Why wouldn’t you submit it to HG? Even if it’s not a bestseller, it’s definitely good enough that plenty of people are going to want to buy it. I know I’ll be sad if I never get to.
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I would vote for having more of it. If you can keep the descriptions varied, it wouldn’t get tiring. (And if all else fails, more words are always better.)
Speaking truthfully, the thread is not receiving a lot of engagement, and I’m getting very stressed by it. 
(I can’t for the life of me figure out why it’s getting so few likes for the number of views and clicks. 
) I will still work on the second update as planned, but I will need to see if the thread does better on the second round, and make a decision. I mean, I could submit it to HG anyway, but I really don’t want to damage my rep with a poorly performing game.
But I will try to keep the game freely available even if I decide that I can’t submit it to HG.
I really appreciate the help though. I really want to get this game submitted, but I’m also a little concerned at the level of interest so far.
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It should be relatively simply to have it both ways by including a boolean variable for verbose mode that can be switched on and off.
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Personally, I really like the transformations. Winx Club always had really fun ones.
To be honest, I don’t usually read demos that are so long when they’re first published. It’s a bit too long of a play through without an app. It also seems closer to when they’ll be published, so I usually just decide to check it out when it does. Maybe other people are doing the same?
Either way, I still think you should publish it eventually. It seems like a fun game, and it would be a shame to not put out an already completed game
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I’m probably not in the target group, I find the transformations annoying in video.
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I think that could be a choice before the game starts. Some readers will want the transformations to be detailed and epic while others wouldn’t want to spend as much time on the transformation.
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I don’t think there’s the need to have in-depth transformation scenes to be optional, as long as they’re interesting and evocative each time. It wouldn’t have to be like the repeated animation sequences where they’re identical; other characters could respond differently, the PC could be having different feelings during the transformation, etc.
I feel like if I was playing a magical girl game and it gave me the option to skip/have shorter transformation sequences, I’d be a bit like “well, this is a big part of the genre so is the game going to feel true to it?”
(I speak as someone who isn’t much of a magical girl anime watcher, though, so take with as large a pinch of salt as desired)
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I honestly don’t think that’s how it works. @Lucid is one of the most longrunning and successful HG authors, but he’s had flops as well as big hits – and other games like Paradox Factor that are absolutely beloved with a share of the player base (me! give it all the underrated HG votes!) despite never finding mass popularity.
Sitting on a game you’re happy with because it’s not looking like a hit will I think just lead to you suppressing a whole lot of good material. No one can guarantee a hit. No one can only write hits. There are loads of creators out there who hit with their fourth or fifth or sixth work. Write what you’re happy with and publish it.
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I have to agree, all advice I’ve read for any kind of creative professionals (game devs, writers, visual artists) says that you need to put a lot of stuff out there rather than trying to chase perfect stuff. As long as it’s not bad stuff, of course, because if you intentionally release a bad product then that definitely can harm your reputation, but just an underperforming one? That won’t. The more stuff you release, the more known you’ll be, and the more you’ll attract an audience.
Or that’s what the advice says at least.
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IMO, the best thing for an author’s rep is to have finished something. The most polished WIP matters less than the roughest flop of a finished game. (I say this while shoving multiple incomplete projects under the rug and pretending I am not an overzealous perfectionist.)
I’d suggest that the click/view ratio does not necessarily indicate a lack of audience enthusiasm. It could be that you have a small base of very dedicated fans who keep coming back over and over. It could be that the majority of people are playing it while not signed-in. The raw numerical data of clicks-to-likes alone doesn’t indicate anything about why the numbers are the way they are.
Ultimately, you set the tone of your engagement thread with how you reply to people and what kinds of posts you make in the discussion. If you’re looking for more feedback, you might consider sparking conversation with a few polls about some of the game’s features (asking for people’s favorite NPCs, ect.) You could also consider other ways to build your reputation, like leaving encouragement on the WIP threads of other authors writing in your genre. Or seeing if you can bring in more people in from the outside through tumblr or something.
Best case interpretation of the numbers: you’ve got a lot of people willing to click on your link, which is an achievement to be proud of all by itself.
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It’s also not necessarily equivalent to how the game will do when it’s “out in the wild.” The forum audience is not representative of the overall HG player base.
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Definitely true. The Dragoon Saga has an outsized footprint on the forums, but that doesn’t translate to anything more than middling-high sales.
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When you post your WIP, partial or complete, you will have reached a milestone 90% of would-be writers never get to. Congratulations in advance!
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posting it felt like a boss battle with own brain for a minute there lol. really appreciate the encouragement 
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I don’t know about your real-world experience of crit groups, but the gang on this site are very supportive and helpful. If they point something out that needs work, it is not to score points on you but to help your game become the best it can be.
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Hard to say. 
Maybe it’s attracting a lot of lurkers, or maybe it’s more popular with the itch crowd than the CoG crowd.
I’ll take that as a compliment. 
I have offered feedback on plenty of other projects, but generally, I see it as a way to contribute unconditionally to this community rather than to build my rep. Someone wanted to do a feedback exchange arrangement with me once, but I beta read her game and then said that I wouldn’t insist on the favor being returned.
Leaving comments on the WIP threads of other authors as a way to build reputation has never crossed my mind… nor do I think it should.
That said, if anyone wants we to take a look at their projects, I’m still open. Feel free to DM me or reply here.
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If that’s the way you see it then that’s the way you see it. Personally, I’m of the opinion that it can be and unavoidably is both. This is an online space with zero physical presence, so there’s no real way to gauge someone’s vibe outside of what they post.
Personally, the more I see someone’s screen name pop up, the more confident I feel about interacting with them because I feel like they’re indicating a desire to interact with people like me. The less I recognize someone, the more hesitant I am to insert my opinion unless they’ve asked a specific question.
People have more or less time to give the community in accordance with their own lives and circumstances. Some people like doing formal con-crit exchanges, other people like to engage spontaneously. I’ve done both and enjoyed both, but no shade to people who have a specific preference.
Yes! Getting people engaged is big! 
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I haven’t been active on the forums long, but I do wonder if a lot of engagement has shifted from the forums to tumblr/other sites? 
I can say that when it comes to author interaction the first place I tend to look is tumblr/patreon, but when I want things like… walkthroughs or how-to’s, I would stalk the forums because it’s easier to search it up.
Also: I’ve been playing CoG since Choice of the Vampire came out and honestly I didn’t even know there was a WIP space until a couple years ago when I learned about public betas for soon to be released games. Then even later I learned about WIPs on dashingdon/cogdemos (previously I had just been following sequels via their authors on patreon). So basing readership, or even trying to project success, solely on forums or itch clicks seems like an exercise in the creation of self-doubt.
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I’m creating a game and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to find out where it’s being discussed, or even if it’s being discussed at all! This stuff is so opaque.
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There may be bots included.
I mean, sometimes people just want to discuss among themselves without involving the author, and I’d think it’s fine to not know where that happens. It only becomes problem when they have something they’d want to tell the author but don’t know how.
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