The Future of Shield Cat... (Patreon)

Hey guys. This post is gonna be difficult for me to write, because I've been trying to organize all my thoughts since the SAGE 2022 demo, and I'm hoping I don't forget anything or leave anything out. I hope that you guys read this post in its entirety, but I also know that it's a very, very long post.

TL;DR Version

With a title like that, I have to be direct about it: Shield Cat's development is going on an indefinite hiatus. I know this isn't what you guys want to hear, and I know probably everyone's gonna drop off my Patreon, but I have to be direct and I hope that you guys at least read my explanation below.

SAGE 2022

First, I'd like to talk about the SAGE 2022 demo. I think it did very well! A lot of people downloaded it and tried it out, and the game got a 25% boost in wishlists on Steam. Many people also streamed it online and shared it with their friends, and for that, I am grateful!

I've really enjoyed hearing all the feedback that people have had, and I'm very proud of the fact that it took the entirety of SAGE 2022 for someone to finally find a bug that crashed the game (and it was a very, very obscure bug.) In terms of demo quality and stability, it went much, much better than the SAGE 2020 or March 2021 demos, and I have everyone who tested out beta builds leading up to the demo to thank for that. I appreciate everyone coming together to help me out with the smooth launch.

I've been watching various gameplay videos I've seen and been sent, and combined with what people have told me over Discord, Twitter, and even Mastodon, it seems like pretty much everyone had a good time with the demo, or at least thought it was pretty neat. At the time of writing, about 25% of people who played the demo (on Steam) beat it, and about 8.7% did 100% completion. I want to thank you guys again for playing the demo and spending so much time with it!

*As a note, the Achievements stats are screwy because the SAGE 2022 demo used the same app ID as the March 2021 demo, and so the achievements only reflect people who came back and played this demo. The above numbers have been normalized against the "The Quest Begins" achievement, which is given to anyone who starts a new game.

Making The Demo, and Why It's So Long

One point of feedback I got from pretty much everyone who played the game was this: why is the demo so long? The reason is simple: I wanted to release something that was just a portion of the actual game, but could also stand on its own to give players a complete experience but leave them wanting more. In this way, I was successful - maybe too successful.

I didn't start to realize just how big I had made the demo until the first day of SAGE, in which I didn't really hear out of anyone about the game. It wasn't until about the third day of SAGE that people started talking to me about the demo. Turns out, they tried it out, found out that it was just too long for them, and then came back to it later. That's what I've noticed with the achievement stats too. When I first looked at them, many people had progress up to the Mushroom Boss and that's it. It's been filling out more since then, though.

Having completion up to the Mushroom Boss was honestly part of the plan. I figured that, for most people trying the game or streaming it, getting up to that point and unlocking the village would be a good place to leave it. For those who wanted more though, it was there for you.

To make the demo, I have been working hard over the past year to include everything I could. I actually wanted to include a 7th area to explore, if you could believe it! However, I just didn't have time to do that. For reference of what I've been doing, all of the stages and many of the elements in those stages were made between May 2021 and July 2022 - So I made all that stuff in just over a year, while also working on various subsystems (like color blending, collectible calculations, the new menus, etc - all behind the scenes stuff that I won't have to do again.)

The Troubles of Making Shield Cat

This all has been a tremendous amount of work, and I've been putting a lot of effort into it. Too much, in fact. I've been giving about 125% of myself and putting everything into this demo, much to the dismay of people to whom I owe art (more on that later, but don't worry, I'm going to do it.) My primary focus has been getting out this demo with the highest quality and the most content possible, but perhaps my commitment to that was too lofty of a goal.

Leading up to SAGE 2021, I considered making a demo that was pretty much what was available in the Playtest version of the game (start the game and play up to the Mushroom Boss.) However, I didn't want to do that, because I felt like people would come play the next demo (which covers the entire first story arc of the game) and think it was the same thing. Sometimes, though, I wonder if it would have been better to do just that.

