The Martin Experiment Survey: partial survey results are in!
Two weeks ago, I launched a survey to gather your valuable insights and opinions about the game, and I must say, the response has been overwhelming! I'm getting new answers almost daily, and I couldn't be more grateful for your active participation. It's WAY more than I was waiting for.
Now, let's dive into the survey results together, shall we? But before we do,
let me extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts and ideas. Your feedback is invaluable to The Martin Experiment project, and it reassures me that even after all these months and years of hard work, we still have a community that cares about this project.
I was planning to review and comment on the entire survey in just one post, but I made three versions of the same form, and joining all three in one single thing was WAY more work than I anticipated. So I had to split this review into two parts.
In this post, I will comment on all the multiple-choice answers, and in the next one, only the free-text answers.
Now, without further ado, let's take a look at some key takeaways and observations from the survey:
F95zone and Itch.io taking 81 percent of the pie is no surprise since these were the main places where I announced the game.
What surprised me was that two people came from Canal Games Do Titio, being one of them the Titio in person. Canal Games Do Titio is a Brazilian YouTube gameplay channel that covers lewd games like Summertime Saga even with the heavy youtube restrictions for this kind of content, and that nailed
EVERYTHING about Martin's personality in its analysis. You should check his channel and see his catalog if you understand Portuguese.
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When I asked this in the survey, I thought I would see results almost tied between storyline, artwork, and choices. But now, we can note a
greater preference for a good storyline and artwork when playing visual novels.
We have four people who voted for Other. Let's see the highlights of what they said:
Person nº1:
"
"
What is this curious sequence of emojis?
Is this person referring to that kind of activity? Because we will have some of that kind of action in this episode. You can count on it. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Person nº2:
"It was the humor, story, characters and artwork that made me subscribe on the Patreon."
This kind of praise makes me do my best and run the extra mile every day to release this game!
I'm glad to hear that, and thank you very much for your continuous support!
Most of you guys are optimistic about the current state of erotic visual novels, saying they are getting better every year.
I hope The Martin Experiment also lands itself on the good side of this pie.
We have two people who voted for Other.
One of them said that the current state of erotic visual novels doesn't have enough updates, that lots of people start projects and then abandon them, and other projects fail to keep promises.
-
It's an issue that I see people pointing out since I posted my first serious attempt on F95zone, and I'm making an extra effort not to be this kind of person. I've been working on this game since 2020 without dropping the ball, not even once! I'm slower than other devs because I lack drawing skills, which made me walk the longest path possible to reach the same results as them, but
my focus on this task is as sharp as ever! I will complete and release this game no matter what!
I'm glad that most of you guys loved it!
I'm more on the side that thinks it could improve a bit more. After releasing, I want to revamp that binoculars section to make it interactive, almost like an exploration minigame, and present other introduction elements using a more dynamic technique I learned along the way.
There were five Other votes, and one of them wrote,
"too short to make a work out of it."
- Compared to other titles, our teaser version looks like a mini sneak peek, so
I agree. It's small, but it's honest work.
Romance took almost half of the pie! What a good surprise. I can relate to that, and I get where you guys are coming from! I don't want to give any spoilers, but I'm happy with this result because it shows I'm already aiming in the right direction.
This game will get you covered just fine.
Update: I had a conversation with Odinwin via DM, and it inspired me to elaborate better on what I'm saying here. Thinking now, I was too cryptic when I tried to hide spoilers.
- There is no room in the plot for romance right away in the first episode because I'm using it to kickstart the world-building, introduce some mysteries about Melissa, and reveal the magnitude of the life-threatening risk Martin is facing during gameplay without even knowing it, I have a lot on hand already! So
I plan to start writing the romantic tropes in the second or third episode when the pacing indicates it's okay to explore this aspect without dragging the gameplay or convoluting the script. Romance will be optional, and I have tied the plot in a way that can accommodate relationship variations without requiring any absurd development or coding effort on my side. Players can choose between friendship or romance routes with the girls during episodes, and it won't reduce the amount of erotic, ecchi, and lewd situations that make a good story.
Also, don't worry!
Martin is bound to take a lot of advantage of that vulnerability scenario presented in the teaser version because this is a central part of this episode! Just wait for it!
Multiple routes and endings are taking half of the pie. Sweet.
I've been thinking for years about how to pull this out satisfactorily. It always bugged me how some big games promise "freedom of choice with multiple routes" and delivers only an illusion of it, letting the player choose only small things that the plot will lazily disregard ten minutes later when it enters another story point
(Telltale's The Walking Dead, I'm looking at you with disapproval). So I'm up to make a good effort to nail these multiple routes and endings the right way.
Ouch! Never and Rarely got the most of the pie! Discord has integration with Patreon, lots of resources and functionalities, and currently is the closest way of communication I have with you guys.
These numbers are making me think I'm using Discord the wrong way. What should I do about it?
I know the winner was the Time Constraints slice, but this Social Anxiety one caught my attention harder. I can resonate with that.
I'm very insecure about interacting on Discord with you guys because I'm terrified of being left hanging, so I always get anxious when I have to start conversations. I also didn't figure out what kind of things would be OK to post on general chat and what to post for patrons only. I need to practice more on that.
One of the Other responses says,
"I usually just message n500 on Discord for an update and how he is 
"
- I'm always up to a good chat, and
I appreciate it very much when you guys reach up to me to see how things are going! It always makes my day!
This result confused me for a moment because it looked like a contradiction to the responses on question 7, but then I looked at the individual answers and got it. Those who never check the Discord server voted to receive project updates mostly on F95zone or Itch, while people who visit the Discord server (even rarely) voted to receive updates mostly on Discord. The responses from the Itch users surprised me. Whenever I posted something on Itch, it seemed like nobody saw it, so I stopped interacting there. But
it appears that you guys are as active as F95zone users. I'm glad you participated in this survey. Now, thanks to your input, I want to be more active there!
This post ends here! It's too long already! See you in part two!
To everyone who participated in this survey: thank you again for your incredible support and encouragement and for being the backbone of this project! I want to talk to you more times!
P.S. If you haven't had a chance to participate in the survey yet, don't worry! Your voice still matters. The survey will remain open until it gets too big to handle! Also, write your thoughts in the comments below or reach me privately. Your feedback is always welcome and immensely appreciated. I will feature your form responses when I review this survey again!
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