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Massive'ol Update: Development Planning and Scheduling, Delegation, Version Planning, and Other Things That Sound Boring but Are Absolutely Critical
🕑 Added 2021-03-24 09:24:20 +0000 UTCAlright peeps, buckle up cause this is gonna be a long one. Probably the largest post yet...
Hopefully by reading this post you'll get a very solid understanding of how development is planning to go from this point forward. And also potential issues that may arise as well.
As I've been building up to for months now, the transition to the Final Game Format is a significant one. And doesn't just represent a change in the game, but also, especially thanks to the increased support, a change in how development works for the long term.
I'll need to retread some things so bear with me if you've been reading these for a long time. But hopefully it might remind you of some of the context of things until now.
Until Now...
If you've been following Momoirosoft since The Couch, then that's awesome for sticking with me!
But you also may remember that game ended up on a basically indefinite hold due to the programmer at the time needing to find a normal job, thanks to a client of his screwing him over for around $8000 (He's since recovered but generally does not wish to return to ero game development). This left me as an artist with a game project I didn't know how to continue as someone thats not really a programmer and code i don't understand.
The Couch was always a foundational game project to something like Our Apartment, but sadly I could not use that foundation as I intended.
So I came up with a plan for the long term to learn programming, and see if it's possible if I can develop a project by myself. Aiming to return to The Couch in the future to wrap it up in a lesser form when I felt more confident (and I still do plan to). I had already done some experimentation with Naomi 3D, I felt like I could learn what I needed over time. And based on a poll, it seemed people supporting were Ok with that.
Since then Our Apartment was developed with no specific final game in mind. As such there was no version numbers only build release numbers, and I classified the game as a "Preview" as I had done before with The Couch (But Sample Demo was too wordy). The goal was remaking the features of The Couch with a lot of the same mentality. And thanks to 3D being a bit easier asset wise I could expand on some concepts like Adding Outfits.
And through development I've been very very cautious of commissioned programming being made in a way I don't understand or can be easily cut if it's unmanageable. Worried about recreating the situation with The Couch.
But last year I hit a big milestone, I remade a large chunk of Our Apartments features with written code largely removing the node based system Bolt. And not only was everything intact but it was much better than before. I wouldn't call myself a programmer, but this is something I considered impossible only 2 years ago. And from there development has been in written code.
And until build 22 released on new years eve this how development has gone. I've largely worked on things solo, any commissioned programming is largely isolated, and I've had my hands on just about every aspect. And thats brought us this far!
But that has to change.
After build 22 I begun work on implementing the actual game loop, which is the daily system and phases. There was another sex sim refactor behind the scenes done by Kaitou that needed to be implemented, but besides that I decided to setup the basic daily system stuff myself for a few reasons.
- I needed to understand the real scale and scope of what I'm trying to make
- There is a combination of UI, animation assets and scene asset management that needed to be reworked, cleaned up, and figured out.
- I needed to know what worked and what didn't
- I needed this done quickly so when I explain to people what I need, I have a close representation of the format.
And thankfully I got what I needed from that work.
And top of that I hired someone to help me work out future scheduling and planning and such. And after talking with everyone working on the project now, it became even more clear the way I've been developing so far isn't going to work.
First and foremost I'm the artist, and there's still a ton of work just there.
And that's not only true, but I also think for people supporting the project, this 'Extended Dev Period' and then a usually relatively short content period is not very satisfying. And I know some people miss when I did more (Or maybe more like any) 2D art.
But still that posed a serious problem, There's issues where art and programming mix, and all this stuff. And I need the programmer, Kaitou in this case, to be familiar with all those aspects so decisions on how things are designed make sense. And this is more of a "lack of documentation" problem.
Often I talk about things i have planned, but also often that stuff is in my head not on paper. And given the previous releases were more played by ear, that meant much of the games features aren't well documented.
So that needed to change, and the majority of this month has been spent typing that documentation both for the writer and programmer. I've written something along the lines of maybe 10k+ words typed across several documents based off what I can actually measure. And I don't believe I'm done yet, but it's at least workable for the main work ahead.
