When should a game be announced?

[Skull Kingz]

Hey guys, I need some opinions. At what percentage would you prefer a game to be officially announced? This could go for OpenBor games and Official big Studio games. Would you rather a game be announced in early concept, or do you prefer to see a game well into development before it’s announced?

 

[NED]

Hey guys, I need some opinions. At what percentage would you prefer a game to be officially announced? This could go for OpenBor games and Official big Studio games. Would you rather a game be announced in early concept, or do you prefer to see a game well into development before it’s announced?

For me.
Even if I'm not a dev.
Annoucement can be done as soon as there is some playable video or screenshots of progress.
I usually prefer that, instead of the extreme opposites.
-People not communicating at all until it's 100%finished. -> (not fun)
-People starting hyping everybody because they have "the best idea ever for a game" -> (lol)

Just my point of view.

 

[danno]

Nobody should have to wait more than a year to play a game that's just cruel

 

[Bloodbane]

Would you rather a game be announced in early concept, or do you prefer to see a game well into development before it’s announced?

I prefer the latter cause the game should have early gameplay preview to be shown to attract players.
Announcing game in early concept is very very very risky because of multiple reasons. One of the reasons is technical issue, couple concepted feature might not be feasible with engine or with time limit. Promising a feature which might be changed in the future is bad idea.
OTOH if a game has been developed enough, its concept should be complete and is less likely to be changed. Still, it still could change for some reasons but it's better.

 

[16-bit Fighter]

Nobody should have to wait more than a year to play a game that's just cruel

Your answer could help me to choose when annoucing my own mod. Since I tend not to finish my projects, I'd prefer not to get frustrated by revealing a new one that wouldn't be released at all. So I think now that in my case annoucing a project only when I'm almost sure that I can release a demo in not more than one year must be a good idea, I guess.

 

[O Ilusionista]

Nobody should have to wait more than a year to play a game that's just cruel

*O Ilusionista looks at his Avengers game and cries...

 

[Skull Kingz]

Thanks for the input guys. I think these days I try to stay quiet about projects until I know development is going smooth. I'd hate to announce anything early and have the project looking as if it's in development hell.

I love it when a project gets announced, and then there's constant/consistent updates, followed by a definite release date. To me that can create good hype behind a project.

 

[Sylvain Regnier]

Hi ! I prefer to have the game first revealed with gameplay footage accompanying him, but I prefer when it's done on the Discord server or the forum's Chat; first, you work on it there with others, then you put up a page in Module when it's playable, and improve it as non-dev feedback starts to come. That way, we work to balance the ratio Cancelled/In progress/Finished on the forum.
However, not everyone use those ways of communication, and doing it that way prevents you from fine-tuning it with other when it's just a concept, which may cause you to start doing hard works or design that you will have to give up on anyway because they'll simply won't works with the engine, so that's not ideal either. ^^'

 

[O Ilusionista]

we work to balance the ratio Cancelled/In progress/Finished on the forum

I don't see this as an issue.

Jokes apart, i think a game should be announced when you have something to share that isn't just sprites, being either screenshots or even videos.

Without this, the project is more a discussion than anything - which can be promoted to a project later.

I remember the forum even had some rules about that if I am not wrong, dunno if they are still active.

 

[DCurrent]

I remember the forum even had some rules about that if I am not wrong, dunno if they are still active.

There's never been any rules like that on Lalalit or here. In fact, one of the reasons SX first asked me to staff was to put a stop against "vets" being unfriendly to new guys announcing their projects.

My personal feelings on "idea guys" are well known, but my official stance is make whatever announcements you want as long as you're not spamming.

There's even a Concept prefix for those kinds of things and I've used it myself:

Concept - Are you a bad enough dude to read this thread?

This is by no means a plan. It's barely a concept really. It's just the little joke title "Streets of Bad Dudes" in the opening movie of @NuMetalMessiah's The Suffering In Me kind of set off my ADHD brain and I starting thinking... Why not? As it happens, almost all of the Bad Dudes sprites are...

chronocrash.com

DC

 

[O Ilusionista]

There's never been any rules like that on Lalalit or here

I could swear we had it. Maybe I am confusing with other forums.

 

[DCurrent]

I could swear we had it. Maybe I am confusing with other forums.

Maybe way back on BOR Generation or even before that on BOR Revolution and Senile Team? I wouldn't know. By the time I was active BOR Rev was long dead and BOR Gen on its last legs.

It's also possible someone was vigilante moderating, but I don’t recall anything specific.

DC

 

[O Ilusionista]

Maybe way back on BOR Generation or even before that on BOR Revolution and Senile Team?

I didn't know OpenBOR back then. Maybe I am confusing with some Mugen forum (because that was a common rule)