Вход[~January Voting Poll!~]
We'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to cast your votes during December! The feedback we received helps us greatly in proceeding with development in ways that should suit the majority of what supporters wish to see moving forward! <3
This month's voting poll is going to be another one that directly asks you all about our approach to handling monthly new content releases, and which method seems the best suited.
Let's get into it! Briefly explaining the poll itself for context.
As we've started delivering monthly new content releases once again since Nov 22nd, then again on Dec 12th, and recently on Jan 10th. You might've noticed that these releases are different than the distant past in development.
We've been delivering a few new written scenes worth of content, ranging between 15-25K in word count give or take, estimated 1-2 hours of new gameplay content.
Our team has been doing well with delivering monthly content at a steady rate, but we are struggling to strike a balance between delivering new content and also finding the time to properly test, and apply fixes to said content. Our process involves three people, myself writing (also testing), our editor (also helps test), and our programmer.
Once I have a written scene ready, which can take a week to two weeks depending on how long the scene is. Our editor then tries to get this done within less than a week, before it comes back to my hands to add visual cues for our programmer (notes when sprites join, leave, expression changes, bg changes, cg appearances, transitions, etc.)
That process can take a day in itself, then its passed off to our programmer, and that can typically take a week at best, or a little longer before the content is in the engine. From that point, we begin testing and marking what needs fixed, passing those notes to our programmer to have them applied. If all goes well, we have very little to test or fix beyond that.
Roughly, this entire process at best can take us 3 weeks for a given scene to be implemented, at worse, 4 weeks.
We're trying to find that sweet balance to ensure we're delivering content every 30 days, while still having enough time to do all of this, without burning out either. We're coming to the realization that in order to do what we've been doing so far, we have to be realistic.
If we're delivering on average 15,000 word count worth of written content or a little more within 30 days, this roughly translates to 1 or 2 written scenes, maybe sometimes 3 scenes. Take the free roaming scenario content recently seen in v0.22 (demo 3) for example.
Even though its just the gymnastics club choice, the gymnastics club scene prior to Juliet/Heather choices appearing is around 4,000 word count. Heather's flashback scene is 4,800 word count, and Juliet's flashback scene is 4,500 word count. (Total: 13,300 word count)
Our next scene that'll follow after these scenario moments, is episode 5 - scene 8, and that's 18,000 word count alone. With 2 more written scenes (scene 9 & 10) before episode 5 is finished.
So, with this in mind. We're realizing that on average, we can deliver around 15,000 word count of written content or a bit more every 30 days while keeping all of our processes involved considered to ensure we test and fix things, etc.
Why do I mention all of this? It's because we're realizing that the pacing of our monthly content we release will feel a bit slow to some supporters and fans of the game. Let's assume February's content was just scene 8 mentioned above, that means March would be scene 9 & 10 together, and that means we wouldn't actually deliver any female protagonist content for episode 1's QoL additions/fixes until April at the soonest.
Which brings us into today's poll question, two simple choices to choose from to help our team proceed forward in the best manner of delivering content the majority of everyone happy! <3
{Which approach for monthly released new content would you prefer the most?}
(1) - Our team continues to focus on episode 5 content until its complete, even if that means it could take us until April before the female protagonist content for episode 1's QoL content comes out at our current pace of released content and development. Once we're focusing on episode 1's QoL content, we'd continue providing 2-3 written scenes (15,000-18,000 word count each month worth of content) until we finish episode 1, moving into episode 2, then episode 3, etc. until we're fully caught up and the female protagonist has been added to all of the game up to the end of episode 5.
Then from there, we move into route content forward with both the male & female protagonist playable options easily for each release.
This approach has us hyper focus on finishing episode 5 first, then fully focusing on episode 1's QoL additions/fixes with female protagonist, moving through past episodes to get everything caught up to the end of episode 5, then fully focusing on route content forward.
(2) - Our team delivers episode 5 - scene 8 in February to continue finishing episode 5 a bit more, but then we alternate every month, so in March the content we deliver is actually episode 1's QoL additions/fixes, providing 2-3 written scenes, (again, around 15,000-18,000 word count) and that means the female protagonist being playable in March.
Then for April's release of new content, we alternate back to episode 5 to deliver scenes 9 & 10 to finish episode 5. Then for March's release, it's alternated back to another 2-3 written scenes for episode 1's QoL stuff, continuing more content for the female protagonist being playable. Repeating this forward, so that May's release would showcase some route content that month, before June focuses back on adding more or finishing up episode 1's content.
This approach alternates every other month, so that one month is focused on the QoL additions/fixes with female protagonist, while the other month is continuing forward with route content, continuing into fresh content, etc.
-Ending Notes!-
It's possible that we manage to get more content done with either approach, and deliver more content some months than we originally expected. We're just trying to strike a balance that's realistic without burning out or pushing for more content, but ending up with buggy states of the game more and more, etc.
We're simply curious what everyone thinks for the majority, and its possible that even if we lean into one approach, we might have to change our method later down the road if it isn't working out, trying to find the perfect balance. <3
My preference leans towards alternating if that means we get to see route content sooner. But I wouldn't want you to take an approach that leads to bugs or a more awkward or difficult development process. Ultimately, I'd want you to prioritise avoiding burn out while advancing the story at a manageable pace.
For sure! <3 Yeah, we're realizing that the amount and rate of content being delivered upon recently seems promising (15,000-18,000 word count range) per month. But we also know there's a lot of hype for the female protag and at this rate, it might take a while to reach that point if split up the rest of episode 5 between Feb-March. But then, we could be focused on past episodes QoL for a long time too, so the alternating approach at least swaps between focuses to please both parties.
I think finishing all routes in a same chapter is the most stable.
Gotcha! Yeah, honestly I see either option technically working. Its just a matter of what feels like it'd benefit everyone, from the team, and players view. Continuing with a hyper focus on say episode 5 to get through that content as quickly as possible, then into QoL additions/fixes (with female protag), moving through it that way into routes could work.
The one upside from the team's perspective about alternating content every other month is that, it keeps things fresh to work a little on content into the route stuff, then into QoL additions/fixes, and back, repeating. But there is the chance it could feel a bit whip lashed possibly. (Getting in the mindset to work on one thing and having to switch gears back and forth.)