Road to v0.1 - Update 2 - Updates after v0.1

As of now, v0.1 is complete!

I've done testing and fixed all of the problems I found. There doesn't seem to be anything game breaking, everything seems to be there, and I seem to have fixed all of the formatting. But I'm sure there's some I missed, so when the game releases, please let me know so I can fix them in the next version. If it's game breaking, I'll fix it and reupload as quickly as I can.

Now that the game is done, all that's left is the boring part. Since this is a v0.1 release, I'll need to setup threads and advertising for the game. Which I always hate doing. I'm bad at shilling. But it's gotta be done. That involves creating descriptions for the game and getting some screenshots. So that's what I'm working on now. Everything should be posted Friday. All depends how quickly I can post threads the day of and how long it takes up upload everywhere. At the very least, it'll be posted here Friday.

Here's a screenshot.



Game Updates from now on

Now that v0.1 is done, updates will be done a little bit differently from now on.

The game is actually launching as "v0.1.1" Because in addition to bigger updates, I'll be doing smaller more iterative updates as well. Each iterative update will change that second number.

Basically, I'm planning on doing monthly updates that just include more women to fill out the game, with big updates to add story.
So the next iterative update will be v0.1.2. Then once I fill out the current areas a bit, there will be a month or so delay in releases to put in the bigger stuff, like new areas and story. Those releases will change the second number. So the next big update will be v0.2.1.

To do this, I'm going to be changing the patreon schedule. Right now there's just been one art post a week, but I'm going to be changing that to two art posts a week. One character CG and once scene CG. This is the update schedule I'll be starting next week and doing until at least July.

In July I'll be moving, so I may not have as much time. I'll only change from the current schedule if absolutely necessary. I'll probably have to take a break for the week I actually move, but I'm hoping to keep it otherwise.

Anyway, I'm doing this so that there isn't another 6+ months of working without a release. I didn't like having to wait so long, and there's a lot I had to cut to get it out in that time too. Right now, the game also feels a bit empty. I want to fill it out as much as possible, as quickly as possible. It should be fairly easy to update everything with just a new character or scene once everything is setup, and save files should carry over just fine.

Also, as a reminder, the version numbers actually don't mean anything. v0.1 doesn't mean 10 major updates to being finished. It's just a kind of arbitrary number. I don't know how many updates there will be. It's mainly just there to track the number of releases and give people an idea of how much content is in the game.

Next Release when?

With all of that being said, the next release will be available to Maximum quality patrons June 15th, WIP patrons on June 22nd, Supah patrons on June 26th, and then released to the public June 29th.

I wanted to give myself an extra week to get as much done as possible. The current goal is to have 2 new scenes added each update, but that probably wont happen this first update. Mainly because I'll only have 3 weeks to work on it.

That probably doesn't make any sense. 2 new scenes per update, but 4 scenes are being made a month? That's because the plan is for 2 new scenes to be made for existing area characters, and then 2 scenes for new area characters. That way the big update not only feels bigger, but also because I can't really add story stuff in small chunks like that.
For example, one of the areas in the next version is the Lab. The story will be that a portal machine explodes and monsters appear across the city. It would be a little odd for them to appear one at a time if they were all supposed to appear at once. That story is also going to need some setup, which will take some time to write and implement. I can't really do that with small updates, but also can't put off the artwork. Since the artwork takes a lot of time.
Using the lab example, there's currently 7 scenes planned for the first section of the story. Which is roughly two month's worth of work on the current schedule. I'm also going to be adding the hospital area, which is at least 4 characters and 5 scenes. So that''s another month. We're already at 3 months of no updates for just the new areas. But then there's just as many scenes being added for existing characters and new characters in existing areas. So the options were, work either the existing characters or the new characters, and do a release every 6 months, make people wait 6 months and release them all at once, or work on both at the same time and do iterative releases building up to a big one.
Hopefully that helps to explain why balancing it out this way is the best way to go. I'm able to work on iterative updates that fill out the world and people don't have to wait for 6+ months for new content, but then also there's a big update that adds a lot to give people a reason to come back and try the game again and see what was added in the iterative updates if they weren't keeping up.

Final Plans

I want to also mention again that the development of Waifu Wonderland is reliant on the amount of support it gets. I originally planned on finishing the game and releasing it on Steam and DLSite no matter what, since I think a game like this would do best there. But after realizing just how long it's taken just to get v0.1 out, I've decided that I'm currently only planning up to v0.2. No matter what, I'll be working up to that point, but if the game still has no support after what should be about a year of development and about 6 months of updates, then I'll have to abandon it. I completely understand people wanting to try out the game and see how it grows a bit, but I also can't work for free forever. Being a 2D project, Waifu Wonderland takes up a LOT of time. I just can't afford to spend so much time on a project that people don't really care about and can't be used for my portfolio to help me get a day job. And the only real way I know if people care about the project is if they support the game in some way. Anyone can download and try the game, but if they don't like it enough to throw a like, comment, or even throw just $1 at it, I have to assume that person didn't like it. And if I'm hit with overwhelming negativity again, and no support again, I also just have to assume people don't like it. I'm just saying this because I want to be as up front as possible. I don't expect Waifu Wonderland to be super successful or anything like that, and I don't even have a specific number in mind of what I want by v0.2. The only real goal right now is more than zero. So if you end up enjoying the game, it would mean a lot if you could support the project. Even at the $1 tier.

We done son 

Hopefully that all made sense. If not, all you really need to know is that there's going to be monthly releases.

I'm excited for the release of v0.1, I hope people enjoy it and see the potential of the game like I do!