Should I release incomplete visual novel now?

[LTLemco]

I started my visual novel project before 1 month. It's a large project for me and I guess I need about 2-3 years for development. I ask this question because I think it's better to create a community of this project as fast as possible. But it's only finished 0.5% I think. So, should I release the 'in-dev' version now? Or wait it finished about 75%?

[Mutive]

To me, a lot would depend on what the "in-dev" version consists of.

If it's a buggy game with place holder art, typos everywhere, and an incoherent plot, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot. (Since if I played that game, I 100% would not touch something else by you later on since I'd expect it also to be an incoherent mess.)

OTOH, I could see releasing now under certain circumstances...

1. If it's say, part 1 of a 2 part series, and part 1 is pretty clean (and hopefully semi-self-contained), well...I read serieses all the time. This would not bother me. If I liked part 1, I'd stay tuned for part 2 (etc.) (The same would go for a game with romance routes where I could play 1-2 now and wait for the last 5-6 later on. The risk with this is that if the character I *wanted* to romance was one that wasn't finished yet, I might feel faintly annoyed at only having a not great romance option.)

2. If the primary assets (script, character sprites) are finished, but maybe not quite as perfect as you want them (e.g. maybe you want to add animations, firm up the backgrounds, etc.), I could see playing it now and then being delighted when a more polished version came out.

[XBDC36]

To me, a lot would depend on what the "in-dev" version consists of.

If it's a buggy game with place holder art, typos everywhere, and an incoherent plot, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot. (Since if I played that game, I 100% would not touch something else by you later on since I'd expect it also to be an incoherent mess.)

OTOH, I could see releasing now under certain circumstances...

1. If it's say, part 1 of a 2 part series, and part 1 is pretty clean (and hopefully semi-self-contained), well...I read serieses all the time. This would not bother me. If I liked part 1, I'd stay tuned for part 2 (etc.) (The same would go for a game with romance routes where I could play 1-2 now and wait for the last 5-6 later on. The risk with this is that if the character I *wanted* to romance was one that wasn't finished yet, I might feel faintly annoyed at only having a not great romance option.)

2. If the primary assets (script, character sprites) are finished, but maybe not quite as perfect as you want them (e.g. maybe you want to add animations, firm up the backgrounds, etc.), I could see playing it now and then being delighted when a more polished version came out.

I think this is a great question, but that leads me into some worries of my own. I've thought about doing the same thing as OP, since the game that I'm working on already has an established fanbase which could help get more hands on deck if I need, and I guess the short of it is that if I get really desperate(with losing volunteers god forbid), I might have to make it known to the wider fanbase that I'm making this game despite wanting to keep it a secret by releasing a demo of whatever I've got. What I'm terrified of (and I'm not even lying when I say it's kept me up at night) is it turning into a Yandere Simulator/YandereDev situation. Like I said, a fanbase already exists, and I'm scared that if I show a demo, expectations will be so high for it (especially with the fact that I'm working with volunteers because I'm effectively a child and can't pay anyone, as much as I would like to, so it could take a while) that when the game finally releases, everyone will hate it because it's not what they expected and all of our work would have been for nothing.

[Elsa Kisiel]

I'll be honest : even if I like the demo, if the game is only released 2 or 3 years after, I probably won't remember it. Unless you can convince me with the demo to follow the game's development on social networks, perhaps ?

Personally, I prefer a good, intense and short campaign (2 month before the release, for exemple) with lot of content and interactions.

[Elsa Kisiel]

What I'm terrified of (and I'm not even lying when I say it's kept me up at night) is it turning into a Yandere Simulator/YandereDev situation. Like I said, a fanbase already exists, and I'm scared that if I show a demo, expectations will be so high for it (especially with the fact that I'm working with volunteers because I'm effectively a child and can't pay anyone, as much as I would like to, so it could take a while) that when the game finally releases, everyone will hate it because it's not what they expected and all of our work would have been for nothing.

I think you worry too much, if it's keeping yourself up at night. It's true that fanbase and fandom can be pretty... agressive. However, it's not healthy to worry to much about their potential reactions.

It's a fan-project. You are doing it for free. Have fun ! And if some people are disappointed, or if characters are out-of-characters, or even if it's very bad... it's fine ! My first fanfictions certainly were bad, but I learned a lot by writing them and I had fun !

