Should I focus on improving an existing game or start fresh with a new one?

[Lyngame]

It’s been a few months since I started developing my first game. I’ve received a lot of negative feedback, mainly about the story and character development. Writing is tough for me since English isn’t my first language, and this is my first time crafting a story, so it’s been challenging to make it flow naturally without frustrating readers. I’ve been working hard to improve my writing with each update, but it doesn’t seem to be progressing much. I feel like a remake might be the only way to save it, but that would take a lot of time and might not even be effective. Should I keep improving it with future updates, or should I start fresh with a completely new project?

 

[Tar77]

Don't abandon it. There's no better way to lose trust of the community than to abandon a game.

What you should look at this as is practice to be able to eventually make a much better game. Do you think that if you started a new game now that you'd have the skill to make it a hit from the start? If you really do then it might would be worth starting fresh but odds are after only a few months you're still a long way from being the big names out there. A remake or rework would probably have less baggage than moving to something completely new.

In my opinion what you should do is keep at the current game making improvements while you go until you're comfortable with your skill in all the different aspects. Maybe plan to shorten the plot so you aren't tied down for too long. The longer you wait the better the next game should be when you start it and if you finish the first game you won't be scaring off new players by having a history of abandoning games. If you are serious about making games and want a chance to be successful at it that's the kind of long term plan you should go with. If you're just doing it for fun and don't care about being able to attract supporters then why bother asking? Just do what you want.

 

[AddictedFickle]

Hello, I've just played your game and saw some of the comments so I can understand why you feel discouraged but I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed your game. There will always be people who do not like everything and that's not something that you can change. It's easy to feel discouraged but remember that it is easier for people to say what they don't like about something rather than what they do like.

Tell the story how you want it and don't change your vision of how the game should go because people are pressuring you. Unfortunately, you won't be able to please everyone. It's your vision, it's your game, and I know that there will be people who enjoy it as you tell it.

There is feedback that I think is helpful, for example, implementing the skip button for the minigames but changing the character development, could move this story in a direction that you didn't initially envision for it. I believe that there is a difference in storytelling when the dev behind it is passionate about their work vs when they try to implement everyone else's image of how the story should work. Overall, I enjoyed your game and hope you won't scrap it. I look forward to whatever you decide.

 

[Ass prefer]

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[woody554]

if you skip to your next game it won't be any better than your current game. skill doesn't magically appear in your brain by starting #2 game, it only comes from working to solve those issues. you start another game now and you'll only have two shit games in your hands.

so figure out what doesn't work in your first game (it's 99% not gonna be what people told you), figure out what's the better way of doing that, then fix it.

 

[Ashira13]

yeah.. don't abandon timebound. either hire a proof reader, or ask for one. some are willing to help, even for free. what is your first language? translating correctly isn't always as straightforward as it seems. autotranslations often fails miserably...

 

[NeonSelf]

They comment because they care about your game! You definitely nailed the visuals.

Perfect English is not as important as engaging story for a VN. If you want to write good stories you should learn it like any other skill, read some specialized books about plot building and constructing good dialogs.

But if you're making it just for quick fap - then simplify the story, let people have their fun and focus on what you want to see in game. There are popular games that have almost no story or memorable MC and its fine.