Two paths for future development

[Alterum]

Just some thoughts about the development of the game. Grant that the gameplay concept is superb (investigating procedural murders in a fully procedural world). And the execution is mixed. It's buggy, janky, has a lot of immersion-breaking weirdness, a lot that could be improved. But sometimes the systems play well together and the promise of the superb concept shines through the jankiness. All the more impressive because this seems to be a solo dev with some hired work. So two paths forward, as I see it.

1. Dev and producer believe they have an EA game that's perhaps 85% complete. They intend to do a lot of polishing and bug fixing before full release. If they did this, I think we (the players) couldn't complain much. The game is genre-creating, intriguing, different, and fun. The price is right. And again, it's really impressive work for a solo dev. But I think it will be impossible to remove all the bugs and jank if the dev goes this route. The game just seems too complicated. It's difficult to simulate hundreds of lives in a city in a believable way! We'll play the game and remember as that janky, genre-creating little detective game that we hope someone will emulate with a much larger budget.

2. Dev and producer believe they have the base for something amazing on their hands. They look at the EA as a proof-of-concept or something, maybe 30% complete. They pump a lot of extra time / resources / people into the game, determined to root out jankiness and expand on the foundation. Probably this would be a risk: done wrongly, it could cost a lot; but done rightly, it could propel the game to greatness.

[Top Marx]

I mean they've said it's closer to the former than the latter. It's going to be fleshed out with more mechanics but it's still going to be a short-ish 10 hour game. 2 is a fantasy that indie game devs can't indulge unless they have literally millions of dollars they're ready to lose.

[Dr.RawHerring]

I would much rather have a good but imperfect finished game that might get some future updates after 1.0 than a Star Citizen indefinite early access with ballooning goals

[Only Human]

Originally posted by Top Marx:

I mean they've said it's closer to the former than the latter. It's going to be fleshed out with more mechanics but it's still going to be a short-ish 10 hour game. 2 is a fantasy that indie game devs can't indulge unless they have literally millions of dollars they're ready to lose.

I disagree with this on the grounds of Kenshi, Dwarf Fortress, etc. Not saying dev should, but dev definitely could. I sincerely think this game is groundbreaking enough to deserve that kind of attention.

[Black Raven]

imo get the game out pretty quickly in a good state.

Then start on better sequel using the original as a foundation learning from the previous game to do it better.

[Alterum]

Originally posted by Black Raven:

imo get the game out pretty quickly in a good state.

Then start on better sequel using the original as a foundation learning from the previous game to do it better.

Yeah, this is another path for development that would have a lot of promise, I think.

[Herja]

Originally posted by Top Marx:

It's going to be fleshed out with more mechanics but it's still going to be a short-ish 10 hour game.

Closing in on 80 hours played and it's still fresh enough to keep me interested. It definitely needs more types of murders and side missions to draw on (I keep getting the "Lets play a game" word scramble that takes literally seconds to figure out) but the randomness of the city and it's people keeps things interesting.

I love the murders and side jobs that give you almost nothing (size 13 shoes, loves music) to go on and can take hours to solve.

[DoremianCleff]

Yeah. When i had like 1 hour in a demo i already knew it got incredible value.
Even knowing what makes game tick, getting a good case is always satisfying. The whole process of solving them scratches the itch for investigatory type of games, since solutions are things you come up with, how to apply your knowledge, instead of mechanical knowledge + sometimes a little bit of luck.

If this is "the game" - i am 100% content with that.