As a "right" to go into Early Access on Steam
In mind suitable the spring season and many of the planned releases at this time, now is the best time to read the translation article game designer Matthew Donatelli and make some useful lessons before you will be released in Early Access. This is the most sober look on Early Access that I have ever read.
Category Early Access on Steam has long turned into a swamp, but it is not the fault of Valve. The blame for a whole slew of abandoned projects and frustrated players lies on the shoulders of the developers. I am writing this article to tell you how to get Early Access to the game developers were able to regain trust from the players and return it to our Arsenal of igrodelov very useful tool from Steam. But first, who am I and why should you listen to me?
Hive Jump started in the full release yesterday, January 18, 2017
I am a designer of Hive Jump, a roguelike platformer in the spirit of the run n’ gun, which was in Early Access for the last six months and just went yesterday to the release on Steam. At the time of this writing, we have 94% positive feedback from the players within a small but very active community, which we were able to collect during Early Access. Hive Jump has had rather limited financial success in the Early Access, but nevertheless we were able to finish our game with the players and gained wisdom that I want to share with you. Let's start our story.
Should you display your game in Early Access?
Most likely, the answer will be negative. Too many developers think that Early Access is a great way to cover your financial problems and troubles, but it's not. There are many better ways to raise funds, not including the volume of marketing pieces, polishing the game and lucky rabbit's feet needed to a very successful completion of Early Access as it did Darkest Dungeon or Crypt of the Necrodancer. If you are going on early access to raise funds for your project:
Even Early Access requires a good marketing practice if you want to set the heat.
Before stepping into the Early Access, you should be good to think about whether it will go on the platform (approx. most likely the author was referring to whether your project if at this point in your genre out projects a head taller, or long-awaited releases from the giants) and whether the players are ready to get pleasure from your passing game for tens or even hundreds of hours, with the current quality of the project. Linear narrative, the game is probably a horrible candidate for Early Access, but there is a set of specific qualities that allow great games go Early Access. Here are my personal observations on this issue:
Quality, which will help cover the Early Access
the
Certainly, there are viable projects for Early Access, based on their own unique design. And Vice versa, there are the. One item from the list above, of course not enough, but a competent combination of several such elements in the result will lead to the involvement of players in your game for a long time. So, after reading the information above, you understand what Early Access is a great opportunity for your game, what next?
You have to finish your game before leaving Early Access
"But I need the money from Early Access that will allow you to finish the development!" Perhaps you did not read when I said that Early Access is not the best way to earn some money to complete work on the game? As Early Access and crowdfunding platforms by type KickStarter'and require you not only to think but also to conduct a marketing campaign to at least try to achieve your goal. And achieve the goals, of course, is no guarantee. And that is what time and money from campaigns, you can direct the completion of their game. If you're wondering how we raised funds for the development of our Hive Jump, and what methods are used, read the article by my colleague Matt tut.
Prototype of Hive Jump and version for Early Access, not release a prototype in Early Access!
"But Hey, if my game is ready, why do we need Early Access?" Now, now, let's talk! If we are not going to use Early Access as a tool of fundraising, and our game should be ready, why we really need Early access? Most likely, your game is ready, but it is far from completion. Early Access is a tool for the completion of the project when it has already implemented all of the key branches, and aesthetics, but not yet ready for the final high-level Polish or all the features that you would like to embody in your universe.
Here is a list of correct applications Early Access developer tool:
the
When we went into early access, it was ready game, but not completed. The difference between these two words on which I wish to draw your attention, very important. The finished game can be completed from beginning to end, and preferably prepagada even many times. But completed the game, contains all the planned features, "completely" cleared of bugs and problems and sufficiently aged, like a fine wine. Hive Jump was fit a couch co-op game when released in Early Access, but at the time of his passing, we, together with players managed to make the project Shine!
You need a PLAN and SCHEDULE for release in Early Access.
So, now that we are talking about Early Access in the key of finishing the game, not the fundraiser or project is ready to be players like us to do everything as efficiently as possible? You need to have a plan of action in place, specifying exactly what features you are going to add during Early Access and also the time frame in which to fit this job.
Feeding the game on Early Access, there is one thing you are going to ask Valve: "How and what will be different the Early Access version to version in the release?". Valve also asked: "Approximately how long your game will be in Early Access?". Both these questions should be the basis of your plan for Early Access.
