The "Milestone" Concept

Hundreds of RM creators out there have yet to release a single demo of their game. Excluding those who are making the game as a passing hobby, the remainder generally think that their demo isn't worth releasing a demo yet. Bullshit. Your game IS worthy of making a release so long as it fulfills this one requirement:

It must have at least 30 minutes of non-repetitious gameplay.

What do I mean by that? Simple. There must be [within reasonable doubt] at least 30 minutes of gameplay which is not overly frustrating or boring. Take a stopwatch, and time a test run all the way through your game. Work your way through it from start to finish going as fast as you possibly can.

Pause the timer while you're in battles and when you know you're going to be doing a lot of repetitive acts over and over again. Yes, running across a large and empty field counts as repetitious.

Battles and other such repetitious gameplay aren't necessarily bad, I'm not saying take them out. You just need to time yourself on how long it takes to do a speed run of your game, and cutting corners and excluding battles/repetition helps cut down the minimum gameplay time.

Naturally, if your game uses a CMS or CBS and the parts you've started working on are well into implementation (that's long after the design phase) but aren't anywhere decent enough for show, go ahead and finish those bits. A good gauge as to whether you should include THAT feature in this next version of your demo is asking yourself "Would it be jarring to the player to not have this bit fully functional?"

After your speed run, check your stopwatch. Did your speed run surpass 30-40 minutes of non-repetitious gameplay? Good, now release a demo already!

The next step is to do this repeatedly as you release new demos using what's known as "milestones" of development. The term "milestones" of similar definition is even used in the real-world game design industry. Every time you find yourself wondering if your demo is ready for its next release, do another speed run. Of course, you'll want to only start timing yourself when you get to the end of where your previous demo version ended.

This milestones method can be used as a reliable tool for setting reasonable and genuinely achievable goals in your development process.

Basically, every time you complete another 30 minutes of non-repetitious gameplay, release a demo. Remember to lock off the areas of your game which contain the bits of future demo versions, and make a public release of the newest version.

You can even give yourself a time table for your milestone goals. Say... you pledge to yourself an informal deadline of one 30 minute increment every 4 weeks. That's roughly once a month, and isn't difficult to achieve.

Wait to implement mini-games and other extras until the end of a significant milestone or make writing a mini-game or sub-quest be the something you use to take a break from writing the bulk of your current demo. The mini-games and sub-quests are wanted, but are not of supreme importance to your releases!

After releasing a demo, pay close attention to the feedback. Generally, you shouldn't pay too close attention to bug reports and other such technical complaints. Those you can just list down and take care of one after another. What you REALLY should be looking for are comments on the game's style. Cliches, bad writing form, inconsistencies, etc. Those are the things that you actually NEED to fix before your next release. So long as you keep that list of bugs, you should be fine. Just honestly try to take care of a bug within 2 demo releases of when it was reported.

This is a more rapid form of what's known as "Episodic Content" style. Episodic games make a large number of really big releases that're only a fraction of the total game's campaign size and the creator generally never goes back to make significant changes. It's effective, but this slower form generally only works out for truly hardcore RM creators.

In this community, you need to make your game's development act like issues of a comic book. You want the player to speculate and be anxious to see what's going to happen next. You want them to keep coming back for more.

If this method seems too rapid for you, then try making 1 hour long milestones. 1.5 to 2 hour milestones are almost always a big NO unless you really do work at blazing speeds and/or have an EXTREME dedication to your game.

Of course, you shouldn't tell people that you plan on keeping regular deadlines for releases. That just generates unnecessary tension come 'crunch time'. You don't want that, you don't need that, don't do it. Keep informal personal goals, not deadlines. You're doing this as a hobby, remember? Never let the making of your game become a chore.

If however that ever happens, SLOW THE HELL DOWN! Don't quit by any means, just increase or even double your expected time to completing the next milestone. After that release is made, slowly speed back up until you find your new 'comfort zone' of development. Once you've found your new 'comfort zone', stick to it.

Often enough, many potentially great creators fall by the wayside and quit their RM game because they aren't getting relevant feedback often enough. Using milestones like I described above keeps you going, keeps the feedback coming, and keeps you energized towards your game.

And that's what's important.