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Sindrel Song Release Complications

5 years ago578 words

Today's the day I intended to release Memody: Sindrel Song, but there've been complications which mean I'll need to bump that forward a bit. I'm wondering what the best course forward here is!

The game's been finished and ready for release for a while, so these set-backs aren't technical. They development and the promotion are entirely different animals, though, and it seems like there's a fairly narrow window following release where games will make their most sales, and if things aren't done right, the sales will be poor and all the time spent making the game will have been wasted.

The promotion is new and unfamiliar to me, not my forte at all, so I'm getting help with that, though this means that there are factors outside my control that also cause delays. We're trying to figure out what's best to do.

One thought I had was to release do an early access release ASAP which would allow people to buy the game, but it wouldn't be 'officially announced' until a later date. There might be some kinks to work out in the experience so people might be more accepting of them and likely to offer constructive feedback during an early access phase. However, I normally associate early access with nonlinear games that'll change a lot in terms of basic features during this phase, like sims or MMOs, so I'm not sure whether a standalone story-driven game like this would be best released like this. It'd also mean that the actual release might be weaker in terms of sales, and the metrics wouldn't be as impressive, which might mean something?

Sindrel Song is my first formal release, so I want it to do as well as it can. If anyone has any knowledge about the indie game release cycle, I'd be very interested to hear it!

For now, I won't change the release date to something definite like a week from now just so then I don't end up having to revise it again. I'll just say that the new release date is As Soon As Possible!



I played through the game myself just now, to check if everything's okay. It seems to be. I've not touched the game in a few weeks, and taking that time away from it has allowed me to perceive and appreciate it differently to how I did when I was spending all day every day working on it.

I really, genuinely enjoyed the experience. I played in two sessions, and was excited about getting to it for the second one! It took me four hours in total, but that's because I'd already mastered all the songs a while ago; it'd take much longer if you were learning them.

I'm particularly pleased with the music, the visuals, and the writing. There's a lot of optional dialogue that really fleshes out the characters, and there's some towards the end that I'm really very proud of. I don't know how many people will see it since it's so deep into the game and can quite easily be missed, but for the sort of people who really like to sink into stories and grow close to their characters, I feel they'll be getting something really satisfying here.

I'm looking forward to releasing the game so that other people can enjoy the experience as I have! Hopefully that'll be very soon! Sorry about the delays!!