Weekly update No 6: Lessons learned

Agreed, agreed, agreed. Far too many "left field" issues hit me this month. One or two of them would have been manageable but....hey ho. I've learned

Nottravisgames

Thank you. You'll see from my latest that we hit a continuity error. With each render taking me about an hour I spread the work on scenes over the month else I'd get bored and stupidly somehow I managed to change Chadwick's lip gloss colour over the month.*rolls eyes at herself* Sorting it now, but rendering is slow at the mo. BUT I'll have a 6GB card for Chapter three so Whoooooooooooooooooooooosh! Will make a huge difference!

Nottravisgames

You're far too kind. Thank you. You rather made my day with all that :)

Nottravisgames

*is alive!* :)

Nottravisgames

I'm hoping Norry is getting some rest and relaxation. It feels like not getting this out on time, having to redo some of the renders, and fixing the PDA issues seemed a bit stressful. Release whenever your good and ready. i'm sound as a pound for whatever happens. Excelsior P.S. Man i never realised how much you miss someone talking till it stops.

Quinfax

First of all I just wanted to say, don't feel too bad about missing a deadline. Even big companies with hundreds of employees miss deadlines on games and I always take it with understanding and wait patiently until things are finished. It's a creative process, and as far as I'm concerned the end result is always more important than the swiftness of delivery. Plus, as someone who put out a demo for a game about a year ago and is still working on the first update to it, I know that game-making can be a time consuming and mentally taxing endeavor. So don't worry, compared to my rate of accomplishment, you're still doing pretty good... ;) As far as setting the deadline goes, yeah, declaring it will come out at the first third of each month seems like a good way to avoid creating expectations that are too specific. Alternatively, you could also replace the word deadline with an 'estimated time of release', and update the date occasionally if necessary... Personally, I don't terribly mind either way. I know setbacks can always happen and I always view deadlines for games more as hopeful projections anyhow. As long as the delays are properly communicated, it's totally understandable if the release schedule has to be pushed back from time to time. (Just as a reference point, the communication so far has been above and beyond. You could get away with a fraction of it. But then again, we don't mind the chattiness :) )

NanasBananas

Do you know that she took some rest? Just wonder, since she usually is so talkative and didn't say anything since yesterday.

Frosty1979

I'm just glad she finally took some rest. She is so incredibly dedicated, I'd hate to see her burn out... Take care Notty, and don't set deadlines for chapter 3, just to keep us on our toes! ^^

Sulring Durgul

Any news?

Justjorge

Lol, just got back from work. I thought it would be out now. Dang.

Miss Bumhole

Can't wait, coming tonight?

Justjorge

I don't mind if deadlines shift around a bit, and *definitely* don't expect you to commit to having anything out on the first of next month. Given that you've lost some time clearing up issues to do with episode two, I'm guessing episode three will be a bit late, and that's alright. Mostly, as long as there's communication and a reasonable output of new content, I'm happy. And "reasonable" doesn't have to be precisely once a month (although I wouldn't complain).

Omelet

I am into tease and denial. So personally I don't mind you pushing it even more. ;P

Frosty1979

Missing deadlines is never an issue really. Deadlines exist to push you to deliver, and when you miss them, you need to explain yourself (in your case, to yourself), but it's certainly not the end of the world. But that said I would caution you on trying to solve 'the bigger picture' at the risk of the short term deliverables. i.e. maybe you can do a hacky solve now, and save the better solve for later, after pushing this out. Focusing too much on long term hurts short term and vice versa, and it's especially important for patreon where patrons make decisions every month on whether to continue or cancel their patronage. That is to say, if you were selling a product for 60$, okay, you missed some post-launch deadlines, no biggie, you have their money. That isn't the case here. I typically never talk business anywhere cause it's seen as 'callous' but I think these factors are important to keep in mind, cause they reflect how companies monetize. We've all seen these terrible season passes that deliver nothing, cause they don't need to.

Damn now I really am excited to play it. Bed time is in like 4 hours for me, was hoping I'd play it today. But it's fine. Can't wait to play it when I get back from work.

Miss Bumhole

My bugtester just turned around to me and said "You're disgusting, you do know that don't you?" after reading a scene *preens!*

Nottravisgames

*laughs* Fair point. I might do a poll on this and a few other things later then :)

Nottravisgames

*thinks* I suppose what worries me about that is I'm using the higher tier for quality testing. That doesn't feel fair to me. *accepts she could be wrong of course*

Nottravisgames

Oh no, that was me. Not to worry, I deleted it myself by accident when I went to edit it then got annoyed at myself for being a dumbass and never redid it, not your fault at all! Abridged version of what I said is pretty much that you're awesome for how much you engage and show you care about both your game and your player-base, which is worth a few snags. You're learning as you go with this from a coding front, so do whatever you need to do with deadlines to give yourself an easier time of it in your head. Now I return to my pure state of being uber-lurky.

You could also consider putting out a tester vision, maybe for Flight Lieutenant and higher, this way you get quicker informed about bugs and spell mistakes and create a another patreon reward. Also, I never toke any deadline as hard facts.

Carl Meyer

I'd never thought of that...Thank you for the suggestion. I might see what I can do on that front.

Nottravisgames

Do it however you feel more comfortable with. Patron tends to force creators into the role of Public Relations manager, rather than letting you focus on the actual game. If possible I'd recommend finding a volunteer who could do some of this stuff for you, allowing you to focus on the game.

Altoar

I really do appreciate you guys which is I hated letting you down. And not just for the financial support either. It's the fact that you chaps are playing -my- game. Exploring the world I've made - and liking it. The feeling that gives me is awesome. But you're right AM, I'm pushing my coding knowledge all the time to get H5 to do what I want it to do, as opposed to settling for what I can already make it do. So....yeah. Still, hopefully that should be the last biggie.

Nottravisgames

Hey, it's completely fine. You have not lost my trust. You clearly care about your own games and the people who choose to play it. You seem really appreciative of us and our feelings towards you is mutual. Plus, if you're still not experienced enough in making these kinds of games, mistakes are bound to happen. So we understand.

Miss Bumhole

Also...I think I just deleted someones comment by mistake. It was there one minute and gone the next! Just to let whoever it was, if I did - I didn't mean too! Especially as it seemed rather nice!

Nottravisgames

Fair point. I'll see what the rest of the chaps think too.

Nottravisgames

*nods nods and notes*

Nottravisgames

Thank you. I'll be honest I do feel bad about it. But noted :)

Nottravisgames

I want to say that no trust was lost on not meeting the deadline. In fact, I've never seen it as such, but rather like an estimation of when the game might come out if there are no issues. So, I wouldn't mind you throwing around approximations like that for reference, but if it makes you feel bad and under pressure like in this scenario, then you can go as vague with the date as you like. :)

I think it's good to have a deadline of sorts. That keeps you aware of your progress and time management. It prevents procrastination. Plus this may give you some rest days that way you don't frazzle out. Hopefully we've seen the most of bugs/problems. Excelsior

Quinfax

First third of the month sounds good. Setting the date in stone puts too much pressure on you if something goes wrong (and in this life, something usually does at some point). So just be a little more flexible, dear. ;-)

Sulring Durgul