Stardew Valley - Post-Launch Content Plans
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purpleblob
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Woohoo, more contents, more replayability for me.
I'm not sure on co-op though. How will that work? Someone hosting the game and other players can join as a helphands for the farm? You could easily get trolled if you allow anyone to join. How will interactions with villagers handled etc?
I'm not sure on co-op though. How will that work? Someone hosting the game and other players can join as a helphands for the farm? You could easily get trolled if you allow anyone to join. How will interactions with villagers handled etc?
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No. No he shouldn't. That would be a catastrophic business decision.
It would turn his hard won fan base against him (even if he did reasonable patch maintenance).
He would be leaving money on the table from other platform owners and continued growing interest from new players.
Developer sophomore efforts have similar results that bands and songwriters have: those with runaway success rarely are able to match it.
For the stability of his life and for financial planning purposes my advice would be to stabilize Stardew Valley for a long term software lifecycle including handing it off to an employee (or more) in the distant future. Bank nearly all the sales from this game and remain at your old cost of living as it might represent 90%+ of your earnings over your game development career.
It would turn his hard won fan base against him (even if he did reasonable patch maintenance).
He would be leaving money on the table from other platform owners and continued growing interest from new players.
Developer sophomore efforts have similar results that bands and songwriters have: those with runaway success rarely are able to match it.
For the stability of his life and for financial planning purposes my advice would be to stabilize Stardew Valley for a long term software lifecycle including handing it off to an employee (or more) in the distant future. Bank nearly all the sales from this game and remain at your old cost of living as it might represent 90%+ of your earnings over your game development career.
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You're saying he should be remembered as one hit wonder, a term widely used in music industry.
Perhaps he should, but lemme continue to be evil.
Stardew Valley is PC game. It's release version is great and was almost bug free. And it's not MMO.
As such, it needs no "endgame content" upping nor numerous updates like phonegames.
The other point I've already stated is that Stardew Valley is simplified Sims3+WA. With the $ he got, the author can now make a completely new game that'll be much more than Sims3+WA instead of wasting time on existing great one.
Is he up to challenge? Can he dethrone EA's bestseller? Dunno. I think he can, but am not sure if he's brave enough since with these plans he's basically - stalling.
Perhaps he should, but lemme continue to be evil.
Stardew Valley is PC game. It's release version is great and was almost bug free. And it's not MMO.
As such, it needs no "endgame content" upping nor numerous updates like phonegames.
The other point I've already stated is that Stardew Valley is simplified Sims3+WA. With the $ he got, the author can now make a completely new game that'll be much more than Sims3+WA instead of wasting time on existing great one.
Is he up to challenge? Can he dethrone EA's bestseller? Dunno. I think he can, but am not sure if he's brave enough since with these plans he's basically - stalling.
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No scamware, no avoidware, no gambling nor pay2win garbage.
It's proper pay once and own/play EVERYTHING forever game.
Apart from that, it's fun and it's not overpriced.
It's not 50 bucks game that needs 50 gigs of space on your HDD you'll finish in a few hours.
It's proper pay once and own/play EVERYTHING forever game.
Apart from that, it's fun and it's not overpriced.
It's not 50 bucks game that needs 50 gigs of space on your HDD you'll finish in a few hours.
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If he took your advice and called it a day now he'd be worse off than most of the indie darlings. Jon Blow didn't work on a new game until Braid really truly played out. He plowed much of his capital back into The Witness which appears to be doing alright, but not quite in the league of Braid. This is rational and reasonable. You're advocating one of two things, both of which I wouldn't advise if I were him. The irrational version is to cut development short on Stardew Valley and leave it as "done". Leaving aside the fact that the modern software lifecycle and peoples' expectations look nothing like this, that's still dumb. The rational version is that he gets investment and scales up into a company with an "A" team working on a new game and a smaller "B" team working on support for SV. I'd wondering whether you might be mixing up the economics of the single-developer indie studio with a full blown company and are giving advice for one based on your perceptions about the other.
