Hey! Just checking in after like 3 months and I'm curious if you've been doing doing well!? I just wanted to know what you've been working on and if we can get a sneak peak. I imagine it's been mostly a lot of under the hood kinda work, but I wanted to know if it's also been some of the fun things and stuff. Like new characters or Transformations!
It's been a wild year so far. I should have given an update earlier. Thankfully its nothing medical more just trying to figure out what I want to do with this project.
So whats been going on in no order of importance:
TL;DR: Scope creep and burnout. The classic game dev problems.
1. I wasn't sure if people still cared about this project. I started working on a new game in February (only cow/dog girl tf focused) with a smaller scope. My main concern with Clean pool was the scope of it, how much time i was putting into is, and how many people cared about the game. Ironically the other game i worked on increased in scope and i had some ideas yesterday to majorly dial it back so i could release it in a month or so. I dont want this information to come across as a pity point, it's just what i was thinking at the time and why i was thinking that way.
2. Burnout (classic). I'm down to work on the game more now that i had a break from it and people want me to make more. Again its just hard to get a signal on if people are enjoying the game even with the itch.io metrics. The raw numbers don't give me a signal that "Im confident people are having fun" if the play and download numbers are low.
3. I mentioned this earlier but the scope for this game is big. I want to add more TFs, clothing, and story. Im sure i could have made more progress if i kept chipping away at it but 1. and 2. kinda of explain what lead me to burnout.
What was being worked on?
1. I was working on a good bit of character contextualized conversations. Meaning if Singer in a conversation was talking about Eater, then if you were playing as Eater you would have a different conversation topic with Singer in that instance. Currently characters dont recognize who they are talking to and i was nearing completion of a lot of new dialogue which would have nearly doubled the character dialogue count.
What i should do going forward.
Reflecting from your post i need better comms. I thought interest in the project was depleted and maybe that is largely true, but its nice to read posts like these. It does give me more energy to keep working on it if people are interested.
I can tell you not to put other people's interests above your own. Do everything the way you want, or don't do it at all :)
It's practically impossible to please everyone. In any case, if you're looking for approval from people, I can assure you that like-minded people who will appreciate your games and images will always be there.
Two months later, you still haven't responded to my message, but I'm not upset, and I believe that whatever you do, you will definitely succeed!!!
I get that, burnout sucks! I do think maybe a month on this game and a month working on the other and you switch between the two could do some good. I also think that what you have is a very small but very interested and loyal fan base for this game, myself included. (Maybe, I don't actually know) Anyways! I'm glad you're doing well and have been keeping busy with work on something you enjoy!
