In General, How Many Scenes Before 1st release?

[JakeHard]

Hi,

I'm a new dev, with a fair amount of knowledge of the workings of Daz Studio, and am wondering how many scenes are recommended for a 1st release. I have a story that is written out beforehand, and have already scripted several scenes (minus renders) in the latest version of Ren'py. I have played quite a few VNs before my first attempt at creating my own, but am still unsure of how many scenes I should create before I release my first version/chapter. I know it's better to have more than less, but if anyone could provide a good estimate, I would really appreciate it. Due to other employment opportunities becoming unavailable, this may be my only source of income for the foreseeable future.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] and am wondering how many scenes are recommended for a 1st release.

As much as needed.

The first release should present the story, the main characters (with possibly some exceptions), and the game mechanism(s). If only one scene is needed for this, then one scene can be enough. And if you need 50 scenes for this, then 50 scenes is what your first release should have.
Be noted that those numbers are obviously exaggerations. If you can present all this with just one scene, your story is too inconsistent, and if you need 50 scenes, then your story building skill is probably messed, or your story too complicated.

 

[FluffyStudio]

Hey there! I'm a new Dev too and had my own thoughts about it. I'm currently working too with Renpy! Honestly, I have decided that there should be a fair amount of content. Now what is fair? I don't know. If we go by my Project I believe it should engage the Player long enough, that they feel like it was worth there time. Its important that they understand, where the story goes and what can be achieved in the future. I'm creating an Semi-Open World Sandbox Management Game, so I will need to have the Mechanics first, then the Maps, then the characters, then the scenes, so I will need to first build the Gameplay, World and the Characters in it, before I even waste someone else time with it! What i want to say is, it depends on your Project. Is it a narrative with branching Story's, I would say, every Location should have at least 3 Scenes and something else to say. If its just a VN, then an explanation to the Story and where it goes could be enough. At the end, when you look at what you achieved from now until then, you will know, when its Ok for you, to show the World, your Piece of Art to the World. It truly depends on your Project and how big it is going to be.

 

[MeLovely Games]

I think more in terms of gameplay time... I want my demo to last at least 15mins, so my demo content will have however many scenes are needed for 15mins of gameplay.

 

[ChairmanDude]

This is extremely relative and depends a lot on what exactly are you making... I could easily see a game having a pretty decent first release with not a single scene by simply having some good mechanics or story in the same way i can see a game releasing with multiple scenes and being shitty anyway...

 

[Tompte]

I'm probably in the minority here but I believe you should finish a game before releasing it. If you want hands-on testing or feedback, sure. Or if you intend the project to be a "journey" where people can follow along and contribute, there are ways to do that.

But keep in mind that more often than not, people much prefer to play complete games that won't sputter-stop halfway through. "Coming soon" rarely means anything to anyone and often comes off as an empty promise. Never release something just to get praise or reinforcement, because usually that type positive validation has the opposite effect to your motivation to continue.

 

[Eezergoode]

It really depends on whether your focus is on game-play and mechanics, or on story. For a more story driven game, I would basically break it into chapters, and not release the first part until I was done with at least a prologue and the first chapter. As it stands right now, I have no intentions of releasing ANYTHING before Chapter Three (of 9) is completed.

A more gameplay-oriented, or mechanics oriented game, again, you want to give people enough to at least understand what you are trying to accomplish.

But in general, I would say you should have at least 20-30 minutes of game. Minimum. So for a primarily story based game, 6k to 9k words sounds about right. For an RPG, maybe 2-3 short quests, and maybe 5-10 short fights or 2-3 longer ones. And so on. If you can put more in there, by all means do so, but I would say no LESS than 20-30 minutes.

As for updates, it depends on how often you update. People tend to get pretty salty if you go 3-6 months and release 15 minutes of content.