aaryn
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Massive Announcement: Str8 Moves into Full-Time Production
🕑 Added 2021-07-13 02:56:02 +0000 UTCAllow me to briefly step under the spotlight of our virtual center stage here and make probably the biggest announcement I've ever made in the history of this game development.
Brief Intro
The past few years have been hard on all of us and that's no secret. One of the advantages to this gig is the anonymity that it brings with it but the truth is that things have been pretty crazy for me over here on the personal side. For anyone that's tried to juggle game development, it's insanely taxing and time consuming. Combined with my normal job (plus full-time college at one point) and the Straight!? development, I'm typically around 90 hours of work per week and that has gradually increased over the years. I try to take more breaks and balance that, but it's become increasingly more difficult--in particular, as we move towards the end of the game where things get more technical.
v20, the most recently update I'm working on, has stumbled a few times and I've been clear to supporters on that. I've continued to try and push the limits of the game and enhance my own skills because I continue to think that both the fans and the characters deserve the story to be told in the best possible way that an amateur can pull off. This takes a lot of time to practice and research--sometimes only to realize I'm too ambitious and not quite ready to pull it off yet. Simultaneously, my full-time job has continued to creep more invasively into my life, causing more of a distraction and essentially crippling my concentration.
Because of that, anyone that follows amateur made indie game creation like this knows the bulk result in failure. Most games get abandoned--already Straight!? is an exception here given it's longevity.
I've continued to say since this game's inception, that Straight!? will be finished and I've never had reservations about finishing this project.
The Official Full-Time Future of Straight!?
That's why I want to take this opportunity and publicly declare that this game, starting in August, will move into full-time production. I am officially leaving my full-time employment and going to pursue the completion of this game as I stated that I would from the beginning.
I've fucking had it with being distracted and you guys won over the real world. Plus, as Blayke pointed out in a recent conversation, I actually stand a chance at reaching people on a more global level this way and that's way more influential with what I want to do.
This is going to mean A LOT of new stuff in the future.
This will allow me to work on the project full-time from home. It will also be the first step in hopefully a much broader scale project in the future. While there will be multiple announcements coming soon, you can except a few new things with this additional time.
1. More Patreon content. I plan to take a serious look at the donation tiers and restructure them; potentially adding new tiers with new benefits to engage more with the community. There will be a separate post about this in the future (probably wont start until September tho). If you have ideas or things you wanna see, drop them in the comments below, DM me, or hit me up on the Discord if you wanna be secret.
2. More frequent posts about the game status including a more updated chart that should reflect update v20. I used to keep up on this and this is one thing that's gotten overlooked recently just for the sake of time despite development continuing. This will also include more frequent devlogs.
3. A boost in Discord content. I plan to be on there regularly again--most likely daily again and interacting with fans. This may also include official Discord content as well.
4. More research time. While this isn't something you will actively see me working on, the added time will let me spend more time researching new techniques, coding, animation, or music. It will also allow me to familiarize myself with other programs and *hint* possibly more game engines and creating more 3d assets.
5. Marketing. I've never openly marketed the game despite it gaining the following through word of mouth it has already. There will likely be a push for this, too. More on that later...
This being said, do not expect this page to explode with content immediately. This move will be gradual, deliberate, and strategic with the community involved regularly with the same transparency this project has always had. I plan to take this extremely serious as well as upgrade things moving forward. The support behind this project has been overwhelming and humbling and I think, together, there is a real future here for us to continue to bring more quality content to those people who support us. We're starting small, it's just me full-time starting in August and two friends helping but shit just got real and our future starts now. If you think things were good so far, just wait to see what happens when I'm not distracted and I have 40 less hours of work per week stressing me out.
Stay Tuned, folks! Everything changes starting this August.
-Aaryn
Comments
Aaryn
Saaaaame
So excited!
Aaryn
sorry about the slow response here. I'm sooo torn on this. I do want to keep the game free, that's always been the focus here because I want the story to be widely available even to those who aren't in a financial position to purchase it. I do agree that making more off the game could then be reversed back into the game itself. One of the biggest things I would like to add is music and rights for music gets insanely expensive. I'm going to look into it, though and just see what the options are to me. It's important that I dont violate my original vision for this so that could get tricky. I do appreciate the suggestion and your argument to try and get us more rewards for our work. it's funny because others have pushed me for this and I'm usually the resistant one. We'll see. With the new work schedule, I will have more time to dedicate to stuff like that and if I can find a way to expand it, I'll be open to that but I still have a really hard time with the idea of "selling" it
James Tarr
I think you should seriously think about moving the game onto Steam and "selling" it as an ongoing game through Steam's "subscription plan". I really am unfamiliar with the subscription service on Steam but I really think you should look into it, because through Steam your exposure will go through the roof! I really think by using your current revenue model you are really selling yourselves short considering how many overwhelmingly positive reviews you've gotten and there are some really subpar games that are certainly making more money that you guys are. Your game needs much more exposure, rather than just through obscure websites not frequented by the majority of the public. Your hard work deserves more monetary rewards-- you deserve it. More money would also be good considering you now don’t have a full-time job and the added income could be used as revenue to continue increase the sophistication of your pet project. Continue with the Patreon cause why limit how people can get access to your game. I understand you have wanted it to remain free, but consider offering perhaps the first three or so chapters free with the option to buy into the game for continued experience, or another option may be to give access free to everything except for the last five or so chapters but to increase the free content by a chapter per official release. This way people can enjoy the majority of your VN, yet be far enough behind to entice people to buy the full version subscription.
