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(R.ECC) - Are Pre-Alpha demos worth it?

A topic by MattOmni created Feb 23, 2020 Views: 221 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2
(1 edit) (+1)

Hello, How are ye?

We're a team of dedicated developers working on our current title known as "Project Dash" (Working Title). Though that's not what we're here to talk about. Today i want to focus on our RPG Baby known as R.E.C.C: City of Symphony. We've been working on this project for a few years now - taking a break in last 2018 to focus on our current title. 

Brief: R.E.C.C is a Japanese-Western Isometric Turn-based strategy RPG. This a narrative focus game centered around recruiting, empowering and controlling and commanding willing warriors to take back control of their home City. The player can R.E.C.C up to thirty (30) characters, each with a different Narrative ARC in aims of defeating the Militia and returning their city of ARR Elska to the glorious freed capital it once was. 



Topic: Are Pre-Alpha demos worth it?

While production on the game is on halt; We are still hard at work on fleshing out thew World, it's inhabitants the the player's goal in the world. We aim to create an ambitious title - call us woke - but our goal as a studio is to tell stories you "don't hear of quite often". As a Studio it's our motto in everything we do - not just in video games, but in all aspect of our business. Anyways - We've made a Pre-Alpha demo is the RPG maker MV engine.

while it's not Isometric, and lacks many of the features we've spoken of - We believe it captures the feeling of what we're aiming for with this project as we look future-bound. 


Disclaimer: The demo is extremely unpolished, we have more bugs than an ant farm - but it's not unplayable. List of recorded bugs;

  1. Some dialog options aren't available
  2. Jail System is unfinished (Stealing will send a character to jail - but if both characters go to jail, you become a ghost, lol) - Major Issues which may require a restart/load save.
  3. Combat is unpolished - button mashing - But thank good there aren't that much fights
  4. Some item pick ups don't work
  5. Forest enemies are relentless
  6. Has no Ending - Only two missions are available; Red Roses and Knock Knock. Once these are complete, the demo is finished, but it won't tell you that, lol.

Q: But Matt, I hear you say - why upload it then? 

A: Because while it's not perfect - it's a demo that we loved making - and it still represent our vision; specifically the things that do work. 



Screen Shots:








Time lapse Video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4UHdXXej1LRpV9Ts5


We may upload the Demo, if anyone wants to try it out. Our Favorite Mission is still Knock, KnockComment below let us know you thoughts on the project - And what are your thoughts on Pre-Aplha demos as a developer or Consumer

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As a first-time solo developer, I've been debating the pros and cons of demos as well. People can only get so excited by screenshots and videos. While an early demo may turn some off with bugs and missing features, quality feedback could be invaluable. If a potential player dislikes an aspect of gameplay, it'd be better to know about it in pre-alpha than learn about it farther along in the development cycle. Easier to fix.

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That is absolutely TRUE. I've always been a big fan of demos - but at what state are external demos considered viable? Pre-alpha, Post-alpha, Early beta or late beta stages? Because we can lose some genuine market interest if we publicly show something before  it's ready to be seen. I believe we as indie devs many times suffer from the "To show or not to show - or when the hell to show" syndrome, as 90% of the time our games are in an unpresentable state.