Here is a list of features that we will add to Hive Jump
We had a ready list of features to add to the game, which would have taken us about three months of work to implement. We assumed that would be done before the introduction of the feature and launch the release version of the project's holiday sale on Steam. We made a mistake in calculating, and you probably also mistaken. And that's okay! Rather, even good.
Our estimates of the timing wasn't too far from reality, but they did not take into account feedback from players. Also, Valve has another one preference in the documentation that says that the game should not be completed so that it was no place for the implementation of any feedback from the players.
Hive Jump has been in Early Access for six months, but was made much better thanks to the benefit of receiving feedback from players quite effectively. We have introduced a special mode of competition for speedrunners, as well as a separate mode for hardcore players who wanted even more stringent experience, dying again and again. We have also implemented a lot of improvements for multiplayer, fixed a lot of problems that are met in various specific devices and configurations and hardware players and of course, tested the network game mode and breadth of matchmaking.
Contact with the community carefully and with due respect
Obviously, good communication with your players is important, but it is what it becomes, can be a time consuming process. Be prepared for the fact that some of your precious time for the development will be literally eaten your inexperienced community. But don't worry about it, if you care about your community, it will take care of you.
the First and key is an open and truthful communication with the community. Post updates, respond to messages on the developers forum Steam, burn the maximum amount of detail in your notes, updates make it possible to communicate tete-a-tete with players with a more comfortable channel of communication. Doing all these things you will be able to build a healthy relationship with the players and a real community around your project.
Second, and this is critical schedule regular updates of the game. I recommend to release updates every week or two. If you are not ready for such a brief development cycle, perhaps until your project is going to come out in Early Access. If you do not have time or can't roll out the update in time, send players explaining why.
Players are people, as well as the developers. Let's communicate well among themselves
Third, be aware of and consider any feedback from the players.feedback from players can be very insightful, helpful, just a tangent or even useless. Regardless of the content and value of feedback is very important to know that you received it and to accept it openly and honestly. To say when you will work out feedback and most importantly when changes can occur.
sample answer: "Yes, we agree that this will be very useful for players to group together faster near the door in each level. We will try to implement this possibility in the next weekly update."
a Bad example of a response: "so far, to creep and Crouch, it will be convenient for players, we will support the development of in the same vein, and this is unlikely to happen. Such a feature would take significant time on rework that will cause a schedule delay. We also believe that this change will not give such value to our players as those features that we have planned."
Increasingly, to calm irritable player need only to assure him that he was heard and to talk about the steps you are going to take to resolve the problem. But if you do not plan to take any steps to remedy the situation, please explain why. Maybe the player won't like your answer, but if it turns out that this is not an isolated case, it is better to deal with the problem until it turned into a snowball.
In the end, use the shell to manage your community (approx. analogue Teamspeak and Skype for gamers). This is only a personal recommendation, but creating your own forum and support are very time-consuming. We tried, but switched to black & white during Early Access. We used it to coordinate multi-user tests, marginal notes from the players and even to share a meme of starship Troopers, in order to build a partnership. We used the shell as a Supplement to the Steam forum. You only need to post the invite links in the notes for your upgrade and the most dedicated fans will find you.
Only you can prevent a garbage dump in the Early Access!
Valve has given the developers and the player a great tool for turning good games into great games by the release in Early Access. And I truly believe that if you follow the advice from this article, then your game will not be another abandoned ship in the ocean Early Access, and will become a faceted diamond, after going through the ordeal of Early Access.
version of the article "Mnogabukav, niasilil"
Early Access is not to raise money for the completion of the game to the finished version. While your game is no certain qualities, it just won't do Early Access. If your game is not fully ready, there is no point in going to Early Access. If you don't know how much your game will stay in Early Access, you're not ready for it. If you do not respect your players, they will not respect you. If you have looked through the article and only read this paragraph, you also shouldn't go into Early Access.
the payment is over, friends. Thanks for reading! I'm from GTP Media, which now holds the Cup of indie-developers the GTP Indie Cup.
If this article was interesting, you know what to do :)
Article based on information from habrahabr.ru
Category Early Access on Steam has long turned into a swamp, but it is not the fault of Valve. The blame for a whole slew of abandoned projects and frustrated players lies on the shoulders of the developers. I am writing this article to tell you how to get Early Access to the game developers were able to regain trust from the players and return it to our Arsenal of igrodelov very useful tool from Steam. But first, who am I and why should you listen to me?
