I'll continue to tweak this rough roadmap according to the responses I get from the google form, but here's the plan (ideal-case) for the next 1-2 years!
If you haven't filled out the form yet, please do, as answers would be super valuable in helping me better gauge, prioritize, and budget my next steps as well as tweak the pricing for the tiers!
Phase 1: Now till end-2025
Full-time urban planner
Part-time game dev.
Likely to be mostly solo-work and choice-script based
Phase 2: Beginning 2026 till end 2026
Part/Full-time game dev
Likely to involve / bring in an artist/coder, depending on eventual decision on game format (ren'py, Godot or choicescript)
Phase 3: Beginning 2027
Launch phase 2 game
Re-evaluate what to do next, likely back to my full-time job, but to KIV this based on what happens in Phase 2
Details below the cut!
Again, if you have comments, suggestions, preferences, do leave a message or email ([email protected]). If you're interested to collaborate, or to find out about what games I'm thinking of, click here.
Phase 1a
Timeframe: now till end 2025
Scope: Keep rolling out choicescript updates for CT:OS and Merry Crisis. This will form the base of content for ko-fi/patreon (with subscribers continuing to get early-releases until these games are complete).
Phase 1b
Timeframe: start sometime 2nd half of 2025, run concurrently till end 2025)
Scope: Write a choicescript 'concept demo' for 2 new games I've been haunted by over the past couple of years. (I'll release more info on this if I think they're viable). Whether or not they become more complex games, I'll at least have the choicescript demo.
Phase 1c
Timeframe: optional, but to start as soon as funding is obtained
Scope: Depending on interest, I want to consider doing a port to ren'py for Merry Crisis (or CT:OS, but likely MC) for a more visual-style game. This would involve either hiring a coder to help with the port, or doing it myself. More importantly, will need to commission art for this.
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Monthly-subscriptions for both Phase 1a and 1b would include the following tiers:
$3/month (existing): Just to support me :)
$6/month (existing): Early-access links to CT:OS and Merry Crisis
$9/month (new tier): Same as above + Early-content (e.g. lore, character snippets & art, non-interactive stories, dev logs) for new game(s)
$12/month (might not go for this tier, but including just as a concept): Same as above + Expanded early-content (e.g. interactive choice-script based demo access)
Phase 2a
Timeframe: Beginning 2026, probably 6-9 months or more depending on scope
Scope: With CT:OS and Merry Crisis completed, I hope to then turn my sights to converting the choicescript demo created in phase 1b into actual complete games. This could either take the form of:
A full choicescript game
A full ren'py (visual) game
A full Godot (2D) game
About 2-3 months into Phase 2a, I will also have enough content to launch a kickstarter, which would hopefully bring new backers on board and funds to speed-up production of the game(s). For folks who prefer supporting once-off instead, they'll also come in at this stage :)
Phase 2b:
Timeframe: Probably 6-9 months into 2026
Scope: Once there's a playable beta version of the game, I'll then do testing with subscribers and other beta-testers, and do de-bugging.
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Monthly-subscriptions for both Phase 2a and 2b would include the following tiers:
$4/month: Just to support me :)
$8/month: Subscriber-only content for all new games in development (e.g. character snippets & art, dev logs)
$12/month: Same as above + Little interactive patches/expansion packs for CT:OS and Merry Crisis
$16/month: Same as above + Expanded early-content for all new games (e.g. non-interactive stories, scene peaks/teasers, interactive twine or choicescript based playable content, access to beta version of the game when ready in phase 2b)
Kickstarter tiers:
$12 once-off for a specific project (a selection of content from the pool of characer snippets & art, dev-logs that $8/month subscribers get)
$25 once-off for a specific project (same as above + a selection of content from the pool of expanded early-content)
$35 once-off for a specific project (same as above + special perks e.g. ability to design a character or item or request chapter)
Phase 3
Timeframe: Start of 2027 onwards
Scope: When at least 1 game is launched, hopefully by start of 2027, I'll re-evaluate and see what to set my sights on next! This probably also means going back to full-time urban planning :)
I'm looking forward to joining the Single Choice Jam hosted by @/neointeractives. I hope to make one using the POV of one of the supernatural creatures written in the Kasuratan! Of course, it would be a standalone mini-game where the player doesn't have to have played LSS first.
Did you like any particular entries in the Kasuratan? Did you notice your relationship stats change when you choose [redacted]? What impression does that give you about the Overseer of Death, Màysinápil?
Well I have a really silly question——can Gabriel have a chance to learn how to drive , or how to ride a bike? I really want to see an archangel ride a bike LOL Have a good day! love you!
Driving is a skill that is naturally ingrained in the shell! You get a book of rules of the road that you’re expected to memorize. I hadn’t considered a bike (other than Alice’s motorcycle) but you’ve given me an idea! (Potentially a scene where instead of teaching Daniel how to ride a bike, he teaches you).
Hope you had a good day too! <3
Got a little taste of Newark shooting the Riveters headshots this weekends. Can’t wait to be back there on 10/28 when I travel with the Pride for the game at Prudential Center! See all the Rivs fans there!
Contrary to how I normally play Infinity Nikki, since I had time before the Thanksgiving family gathering I set my timer with the intention of playing 3 hours of the game today. While games like Infinity Nikki benefit from being played for maybe an hour or two at a time, the reality is that most developers try to future proof these types of games so it would be played for a much longer duration.
I’ve mentioned in the past that most players play these online games like a single player game. This means that the developers always run the risk of the player base blasting through the content and then getting bored while waiting for the next update.
There are two ways to future proof against this. The first is to make the game a place where players online can interact with each other. Kind of like a digital hangout, and it’s always a hit or miss on whether developers manage this. Admittedly, in small part because player behaviour can be a bit hard to predict. It doesn’t help that Infold is clearly trying to learn how to make this game better.
A fascinating topic for another day.
But the other way is to give players something to grind for, a regular set of dailies to fill in the time. The release of the housing system does this, unless the player is going to spend real world money to blast through certain aspects of the housing system, most other players will grind for it on a daily basis.
Which for me, had caused a problem. I’ve not been well last month and am probably still not well. There are other hobbies and interests I’d like to dedicate my time to, and as a result, I had only managed to play an hour or hour and a half to this game. This means that I was spending most of my play time doing the dailies with only a tiny amount of time left to play the current season events.
Currently, the update cycle is a new season every month, and that poses a problem for me.
It meant that I didn’t have enough time to experiment with picture taking (which is something I enjoy doing in game) and I certainly wasn’t taking advantage of the housing system. This doesn’t even account for clothing I want to craft or anything else I wanted to.
This was especially annoying because the game had improved its camera feature which I wanted to take advantage of. There is right now a very long list of animations I want to play with, but don’t have time to at the moment.
So, the plan is to dedicate some time to play through the current season events so that in the evening I can do other things like take pictures, track down furniture or even maybe get around to finally messing with the housing system.
Granted, I’m not doing that this evening, I am writing this evening because I want to write.
