Scoping Out Scoping (Patreon)

You may or may not have noticed, but I don't really have any tweets to use for structuring my weekly update/preview thingy. While I suppose that TECHNICALLY means that I could just not do one, it wouldn't really be weekly then, would it? I mean I guess since I named this one differently it isn't the same thing exactly and you could argue it still isn't weekly as a result but that's kinda splitting hairs. 

So, I'm still going to talk about some stuff. It will probably be less structured, but it's still behind the scenes information of a kind.

Alpha 14

So this release has a couple of issues, and a 14.1 is probably going to be out soonish. Not really a surprise since that's pretty much always the case. I wish I had a better QA process, but then I could probably blame myself for working on new stuff too late into an update cycle when I should lock the code down and do more testing for bugs. 

I'm starting to understand that as an advantage to all of the gamedevs that do an early access release for patrons, since it means a chance to fix things before it hits the whole audience, but I don't really like that model personally. It means you're asking your paying supporters to give you money for a buggier game version earlier, AND asking them to pay you to be your QA. I guess it works for people though.

In any case, this release was definitely better than Alpha 13, if nothing else. I was able to release on thursday, watch for bugs and such on friday, and be out for most of the weekend without feeling worried about not being there to put out fires. Things could have been better, but I've at least had a bit of a release of stress by putting something out.

I'm also reasonably happy with the lore writing. It made me somewhat more energized/inspired to move things forward, so let's talk about that next.

Alpha 15

I... Don't actually have that strong of an idea of what the next game version should be about specifically. Maybe not a great thing to hear a week into August, but yeah. I do still owe you guys a finish to the Experiments stuff, but I'm not all that enthused about that for some vague reason I can't understand. At the same time the vote for it was so long ago that I'm not sure if it even still applies. I MIGHT have another vote, although the timing for it is kinda bad and I don't want it to feel like I'm overwriting the previous one. Dunno, would have to see how people feel.

In some other ways though, not having a stand out feature to work on is a good thing. It means that the game's design has expanded enough such that I don't feel like there's a huge amount more to add in terms of systems. Content, yes, but systems? Dunno.

I do still get comments along the lines of "I'm just pressing space bar forever", which isn't ideal that people feel that way. Some amount of that may be alleviated by just increasing difficulty, and that (along with more content) may be a healthier way to go about it than further complicating the game with systems and numbers beyond what already needs to be learned. The game has a bit of a steep learning curve at the start, but isn't all that difficult once you understand it. Increasing the amount of concepts the player needs to wrap their heads around may not be the optimal move. 

Not to say that I wouldn't add ANYTHING new though. Some people have given me various ideas and suggestions, which are always nice, and I like the game design/programming part a bit more than the writing part, but you can't add features forever. That leads me into...

Beta

I've always figured that I would continue to call what I'm doing an Alpha until the point where all/most of the major features are in place. At that point the focus shifts to filling out the content.

So as discussed above, we're very close to that.

Moving from Alpha to Beta is kind of a big deal and kind of not? I mean, the development will still continue at the same pace, the numbers will just go back down to 1. More events can be written up, more skills/curses/whatever can be shoved in, and replayability and content can climb while new bugs are probably less common due to less code being put down. That all sounds good I think. 

But it's not quite that simple? I suppose it is, I just have some apprehension about it.

I still have to figure out the best way to get into the groove of writing, since that's still the most time consuming part of the process. I've had periods in my life where I output a lot of writing, but I don't think that I've ever hit that stride with Going Deeper for some reason. It's frustrating and worrying, but something that I can't really do anything about other than try and figure it out.

Beyond that though, I'm also somewhat worried about advertising. I have no idea where or how to get the word out. I've kept the amount that the patreon/subscribestar make public. I don't know if that helps or hurts, but you can see the numbers. They aren't high. That doesn't mean I have any reason to stop making the game, if anything slowing down would hurt more than help. At some point I do need to get those numbers up though, so I need to get more eyes on the game.

Problem is, I'm kind of at a loss for suggestions on how to keep growing other than continuing to prove that I can consistently deliver a product that is worth funding. I'm sure that moving from alpha to beta will entice some new people just by being an obvious demonstration of progress, but beyond that...

The future

Going Deeper is built in such a way that it can continuously expand for as long as I (or any modder) would want to do so. I think it's a pretty cool structure, but it does lead to the question of how far I should actually go. There are a whole lot of ideas and areas for content that I have, and putting them all down once beta starts will take some time. The game also needs an ending and all the stuff that goes into that mechanically. 

Basically, Going Deeper COULD be endlessly expansive, but if it isn't picking up a huge amount of steam publicly, it may be better to somewhat cap the scope down so that it can finish in a reasonable amount of time. Put down a mark on my record of having completely finished a game (surprisingly and unfortunately rare in the current porn game market), and move on to another idea that might have more of a chance to get lucky. I do actually have more game ideas, though I doubt that's a surprise.

I don't know if that sounds negative of Going Deeper itself or not. I'm not intending it to be. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished so far and still have a whole lot more to do and show. Now probably isn't the time to worry about or decide on things that are still so far into the future, this is just one of the various things floating around in my head. I think that's what people want out of devlogs, right?