues, and still develop a game.

Hoping to win the national lottery soon, so we can dedicate 100% of our time to dev work!

 

[Winterfire]

I'm officially demoralized lol

Do not be, I am in the minority as the thread shows.

There are various reasons why I took only a week:
1. I thought the idea, how it starts, develops and ends way before I began the actual development.
You can do this through a game design document, and it does not even have to be fancy if you will be the only one reading it.
It may feel slow at first because you are not actually developing the cool idea you had, but it saves you a lot of time in the long run.

2. My builds are small.
I favor weekly updates (which become bi-weekly once the game grows too much in size), this allows me to get feedback on each build and apply player's suggestions when and where possible.
This allows players to actually have an impact in the game as I try my best to include their suggestions while also delivering updates quickly, it is a win/win scenario for me... And the only one considering how my tiers are set up on patreon.

3. I am a solo dev.
Many believe that a team speeds things up, and with a team manager that could be true, however...
Nothing really beats the "I need this character, so I will go do it right now even if I will have to go to sleep a little late today." than "sup. Need a character... two weeks? sure bye".
Of course since I am talentless, that means most of the fields I should be covering I am pretty crap at (mainly graphics).

4. By a week, I mean an entire week.
This is a hobby for me, one with which I have a lot of fun with.
So I did not do stuff for my game only a few hours every day, for a week... But I spent a lot of hours, every day, for the entire week.


There are probably other points that I cannot think about, but in my opinion, taking a year is perhaps too much.
At some point you will need to ask yourself, "How long will I take to upload my next build, after the first one?".
You may want to have your intro be good looking and all, but there are many things you will miss, especially if you are solo... You need the player's feedback.

Before or later, you will have to throw your game out there, so just get what is necessary to give the player an idea of what your game is about and throw it!

 

[SpoiledPrince]

I'm a solo dev.

Also, if it's taking you so long then you should try to make some profit. No one's gonna give you back all the time you spent on making that game. At least creating a Patreon when you release the demo would be a reasonable choice.

I'm planning on releasing it for free and asking people to donate to their local medical research organizations and charities in exchange for extras. Still working on home to do that lol

Close to 8 months, we're still in the final lap (our first playable build is dropping in ~2 weeks).

Shit's hard, yo! Takes forever to get things looking and working the way we want them... it doesn't help that all three of us are perfectionists. Still, if you're gonna do something right, might as well try and make it the best it can be...

Every dev has their own challenges - our is that we all work regular 9-5 jobs, and this in addition to IRL responsibilities means that time is really tight for us. We've pretty much sacrificed our social lives for the better part of this last year, since we started seriously working on our project. It's just not humanly possible to hold steady employment, deal with family/friend/significant-other issues, and still develop a game.

Hoping to win the national lottery soon, so we can dedicate 100% of our time to dev work!

Fingers crossed!

Do not be, I am in the minority as the thread shows.

There are various reasons why I took only a week:
1. I thought the idea, how it starts, develops and ends way before I began the actual development.
You can do this through a game design document, and it does not even have to be fancy if you will be the only one reading it.
It may feel slow at first because you are not actually developing the cool idea you had, but it saves you a lot of time in the long run.

2. My builds are small.
I favor weekly updates (which become bi-weekly once the game grows too much in size), this allows me to get feedback on each build and apply player's suggestions when and where possible.
This allows players to actually have an impact in the game as I try my best to include their suggestions while also delivering updates quickly, it is a win/win scenario for me... And the only one considering how my tiers are set up on patreon.

3. I am a solo dev.
Many believe that a team speeds things up, and with a team manager that could be true, however...
Nothing really beats the "I need this character, so I will go do it right now even if I will have to go to sleep a little late today." than "sup. Need a character... two weeks? sure bye".
Of course since I am talentless, that means most of the fields I should be covering I am pretty crap at (mainly graphics).

4. By a week, I mean an entire week.
This is a hobby for me, one with which I have a lot of fun with.
So I did not do stuff for my game only a few hours every day, for a week... But I spent a lot of hours, every day, for the entire week.


There are probably other points that I cannot think about, but in my opinion, taking a year is perhaps too much.
At some point you will need to ask yourself, "How long will I take to upload my next build, after the first one?".
You may want to have your intro be good looking and all, but there are many things you will miss, especially if you are solo... You need the player's feedback.

Before or later, you will have to throw your game out there, so just get what is necessary to give the player an idea of what your game is about and throw it!

Still, just a week seems a truly impressive feat. I, for example spend 3/4 days drawing each background and they are nothing to write home about lol Animating the opening menu has taken me weeks...

On a positive note, once this demo is out I' ll only have to draw CGs and a couple of sprites, because the main characters and places will be already done.

 

[Rafster]

I dunno, I guess it depends on how perfectionist you are. I started my own project on november 20 (an HTML sandbox focused on m/m porn), but between writing (and english is not my first language, so I have to double check everything I write)/designing, learning about HTML/Javascript/Twine/sugarcube , finding the appropiate media, etc...it will take me a long time before I get to a point that I think it deserves to be played.

Right now, I'm at MC creation screen so no, there is nothing playable yet . My first initial date would be february but knowing myself It can take months before I think I can show it to anyone.

 

[DonkeyFace]

Between first tossing out the idea that maybe we should make an adult game, and actually releasing our intro it was about three months.

In that time we had to write everything up, learn how to use Ren'py and Daz, how to make ui, learn about lighting, where to put cameras, pretty much everything. It very much is an ever expanding, never ending task, and juggling quality versus speed is always hard.

At the end of the day though, having something you're proud of takes as long as its going to take, and if you're enjoying the process at all then it's a worthwhile effort.

Damn! I'd say you are a really quick leaner then, because your game looks very polished.

 

[Alcahest]

Took me about 4.5 months. Most of that spent on coding the engine.