Hey guys, I think this would be a good thing to have a discussion on as it is something I have always wondered to myself
When is the best stage to release a game in as an indie?
Do you wait till its completely finished and release it as a final product?
Do you wait till there just needs a bit of polish and release it?
Do you release it in alpha/beta, whilst continually pushing out new updates?
Obviously each has its pros and its cons, and which is best can drastically change whether its free or paid, the platform, the genre etc.
Which is why I think this is good for a general discussion
In my case, I have an arcade style āAsteroidsā game, which as I am planning now will most likely be free
Personally, I never buy into those āEarly Accessā games. Seems more like developers wanting me to pay to play a buggy, unfinished game and do their QA for free.
An alpha/beta is always a good idea, as the playerās can give you some constructive criticism on the game before you release it, possibly giving you new ideas and allowing you to make the game better for the players. But by alpha/beta, I do NOT mean Early Access. I mean a barebones, free version of the game able to be played on the internet for example.
Early Access has become something that instead of attracting players, repels them. Not because the game isnāt good, but because they know or expect that itāll be buggy and possibly unplayable, hence not being worth their money.
If youāre going for Early Access, donāt put the price tag of a finished AAA title on your game. I still see some Early Access games on Steam that cost over 30ā¬, which is absurd.
This, in my opinion, would be desirable, but quite rarely works out perfectly. 50% of the time, when a game launches in itās āfinalā state, there is going to be a patch within the next 48 hours fixing some critical bug the devs accidentally left in.
The obvious benefit of this type of release is that it attracts more players than your typical Early Access games.
Obviously the type of the game can affect your decision on what kind of a release youāll want to do. Basically, aim for a single, full release, but if the project is really large and you want to share it already, go with Early Access and price the game according to the state of it (perhaps make it cheaper when you first put it out, and then as it develops, slowly increase the price). Just keep in mind that people will think that the game is buggy and unfinished.
Yeah most likely what I will do, is release it as a finished game, but then continue to release updates with all the things Iād like to add in. Cos I mean, Iād like to release a finished product, but If I donāt release it at some point and make all other additions updates Iāll never release it
And of course I wouldnāt charge for the beta or alpha (or monezite in anyway), I highly doubt Iāll charge for the final version, but may charge (very little) for it on platforms on steam then have reasonable (thus minimal) ads on other platforms
I was mostly just interested in what people think are the pros and cons so I can attempt to evaluate for myself whats best
Like, would beta via eg kongregate then waiting till its finished to go to bigger platforms like steam be viable?
That could work well, and is actually quite common to do, even for AAA titles (obviously theyāll publish the beta on something like their own site, and then release it on the major platforms after the gameās done, but the idea is the same).
@hippocoder , about your pointā¦
Well, it might seem like a very simple game to you, and, it probably is. But Itās just something that I do in my free time and hence takes a lot of time. Tbh, Iāve been working on it for a year now, and I actually finished the core aspects of it within the first week. Now Iām just trying to make it polished (it was a very scrappy and ugly game, but the people who played it seemed to enjoy it), refined, finishing up proper UI. Adding new content like more asteroids and power ups to make it fresher, and there are so many things I can think of that would make it more fun. Iām also doing a log book style instructions, in which as you discover things their entries get added to the instructions
So it may look like, or even be a simple game, but Itās still definitely gonna take me a lot of time to finish
Thatās a good example. I read an article where the designers were saying that the initial release & interest caused NASA to approach them & they worked together to add stuff from actual NASA missions & physics experiments & stuff to make it more realistic while still keeping it a game. They said that it helped gain NASA access to people interested in this stuff to try & influence kids into an interest in science while also giving people a gamefied look at space research, funding cuts etc. The partnering with NASA gave the devs access to real people doing this stuff & gave both organisations a boost with the people interested in it.
In that case the early access had an unforeseen benefit.
Gotta agree with both of you, Kerball was both amazing and benefited greatly from being released in early access
Sorry to say my game is not nearly as innovative or as complex as Kerball, Itās just my first game. The main advantage of some kind of beta release for me would being able to guide development in the direction people wanted, and being able to see what needs to be fixed, what needs improvement etc.
Hate to break it to you like this, but nobody is going to play your game anyway. Simply release it when you have run out of new things to learn from making the game.
Yeah I know, thats probably true
Correct me If Iām wrong, but shouldnāt I also be trying to learn the correct way to release it etc while Iām at it? Or is there not any point In experience?
Also now that I think about it, this isnāt actually my first game, I made pong and another way too ambitious game that I never got anywhere near to finishing (Both purely as learning experiences, never intended to release them) and I certainly did learn a lot from them, but they were by no means good games, even I didnāt find them fun ;).
If I have some of my friends playing it when itās done that will be good enough
Thanks for the input
I tend to stay away from Early Accessā¦ after being disappointed by most of them.
Some of them are real fiascos!
Also, always remember that 99% of players donāt understand the time and effort needed to create a game.
And even if the game is great in the beginning, eventually people will start complaining.
But in general, that you have a developer background or notā¦ we are all consumerā¦ and consumer donāt like to pay for:
-Buggy, unfinished and barely playable product
-Promises, promises that changes and takes years to accomplish
-Degrading product
-Really slow updates in some cases
Last thing, if someone plays your game in Early Access and has a bad experience, it will be really unlikely for him to return to the game at a later stage.
Be safe, make sure the game is āreadyā to be enjoyed by most who will give it a chance.
So essentially, if Iām summing this up correctly
Let them play during beta/alpha for free, not paid, even if the final product will be paid
And only release the beta/alpha when its already enjoyable and definitely works, but may not be in its final/finished/improved state?
Thanks
This is incredibly important. Never release a game that is not fun or engaging. If you donāt want to play it, no one else should be inflicted with it.