Hive Jump started in the full release yesterday, January 18, 2017
I am a designer of Hive Jump, a roguelike platformer in the spirit of the run n’ gun, which was in Early Access for the last six months and just went yesterday to the release on Steam. At the time of this writing, we have 94% positive feedback from the players within a small but very active community, which we were able to collect during Early Access. Hive Jump has had rather limited financial success in the Early Access, but nevertheless we were able to finish our game with the players and gained wisdom that I want to share with you. Let's start our story.
Should you display your game in Early Access?
Most likely, the answer will be negative. Too many developers think that Early Access is a great way to cover your financial problems and troubles, but it's not. There are many better ways to raise funds, not including the volume of marketing pieces, polishing the game and lucky rabbit's feet needed to a very successful completion of Early Access as it did Darkest Dungeon or Crypt of the Necrodancer. If you are going on early access to raise funds for your project:
Even Early Access requires a good marketing practice if you want to set the heat.
Before stepping into the Early Access, you should be good to think about whether it will go on the platform (approx. most likely the author was referring to whether your project if at this point in your genre out projects a head taller, or long-awaited releases from the giants) and whether the players are ready to get pleasure from your passing game for tens or even hundreds of hours, with the current quality of the project. Linear narrative, the game is probably a horrible candidate for Early Access, but there is a set of specific qualities that allow great games go Early Access. Here are my personal observations on this issue:
Quality, which will help cover the Early Access
the
-
the
- Ability to pereprohozhdeniya, different scenariosthe the
- Online multiplayer
- Roguelike the
- Depth of content the
- Complex simulations the
- RPG mechanics the
- Open world for research the
- Mechanics of survival
Steep curve of difficulty (approx. non-linear complexity) the
the Sandbox is based on physics
Certainly, there are viable projects for Early Access, based on their own unique design. And Vice versa, there are the. One item from the list above, of course not enough, but a competent combination of several such elements in the result will lead to the involvement of players in your game for a long time. So, after reading the information above, you understand what Early Access is a great opportunity for your game, what next?
You have to finish your game before leaving Early Access
"But I need the money from Early Access that will allow you to finish the development!" Perhaps you did not read when I said that Early Access is not the best way to earn some money to complete work on the game? As Early Access and crowdfunding platforms by type KickStarter'and require you not only to think but also to conduct a marketing campaign to at least try to achieve your goal. And achieve the goals, of course, is no guarantee. And that is what time and money from campaigns, you can direct the completion of their game. If you're wondering how we raised funds for the development of our Hive Jump, and what methods are used, read the article by my colleague Matt tut.
Prototype of Hive Jump and version for Early Access, not release a prototype in Early Access!
"But Hey, if my game is ready, why do we need Early Access?" Now, now, let's talk! If we are not going to use Early Access as a tool of fundraising, and our game should be ready, why we really need Early access? Most likely, your game is ready, but it is far from completion. Early Access is a tool for the completion of the project when it has already implemented all of the key branches, and aesthetics, but not yet ready for the final high-level Polish or all the features that you would like to embody in your universe.
Here is a list of correct applications Early Access developer tool:
the
-
the
- to collect feedback from the players the
- improvement of gameplay the
- final balancing the
- to find the last bugs and to fix them the
- build a community around the project the
- testing the online functionality in the field the
- to improve the comfort of the game for beginners the
- of a diva test on many different devices and configurations
When we went into early access, it was ready game, but not completed. The difference between these two words on which I wish to draw your attention, very important. The finished game can be completed from beginning to end, and preferably prepagada even many times. But completed the game, contains all the planned features, "completely" cleared of bugs and problems and sufficiently aged, like a fine wine. Hive Jump was fit a couch co-op game when released in Early Access, but at the time of his passing, we, together with players managed to make the project Shine!
You need a PLAN and SCHEDULE for release in Early Access.
So, now that we are talking about Early Access in the key of finishing the game, not the fundraiser or project is ready to be players like us to do everything as efficiently as possible? You need to have a plan of action in place, specifying exactly what features you are going to add during Early Access and also the time frame in which to fit this job.
