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Progress report (Patreon)

Published:
2020-01-10 16:42:06
Imported:
2020-10

Content

Howdy! I’m alive and here with another progress report, plus some insight into our heads:

Both me and Moana were away to visit our friends and families, due to the new year and orthodox christmas (I’m not sure what exact religion that is, but our families celebrate it).

While we would normally forget about any celebrations and work on the update instead, we just couldn’t do it this time, because it’s the only time of the year when we need to be with our families, apart from birthdays, marriages and other human traditions.

We knew that this would happen - we knew that we will take a break, that’s why we were rushing to release 0.4.7 before the new year.

That said, we resumed our work this Wednesday, and finished what we wanted to release last year in one day. We’ve tested it yesterday and it works, but since we’ve delayed our game anyways - we decided to take a different route and add more stuff for it (stuff that was cut for time reasons).

I will explain what was our reasoning behind all of this next, and hopefully you will be able to understand why we did what we did.

Looking back, I believe we had two options:

Option A - finish what we can before the new year.

Pros: Celebrating holidays at peace, pleasing our supporters, speeding up the development of the game, bring in new patrons. In case of success it’s good for everyone - players, developers, the game and the project in general.

Cons: Most likely the release won’t have the artwork for npcs, items and a shop, which we will then add in the bugfix. Needs a “release date” to work, and we might fail and disappoint everyone, including ourselves. In case of failure - we will lose supporters.


Option B - release new version two or so weeks later, but complete.

Pros: New version will be complete - all artwork and all events. Minimal disappointment and stress, minimal risk and losses.

Cons: It won’t be a “new year” release and we wouldn’t be able to rest with it over our heads. Without the release date we won’t work as efficiently as we can, so it’s less efficient than “option A”.


Clearly we went with the first option and made a bet on ourselves. In our eyes, it was a high risk - high reward type of deal.

To give ourselves an additional motivation and a fighting chance, we decided to announce the release date. We were aware that in case of failure the consequences would be “less than ideal” to put it lightly, but we believed that the reward was worth it.

Because of that decision, we worked day and night when we could (sometimes for 30 hours straight), and almost immediately it became painfully apparent that we wouldn’t make it by the end of the year. So we decided to cut down some stuff - npc character art, item’s art, artwork for the shops and etc.

Unfortunately, even with our “cuts” we couldn’t finish it in time, due to a variety of quite diverse problems - wrong art, wrong text and etc.

Clearly option A was a failure, and we were left with no choice but to announce the delay and watch the consequences, while doing our best to not think about the game and “celebrating” holidays.

That said, We started working again this Wednesday and finished what we wanted to release last year in one day - version without npcs, items and shop art. We were so close to making it work.

You might have noticed that our game has a lot of unfinished quests and locations, that’s because we easily get distracted with new ideas, and we usually move on without ever finishing our quests. That’s why we want to finish the entire gym now - so we could forget about it. And that’s why I was writing farm at the same time as we were working on the gym - so we could finally start doing “complete” quests and events moving forward.

Due to everything I’ve mentioned above, “Option B” became our “Plan B”, and we are now working on the “complete” Defenestration styled gym experience.

Concerning the release date - I already did the artwork for half of the involved npcs and finished the item’s shop art, all that's left to do from “major stuff” is to make a repeatable “fifth” event for the gym, and test out how gropings system works - Moana is currently on it.

We still need some time to finish it, because I won’t be able to work on the weekends, but the end is right around the corner.

In conclusion, our old friend “deadline” did what it always does, it speeded up the development and we, in turn, have failed it (as per usual).

This year we have a lot of major plans for the game, and we will continue to experiment with our development cycle to find the most efficient and pleasant solution for everyone involved.

Most likely, we will attempt this again for the next “New Year” release, but for now, we will stay away from any dates in order to not disappoint you.

Please tell us if we’re overthinking it, and unnecessarily overcomplicating things. I will stay away from all social media for a couple of days more, just so I could focus on the game. Plus, I still have some relatives to see and I’m currently juggling between the game and my personal life.

Thank You for your support, patience and, most of all, for tolerating our weird behaviour, we’ll do our best to do better!

Comments

JC

No worries. I just hope you and Moana had a pleasant and relaxing holiday with friends and family. Here's to a great 2020 together.

lostraven

Try not to over-stress yourselves, rushing to meet deadlines is never fun, you're better off releasing the full product if you can. My advice is to only offer 'soft estimate' release dates for future releases until you know you can commit to an exact date. Once you set a date, that's it, people will want you to hit it.

