In the Monday Musings I try to talk about the stuff that’s happening in the world of Game Development, from interesting game releases, to interesting technology, and game business happenings.
Even after so many game releases, I still get nervous when a large group outside of my own ‘bubble’ get their hands on my new game.
This week Regulator City will be part of a mass play-test session over at gameround.co , so a lot of people that haven’t been following the development of the game will see it for the first time!
Show and tell
Opening up the game to a larger group like this, and again when I finally/eventually release it, is like the good old show and tell we had to do at school: Stand in front of a group full of people that just sit there either bored by the whole thing, or judging you for every thing you say and do while standing their alone in front of them.
With every game this phase is something I have to push myself through. I would much rather prefer to just silently release a game and move on, but that would also mean less people buying the game and not a lot of money would come in to make the next Orangepixel game!
The reason it’s always nerve wrecking is that these games are not just products that I sell, they are works of passion and creativity. I have a vision for each and every game and I can only hope that (most) players will ‘get it’ and enjoy the games for what they are. Sadly negativity and negative comments flow out of people much faster than positivity and positive comments.
When ever you release anything, it’s almost 100% certain that the first feedback will contain some sort of negative remarks, and this can be from fairly innocent “I don’t like the game” to much more brutal comments like “This guy should stop making games!” and much much worse!
So yes, releasing a game that you are very happy with and proud of, to an uncontrolled public, will always be a nervous moment
Goals of the test
I have two goals for this mass test, first is obviously to gain some feedback and player insights about Regulator City. I’ve done a lot of work making the game’s onboarding proces user friendly, and improving the overall gameplay and game feel. So it will be interesting to see what comes out of this test from players that will experience the game for the first time. Will they understand the basics? Will they enjoy the core mechanics? Do they like the visuals and sounds?
It’s at a time of the games development where I can still make key changes and improvements to steer things in the right direction. The basics are there, and they won’t change, but I can still improve and mould the fine details that make a game more fun or more clear to players.
The second goal of the test is more basic: increase the games awareness/presence. Make more people know about the game and hopefully gain Steam wishlists, some followers on social media channels, and just get the game “out there”. A large amount of these Gameround testers are also Twitch streamers, so they have small bubbles of their own audience to show my game to.
And I hope our bubbles will have a small merging effect based on this ‘public’ play test session.
Get ready
So this coming Thursday and weekend, Regulator City sees a bunch of new players.. I think I’m ready for it, the game is in a good place, and it will be interesting to see what needs changing/improving or if I better dump the project after all these years of work and move to something else! ;)