10 points if you get the title reference.

Context

Ohai! Xeph here. So, a week ago we released our "demo" for a game my team and I have been working on for several months. This devlog is mostly to discuss our expectations, what went right, what went wrong, and how our plans may have changed going forward based on the feedback. (Sorry ahead of time for the long post; if the title wasn't obvious enough, I tend to ramble.)

If you provided feedback on our game by the way, THANK YOU SO MUCH. As long as it was genuine, we seriously appreciate you taking the time to play our game and tell us what you thought!

If you haven't played our game, we're still looking for more feedback of course! Game development is an iterative process and the more we find wrong with the game, the more we have the chance to fix before full-release!

Expectations

I'll be the first to admit, we know our game is flawed. The other project-lead and I each made a bingo sheet of things we expected out of reviews, and the majority of the boxes were negative, largely because this is both our first rodeo when it comes to a long-term project.

Some of those expectations included knowing our graphics were placeholder/lackluster; our art team is hard at work, but things just didn't line up for the deadline and our options were to push it back or commit. And since we also needed blind feedback on the gameplay, committing was the better option.

The majority of our other expectations can be narrowed down to two categories: confusion and boredom. Obviously we were HOPEFUL that those wouldn't be an issue, but we had to be realistic. And we were right.

What Went Wrong?

The deadline I mentioned earlier is self-imposed, sure, but you can't just push back self-imposed deadlines freely. If you don't get something done in time, then that's how it is and you have to own up to that. On the other hand, flexibility in scheduling is a must-have for any prospective indie dev, and it's not uncommon for game releases to be pushed back for bigger titles. But I digress. This isn't about our full development period, only the "demo" we released.

One big issue was overestimating what was "done" and in the game. In retrospect, we should've called it a pre-alpha rather than a demo. This is not the amount of polish or content you would normally expect out of a demo, and that's our fault as project leads.

Furthermore, we also didn't keep close enough tabs/communication with our art lead or art team. We should've had the foresight to get textures and models in to replace asset packs earlier rather than later. Art is the first thing people see when it comes to video games, and if our art looks all-over-the-place, that can be a death sentence. Style has a huge impact.

And on top of that, we didn't even market the game whatsoever until release. Part of that is because we decided to stealth-launch instead, but that doesn't justify the lack of planning. For example, we don't even have a trailer or a gif, and that's one of the best ways to show off your game to someone who's interested. Marketing wouldn't have necessarily helped make the reviews better, but it would've increased the total number of reviews by increasing the total number of downloads (at least if we did it right).

In hindsight, there's a ton we did wrong that could've changed some of the trajectory of the reviews, but ultimately nothing but blind play-tests could've helped us realize core issues with the game such as the lack of apparent engagement, or the terrible gunplay (both of which our team were largely unaware of, before release). While we could've maybe mitigated some of the negative feedback, a lot of it is stuff we needed to hear, and we appreciate it all.

Did Anything Go Right?

While it may sound like there was a lot of negative feedback, that's because there was! But that's a blessing. I'd rather have constructive criticisms than no criticisms at all. While some were left vague - a simple "this isn't engaging" for example - we designers have taken some time to deep-dive and find the core of as many complaints as possible. We're dedicated to making this the best game we can, so all feedback is good feedback.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's start with the actual launch itself. We released with very little fanfare, posting to several places in the few days afterwards. Despite being completely unknown before this, we managed to consistently keep above a 1% click-through rate (CTR) and converted about 10% of visits into downloads. That is, in my opinion, a pretty good start given the lack of marketing. It's nothing viral, but it's validating nonetheless.

Besides a few randos across the internet, we got several friends to play, and a lot of the feedback lines up. That's huge for us, because that means everyone sees the same flaws right now, which will help us narrow down our priorities in the coming sprint(s).

And while it can be easy to get bogged down by the negative, our team has taken some time to simply appreciate the fact that we released. We're taking it in stride, which is the kind of mental fortitude you need in this industry.

Overall, even without much positive feedback, I think this was a pretty reasonable pre-alpha release, which will hugely inform the direction of the game's growth.

So Now What?

While there are still many things we need to discuss, one thing is clear: diagnosing and addressing the core problems outlined by the feedback will make our game better. So that's what we're aiming to do!

Our next sprint ends early April, and will be focused largely on the feedback (about as much as it can be). While we don't currently have plans to update the pre-alpha at that point, plans could change and we do so anyway for another round of reviews.

Things we intend to focus on for this next sprint include (in no particular order):

• Replacing all placeholder art with our own art
• Revamping/updating the style, switching to lower-poly to hopefully accelerate the art production
• Switch the raycast-based gunshots we currently have to a projectile-based system, as well as generally improving the gunplay feel through added feedback/juice
• Rebalance to a more difficult state (nerfing the turrets), to help drive player engagement
• Reduce the amount of hand-holding because it's lewd, while hopefully still teaching the player everything they'll need to know

Truthfully, our original plan was to focus this sprint on adding more content in general, but no one will care about extra content if the core gameplay is terrible. We're going to spend more time re-evaluating our core and delivering on that at its basest of levels.

Conclusion

All-in-all, I'd say this was a semi-successful release! I'm proud of what my team has accomplished so far, and if anything, I think this has reinvigorated the team. Obviously there's a lot of work to do, and we might have to push our initial due-date back a bit, but that's just how it's going to be.

If you've stuck with this meandering devlog to this point, I appreciate it! And if you haven't and you just skipped to the end, I still appreciate it! I'm liable to post random updates, such as what systems or mechanics I'm working on and my thoughts about them, or alternatively my imposter syndrome will prevent that and I'll only update regarding our plans. Either way, we genuinely appreciate any and all support and feedback.

Signing off,

Xeph~