Anonymous

I think the idea of achieving more is a gamble that is taken when all current features that are in the plan are already implemented, it'll help you avoid adding things from scratch while you still have other things that are pending. This will keep you not only focused but also capable of setting up deadlines and learn why when and if you miss them(not to say that you miss deadlines a lot or anything disrespectful). So, while we immensely appreciate the extra work, remember that we also care about you. Cause without you, there would be less in the world to look forward to, so keep healthy, keep the schedule at a relaxed push and give us content that you're happy with.

Dr. Madness MNA

The way I see it, there are two viewpoints for you giving deadline release dates. On the one hand, setting dates helps you and Moana focus and makes work go faster. On the other, setting dates gets the patrons' hopes up and dashes them quite expertly when not met. I can see a positive to using them, but maybe not setting concrete dates would relax the patron side a little more? Being a little vague with releases, so long as you set a window of when you want to put it out, can reassure the patrons and still give the two of you a goal to push yourselves to meet.

Anonymous
>>31002737

Agreed. I think it's far more realistic to say "We are looking to release a full version build sometimes this Quarter, barring delays and life events" than "New Update Before February!!!" With the former, we have an exact period of time for the update, but with the latter it's expected sooner than later. Weekly updates are at least helpful. With other projects, they don't even give a release date, but instead use a simple checklist of features they aim to add, and ideas they want to implement. As the objectives get completed, they get checked off. It helps with project management, it boosts your dopamine levels a bit, and it provides us patrons with something visual to represent the progress of the project.

Genericfuton

I think if you had explained your reasoning and the two options earlier it would have been better. You could have told us what the concerns were for the upcoming holiday and that your goal was to complete something before your scheduled break. That would let us know why a deadline was being set and also that it was maybe more hopeful than realistic. It would have also allowed us to give feedback and you might have found out that your patrons would have preferred the delayed but higher quality release.

BiggFrosty

The easiest fix since this is getting on your nerves and us being constantly let down is so manage yourselves better and not focus on the issues pertaining to deadlines at the moment. Like you stated in this post, previous posts, and in your own discord that you guys do progress on what you're updating but get sidetracked too easily by a new idea or pushing RPG maker to see/layout potential(s) for the future. The easy fix in my opinion is to focus and put anything new on the backburner for the moment until the items on the list are checked out, I do enjoy being a backer but seeing potential being delayed by itself gets ridiculous at times.

Anonymous

A few words. Got some free time lately and tested it (played it from beginning to end of current quests about 7-10 times last three updates 4.6 , 4.5 4.5a and 4.5.2) Writing/story is very good but its bugged as hell and lacks consistency. First quests have messed up timeline, for an example it dinner ppl are telling kira to flash boobs when she is already working topless because of hypnosis in new you. the dialog at sessions with hypno training have also messed timeline, doctor is asking if she is wearing panties, she answer that she is not but she is wearing them and there is no oprion to remove them for that particular session. As a whole game is very good with its story and writing but the timeline is terribly coded. In my opinion you should start with that and not with adding more graphic stuff. What good is game with great art but terrible messed quests and timeline. Summarizing, i like it, its good but during my time being your patreon your updates are mostly focused on adding new stuff(art and few quests) instead fixing the old stuff. I dont care about bugs like broken quests in some playthroughs because it a norm in alpha production but please, could you concentrate on fixing timeline and requirements for starting quests because its really annoying.

freshmulan
>>31226205

Roger that, thank you for taking the time and testing it out - we will fix all of that, though I'm afraid we'll have to do more “new” things before that, because I’m too tired of system stuff and want to write/draw something new.

freshmulan
>>31220009

Yep, I agree, it is ridiculous, feels like a sick joke to us, because we’re doing a lot of things and the “todo list”just keeps growing. We’re trying to do everything at once, and I agree with you, we’ll try to stick to one thing in the future, when things will be a bit calmer. Right now we have two more things to test with the farm content, and then we will have a solid base to work on.

freshmulan
>>31149142

That would defeat the purpose and ruin the illusion, because when we know that we can miss the window - we won’t work for 30 hours straight, sacrificing our weekends and health. I am using your (all of our patrons) existence as an additional pressure to speedup the development, the dates are a lie (for the most part), but we’re lying to ourselves. The deadline is a whip, missing it means that we will suffer loses, so we need to believe that it’s achievable. If I were to tell you that there is a plan B or a chance of failure - we wouldn’t work as hard.