And I'm not advocating for him to *be* a one-hit wonder. I'm saying that it's super common and to protect your interests and family's interests first. Name me five indie developers with 1-5 members whose second game sales exceeded their first widely published game (Steam, XBLA, etc). Maybe Stoic (Banner Saga) and Frozenbyte (Trine). I wouldn't call their efforts blockbusters though. Look at Mojang. How's their sophomore effort coming along? Seems to have fizzled. I liked Scrolls but I can see how it faded in the face of not-quite-what-people-wanted and the Blizzard juggernaut Hearthstone. Being a one-hit wonder is *normal*. The probability of exceeding your sales on a second game if you had a breakout hit is small. Depending on the conditions, very small.
The way I see your advice is, yes. It is perverse. It's based on your selfishness for the games and game market you want; something that existed in the past, not the game market that exists. Seriously, you ride that anti-phone thing so hard it's a wonder you don't have hemorrhoids. You've got generally good taste in games and a sensible instinct for game design, but this is absolutely your irrational blind spot and it comes out again and again.
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Never heard, never heard, never heard, heard but it's IMO pay2win garbage, I don't have hemorrhoids.
I'll agree that I'm a pervert. Selfish a bit, most definetly, but not much really.
What I wrote is based on plain cold thought what would I do if I was Stardew Valley's author, it's not based on what EA/Ubi/Konami did.
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Never heard, never heard, never heard, heard but it's IMO pay2win garbage, I don't have hemorrhoids.
I'll agree that I'm a pervert. Selfish a bit, most definetly, but not much really.
What I wrote is based on plain cold thought what would I do if I was Stardew Valley's author, it's not based on what EA/Ubi/Konami did.
Sure. But we're talking about indie studios' financial well being and the ability in the first place to fund another game. Essentially you're doing it wrong and don't know how games business works and would go out of business if you were to follow your own advice.
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I thought about Concerned Ape's position some more and thought I'd put out my advice so I'm not just tearing down other peoples'.
What he should do is largely what he is doing. The sustainable sales will continue for a good while as long as he adds content. Therefore I'd suggest continuing to work full time on this and socking away a good chunk of his income: first into his retirement account and second into a development fund for the next game. The first is for him as a professional and supporting family member. The second is a reasonable way of peeling off his gains so he can sustainably develop a new game. Once sales hit a particular point in the long tail (his decision and the status of the bank account), he should take some of the work he was doing on the side and move into pre-production on the new game. Work half-time on Stardew, half-time on preproduction. Once sales hit a second point on the long tail, then I would move full-time into production and only offer continuing technical support for Stardew.
He already has Chucklefish handling a lot of the console porting and I presume he'll contract with them to support console specific issues.
So a very general strategy: keep the golden goose laying its eggs, but make plans to wean off dependency of the goose over time, and don't make plans for the same kind of sales volume on the next game. If it does happen, hooray, but otherwise you're looking for sustainability of your business and not making wishes that lightning will strike twice.
What he should do is largely what he is doing. The sustainable sales will continue for a good while as long as he adds content. Therefore I'd suggest continuing to work full time on this and socking away a good chunk of his income: first into his retirement account and second into a development fund for the next game. The first is for him as a professional and supporting family member. The second is a reasonable way of peeling off his gains so he can sustainably develop a new game. Once sales hit a particular point in the long tail (his decision and the status of the bank account), he should take some of the work he was doing on the side and move into pre-production on the new game. Work half-time on Stardew, half-time on preproduction. Once sales hit a second point on the long tail, then I would move full-time into production and only offer continuing technical support for Stardew.
He already has Chucklefish handling a lot of the console porting and I presume he'll contract with them to support console specific issues.
So a very general strategy: keep the golden goose laying its eggs, but make plans to wean off dependency of the goose over time, and don't make plans for the same kind of sales volume on the next game. If it does happen, hooray, but otherwise you're looking for sustainability of your business and not making wishes that lightning will strike twice.
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purpleblob
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It's got innocent charm. Definitely not a game for you if you are looking for hardcore, deep rpg experience. I've actually been having very shit year so far and been under a lot of stress, the game kinda let you forget about the stress (at least for me). Sort of escape from busy, stressful life. Music and graphics etc has some calming effects
I also get to decorate the house on a whim, something I love doing in real life but don't have time or budget.