Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha1 release is out!)
Honestly, i couldn't get it to work and it seems to me that the way this is supposed to work is way too finicky to serve as a demo or even alpha-gameplay release. I'm talking of the non-patreon way of accessing the game, that is. I won't pay up-front for something i haven't even seen in action, but that is just me.
Is it really that difficult to get working? I think I have things way more streamlined than most things like this.
Seems you're just saying you didn't get a key. I mean... it's not open access and I'm not sure what gives you the impression that it's supposed to be when text all over says contrary.
It's how virtually every main stream game works where you either preorder it or you hope you are lucky enough to get a key early. Not sure how that can possibly be confusing or "hoops".
I've never seen a 'demo' for early access.
Demos are for finished games.
I've been registered on this forum for a long time, and THIS is the thread that I finally wanted to post on... And I'm posting because I'm both very excited for the potential of your project, and kind of dismayed at your approach to sharing or explaining that potential.
Meikun made some really good points and I wish you'd been more open to them. My experience is similar to his... You probably don't recall but you and I had some brief PM conversations about writing and the planned openness of your platform more than 6 months ago after you posted on a different forum I frequent (probably LoversLab or the old Fenoxo forum but I can't check either at the moment)... I've kept track of the project since then, I've been registered on PlayLewd under this name for 4 months, and I've also checked this thread as a lurker from time to time since you shared some unique info here.
Despite all that I still don't really know anything about the game. I can't find enough information about either the current state of the project, or the track record of your past plans to make the choice about supporting it or not. You have a single gameplay screenshot that dates from the creation of the website. Six months ago you were super excited about the possibilities of the Unreal 4 engine, you talked about it for a while, and then nothing. Not here, not on the blog.
This really
isn't about demos or keys, and that's the part you're missing. It's about an almost total vacuum of objective information related to this game's state or future... Your most basic premise: A multiplayer, text-based sexualised roleplaying game is -still- one that I can't really wrap my head around. How is that going to work? I don't know, and nothing you've released helps me to make any better sense of it.
I think you also need to accept that Early Access and Patron Supported are actually -different- business models, and they're not that directly comparable. I paid one (lower than release) price for DayZ, knowing there was a whole team behind the development, and despite being unemployed again I -do- support some Patreon campaigns on a monthly basis. I would never pay $5 a month for DayZ... Patronage is about ongoing support for a developer or artist to realise their vision, Early Access is about pre-purchasing an incomplete product because we're impatient and occasionally willing to fill in a bug report.
Your project is the former, but the point that both Meikun and I are trying to make is that you're not articulating your vision clearly enough for
us to know if we want to support that. I'm really glad you've got enough people who are willing to take the chance on it despite that lack of information, but I'm not personally in a position to do that.
On the subject of demos you're simply incorrect. YummyTiger (who's posted in this same thread) has a demo for his Patreon supported game, RipenedPeach have a demo version of FLSM for theirs, Eromancer's current priority is to make a public demo of Malaise & The Machine available
before the next Patron release. There are so many more examples that it'd suggest it's fair to argue demos or previous-games are in fact the standard for patron supported adult games, not the exception.
The reason is simple: Demos are the easiest way for a creator to articulate their vision to the people they hope will become patrons...
It's not the only way, but it's so common that Meikun used it as a kind of shorthand in his argument.
You may not be able produce a demo for technical reasons, that's entirely reasonable since you're the only developer I know who's trying to create some kind of multiplayer/MMO platform, but I would really, really, really urge you to find some clearer way of articulating both your vision for the future (more than just blogging about ideas) and the current state of the production and gameplay, whether that's many more screenshots, video, some kind of gated 'tutorial' content, or whatever else you can come up with.