[Mutive]

I've thought about doing the same thing as OP, since the game that I'm working on already has an established fanbase which could help get more hands on deck if I need, and I guess the short of it is that if I get really desperate(with losing volunteers god forbid), I might have to make it known to the wider fanbase that I'm making this game despite wanting to keep it a secret by releasing a demo of whatever I've got.

I think that a huge advantage of having an existing fanbase is that you have a built in audience of potentially enthusiastic players. That's pretty cool.

And I think if you release something (probably for free) with the expectation going in that it's rough, it's not a huge deal.

(I, for one, would be *far* more likely to sign onto a project that was making good headway than one where it was just an idea in the creator's head.)

[Imperf3kt]

While I can see the advantages of building a fanbase, having been part of several fanbases centre d around exactly this sort of release style, I can say it's incredibly frustrating as a player to wait months for minor updates and sometimes those updates are for chapters you've already read several times.

In my opinion, you should not release a game until the writing is 100% done with no changes to be made except editing to fix grammatical and spelling errors.
You never know what might change as you progress with the writing, and making players reread something that is 99% the same content with every release, gets annoying fast.

[Alianora_La_Canta]

Consider starting with a devlog (developer log), rather than releasing the game at this point. You can have some "Today I Did" updates in the beginning (it's more important to have material regularly than for them to be long), either using a social media page or (better) a cheap/free web page of your own. You don't need to show or tell everything either - keep secrets under wraps, and just give enough content to tempt people.

Add some social media marketing of said devlog (which can start super-gentle, e.g. adding a link to your devlog in whichever social media you currently use). In doing so, you can start building community long before you have a game ready for testing (let alone release). It'll also help you manage expectations among your fans - with a free game, it's perfectly reasonable to filter out 10,000 people who aren't in your target market to find the 10 who perfectly appreciate your vision exactly how it is, and ensure the 10 are excited about exactly what they will get.

Get those 10 super-fans, and word will spread.

[Cereal Guy]

I started my visual novel project before 1 month. It's a large project for me and I guess I need about 2-3 years for development. I ask this question because I think it's better to create a community of this project as fast as possible. But it's only finished 0.5% I think. So, should I release the 'in-dev' version now? Or wait it finished about 75%?

So you basically want all the benefits of a community around your game, without the actual work of the game itself having been done? Don't waste your time on "community buildup" and work on the actual product.

[Chiagirl]

There's a difference between a demo and a prototype. A demo demo usually comes a year or two before release, contains the first hour or so of gameplay, and is mostly polished to completion. A prototype on the other hand is more of a proof of concept which may contain placeholder assets and have the storyline subject to change. If you show people a prototype and call it a demo, they'll probably think your game will be bad since they expect the final version to have around the same level of polish or slightly better. If you call it a prototype however, people are generally understanding about things not being polished yet and the final version being years off and subject to dramatic changes. In short, be honest about what you are actually showing people.

[Wudgeous]

I called my prototype an early demo. I had a splash screen that said "Represents Game in Development." It was probably less than an hour long. Some sprites were sketchy, some backgrounds were incomplete, GUI were all placeholders, but the writing and code were as close to 100% as it was going to get - I ran it through an editor and a proofreader, edited and playtested it myself probably a few dozen times. Sent it to a few close friends before going public, for good measure.

It's worked out pretty well for me. Most of my followers (I think) are the silent "follow and forget" sort where they might come back when I have major update. 99.7% of the actual engagement I've gotten has been positive and patient, and now I even have some kind people in my inbox encouraging me to take breaks when I mention working a lil too hard. Some other factors are my weekly devlog updates (where I'm very transparent about what I have and have not done for the game), and I tried to include some bonus content that are exclusive to the demo (3 previews of future scenes, an outgoing survey to collect the player's choices, a special screen where you can click a button and a cat sprite appears with a bell jingle and purrs when you mouse over her.)
I did work on that demo for about 2 years... haha.

Some particularly successful demos(/ongoing series) I know are Made Marion, Perfumare, Love the Guard Be the King, and Andromeda 6. All started with somewhat less polish than they have now, becoming increasingly polished over time.

Overall I really agree with Mutive: if I released a buggy incoherent demo, I think it would have blown up in my face. I believe art has a little give though; as long as some of the key art has a lot of polish (one love interest sprite and a couple of CGs, in my case), people can imagine what the rest is going to look like. And for the next chapter, I have a special screen that will allow players to skip the prologue, so they won't have to reread old content if they don't want to. : )