Hey guys, let's talk NGU! (and my plans for the future)

[4G]

I've been very busy and/or dead the last little while (mostly involving moving to a fancy new place!), but that's done, so now I can tell you about my plans in the next few months!

If you don't know yet, I've been slowly poking at a 2nd Idle game here and there since about March this year.. It's got the beginnings of something fun and playable, but it needs a kick in the butt to get it really fun. So for the next few months, I'm gonna put more focus on getting it to a state where i could put it in ~Early Access~ here on Steam.

HOWEVER, I won't be leaving you guys dry on updates during this, there just won't be huge content blasts. Instead, you'll get QOL tweaks, bugfixes, and adding more polish/aesthetic to the game. There's also quite a bit of major content I still have planned for NGU's endgame!

If you have any questions about NGU or the next game i'm working on, feel free to ask!

Hugs and Kisses,
4G

PS: I might post a few bits of WIP work for this game as well, in this space.
PPS: if you have any card picture suggestions, also let me know!

[Fel]

I guess we should thank kongregate for shutting the door on third party developers because the side effect is getting the new game on steam instead of on a browser, skipping all of the issues it usually brings.

[4G]

True, but Kongregate really was a great place to put a game like NGU Idle on when it was really early on and rough, to get that initial feedback. There's less expectations put on a free browser game after all.

I worry about putting my 2nd game on Steam immediately without that first step cause it means it has to be more polished and have more content. That's why I'll probably try that Early Access thing with it unlike with NGU - since it had like a year+ of dev time on Kongregate, I launched it directly as a full title.

[Fel]

Just a thing about people's perseption of early access (in case you didn't already know), a lot of people avoid it on principle and a lot of the people that still go for it are very wary of micro-transactions so you might not get a good income from it the first few months (which kind of hurts since you are taking time away from NGU, which means an overall lower revenue from the people near or at end game as well).

Kongregate definitely was a great place for new idle games out to prove themselves, with a fairly large player base, lower expectations (we are talking about browser games after all) and a pretty solid set of social features (chat rooms, forums, built-in payment methods ...).
So it feels weird to see them more or less close the very thing that made them stay relevant for the last decade.

I'll definitely try your next game, hopefully it will be fun to play even in the early stages just like how NGU was enjoyable from the first versions.

[CortJstr]

Given this announcement this might bet the first time where I get all the existing gear before the next build is added. Though climbing to Av4 without the IH feature will be quite slow.

[Elenoe]

So "forever" Early Access? "Until it's done...", "however long it takes..." :)

Yeah, EA is "great" if there is a plan when and how it will be finished (I don't like it personally). However it's often just an excuse for any and all bugs and it's "released" when it's abandoned, not before. It doesn't work "well" for these "continually developed" games (would there be ever 1.000 without a Steam?).

Also it's a bit negative to have microtransactions in EA (especially if it's not already "release candidate").

For initial barrage I like the time limited demos more. Opens for a week or two. Progress is lost. But it shows the taste, ideas and overall style and there is still an unlimited room for overhaul.

And then releasing "full" game however "empty" it might be. If the core is ok, demo will tell. If not there is no obligation. All that matters is having it "bug-free" and add more content later.

Once in full time EA "the wipe" is not exactly an option for an Idle game.

[Elenoe]

And for NGU.. will IH get a new feature? Soon? :) Or that "major content" is something half year away meant for after 12th titan?

[pterrok]

It depends on how 'done' it is if people will play and pay for an Early Access game. Here on Steam I stumbled on shapez.io and played it free in a browser, then liked it enough for what it was to throw him the $4 it was on Steam at the time.

I had stumbled on NGU Idle on Steam as well, and thought to myself "This is just World of Warcraft" pared to the essentials. So tried it since you can't beat free, and after a bunch of ACTIVE hours threw you the newbie pack support.

So certainly will keep an eye out for your new effort while I keep hitting new things in this one. It's weird that you know most of the deal quickly here, but there keeps being just that 'one more new thing' as I move forward. So, here's a "Well done!"

I guess the one 'issue' I have is that you made an in-game comment about the 'sexsex' prefix, but a bit later there was no joke about 'octosex'??? ;-)

[4G]

All the reasons you guys mentioned is also why i avoided using the EA thing for NGU as well. But releasing it as a full release also feels wrong, cause i would intend to add to it for literally years to come, again like with NGU. But since yeah, the game will have the same kind of MTX as NGU, i'm not sure whether launching as EA is the right move or not. It's a tough one... I want to do right by you guys (the players) first and firemost for sure. Whatever you think is more appropriate.


For reference, when NGU was launched initially on Kong, the content ended at HSB, there was no NGU feature or beyond, no Titans... it was really basic. But I was also updating it every 1-3 days for some months during that time, I was working like crazy. I'd like to ideally launch this 2nd game with more content than that, so it doesn't feel like a cop out just to inject more MTX crap or anything like that.

[Keslen]

Have you considered github as a replacement for Kong in the terms of early release? It doesn't have much (anything) in terms of chat or microtransactions (at least not yet), but it does seem like the next best thing right now and just might grow to fill the void left by Kong in the near future (especially with enough pressure from enough people like you). It also removes all the baggage you seem to be worried about in therms of Steam Early Access (which I am also not a fan of, personally).

Don't get me wrong, I'd almost certainly check out your new game if you released it on Early Access, but only because I have such a long and enjoyable history with you as a developer in the context of NGU.

[Myu]

Originally posted by Fel:

I guess we should thank kongregate for shutting the door on third party developers because the side effect is getting the new game on steam instead of on a browser, skipping all of the issues it usually brings.

I submitted some games on Kongregate for about a year or so (When they were doing this monthly competition to make a game in 10 days)

It was pretty helpful for developing some skills I never thought I'd learn.
Granted Kongregate was kind of flooded with a bunch of subpar games, it had some gems, but they were a hard find. Didn't even know NGU was on Kongregate until I started playing it on Steam!

[Fel]

One of the important things when you try to make a new game is to get a lot of early adopters, preferably some that will stick with the game for months or even years and spend some money at some point.
I'm not sure if github is a good place to try to draw new players in given the history of the site as a project sharing platform focused on high-end users rather than a place where a lot of people are likely to try a random game to waste a few hours and maybe keep at it if it's interesting enough (which was the biggest strength of kongregate).

[Keslen]

Is there currently something more like that than github? Kong left a really big hole in the market and someone is definitely going to fill it - it's only a question of what and when.

[Myu]

Originally posted by Keslen:

Is there currently something more like that than github? Kong left a really big hole in the market and someone is definitely going to fill it - it's only a question of what and when.

There's itch.io I think.
Although I haven't really looked much into it.

[Poop King]

I have a dream of something like NGU idle based in the same style of a spreadsheet / website, but with Civilisation type features with city building and such stuff.

I know there are such games as idle empires or whatever but they dont quite get it right. Imagine a 4X game, but at the end of each game you do like a new game+ like doing rebirth in idle games, and then you keep on going as such with the endless power creep.

The boss killing / adventure mechanic can simply be replaced with attacking cities / enemy units, and there could be loads of different civilizations to attack, each one representing different points in the exponential power curve.

[Dragonkobold]

I'm curious about this next game. Does the game have a goal or plot involved.