/v/ - Gamedev: Is it better to slowly build community and devlogs, or to release finished game?

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Gamedev: Is it better to slowly build community and devlogs, or to release finished game? Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 15:49:56 Id: cec3f3 No. 985858

Is it better to slowly build community and devlogs, or to release finished game? Is it better to make devlogs and show what are you adding to game when developing it, or is it better to develop game quietly and then release it and trailer? If community building is better, then why all big game companies release finished game first? They only sometimes release trailer before releasing game. Only indie developers publish devlogs and build community when developing game. I was also thinking of making "fake devlog" - first making finished game, then releasing devlog every week with big updates and pretend that I am developing the game. In the old times, game developers didn't even release trailers, but fully finished game plus demo. If you slowly develop game and release devlogs, it has following effects: * someone can steal your idea, make a copycat and release it before you because he has bigger team * someone can steal your assets and put into his game, what are you going to do? Do you have a money to sue them? How will you prove they were your assets? * you can get feedback about game and improve it, before releasing it * you can build fans and popularity before release * if you develop game slowly, people might lose interest and you will not gain anything from the devlogs * you have to spend time and money to make devlogs and to market them What is better and why: * develop game quietly then release the game and trailer, promote the game * develop game quietly but show few trailers during development (this is what Rockstar North is doing with GTA) * develop game in open way, have devlogs, regular posts about things added to game, then after few years release game or release in early access Also is it good to use early access or better to finish game?

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 16:17:58 Id: 82741c No. 985861

Depends on your business model.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 16:38:42 Id: 512885 No. 985864

>release game out of nowhere >nobody heard of it, no wishlist, no purchases, forgotten >release game after building a community/doing devlogs >someone might actually play it You do your guess

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:09:51 Id: 174c17 No. 985873

Depends, incidents like the darkest dungeon corpses show that communal game building isn't always good. Sharing little interesting bits often is only interesting for other devs rather than players, the only interesting devlogs to me are for things that wouldn't be possible in a simple asset flip, like hytale's proc gen biomes or an n64 rendering engine on pc. So for other games if you don't have a working prototype for gameplay it's probably far too soon for players to care, and algos will bury your dev logs because of the poor reception. As for asset theft, just use placeholders for characters if it's 3d, and if it's 2d the art is probably not the focus of the game and you can use a placeholder $5 asset from itch.io.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:10:41 Id: 174c17 No. 985875

>>985864 Helldivers 2 was all over sony announcements and nobody heard of it either :^)

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:18:39 Id: aa9b7b No. 985878

>>985875 Or lethal company, or among us, both were already out before getting attention, although the attention was because of the multiplayer nature of needing other players, usually friends.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:22:58 Id: e791df No. 985879

>>985858 If you constantly upload your dev process on youtube you'll get a lot more engagement than just releasing the game but it will be about people who watched your videos and not one person more.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:28:56 Id: 7bd46d No. 985880

>>985858 If you are an indie and can't afford paying for marketing, then building a community and growing by word of mouth is a good plan. I've seen it work for others many times. Just be careful about what kind of community you end up building. I've seen devs get completely fucked by horrible/retarded communities. >If community building is better, then why all big game companies release finished game first? Because advertising money helps skip the above step. >someone can steal your idea, make a copycat and release it before you because he has bigger team True that is always a risk. I had a student project that my teacher from many years ago posted on the college's website. It was made using sprites from an old game series I liked (though the game itself was an original idea). I actually got to speak with some of the ex-devs from that series at one point because of this. It was a pretty cool experience. They must have told someone about it because a year later, my student project was now a fucking mobile game. It was a surreal moment for me.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:45:46 Id: cec3f3 No. 985885

>>985864 Or alternative scenario: >release many trailers, screens, devlogs during development >people steal your sprites, assets and use in their games >people steal your idea and design and release clone of your game before you release it >you have no money to sue >you have to buy a gun and kill them

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:58:12 Id: 0a12cc No. 985889

>I was also thinking of making "fake devlog" - first making finished game, then releasing devlog every week with big updates and pretend that I am developing the game. This sound pretty good to be honest, plan a couple of devlogs with your already finished product. This way you can focus solely on finishing your game.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:58:14 Id: c48505 No. 985890

