My New Family
Progress Update | 02/11/2020
Hello there you beautiful, cute and very wholesome people!
Another week, another month, another progress update!
And it feels weird to announce it like that while I wasn't able to provide a new update after four weeks...But more about that later!
Work on 0.15 is still going very well. Beta 5 is almost finished in terms of writing so Sandra patrons can expect the release this week, like usual! I think 0.15 will feature the most meaningful and impactful things we ever had in My New Family yet - And a fair warning, I will end this update on a cliffhanger. But I promise it will be a nice one, like all the last cliffhangers has been. I'm pretty sure you guys will like this one ( and hate me again a bit ). I know cliffhangers are not something a lot of you people enjoy but for me it's a very good way to make you hyped for the next update - without making you scared that something bad happens.
As you can see I also made a few more My New Memories render again. This is becoming a habit, I usually spend some time posing the characters and then just let it render while I continue my work on My New Family. So far this has been working out pretty good! I hope you guys enjoy them!
Okay, now to something more personal, I guess...
In January 2020 I started working full time on My New Family and changed my work routine in general a lot. Before January 2020, one update of MNF contained three ingame days ( and was still released on a monthly basis ). Since then I was able to release one update every month with no delays.
What this means was usually the following: In order to release two betas in one week I had to finish writing one ingame day in one or two days - that means writing 1500-2000 lines of code and dialogue in this time. And then of course, making the cgs, which is a very tiring thing to do ( but not as demanding as writing ).
And it worked out - At least that's what I thought. But after 0.14 I felt...Bad. I think that is the easiest way to say it. I pretty much had no idea on what I want to do now. I had zero clues on where I wanted to go after 0.14, no idea for any events, character progression or anything else in the game. I think this was the moment I realized how much pressure I put on myself to keep the monthly schedule with these big updates. And don't get me wrong, I love making big updates, I think if you guys had to wait for some time you deserve a lot of content.
The truth is, I never felt so bad before when it came to working on My New Family. I was on the verge of burning out and on quitting everything because I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I didn't want to let any of you guys down so it started to spirale even more on me. I couldn't work but I wanted to work - I wanted to do something but I wasn't able to do anything. This kept going for quite a few days and I thought that's it...But thank god that wasn't the case.
So I started to set this new schedule in my head. One beta each week. Six weeks for one full release. I wanted to this sooner but I always had this extreme guilt in my head that you guys would be sad or disappointed if it takes longer - if I can't provide monthly updates anymore. I started to do it anyway, I started work on 0.15 and with this schedule in mind I was able to work at a much better pace - which also lead to way better events in 0.15, according to my amazing patrons. And so far it has been like that for every single beta. They are getting better and better, with more meaningful and emotional content.
So...That's where we are standing at the moment. Beta 5 will release this week which means Pre release is next week - and public release most likely as well. I will give a exact release date once I'm done writing the script for the last day of 0.15. I just thought you guys would be interested in seeing what is on my mind.
I'm very very very VERY grateful for each and everyone of you amazing people. Everyone who told me to take it slower, everyone who was understanding and motivated me to keep this schedule - Thank you. It's because of those amazing people that I didn't burn out. That I didn't quit. And that I will continue to deliver wholesome content for all of you. I love you guys, you are the best community in the world for me. <3
Comments
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Seeing what you were going through is tough. Just remember that you have many people who are here for you when or if you need us. Stay strong Killer7, and while it may be a longer wait for more content, we are here for your beloved creation.
Well... I can't lie that I'm sad with the news about the new schedule BUT it's better to be like that than the reason for a new update to not come being a full block and burnout. Better late than never.
With these weekly updates from you, your players have faith that you'll be delivering when you say you're going to deliver, so don't feel bad about taking a little longer ^~^ As long as the game continues to come out and you keep communicating with us, we'll be happy.
Thank you for your work on this game, and I look forward to the next update and the next game!
100%! I actually have a habit of letting these amazing devs know it's better to take as much time as you need, especially to produce updates and a game that you truly want, love and know others will love the most - ESPECIALLY in the long term, including after they've completed their game, say 5, 10 years down the road. They'll be able to look back and have nothing but pure joy, happiness, pride and admiration for their passion projects and their creations, masterpieces of their own conception, instead of just a game that was pretty dang good, fairly well loved, but just... didn't carry a deeper, more fulfilling meaning and overall perception in their minds.
You gotta take all the time you need in order to create anything - the enemy of creativity and thus quality is rushing, time constraints, etc. Any kind of forcing things will always lead to a bad result, both for the creation, and the creator. So in order to take care of your passion projects, your creations, you have to take care of yourself, too. It's at the root of it.
Are we impatient? Of course, which is always a great sign of just how high quality your creations are and how much the impatient bastards like us are directly proves how much we all love it and enjoy it thoroughly. But it's no reason to try to satiate our impatience by pushing yourself as a creator/dev to self-destruction, or even unhealthy habits just to fulfill that obligation that only you are putting on yourself as said dev. You gotta understand that your direction, desires and ideas for your passion project, in this case, games, are far more important and valuable than our impatience, and that if you commit to that, everyone will benefit greatly from a massively increased quality game, and thus an overall happier and more expressive attitude and fanfare for it.
Another great dev here on Itch in the AVN community is Az, who is the dev behind Halfway House - And he himself a few months ago was going through his own predicament/crisis with similar reasons. Impatient people constantly haunting him and the game's page here on Itch demanding new updates and the whole shebang. Though the players over there are FAR more rude, forceful and careless, clearly than all the amazing, understanding and plain epic people here that Killer7 has. So it makes it worse overall mentally for Az. He was clearly burning himself out too, and becoming irritable towards all the constantly whining impatient people there, and actually considered just cutting each update/chapter shorter than he wanted them to be, in order to hopefully shut them up, or at least, quiet them down a bit. Fortunately he's seeming like he's finally coming out the other side, and understanding this, and thus isn't likely going to cede to all the impatient people, and continue to take his time creating it how he wants it, rather than pushing out chapters cut short to appease. And I am supremely thankful for that.
And I say that as a impatient person who LOVES Halfway House, among many others that I've often found myself waiting months and months on end for updates to.
I like most am impatient because of how damn great these games are, but I'd never dare allow myself to complain, insult or pressure anyone into updates, etc. It's just not logical in any way, and actually full on counter-intuitive for everyone. Especially considering these are people who are often developing these games on their own, with no one else. Indie at that, likely self taught... I mean what the heck do people expect them to do? Suddenly gain super powers? I digress.
>likely public release next week
Well so much for NNN ;P