- Oct 30, 2020
- 34
- 64
Hey guys, DEV here. First I just want to say thanks to all of you for commenting on v0.1 of My Boss's Daughter. I'm reading every one of them. I appreciate all the feedback!
Just so you know, this isn't my thread. Whoever is pirating (arg!) the game is the host of the thread so the tags for the thread/game may be inaccurate as the story develops.
To all the comments regarding this story being familiar trope or "just like all the others out there". Yeah, honestly that is my intent. It's my first game so I wanted to make it relatively mainstream with a pretty standard storyline. Mainly so I can get a feel for the whole VN community/culture/whatever. I have about a dozen ideas for future games that will revolve around other, less mainstream, topics.
Story choices:
I've been thinking hard about what I want in-game choices to be. It's a rather difficult topic to decide on and I've seen too many VN's do in-game choices poorly. Some VN's only have either the RIGHT choice or GAME OVER choice for every interaction. Other games seem to either have no effect from their choices, making your choice meaningless, or one simple choice really early on in the game has massive implications WAY down the line, forcing you to replay potentially hours of gameplay to redo an incorrect choice.
I didn't like these options so as I continue with the game, my in-game choices are going to revolve mainly around whether you want to watch certain graphical scenes and how you want relationships with side characters to progress. So you can skip scenes you don't want to participate in. For example, if you don't like Liz, you can skip all the scenes with her. Or if a particular sexual act you don't really like, you can skip that as well. You'll be able to make those choices.
Unfortunately, this isn't about holding anything hostage though. It's simply a matter of economics. As of v0.1 release I have invested about 250 hours of labor and $500 worth of purchased assets to get this game where it is (hardly even started). That's about 6 weeks worth of 40 hour work weeks. I'm not looking for enough supporters to cover even a small portion of that. 10 - $5 tier supporters is only $50 a month. That doesn't even cover my asset purchases.
What it is, is a metric to show me that people are actually interested in the game and want to keep seeing more. That tells me "hey they like what you are doing" and that will prompt me to want to continue. If no one signs up to my SubscribeStar as I keep putting more and more effort into this game I'm going to start wondering if it's even worth it, you know? Wouldn't it be better to move to another VN story that more people might be interested in? I have plenty of stories, so it's not like I'm going to stop producing VN's. I just want to make VN's that people like. Or, that are at least are good enough to justify to some small degree the massive amount of time and effort I put into them. As a developer, I'm sure you struggle with the same issues.
How do you convince people to help support your game so you can justify the amount of time and money that goes into making it? I'm more than happy to change that little feature if there is a better way bring people to my SubscribeStar though. So any ideas are appreciated.
Mistakes:
If anyone sees any spelling mistakes or notices any problems with the game. Or just wants to help out with playtesting or whatever, shoot me a message here or hit my website
I enjoy all your comments (both positive and negative). Honestly I never expected so much interaction with my game so early in its development. I do take all your comments into consideration so please feel free to keep leaving them. Some things I just wont be able to do simply because it's not within the scope of the story as it is planned. However, as I mentioned earlier, I do have other VN stories planned so they could show up there.
Thank you all!
RGG
Just so you know, this isn't my thread. Whoever is pirating (arg!) the game is the host of the thread so the tags for the thread/game may be inaccurate as the story develops.
To all the comments regarding this story being familiar trope or "just like all the others out there". Yeah, honestly that is my intent. It's my first game so I wanted to make it relatively mainstream with a pretty standard storyline. Mainly so I can get a feel for the whole VN community/culture/whatever. I have about a dozen ideas for future games that will revolve around other, less mainstream, topics.
Story choices:
I've been thinking hard about what I want in-game choices to be. It's a rather difficult topic to decide on and I've seen too many VN's do in-game choices poorly. Some VN's only have either the RIGHT choice or GAME OVER choice for every interaction. Other games seem to either have no effect from their choices, making your choice meaningless, or one simple choice really early on in the game has massive implications WAY down the line, forcing you to replay potentially hours of gameplay to redo an incorrect choice.
I didn't like these options so as I continue with the game, my in-game choices are going to revolve mainly around whether you want to watch certain graphical scenes and how you want relationships with side characters to progress. So you can skip scenes you don't want to participate in. For example, if you don't like Liz, you can skip all the scenes with her. Or if a particular sexual act you don't really like, you can skip that as well. You'll be able to make those choices.
You make a good point here. While I'll likely keep the splash screen, I should make sure to acknowledge my existing supporters. Like you say, you don't want to make the people that are already supporting you feel unappreciated.
Unfortunately, this isn't about holding anything hostage though. It's simply a matter of economics. As of v0.1 release I have invested about 250 hours of labor and $500 worth of purchased assets to get this game where it is (hardly even started). That's about 6 weeks worth of 40 hour work weeks. I'm not looking for enough supporters to cover even a small portion of that. 10 - $5 tier supporters is only $50 a month. That doesn't even cover my asset purchases.
What it is, is a metric to show me that people are actually interested in the game and want to keep seeing more. That tells me "hey they like what you are doing" and that will prompt me to want to continue. If no one signs up to my SubscribeStar as I keep putting more and more effort into this game I'm going to start wondering if it's even worth it, you know? Wouldn't it be better to move to another VN story that more people might be interested in? I have plenty of stories, so it's not like I'm going to stop producing VN's. I just want to make VN's that people like. Or, that are at least are good enough to justify to some small degree the massive amount of time and effort I put into them. As a developer, I'm sure you struggle with the same issues.
How do you convince people to help support your game so you can justify the amount of time and money that goes into making it? I'm more than happy to change that little feature if there is a better way bring people to my SubscribeStar though. So any ideas are appreciated.
Mistakes:
If anyone sees any spelling mistakes or notices any problems with the game. Or just wants to help out with playtesting or whatever, shoot me a message here or hit my website
You must be registered to see the links
and send me an email. I stare at the code all day long so I'm sure there are a few things I've become blind to and miss.I enjoy all your comments (both positive and negative). Honestly I never expected so much interaction with my game so early in its development. I do take all your comments into consideration so please feel free to keep leaving them. Some things I just wont be able to do simply because it's not within the scope of the story as it is planned. However, as I mentioned earlier, I do have other VN stories planned so they could show up there.
Thank you all!
RGG