>>985864 >Release alpha >Community give you money >Just make video about reading email and complaining you don't have time to code >Stream yourself playing other video game >Gets embroiled with CIA agents >>985858 IMO, make the game and have some trailers when you are nearing release. Tag your videos well so that people can stumble upon it. Then when it's released, just hope for the best and start the next project. I'm still devving when I have time, but as soon as I release my game, I'll continue to the next one while waiting for feedback. Then I'll see what happen next.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 17:59:29 Id: c48505 No. 985891

>>985890 >that word filter

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 18:44:15 Id: 6fd787 No. 985912

>>985885 Sounds like a shit premise if it's so easily stolen.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 19:01:52 Id: 2f4ffa No. 985925

>>985880 >I've seen devs get completely fucked by horrible/retarded communities. Like who?

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 19:22:55 Id: 1576e3 No. 985939

>>985925 Not him but allowing hype to build up and then being disappointed by the release is pretty common, and I don't mean just bad games like starfield. Absolver got lots of hype as a dark souls fighting game when it was more like a move-builder for soul calibur, and people got filtered when the 3 hours of fun gameplay ended abruptly to the endgame being traditional fighting pvp.

Anonymous 07/03/2024 (Wed) 19:44:04 Id: 16f2b1 No. 985951

>>985939 Yeah you definitely have to strike a balance between hyping people up and making sure they know exactly what they're getting.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 06:21:19 Id: 183639 No. 986091

>>985858 Depends on what kind of dev you are. If you have assburgers don't, but if you don't then go for it. Hell, FUCKING YANDEV devblogged on 8chan prime and built up a following before backstabbing us with his stock meme images he stole off 4chan so he can later be outed as a pedo. Since normalfags don't give a shit unless your game is super gimmicky the next best thing is to network with fellow creatives which will amplify coverage among those willing to get invested. It worked for the guys who made VA-HALL-A, Rain World and Cross Code. The dev behind Road to Vostok got a ton of coverage when he blogged about converting his game to Godot. Just stay focused on documenting your game, don't insert random politics, and be a decent human being.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 06:29:21 Id: 892b11 No. 986093

At the beginning its good to build that stuff for a community, but then there should be a period of time where its just you working silently on it before release, you don't want to spoil everything about your game.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 09:44:26 Id: 458c3d No. 986112

>>985858 By building a "community" you don't mean having a discord and blogposting every update there? That kind of model brings ideafags, circlejerks and forever devving trying to satisfy your discord's wishes. A better way to use discord is purely for beta testing, after you have made a somewhat functional game. Use people to find bugs and ways to improve existing functionality rather than ask them for ideas. You don't NEED a discord to advertise your game, learn from Peripeteia's mistakes. Use discord as a tool, as a gamedev platform, as a way to get people to try your stuff. Don't worry about "building a community" you're not a community manager

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 12:06:05 Id: 512885 No. 986125

>>985878 Let's not pretend Among Us didn't have a devteam that did a bunch of games prior and hasn't built an audience from this. You might want to say "it came from nowhere", but every small user counts, you build a small audience at the start and this will end up doing the marketing on its own. >>985885 Bunch of excuses >>985875 AAAslop is non-existent to me.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 15:16:21 Id: cec3f3 No. 986172

>>986112 >By building a "community" you don't mean having a discord and blogposting every update there? That kind of model brings ideafags, circlejerks and forever devving trying to satisfy your discord's wishes. I want to post videos and blog posts just to promote the game, make people follow it and want to buy. And so they send info about the game to other people. I don't want to listen to player ideas. I only listen to my ideas. I want best game for me, not for others.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 17:24:26 Id: 19e7fb No. 986249

I've wanted to develop a game for years, started several times, lost progress several times, and lost all motivation to continue. I'd feel worse if I had actually built a community to support me because then I'd have let down more than just myself. While it might have helped to have that support and a patreon or equivalent to get me going through the rough patches, my pride absolutely will not allow me take a penny before I can complete my project.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 17:27:41 Id: 9f0666 No. 986253