Feeding the game on Early Access, there is one thing you are going to ask Valve: "How and what will be different the Early Access version to version in the release?". Valve also asked: "Approximately how long your game will be in Early Access?". Both these questions should be the basis of your plan for Early Access.
Here is a list of features that we will add to Hive Jump
We had a ready list of features to add to the game, which would have taken us about three months of work to implement. We assumed that would be done before the introduction of the feature and launch the release version of the project's holiday sale on Steam. We made a mistake in calculating, and you probably also mistaken. And that's okay! Rather, even good.
Our estimates of the timing wasn't too far from reality, but they did not take into account feedback from players. Also, Valve has another one preference in the documentation that says that the game should not be completed so that it was no place for the implementation of any feedback from the players.
Hive Jump has been in Early Access for six months, but was made much better thanks to the benefit of receiving feedback from players quite effectively. We have introduced a special mode of competition for speedrunners, as well as a separate mode for hardcore players who wanted even more stringent experience, dying again and again. We have also implemented a lot of improvements for multiplayer, fixed a lot of problems that are met in various specific devices and configurations and hardware players and of course, tested the network game mode and breadth of matchmaking.
Contact with the community carefully and with due respect
Obviously, good communication with your players is important, but it is what it becomes, can be a time consuming process. Be prepared for the fact that some of your precious time for the development will be literally eaten your inexperienced community. But don't worry about it, if you care about your community, it will take care of you.
the First and key is an open and truthful communication with the community. Post updates, respond to messages on the developers forum Steam, burn the maximum amount of detail in your notes, updates make it possible to communicate tete-a-tete with players with a more comfortable channel of communication. Doing all these things you will be able to build a healthy relationship with the players and a real community around your project.
Second, and this is critical schedule regular updates of the game. I recommend to release updates every week or two. If you are not ready for such a brief development cycle, perhaps until your project is going to come out in Early Access. If you do not have time or can't roll out the update in time, send players explaining why.
Players are people, as well as the developers. Let's communicate well among themselves
Third, be aware of and consider any feedback from the players.feedback from players can be very insightful, helpful, just a tangent or even useless. Regardless of the content and value of feedback is very important to know that you received it and to accept it openly and honestly. To say when you will work out feedback and most importantly when changes can occur.
sample answer: "Yes, we agree that this will be very useful for players to group together faster near the door in each level. We will try to implement this possibility in the next weekly update."
a Bad example of a response: "so far, to creep and Crouch, it will be convenient for players, we will support the development of in the same vein, and this is unlikely to happen. Such a feature would take significant time on rework that will cause a schedule delay. We also believe that this change will not give such value to our players as those features that we have planned."
Increasingly, to calm irritable player need only to assure him that he was heard and to talk about the steps you are going to take to resolve the problem. But if you do not plan to take any steps to remedy the situation, please explain why. Maybe the player won't like your answer, but if it turns out that this is not an isolated case, it is better to deal with the problem until it turned into a snowball.
In the end, use the shell to manage your community (approx. analogue Teamspeak and Skype for gamers). This is only a personal recommendation, but creating your own forum and support are very time-consuming. We tried, but switched to black & white during Early Access. We used it to coordinate multi-user tests, marginal notes from the players and even to share a meme of starship Troopers, in order to build a partnership. We used the shell as a Supplement to the Steam forum. You only need to post the invite links in the notes for your upgrade and the most dedicated fans will find you.
Only you can prevent a garbage dump in the Early Access!
Valve has given the developers and the player a great tool for turning good games into great games by the release in Early Access. And I truly believe that if you follow the advice from this article, then your game will not be another abandoned ship in the ocean Early Access, and will become a faceted diamond, after going through the ordeal of Early Access.
version of the article "Mnogabukav, niasilil"
Early Access is not to raise money for the completion of the game to the finished version. While your game is no certain qualities, it just won't do Early Access. If your game is not fully ready, there is no point in going to Early Access. If you don't know how much your game will stay in Early Access, you're not ready for it. If you do not respect your players, they will not respect you. If you have looked through the article and only read this paragraph, you also shouldn't go into Early Access.
the payment is over, friends. Thanks for reading! I'm from GTP Media, which now holds the Cup of indie-developers the GTP Indie Cup.
If this article was interesting, you know what to do :)
