Balance
The comments section of this post featured an interesting talk started by Vysirez.
This all seems massively complex considering there is currently not a whole lot of story/gameplay to the game. I'm still following the patreon cause it's only a dollar a month, but it's been a rather long time since the demo came out and the character creator is nice, and the backstory system is well developed, it's been a year or two and the game hasn't progressed past the endpoint that was in the original demo.
William Urquhart and Jumpy James Johnson Junior replied to the effect that working on the foundation will improve everything upon which it's built.
I found this talk fascinating because I agree with both points of view. I feel like there's a constant tension between getting things right and getting things released.
My personal inclination is normally to take the time and get things right. For example: the sex scenes in the game right now are boring, and I want to fix the way they work before we hit you with a lot more of them in Bangkok. But I also know I need to speed up the release schedule. It's hard to nail the balance sometimes.
I feel like one of the things I'm bad at is identifying and ruthlessly cutting non-critical tasks. Tommygun is especially helpful with this, since he passionately argues against adding tasks that will delay the next release. I've come to see him as a champion for the fans who want more story instead of more game mechanics.
I'm going to try to get better at this. And I've booked a call with an actual World Famous Game Designer – somebody who's worked at a senior level on some of the biggest games in the world – to get some advice on managing the project better. I'm truly committed to making this a great game, guys, and I know that I need to improve in order to deliver that.
Okay, that's all I wanted to say! Next dev day is tomorrow, when I'll be working on the improved Sex Engine rules. See you at the end of the day!
Comments (8)
I agree with you, you never need to rush into any business, and I am very glad that you are trying to improve this game.=) I hope that the call to the game designer will help you a lot!
To be brutally honest, one definitely not necessary task is having lengthy discussions with people hating the game on F95.
That's really interesting and yes the balance is so hard. Sometimes when the balance is, do you focus on the foundation, story or sex. I'd be really interested to hear what you learn from your call. Anyways keep it up!
I support faster travel to Bangkok
I have been following you for long enough now, and despite being always hungry for some content I am convinced you're on the right path :D. Especially for your present and future commitment and for the fact that you started talking about having some help to speed things up and you're especially good in organizing things. The step you're on right now is the key step you can't make a mistake on, or like you said the game (and not just the sex) would just be boring and (I'd add) short lived. So I say: take the time and effort it deserves, and plan for the long term.
Also, I love the yoga-hottie. Really nice to look at on a Sunday. :)
I am writing a game/story right now, and I won't compromise on quality when I go to production, that said, once I go to production, I understand that the people paying will have a lot to say about the pace of production. I sympathize with your trying to do things right. I am a perfectionist at heart. That said, it is easy to lose track of the big picture when feature-creep occurs (not saying that is happening here). I'm not in a rush. Between writing my own game and following 20 other games I like, I haven't had time to touch this for a couple of versions, but as soon as some Bangkok content rolls out, I will drop EVERYTHING to play this game. Maybe even showering .. :P
Considering the amount of time and effort put into the earlier engine improvements (the improved intro, improved avatar and implemented RPG system) I think it's fair to say that they took too much game development time. The game did work before those improvements, after all. However, The Sex Engine®™© is the one part that shouldn't be rushed. This is an erotic game focused on sex so it feels like a somewhat important part of the game, or dare I say integral part (unless the audience finds "you suck his cock, you suck his cock, you suck his cock, he comes" sufficiently arousing).