[Poll] Release Schedule
Added 2020-09-08 22:17:05 +0000 UTCSomething that's becoming more and more tricky for us here at Shame Games is publishing new versions. It takes Aika over 4 hours on average to do everything involved in getting all the different character window versions of a release documented, compiled, uploaded and published. Not including testing, of course, and the admin behind the scenes to maintain the collaborative working environment and so on. It takes almost as long to publish the frequently required hotfixes.
What would be better from our perspective is, well, less publishing. This would allow us to focus more on the actual content as well as testing. To be clear, overall this would increase the amount of time available for the developers to actually work on the game. Aika also wonders how many of you play the game every single month anyway - perhaps a bi-monthly release pattern would work better for most people who have several lewd projects they support and want to engage with on a regular basis.
So this is a poll to check what you guys would actually think about that.
Comments
I keep hoping I can work on two projects simultaneously but this one takes up 110% of my time!
Aika
2020-09-13 22:50:15 +0000 UTCFrom what I can tell, Aika would love to work on a new game, but there's such a community around this one and so much possibility still left to plumb that it's difficult to leave it.
Notalie Portman
2020-09-13 22:46:30 +0000 UTCAll feedback is very useful so thank you for your honest opinion! If I do decide to try a bimonthly release schedule I'll be able to put more effort into each round of testing though 🙂 because I'll only need to do a "full test" series of playthroughs half as much.
Aika
2020-09-11 20:14:51 +0000 UTCI voted the hardass option. I like to see and experience most of the updates. I think monthly updates are a good pace, and 4-12 hours per month to spend on production doesn't seem unreasonable. Playing around an annoying bug for 2 months on the other hand would seem unreasonable. Speaking as a developer myself, I've learned to appreciate the pressure of being accountable for frequent progress and impressive features. Maybe I got brainwashed in the pink diamond class, but I think I'm *helping*.
Andrew
2020-09-11 16:05:01 +0000 UTCAt the *current* pledge amounts (which I have to split between your projects), I have to vote with the top one. If it wasn't the money; I would be ok with the bottom option.
Lee Thompson
2020-09-09 01:23:34 +0000 UTCThere are software projects that only update when needed, sometimes three, four or even five months at a stretch. I would rather see quality content less often than hotfixes more frequently.
2020-09-09 00:48:51 +0000 UTCI think it would be important to still publish preliminary patch notes/updates monthly, even if you only release bimonthly.
Darth Bayes
2020-09-09 00:29:01 +0000 UTCPossibly unrelated note - in this recent play-through I really loved seeing all the new art, especially from Icarus.
Notalie Portman
2020-09-08 23:41:06 +0000 UTCI play every two versions at most; I’d say it’s between 3 and 4 times a year. Most other games I support I play even less often. There’s just only so much time, and I like lots of new stuff happening when I’m going to play.
Notalie Portman
2020-09-08 23:39:15 +0000 UTCI'm with Nebojsa Jarak: I don't mind at all if you do less frequent releases. But given we pay monthly, I would at least like monthly *updates* on what is being worked on.
Fan of smut
2020-09-08 22:48:41 +0000 UTCHonestly, although I do try to play every version, the other issue with frequent updates is that there isn't really that much new to try out. At least not always - not enough to warrant a whole another playthrough. If longer periods between updates also mean more content every time a new version comes out, I'm up for it. A whole another can of worms is... well, how long are you guys planning to continue? One can't create a perfect game that includes everything, really. And this constant adding, changing, tweaking,... I know it's good business, but one has to have an end in sight. Maybe another way of battling the tedium of years working on the same stuff would be to decide where to draw the line, finish the game to a comprehensive shape that makes sense and has a start and an end and then start working on something new. I couldn't count how many times this game has been tweaked, changed, reimagined and restructured. It's been a mess, then it's been fixed and then messified again countless times as well but with no clearer goal or vision for how it's going to look once it's finished. I don't know, prehaps Aika DOES want to be working on this game forever. This is not an admonition, just something to think about
Chris Simon
2020-09-08 22:30:04 +0000 UTCWhile i voted for no strong feeling in case of stretching new releases by another whole month (another payment), there should be an update/completion log of some sort added here.
Nebojsa Jarak
2020-09-08 22:25:55 +0000 UTC