One of those documents is quite critical, a Version Document outlining development milestones for each version, along with explaining the version format. I'll get into that later but first I want to explain why this is important. It's because of a second issue.
Not only was documentation in my head but most scheduling and needs for build releases too. And for a good while it was difficult for figure out a good system, but thanks to the version doc recently we've organized things based on that. It may change upon further review, but at the very least things are clear enough that I feel comfortable talking about future plans.
What's all this mean?
What this means is from now on my objective is to be more hands off with programming, and hands off with writing, and instead focus on overall goals and outlining.
Instead of jumping to program major features myself, I'll outline the goals and review the work. I'll still be implementing most of stuff, I can't really afford to pay someone to do that busy work yet, lol.
Instead of working on writing I'll focus more on the story outline and reviewing written dialogue. Then determine rewrites based on how closely the writing represents the outline. I've also talked with an editor to better help reach my goals with less personal involvement.
And while at certain times I may check and adjust things, it won't be all the time like before. In the end I still need to know things are up to my standards of quality, but I can't be in that mindset all the time.
And that said, a warning...
While this is to help open me up to focus on art so I can bring more content, this does pose some degree of risk. I'm much more confident as a programmer than I used to be, but understand this is remote work over the internet. Shit happens. There may come a time where I have to explain unforeseen delays, or work may fail to be delivered for one reason or another.
But at the very least, even if things come to that, I hope the organization and documentation is solid enough that recovery from these cases isn't too difficult. And in the worst case, we may get a nice period of content updates before I need to return to programming again for some reason.
I still take responsibility for the game.
I don't expect this to happen as people have been reliable so far, but I do need to make it clear further delegating than I have may lead to this problem at some point. But it's a worthwhile risk.
So lets get down into future releases
As I mentioned earlier there's a version doc made which outlines a game plan of sorts for releases. Part of this is possible thanks to a large chunk of the story being outlined, since the story is somewhat paced around features and functions that need to be made.
So let me get some very basic information out the way, and then I'll outline what I'm willing to for now, cause this post is already super long. Understand sooner plans are much clearer than farther plans.
- At the moment the story is planned to have 13 Acts including an Act 0, this may change but at minimum the general plot of each act is outlined.
- Based on current plans will be likely 14 major milestone releases before the final "completed" release of the game.
- Major milestones are likely when releases on platforms other than Windows will be made. So you can expect android releases around then as well as other platforms (Not WebGL though).
- Do know we don't use the trello for the actual development planning, the trello is more for brainstorming and maybe quick bug notes. Don't expect this to be reflected in the trello.
Versions work like this:
- Versions will be formatted 0.0.0.a
- 0.0.0.a is generally reserved for hotfixes
- 0.0.0.a is generally for small content updates
- 0.0.0.a is for major milestone releases
- 0.0.0.a is for full final releases
So in short the closer we get to something like v0.14.0.a is how you can determine if we're close to a final completed game. Based on current projections.
So I'll explain a few versions so you have some perspective. I will keep some things vague, mostly far away versions.
Understand these are the milestone releases, there will be multiple releases leading up to this point, it just marks the completion of that version.
Understand what's in these versions especially later ones may change as time makes what's possible more clear. Please think of these not as promises, but as my current mentality, what I believe right now is coming and planned.
v0.1.0.a
This release is coming soon, it's been a bit delayed thanks to the afore mentioned planning but now that things are organized we're trying to work fast on it. In short here, you can expect Daily System and Phases polish, Sex Sim fixes (like I said there was a refactor), and what might not be included in the build release is a prototype implementation of Act 0 (Formerly referred to as chapter 0).
One of the main hurdles here is managing faster loading of phases and scenes, and making sure all scene configuring is done behind a blink.
v0.2.0.a
We'll be upgrading to Unity 2020 LTS, this is mostly for improved SSAO in URP but also some other improvements too.
