Dev Log #17 | Time and Quality (Patreon)

0.4 is coming along nicely. At this point I know that I won't manage a release at the end of this week and will have to go into week 5 again. Which means the release of 0.4 will be at the end of next week.

Reading back what I wrote definitely sounds a bit pretentious. So here is the less cringy tl;dr: I will keep releasing updates every 4 weeks as my goal. But I won't feel bad about extending to 5 weeks if it is necessary anymore. Just to keep the quality and improve my skills. 

I had planned a 4 week release for this one. But I am not able to manage that. Which is also the topic of this Dev Log. The balance between time and quality.

About half a year ago a Patron asked me what my goal for Mist was. He asked if I wanted to develop my skills, make money or deliver a good game. I answered that it was all 3 of those. I want to make money, it would be a dream to do this fulltime. I want to keep developing my skills and trying out new things and I want the end product, the game itself, to be great.

But there is a little problem in there. The best way to let the campaign grow is by releasing updates often. But short release schedules make it more difficult to deliver high quality. And it also makes it more difficult to try and fail, which is basically the foundation of learning. For now I was pretty consistent with a 4 weeks release schedule and I even managed 3 weeks a few times. But things changed a bit and I kept increasing the quality of the game.

The result is simple. The game is better, but new content also takes longer to make. Development got morecomplex and I am more often considering to not even try an idea, because I don't want to waste the time with a potential failure. Which means that it isn't only impacting quality, but also my chances to learn something new. But there is a simple solution.

And it might be different from what you are thinking. I am still sticking with the 4 week release. You guys are paying monthly and I will try to release monthly. I think that is only fair. But there will be a change. If I see that I need more time. If I see that I will need 5 weeks because I have to make something extra, that costs a lot of time, like making the assets for a new area or making a new character, I will just take those 5 weeks.

That might sound like I am not changing anything. But what that means for me is the fact that I will stop throwing away good ideas because they could potentially not work out and I will not scrap fun stuff just to make that deadline. And that might not be the best decision when it comes to the money. But I think it is the best for me. I suck at social media, I suck at marketing in any form. I think that what speaks for my game is it's quality. So I want to make sure that this aspect is always at the top of my priorities.