Hello everyone,
Firstly, here are the results out of 100: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-P3FHG23J/
I was really surprised at how they turned out, leaning one way for the first half and then balancing out at the end. Most people like the idea of the game but it's a tighter split for whether it should be like a CYOA book or a game. Most people liked the customization for the player character, except it was a pain to do over and over. And you can get the rest from the link above... What surprised me was how often people read Ver002, with only 13 out of the 100 or so reading it only once.
Well, what I learned in the past 2 weeks was very interesting. After Ver002, I've noticed an influx of people checking up on my blog and have been trying my best to cater to them. With the release of Ver002.1, a lot of people were upset, which was both disheartening and startling. This past week has been incredibly stressful because before all that, I was just doing SaSA on the side as a fun\carefree creative writing story. Before, it was a means to relieve stress, but now it seems like the cause of it. It was exhilarating to have so many people become interested in my neat little story, but now the pressure seems to be turned on and I don't know if I like that.
So here's what's been rattling around in my brain... should I get help? I've been offered help before but have turned it down because I didn't want to have to creatively clash with anyone. I know exactly what I want to do with the story and have most of the scenes, twists and turns conceptualized. It just seems like an unnecessary headache at the moment. Should I push this for full time? Juggling a job with this project being such a huge endeavor is not very ideal. Despite loving the concept, I don't know if I can guarantee anything at the end of it all and would hate for people to be burned on an ongoing project, or have it take so long that supporters become restless or resentful.
Those are just thoughts I've been having. Bottom line is, I'm going to continue as planned with a few changes taken from your feedback. I'm also going to check on the blog once a week only to avoid the stress of having an audience and hopefully within the near future, have something resembling more of what I intend for the game to be like and have you all judge it then. Ver002.2 will still be coming out with fixes, a save system and the Kelly-James scene integrated in, as promised. Until next week then.
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ReplyDeleteWeird, my browser double posted the same message. Sorry!
DeleteIf you try to cater to everyone, you're gonna have a bad time. Reality check: you can't please everyone. And as soon as a hobby turns into work in your head, productivity slows, then goes on hiatus, then just stops entirely. I've seen it happen so many times.
ReplyDeleteIt's smut. Just do whatever you want, keep writing, and people will check in now and then. Any content is better than no content after all.
Again, looking forward to reading/playing whatever you come up with.
Do it for fun, unless you want to sell the end product :P
ReplyDeleteIf you get stressed over this then don't do it, because it will be very bad for you and bad for the game.
Or just work on it when you have the time or when the muse hits you or when you are bored, etc....
Im enjoy it and im definitely cant wait to pursue with the milfs (42 year old Judy Jones. Stay at home wife, 44 year old Sarah Walsh. Wife to Garrett and seldom seen outside, 6 year old Linda Johnson. Thinks Brent is cheating on her while he's job searching,32 year old Brenda Reed. Elementary school teacher,38 year old Mona Holst. Young frustrated wife to Adrian Holst). hehe :D
ReplyDeleteIf this game gonna be sandbox, then i can get them in one playthrough. Yay!
If my post is too long, here's the shortened version of what I'm saying. You should do what makes you feel happy. This isn't anything worth stressing over.
ReplyDeleteTLDR content as follows.
While I would love to see an end product, I will go ahead and say, this. If this is stressing you, stop and take a step back. No one is paying you for this project, and while I can't speak for everyone, it's hard to get people to support you on things like patreon when you don't have a set schedule for releases and content.
Your job is important and this, as you said, is just a side thing you were doing for fun. If you want to make it something big and have it take up most of your time, that is your decision. But if you do that, do it for you, not the readers.
You're not an author with deadlines, and, since no one pays you for this, you have no obligation to give readers what they want. Write what YOU want. This is YOUR project, and although I am one of those people who has offered to help you, I understand the need to keep creative control over something that belongs to you.
I have also been on and off writing my own CYOA, and when I feel stressed about it, I stop and take a breather. MY project is, like yours, just for fun. I haven't even released an alpha version of it, and don't plan to any time soon.
As for your content release, your game seems to be set on a recycled first day, but with the capabilities to advance days once you "get on the right path." For this, a good rate to public release would be once you've fleshed out each day correctly.
You have great ideas (which have inspired my own work) but honestly speaking, I think you're aiming too high. For a story driven game, you should keep it simple. In the end, the writing is what's important.
An example of what I mean is: interacting in a sex scene between Kevin and Judy will be nice the first few times, but if that doesn't lead to any kind of character or story development, the story is going to get old, fast.
If you want this to be successful, picture it in it's final form. Then break that down into doable projects, for example, focus on writing Day 1 for a character and complete that. View this project as if that character is the only one that matters. When you are satisfied with that character's content for day one, work on the next. Repeat this until Day 1 is done and then repeat the whole process for day 2.
Whatever you decide to do, please consider my next words.
It's just story. Don't let it be a factor in something that ultimately ruins your life.
Hi ID!
ReplyDeleteHope you are well and had a good Xmas and New Year! Haven't heard anything about SaSA for a little while, so just wanted to check how things are going.
Anyways, keep well and all the best for the year ahead!