The prologue (Act 0) will be playable to some degree, better animations and dialogue for daily system, a brand new UI will be implemented.
There will be new outfit items made in two forms. A new "Dream" Naomi, and something I'm calling "The Swim Suit and Under Wear" pack.
One of the main hurdles here is some management with environment loading, as much more is done loading scenes other than the apartment.
After this release we'll be working toward getting a release on steam, and also a free public demo. This should also mark that price increase I mentioned before.
v0.4.0.a
This version aims to implement Act 4 which is a significant area plot wise and content wise. Expect a focus on sex sim content here.
v0.6.0.a
This version is significant cause it's the planned implementation of the "Going Out" feature where you can take Naomi places.
v0.9.0.a
This version will be considered the "Fetish and Fantasy" version. At this point there will be a focus on fetish type content outside the usual, and fantasy/role play scenes which will be very unique.
v0.12.0.a
This version is where we'll get into the story conclusion and other things. This is a major event in the game that includes quite a lot of extra content. I won't go into too much detail since things change but the current concept adds a whole new area that should be quite nice.
Now obviously that doesn't include everything
There's of course much more detail in the actual document, and much more detailed to be added even on top of that. But I hope that gives some perspective, especially if there's things you're looking forward to.
In-between all these versions there's outfits and animations to make and all kinds of stuff, not all is planned yet. It's gonna be a lot of work, but with a lot of features and functions already established, I'm confident we can deliver.
My objective isn't to make this game some super long massive project, but a compelling quality product to be completed and released in a fair timeframe. Something i hope holds up for a long time for what it is, and serves as a foundation for future projects too.
About Side Projects
I've mentioned a few times about a side project released for free and occasionally updated. That's still planned, but I'm trying to squeeze it in and kaitou is trying to segment some code for it. Maybe with a lessened focus on programming for Our Apartment, i can get the ball rolling on this one a little bit.
For now just know, basically people liked Our Apartment Preview a lot as is, and I think there's an opportunity to do more of that but have it go beyond Naomi. I don't want to explain much more until more progress is made. I still haven't finished Alex yet...
About some of the confusion about "Preview"
I think it was a bit of a mistake to do the public release without having another supporter only version ready. As that's seemingly confused some people a lot, both here on Patreon and itch.
Basically people seem to play the public version, then donate or support on Patreon, and wonder where a new build is. Not really aware how rare public releases were in the past, and the big transition development is going through now.
It's completely understandable, and I've been trying to figure out how to fix this as it's given some people a bad impression. But really the only option is to get the v0.1.0.a release out as soon as possible. Which kind of made the need and decision to focus on planning this month a difficult choice.
I'm really sorry about the confusion, but outside of explaining things and getting the next release out I can't really fix it. For me something like making a tiny version update just somewhat separate the public and donation versions seems disingenuous. So please bear with it for now, and the next release will come asap. And returning to the preview version in general just doesn't make sense with how much work needs to be done.
So just please give me a little time.
That said, while I prefer not to, I will release the v0.5.0.a build to $1 supporters since there's an extended wait. But man I would really REALLY prefer the build not go further than that. It is a goddamn mess. Please...
About Rewards
I know I owe some people tier rewards, I'll get to those soon. TBH i want to adjust things, but there's a bit of a problem with editing the page...I'll explain more later but I take issue with the fact Patreon requires adding your name to your account now. Mostly cause there's PayPal people who work at Patreon.
Anyway! I'll contact people soon. Sorry I've taken so long.
Wrapping this post up...
I think I finally reached that point where I've forgotten anything else I intended to say in this post. So that probably means it's a good time to wrap up.
Thanks for your support peeps, I hope this post gave some clarity and confidence, but also set reasonable expectations.
Because of your support I want to be as clear as possible with what's going on in development, and ensure it's success. And hopefully that shows.
Thanks again!
~sacb0y
Comments
Your doing such an amazing job! It's insane how emotionally invested I've become in your work.
Martin
Thank You
BigDaddyG0blin
You are doing great! Keep at it!
