Monthly development schedule & polls (Patreon)

Now that the big hurdle of version 0.1.0 is behind us, we can focus on the way this is going to work. Set some goals, discuss the schedule, and think about how to deliver the most value to my supporters.

First, the schedule. Considering how I want to be able to deliver the game, this schedule makes sense.

• 1-5 of each month: A development "Path Poll" will be made available to all Patrons of $9 and above. The poll will last until the 5th.
• 5-10 of each month: A development "Scene Poll" will be made available to all Patrons of $19 and above. The scenes will be based on the results of the "Path Poll." This poll will last until the 10th.
• 23-24 of each month: The alpha version of each release will be made available to all Patrons of $5 and above. This allows roughly 2-3 weeks of active writing/coding each month.
• 24-30 of each month: Sometimes during the week between the alpha release and the final public release, the walkthrough will be made available to all Patrons of $9 and above.
• 30-31 of each month: The final, public version of each release will be made available on the last day of each month.

For at least the next 3-4 months, this schedule only applies to the new game, In Their Own Hands. I will also be working on cleaning up the code and incorporating some of the new features but no real new "content." There will be one last tech update (should be v. 0.7.1, I believe) before I get into the content.

We will revisit this conversation once I am ready for that. My current thought is to maintain this same monthly schedule, alternating months between the two games, but I am not dead-set on that if it is not what the community wants.

Second, these polls. I have a pretty clear idea at this point about how this story is going to go and how it is going to end. I also have pretty solidly defined "paths" to get there. I think these polls will help to give supporters a bit more say in development while not compromising the game's vision. It will also help me stay focused so that "content creep" doesn't get in the way of finishing an update.

• Path Poll: Each month, Patrons at $9 and above will be able to select which "Path" the next update will focus on. The paths include Faithful, Swinging, Bisexual Wife, Open, and Hotwife/Cuckold. (The last one may be split but is currently intended to be a single path. Also, "Cheating" is not a separate path but may be incorporated in more than one of the above paths.) I will not necessarily include every path in the monthly poll, so that I can manage the balance in developing each of the paths.
• Scene Poll: As soon as I have the results for that Poll, Patrons at $19 and above will be presented with a selection of possible scenes on the chosen path. The selected scene will be in the next update. Some scenes that are not selected may reappear on future polls and may end up in the game, but not all options will do so. Some scenes will not appear in the game unless they win a poll.

Here's a short example. If the Faithful path wins the poll, the optional scenes may include two special "Date Night" scenes, an exhibitionist scene (a day at the beach, for example), and possibly a Cheating scene. The options will be a more specific than that but that's the general idea.

There will not be any content polls this month, possibly next month. I have a poll for everyone that will go out later today concerning the new features. As far as the content goes, this month will focus on the scenes/paths that were not able to be finished in time for the first release. I don't think I will need another month for that, but I might.

These monthly polls are the only major changes to the current Patreon tiers, so I will wait until they start to change the tier descriptions.

That should be all for now. Look for the first poll following this post. I am looking forward to a great year!

S&D