Devlog 41

We're running playtests, fixing issues, and in parallel I'm finishing up the necessary things for release.

Thanks to the playtest participants! A lot of what was brought up has been fixed. It's a shame I couldn't afford to run them earlier.

Playtest Iteration 0 results:

Technical issues:

None of the playtest participants who completed the task ran into critical problems. Everyone was able to complete all the routes, and no problems came up on various setups (screen type, graphics card type). That's great!

Balance:

From now on, I'll consider the base scenario of the game to be completing the requirements of both characters. Players are playing a different game than the one I made for them — overall that's not a big deal, but maybe that particular scenario should be made a bit harder. I've even already added an ending for that scenario (as a placeholder for now).

As for difficulty, the testers' feedback and my personal feeling match up. The goal was not-very-hard gameplay, 3-5 out of 10. There were only 2 pieces of feedback saying it was hard — I should have asked more questions in the questionnaire, but the current playtest is itself a test of the playtest, so it's no big deal.

Event system:

The event system is clear to everyone without tutorials or explanations. Nobody got confused about where to look for merchants, or what events mean. I should have asked more questions here too, but judging by the answers, that's the case. The event system makes the game more interesting and varied — that's exactly why it was added, and not in vain.

Fixes for the identified problems/bugs:

Some of the things fixed:

• Removed sound sticking after the minigame

• Increased the reward for the minigame

• Now the minigame can only be played once a day and just for one character

• Changed the pumpkin blight event (it really was more of a positive event)

• Improved the calendar — it can no longer show -1 day

• Increased the number of game days to 50 (5 weeks and 2 more just in case )

• Added an ending for running out of days (as a placeholder for now)

• Now the number on the first option when distributing resources is always red

• Fast dialogue skipping. Unfortunately I couldn't do it exactly the way I wanted, but at least now if the game realizes you're skipping and not reading, it'll happen faster.

• Fixed an old bug with identical images when fast-skipping text in endings

• Fertilizers can no longer be sold in the regular shop — only to the merchant that appears via an event

• Now the shop can't be reopened multiple times by pressing F

• Worked on the sounds, it should be better now — smoother transitions, more balanced volumes

• The grinding sound when exchanging pumpkins for fertilizer with piglet  has been fixed (it should disappear in other places too)

• In the sex minigame, you can no longer drag the progress bar

Conclusions for Iteration 0:

• Playtests are generally feasible — people complete the scenarios and fill out the questionnaires.

• I need to think on the questions better.

• No technical/critical game-breaking problems were found.

• V-sync works on gaming screens.

• Balance (in terms of difficulty) is in a target zone.

• The new mechanic doesn't break anything, and improves the game.

• Feedback from players is incredibly useful. I've just become convinced of this once again.

About feedback and suggestions:

I'd like to say a little about suggestions and ideas for improving the game — specifically about communication between developers and players.

Please don't be offended if your suggestion wasn't added to the game, or was ignored entirely. Developers see the game completely differently than players do. Developers always have limited resources, and there are always specific goals, especially for solo developers. Writing code for a month and then spending another two months drawing and animating just to someone can look at it for 5 seconds — that's killing the project. Spending three months creating a new mechanic and tying it into everything else just to POSSIBLY improve gameplay by 5% — that's killing the project. Redoing the entire game just to convey the setting a little better — that's killing the project.

Solo developer projects (and not only those) are literally surviving — one wrong step, and the game ceases to exist. We need to survive until release, both physically and in terms of development. You have to understand this.

• First and foremost, things that critically break the game will be taken into work, regardless of difficulty.

• Then small easy things that greatly improve the current gameplay experience.

• Then complex things that greatly improve the current gameplay experience.

• And only in the very last priority will complex or very expensive things that insignificantly improve the overall gameplay experience be considered.

Please be understanding, and don't be disappointed if you got a toxically positive response, or were ignored entirely. But now you know exactly how to make sure your feedback gets worked on and isn't ignored by developers.

Future plans:

I want to run at least one more playtest before release, also not too large-scale.

I'll finish some things and prepare new builds (besides everything else, there'll be a build for Android and for Mac), create a new questionnaire, and then we'll run a playtest.

In total I got 9 questionnaires from 17 people this time; next time I'd like to get at least 10–15. That means I need to recruit  about 10-15  more people who are willing to participate.

Let me know if you want participate on Discord, I'll add you manually.

Thank you once again for being here with me.