When To Do An Initial Release?

[exer]

Recently I found a prototype of old game I made a long time ago on my harddrive, and decided to use it as a practice game to help me learn how to make the game I've been working on the past year. I've been replacing the art and changing some things that didn't make sense. I currently have a working game with a little bit of content. However, it's far from finished.

Here's my problem. I have no idea when I should release an initial version. It's very much a freeform game, and it isn't story driven. There's story, but it's more just there for context and unlocks than anything.
I could release it soon, but there's a lot still missing from the game. So there would just be a lot of grinding with little actual substance, and some place holder art for areas. There's enough in there to display the ideas and how the game will play though.
I could release it when it's done, which would take months, if not a year. It would be a much better overall experience that way of course, but I wouldn't be able to bug test or be able to do polls to include content like I want to do.

I'm mostly worried about it because the couple of games I released, I either released too early, or too late. People either hated the game because there wasn't enough to do, and didn't come back to try again when stuff was added, or they liked the game, but updates took too long and no one came back when an update was put out. I don't want to fall into either one of those traps again, so I'm hoping someone has some advice.

Just as a note, since it's just a game I'm doing for practice, I'm not looking to make anything off of it. I'm not going to refuse if people want to support it, but I'm not going to be locking anything behind patreon and I'm not going to be selling it when it's finished.

 

[Deleted member 609064]

You can drive yourself crazy trying to make people happy before you launch.

Ask for beta testers, get someone to play it and give you feedback. Preferably someone who has some tenure in this community.

 

[Fervid]

Figure out, in your mind, what the finished product would look like. If it's mechanically-driven, how much stuff would the player be able to do, before they run out of stuff to do?

Next, figure out if it's realistic to think that you'll ever get it to that point.

If the answer is yes, the best time to release the game is when you think it's done. Then follow it up with a reasonable amount of post-launch support, cuz there's bound to be stuff you missed. (If you think developing a game has taught you a lot, that's nothing compared how much you'll be forced to learn after you ship the dang thing.)

If the answer is no, then just open-source the whole thing (or as much of it as you legally can distribute, with instructions on how other devs could assemble the missing pieces from bought assets, for example) right now. See if people make anything cool out of it. (If people don't understand how to use what you created, document harder!)

Whichever one of these two things you do, you'll learn the most you possibly can from the experience, and even if the game sucks, people will remember you as a cool guy for how you treated the community.

 

[exer]

snip

I don't think you really understood what I said. Telling people to release their game for free for others to finish is also terrible advice. Especially the kind of game I'm making where I said it was specifically for practice. Doing the work myself is the entire point.

You can drive yourself crazy trying to make people happy before you launch.

Ask for beta testers, get someone to play it and give you feedback. Preferably someone who has some tenure in this community.

People are going to have problems with it, people have problems with everything lol. So I'm not worried about making people happy per say. I just don't want to release and have no one play it. Releasing to nothing is the most demoralizing feeling in the world.
Unfortunately, until there's an initial release, I don't want anyone to play it. Last time I tried to get people to beta test a game, someone stole the idea. It wasn't the first time I've had an idea stolen either, so unfortunately it's something I have to be weary of. I don't think this idea is honestly too original or anything (I took a lot of inspiration from older flash games), but I still don't want to release after someone who rushed out a worse version of essentially the same game.

I was hoping for some advice from someone who had done releases and had some kind of experience on the subject, but I guess I'll just have to figure it out on my own and hope for the best. I'll probably go for about 15-20% completion of the currently planned content.

Thanks for the responses though!

 

[Fervid]

My thinking was, if you're not doing it for the money, then the only question that matters is "are you capable of finishing what you started or not?"

It's nothing to be ashamed of, in and of itself. 90% of all games never get finished. But realizing that you're not going to finish it and being open and transparent about the fact that you're not going to finish it goes a long way in terms of P.R./street cred/whatever we're calling the internet popularity contest this year.

If you're never going to finish it, and you're also adverse to open-sourcing it, then the best time to release an early build is never. People hate it when a developer releases a promising early build of a game and then never finishes it.

On the other hand, if you *are* going to finish it, then the best time to release it is when it's done. That's all I was trying to say.

 

[lancelotdulak]

Do you want a horrible experience and lots of VERY negative commentary? Release it now.

Id really suggest you wait til people can have some fun or a: it will die even if its eventually good and b: people will be brutal. Which sounds like theyre dicks buuut.. they just took the time to download and install your game.. try it.. try to work through the bugs.. try to get to some reward and enjoy the journey.. and then discover someone threw up a pre pre alpha grindfest . Theyll hate you.

Id Really suggest you have something thats fun for at least an hour before you realease it as a "pre pre alpha im trying out". The most successful games here are a: logical b: have a good amount of content from release 1. c: are actually fun to play from the start. IF people hammer you with negativity you'll quit. You owe it to yourself to put out something that will get you positive feedback and thanks for all your effort

 

[xMentat]

I've never released a game, nor indeed created one, so take this with a pinch of salt. I have played many games here which go through multiple releases with very mixed feelings about them.