The truth is, while Shield Cat did make a big impression on people, it overall did not get that much attention. People tried it out and liked it, but I feel that many people were turned away due to the demo's sheer size. Also, honestly, it did not get me any kind of boost in Patronage like I had hoped. I was hoping I would get more people supporting me and be able to devote more time to it, but this just did not come to pass. I don't blame anyone though, it is tough economic times for everyone.

Why Shield Cat is Going On Hiatus

If you didn't know, Shield Cat is solely created and worked on by me, Roxanne. Many people assume there's a team of several people behind the project, but this is not the case. I'd been working extremely hard to bring the highest quality demo to you guys that I could, but the rate at which I was working was not sustainable.

Basically, after spending at least 450 hours playing the game and countless hours working on it, as well as managing all promotion of the game, tweets, Q&A, bug reports and fixing, well, I need a break from it. I've been working on Shield Cat primarily in the last 2 years, but the project started on November 8th 2018. Yes, that's almost 4 years ago, and that's a really, really long time to be looking at Lance spinning.

Does this mean that Shield Cat is canceled? No. I am only taking a break from it for a while, and hopefully will come back to it when I am feeling better mentally about it, and hopefully when I am doing better financially as well. This is not the end of Lance's journey! He is just going on the backburner for a while.

Also, I will not be removing the Shield Cat demo. It will stay available for you to play and check out. Please also continue to share it with your friends and wishlist it. The more attention the game garners over the coming months, the better chance I have at securing some financial support for completing development of the game.

So What's Next?

I'm sure by now you've seen the spaceship game I'm working on. That's part of the reason I wanted to write this, so I can address concerns people have or will have, as I post more about new stuff and less about Shield Cat.

Right now, I just want to take one of my smaller game concepts and bring it to completion. Whether or not it is the spaceship game remains to be seen, but my prototyping has been going well. My plan for that is to make a minimum viable product, and hopefully share that with Patrons sometime next month.

Shield Cat is great, and it is within my means to complete it by myself if I have to, but I can't just keep working on it at the pace I was working on it. That's what I've been having to come to terms with, and that's why I'm telling you now.

Because of the much smaller scope of my current prototyping project, as well as not having the time limit of trying to get the Shield Cat demo out in time for SAGE now, I should hopefully be able to take some new commissions before the end of the year. However, I am not taking any new commissions until I complete my current commissions.

The lack of commission income as well as the fact that my Patreon has been on a steady downward spiral since January (I think we can all guess why that is) has put me in a big financial bind, and I've been relying on the generosity of suspiciously wealthy furries online, but I can't rely on that forever. I need to get back into commissions, but I have to fulfill my prior commissions first.

I'd like to take this time to apologize to people who are waiting on art from me, and I am eternally grateful that you guys have been incredibly patient with me while I was getting Shield Cat's demo together. It was never my intention to make anyone wait for so long for art, but here we are, and I will try to do better in the future.

The first part of that is this: Putting Shield Cat, which takes more of me than I can reasonably provide, on hiatus, and instead working on something that's much more inside my ability to make and complete on my own while also working on commissions on the side. I will do my best to find a better balance between game development and commissions. One day, I would like to focus solely on game development, but I am nowhere near financially stable enough with just game development alone to do this.

Conclusion

I know this post is not what people wanted to hear. There are a lot of people who are excited about Shield Cat, and while I can't promise when or if the game will be completed, I'm hoping that one day I'm able to bring it to you. The first part of that, though, is knowing what I can do as well as knowing my limits.

Hopefully I've been able to explain myself clearly and sufficiently, and people won't get too mad at me for this. Also, I hope people stick around for whatever comes next. Hopefully it's the spaceship game, but it's too early to tell. However, I've been having a lot of fun prototyping it, and I think just making a little game that's well within my skillset and ability to do it will be good for me.

If you've been keeping track, you know I went on hiatus recently. I've been coming back online again here and there, but I'm trying to just pace myself. Shield Cat took a lot out of me, and it's gonna be a while before I'm back at it again to my fullest.

I just hope that everyone understands, and that we see what the future holds for my creations, together.

Thank you.