Would you be willing to put the game in early access on steam? I like to be able to buy the game without having to wait for it and support you as dev.
Or are you taking preorders that will allow users to have acces to the early builds as you make it then full game access?
Do you know what you're pricing the game as? Like twenty or thirty bucks or so?
Thanks for the interest! Nothing is final yet, so my answers to your questions are definitely subject to change:
1. Early access on Steam? Maybe. I really have to think about this. I see a lot of a sandbox and roguelite games go on early access, but I rarely see RPGs do it. If I do decide to go for early access, I'll make sure the main story is finished at the very least and future updates would just be additional content/quests.
2. Preorders and early builds? That's also a good option. Maybe a patreon? I'm not sure at the moment. I'm not comfortable taking money from people unless I am very confident that the project will be finished by a specific date. Though you can donate via Itch if you'd like!
3. Pricing? Tentatively, I'm thinking of $15. In Steam I can change this based on the region so it's cheaper in other countries. I think it's a reasonable price, but I'm not sure if it's too low.
1. I know a farming sim game, Village Monsters is doing early access and they generally update within a specific time frame and basically post on twitter/ game's discord when they update or having something new to show the players what's in store for the new update in case that's stuff not working properly code wise. Not sure if that you're willing to do but it's an option to make money and produce the game without having to worry about paying the bills or something.
2. Glitched, a rpg didn't really do early access except allow certain players to buy stuff during a Kickstarter to have exclusive access to early builds/demos if they paid extra for it while offering steam keys too from what I remember And I think they made longer demos for the rest of the player base after a few months or so while ironing out the kinks and stuff. You could do something like that if you're up for it but it's up to you.
Don't view it as taking money from people but us paying you extra to have you be able to work on the game without having to worry about juggling stuff or stressing out. And having the player base offering suggestions to make the game better as you make the game. Or view it as getting paid extra while being given more work to do on your game if you view that way.
3. I say a bit more because of multiple routes and stuff but I have no idea how long you're making the game. Twenty bucks or twenty five if the game is longer than thirty hours or so.