You say your game is freeform, not story driven as such, which makes it harder to split into chapters, but you can do something like this, maybe.

Make the 1st release an intro to the MC and the other main characters, at least main characters for the next 3 or more releases. Allow the MC to interact with all of these in terms of establishing who the characters are. 1st release should have progression to some major degree with at least one of the other main characters, leaving the rest as just basic intros.

Then, do releases which advance each of the intro only chars one (or 2) at a time. If, for example, you start with MC and 5 others, that gives you 3 to 5 releases. But, the releases will have to be quick enough that players will come back, say 1 month max between releases. And each release should have at least 30 mins gameplay in my view.

The above implies (for peace of mind) that you should be 50% or more through developing release 2 before you do release 1 so you can commit to release 2, then 50% through release 3 when release 2 lands, etc. Make sure that you know what will be after the last of these 3/5 releases before it lands and publicise the plan, then stick to it!

Easy for me to say, I know, but I am a recently retired software developer who has executed this kind of plan in real life financial apps. Under promise, over deliver.

 

[lancelotdulak]

Not at all attacking you and i totally agree .. underpromise.. over deliver.
But game dev is at least imho.. very individual. Which is why business majors are such shit at producing good games. Theyre good at conning children into buying BAD games with pavlovian gambling mechanics. Literally addicting children for money. People who should be rounded up..

A suggestion.. i started programming because i was poor.. really poor.. but got an atari 400.. a magic box where i became a Wizard. I didnt need money. I just needed my brain... so a very different experience than a financial apps dev. While i was obsessed with some clever graphics technique (2 and a half d! hand coded 3d engine! etc) you were fascinated with databases and the sheer power of the math you could use in matrixes...

The coding in these games is Trivial. Easy. (though 2 devs who post here are upping the game in a big way). You should think about recruiting a team to create games. Most of us here are honestly obsessed with graphics. I cant bring myself to open msvs because.. well daz ,c4d , blender are RIGHT THERE just asking me to play! But as a coder you can handle that end, find a good writer, a couple good artists and create something brilliant. Ok we're coders lets be honest.. create 2 or 3 things that are shit and eventually learn to create things that arent shit You should consider doing it

 

[Wonko_the_Sane*]

But game dev is at least imho.. very individual.

Yes. Yes it is. 95% of what you said had no bearing on what I was looking for, but that other 5%...that's going to occupy some time while I think about it...
The initial release of my first VN may have just been moved forward a bit!

 

[Laikhent]

I was hoping for some advice from someone who had done releases and had some kind of experience on the subject, but I guess I'll just have to figure it out on my own and hope for the best. I'll probably go for about 15-20% completion of the currently planned content.

Thanks for the responses though!

I think the best person to give you advice about this is a person that plays a lot of games and can understand why they go back to some and not to others.

I'm not that person, but I will give you my opinion: I don't think you should go for % completion, but instead, you should think: "Will the player want to look forward for the next content if they played until this point?". For visual novels it's "simpler" (assuming you are a great writer) as you "just" need to make a story that they look forward to see the continuation. For your type of game though, I think you would need a "Wow, this game looks promising!". So yea, looking at % completion is not the way to go. I think you should go for " Did he had a fun/sexy experience if he played up til this point? is there anything for the player to look forward to?".

 

[ShinyRock_Productions]

This is certainly a key question, and one that seems to me to be entirely subjective, and impossible to figure out a Standard Operating Procedure.

I have enjoyed short 5 minute demos that made me eager for the next update, mostly based on the art, and the structure of it.

I have enjoyed 15 min long demos that had a bit of everything, and made me eager to come back for more.

One thing that ruins an initial demo, imho, is not having any sexual content even if just a solo scene of some kind.

I won't forget the bold initial release of J.O.H.N. where the best girl is full on hardcore in the first minute. And it seemed to have worked.

On that note: EON by Nenad also featured the hottest girl hardcore in the very first scene of the game...

Just some personal perspective on this topic, I don't think I answered any question here though.


ShinyRock

 

[osanaiko]

ShinyRock, beware the path of the forum-post necromancer... the abilities it can confer are considered by some to be... unnatural.

 

[GamesMtP]

ShinyRock, beware the path of the forum-post necromancer... the abilities it can confer are considered by some to be... unnatural.

I for one am now curious if it ever got released!?

 

[Wonko_the_Sane*]

ShinyRock, beware the path of the forum-post necromancer... the abilities it can confer are considered by some to be... unnatural.

 

[osanaiko]

Welcome back, Wonko.

Although just like the Bad Orange Man, loudly proclaiming your sanity (or "stable genius"-ness) is not a very convincing argument for the fact...