Devblog #106

Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!

Today I would like to talk with all of you about feature creep. No, not the guy in the comments who is constantly asking for some weird and nasty features. I want to talk to you about the silent and insidious enemy of game development. The monster that killed many a game. The defiler that turned a lot of promising projects into monstrosities that you cannot even describe. Of course I am talking about this type of feature creep: the process of a project constantly growing in scope and changing in nature as more and more features and content are being added beyond the initial design and idea.

When I was just starting this game, I was keenly aware of this issue that many developers face on their path. It isn’t just an issue for beginners, as it affects veteran developers and studios too. So I was determined that I would do anything in my power to avoid this issue myself. Did I do a good job of it? Let’s see. Under the barrage of constant ideas from fans and critics I try to ignore them even if I like the ideas, adding them into the “we’ll get to it in part II” folder. Even most of my own good ideas go there. Adding weather into the game? Part two. Adding more locations? Part two. Adding more girls? Post-release. Harem? Later. It pains me to deny a lot of good ideas the chance to be realized, because I know that not only will they balloon the development, but they may also slowly but surely alter the initial idea of the game. But I do what must be done. So, overall, am I doing fine? Is the monstrous feature creep kept at bay?

No. Even though I do my best to dodge most of the ideas for expansion of the game’s scope, it is easy to avoid the obvious pitfalls. Cut the ideas and features that are clearly not in the game now, but it is much more difficult to avoid the more gradual feature creep. Looking at the game as it was originally planned and what I see before me even now - it is almost like I am already looking at the aforementioned “Part II”. Under Your Spell was initially planned as a very fast project. Maybe a year of development. With very simple character interactions. Most girl-events were only supposed to give you a hook and a general idea of what the girl is all about before leading into romance and sex. But over time…

Well, it isn’t feature creep if I only make the events a bit longer, right? We are already getting items in the game, it isn’t feature creep if we do three per stat instead of two, right? It isn’t a new feature if we will have three artworks per girl instead of one, right? Adding one more background is not feature creep, right? Even if you do that ten times… It goes on, and on, and on.

And here’s what we are seeing before us now: a much, much bigger game that is just barely held in the realm of what I am still considering possible for our team. I don’t think it would even be possible if we didn’t have a lot of volunteer help and it was still just the two of us with Shady Two. So, yeah, it is easy to look at the devs whose games get bloated and die under the pressure from feature creep, under the pressure from the players who, not knowing the full scope of the issue facing the devs, suggest their own ideas and list their own priorities, and think that they should’ve gauged their abilities better. But sometimes the feature creep comes from the best of intentions, and sometimes it is very difficult to see it even occurring before it is too late. I just hope that I will still be able to avoid the worst of it.

Until next week,
Shady Character One, out!