When to announce in the Upcoming iPhone/iPad forum?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Xammond, Sep 23, 2014.

  1. Xammond

    Xammond Well-Known Member

    Mar 22, 2014
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    I tried this before (~2 years ago) with a forum announcement, and did so too early - the game was around half done.
    Since then I have moved on a couple more times to new projects and prototypes, only this time I have found my niche!

    My question relates to the forums here at Touch Arcade, specifically the "Upcoming" announcements. I am thinking of developing the game to version 1.0 before making a formal announcement with a release date, is that what people expect in there?

    (Jez 'xammond' Hammond)
     
  2. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    I like it when a dev shows a game from start-to finish, BUT on the other hand people might get impatient and there'll be tons of 'when is it out ?' posts.

    I mean look at the Forgotton Memories thread, that was created about 5 years ago so theres been lots of 'troll-ish' comments from people moaning how long its taken

    Granted that time is probably way too long but even so , take the Wild thread, people are constantly going on about 'you said it would be out 2 days ago and its not...' so you will get lots of impatient users.

    I personally like to see the images/notes from the dev from the idea to completion but you'll get lots of impatient people

    Its useful to get peoples views/ideas on things you've done though, i think too many devs rely on friends/family and they seem to say 'yes that backwards left handed control scheme is great' when in actual fact they're just being too nice ! Good to get an outsiders point of view i think.

    Some devs post about 2 weeks before the games out to drum up interest, others a bit before.

    But if you do post months before the games out be prepared for daily 'is it out yet ? how much will it be ?' posts !
     
  3. Xammond

    Xammond Well-Known Member

    Mar 22, 2014
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    Thanks for the insight. From start to finish, wow that might be a good plan for major updates / additional content - My game has room for many minigames, it will be interesting to see requests for new ones and document how that goes.

    I think any number of years is too long for announcing games, unless it's a follow-up like Half Life 3! I would be honoured to have impatient fans and would love to use the energy positively. Perhaps though it would be a double-edged sword for a one-man-band? I mean this way I can release how I think it should start out, and then add and refine it over many updates. Rather than try and get it right first time with too much scope - there's still a big bonus scheme which I'm holding back on implementing until an unknown version!

    Indeed development images/notes are fascinating from all sorts of games. Sometimes I design on paper and other times in ascii - both of which will be memorabilia for this one, sat on my mantle-piece when I'm 100.

    Yes getting fresh views is mega useful, for me that is a little different though as I haven't showed this year's work to anyone at all yet! Basically I don't know anyone, so I will especially look forward to seeing ideas from the players - there have been times when I needed to bounce some things off someone but I've worked around them by trying and seeing which to go with -> a huge difference it turns out.

    Yes I was thinking at least 2 weeks before release would be about right. But I wasn't sure if that was obviously wrong somehow. I did suspect it might be too late, but I am still somewhat apprehensive to announce too soon.

    I do need to decide which month to aim for, my previous 2 releases were around the start of December and I seem to be falling in to that again. Currently debating (with myself!) either pushing it for November or waiting for January - I welcome all to vent impatience when the thread appears, I don't know exactly when to say but I suspect it will be at a time of good vibes!
     

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