Should I work for the perfect release, or should I release soon and update later?

[chanon]

Hi, we're currently working on a puzzle game for the RealArcade type market. It has taken a lot longer than we thought, partially because this was our first game, and also because I have a full-time job too.
We are a company, so we have ongoing monthly costs (mainly salary to pay), this means that we really want to get it done and release it as soon as possible to keep costs low. (We are based in a low cost-of-living country so the salary isn't too high but the months do add up.)

Currently we aim to finish the "adventure" mode of the game in about 2 months. The thing is that we aren't sure if we should invest time to also implement a "survival" mode and a "free play" mode.

I think adding these modes might add another month or two to the schedule which I feel is too much more time to waste. (We still have to setup our website and all that.)

So I was wondering if we could somehow release the "adventure" mode only game first so that we can start selling and get some income and then later have a free update or maybe a "deluxe" version.

I wonder how the portals would handle this.

I remember that one of the great things about doing shareware is that you can release your work and start selling soon and then continuously update it later based on customer feedback to increase conversion. I wonder if this still applies to games that go on the big portals? When you release a game to a portal, do you still have the ability to send them updates? Or is that the end of it? Would existing customers be able to update to the latest version? What if I used the same old graphics but just added 2 new modes and sent it to the portals, what would they do with it between replacing the old version or just adding a new version and maybe calling it the "deluxe" version? What about small updates like bug fixes?

Since I've never released a game to a portal yet, I don't understand this process and would like some advice from the gurus. Thanks!

[cliffski]

Its a very interesting question. If your game was very unique you can probably release now/update later, btu it sounds like you are in a very crowded and tough market.
If you actually want portals to take the game, I'd strongly advise making it perfect before submission. They are swamped with chocie and probably will not look at an updated version later. Even though Realgames did take Starlines, and it still sells, they wont take Starship Tycoon which is the same but better.
If your planning on selling it direct, maybe you could try an early release, it will help you to get feedback on what's good and bad.
Its a tough choice.

[svero]

My guess is you should finish it completely. Competition for that market is very very tough. You can't release it half done and expect to win, unless your half game is better than say... a full popcap release.

[Emmanuel]

For a puzzle game, I would say release betas (of your demo!) early here on the forum, but wait until you have really completed and polished the game to market it.

I did release two betas of Garden War here, one public (and got REALLY useful feedback), and a second beta in private to the people that had given me the best suggestions (so as not to waste everybody's time or bandwidth again).

Then again Garden War is in a less crowded market (which means less competition or less customers, depending how you look at it :))

Emmanuel

[James C. Smith]

A game that is 90% finished will get less than 10% of the sales it would have gotten if it had been 99% finished. But no game is every 100% finished. So it gets very hard to draw the line and decide when to release it. But planning to fix/add something after release is not a viable option in the portal space.

Finish the game! Cut features if you must, but do it in a way that the game is still complete without the features. All my games have been released without features I had planned to include. But all my games look and feel finished.

[Sparks]

Thats the trick, "disguise" it as finished.
Be sure that the "adventure mode" brings You more sales than the other two modes, otherwise, creating an update/sequel might become pointless.
Or, even better, if You publish it Yourself, release the other modes as free bonus content and create a community this way.
It worked for Blizzard ;)

[yanuart]

well, it's a very tricky situation indeed, it's like trying to tell ur girlfriend that u love her and want to marry her :p

I actualy have finished 100% of my game technically but after I play it, I felt there was something missing and it just doesn't feel right so I postponed my release and wait another months to spice things, tweak things, add things, lose things, etc.

So the moral of the story is... there's no such thing as 100% completion, you know when it's ready or not.

Good luck!

[chanon]

Thanks for all the comments

Yes, I understand now that the keyword is that it must 'feel' finished. I think we can make the game feel finished with only the 'adventure mode'. We'll spend extra effort to make sure it is polished. Adding another mode might lessen the polish on both modes because of our time constraints.

The gameplay is pretty unique so I think it will be ok.

And I think we'll release the 'survival mode' as a seperate game since the gameplay that we have in mind is different enough. We get two games this way too :D

[chanon]

Yeah, and this is probably another plus of shareware software development as opposed to downloadable game development for portals ... (for those who are just starting out and choosing between the two).

With software you can live on just 1 product and keep updating it.

Game development for portals is getting more and more like the retail market ... (almost) only one chance to release.

[Coyote]

I'm finding that beyond a certain point, polish is more important than features. Don't skimp on polish.