Hey all,
To kick off this new cycle, I'll start with a short sprint retrospective to reflect on what went right and wrong during this dev cycle, and what to improve going forwards.
👎 What went wrong
👎 Development delays: deadlines were once again pushed back for technical reasons, most of which pertain to the development of the new app. It's an investment in the making of a generic framework "sandbox" facilitating future development, but it was still not properly factored in the planning and in the end, I'm still not satisfied with the cycle schedule; production takes too long and releases should be more frequent.
👎 Lack of planning and proper design phase: one the biggest things that need to be reworked in this process improvement I'm trying to start is going through a proper design phase at the beginning of a cycle. I usually kick off production with a rough idea of the content I'm trying to create (usually for the artwork, which is the first thing I design) and I then build up around that throughout the production. This is not a sustainable way to plan for a cycle, as it can end up in phases where I'm not sure where I'm going and overall hinders creativity.
👍 What went right
👍 Content quality: regarding artworks specifically, I'm pretty satisfied with the quality of the renders for this update. The shipped build had a satisfying level of polish with color & backgrounds. I just wish there had been more illustrations but this will be talked about further along this blogpost.
👍 Gameplay-wise, I'm also overall satisfied with the new app and the storytelling opportunities it provides. It frames dialogue in another context and puts an interesting twist on the "flirting" part, whilst also bringing new gameplay elements.
📈 What to improve
📈 Content density: Delivering quality content is good, delivering a lot of it is even better. While I'm happy with how assets ended up looking in this build, I wish I could've shipped more as I know this is the main point of focus for players when there's an update. The next build will be focused on including more visual content & lewd pictures.
📈 Planning/design phase: To improve on this area and as a part of the dev process rework, I will implement a proper design phase before every production cycle. This means going through an exclusive creative design phase that includes storyboarding and screenwriting (story & dialogue).
📈 Roadmap - short & mid-term: to extend on this need to be more thorough in the planning, I'll also take the time to establish a short-term roadmap for the project, which will include a planning for the next handful of updates with schedule and content scope. That implies some screenwriting as I don't have the main story all written and ready, which should be done at this point.
As I already mentioned several times, I'm trying to improve and rework my processes & project management. Communication will go through some changes (though the weekly blogpost will remain) and I can already tell you guys that I will set up a Discord server to facilitate some more informal communication for the community.
Expect more posts, most likely this week & before the next blogpost that will detail these changes and unveil a couple more things.
Thank you as always for the support, stay tuned for more announcements and have a great week!