>>986249 That pressure should motivate you to work harder and not give up.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 18:16:30 Id: ddf367 No. 986270

>>985925 Probably the Pizza Time guy

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 18:46:33 Id: 65a74b No. 986292

The thing most industry vets advise for indie devs is that they have to start building hype and demand for their product immediately, even if the product is years away. Multiple examples have proven this to be true so it is indeed in most dev's best interests to start talking about their game early and getting people interested early. Pic unrelated :^)

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 19:24:54 Id: 512885 No. 986310

>>986292 I've actually read the opposite, it's best to get eyes on your game when it's close to being shipped, because otherwise what you have to showcase is just barebones as hell and only other gamedevs may be interested on it

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 19:34:29 Id: 183639 No. 986316

>>986112 Nobody brought up Discuck. Maybe it's just me being old fashioned but I can't even fathom how a Discuck can market your game. A blog can host videos and comments, how in the everliving fuck will a shitty data mining chatroom market your game? The entire point is outreach whereas Discuck is insular. Is it just sociopathic media being so fucking shit in these times it won't allow you to link to your devblog?

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 19:40:15 Id: 8d50ce No. 986321

>>986316 People will always have discuck open so just firing an @everyone will alert them more than an rss feed would.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 19:50:47 Id: 65a74b No. 986329

>>986310 Even if you don't have a lot done on your game it's important to build hype, such as through showing other things related to the game. Artwork, concepts, characters, lore, music, game design ideas, it doesn't have to be gameplay. All of these things are devwork of some form and helps get attention to your game.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 20:08:46 Id: cec3f3 No. 986337

>>986292 >The thing most industry vets advise for indie devs is that they have to start building hype and demand for their product immediately, even if the product is years away. Multiple examples have proven this to be true so it is indeed in most dev's best interests to start talking about their game early and getting people interested early. Do you have evidence? Marketing early gives you nothing. Even if people are interested they will not be able to buy. And if the game is released after few years, people who were interested might lose interest or forget about the game.

Anonymous 07/04/2024 (Thu) 21:20:18 Id: 512885 No. 986372

We're all niggas posting in a bot thread

Anonymous 07/05/2024 (Fri) 10:08:26 Id: 0a12cc No. 986638

>>986372 even me?

Anonymous 07/05/2024 (Fri) 10:25:23 Id: ea0056 No. 986641

>>986372 Judging from the broken English, it's probably this guy: >>>/vb/3710

Anonymous 08/20/2024 (Tue) 04:35:53 Id: 034518 No. 1003475

>>985885 Release trailers and screenshots too shortly before release for someone to actually make a competing game before you release, but long enough for people to begin talking about it. It's a tough line to walk but that's probably the best way

Anonymous 08/20/2024 (Tue) 05:01:41 Id: 7934cf No. 1003483

>>985858 If you release a finished game, then you have a finished game. It can't be vaporware if it is done. Also, the less community that you build, the less the player base is entitled to it meeting their expectations: you can release a bad game while incurring less fan hate. You could make The Room or Night of the Living Dead and you have not built expectations for either. Then again: a community is a great way to fund a game. Look at Minecraft or Scam Citizen. Community means a better game, but a game that you are less in control of: you now have invested fans who will try to force decisions upon you. It will be designed by committee.

Anonymous 08/20/2024 (Tue) 07:51:34 Id: 6fd24f No. 1003518

>>985858 >is it better to slowly build community and devlogs, or to release finished game? Make a full game you fucking faggot. >What is better and why: Make the fucking game. Just fucking make it. What the fuck are you doing. Make the goddamn game you double nigger. Stop asking for permission and approval and make the game. You don't need the cleanest code. You don't need the most perfect graphics. Just make the FUCKING GAME you fucking faggot nigger. YOU DON'T EVEN NEED A PERFECT MARKETING PLAN JUST FINISH THE FUCKING GAME YOU FUCKING NIGGERFAGGOT. Marketing is important based on what i've seen from people like codemonkey/jason story, but you need to make the motherfucking game you doublenigger. Make your first game and learn from it- both from the process of idea to release as well as the technical skills- but MAKE THE FUCKING THING FIRST YOU FUCKING NIGGER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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