This. People will only stay interested for so long if there is nothing new to see. Post updates ("developer diaries") regularly, and people will keep visiting your site.

On a related issue, I think that the XStoryPlayer Offbeatr project is not going to make it unless you work to create some publicity. First you will need to create a video though (and include in-development features like mucus!), static screenshots do not do the game justice. Then, try to get relevant sites to mention the project (e.g. adultgamereviews.com and similar sites), and you should probably place some ads as well.

--Juddre

@juddre

We have added a video to the project.

While it is tempting to advertise the project on other sites, we think that a crowd funding project should be picked up by the adult community itself.
Otherwise we would only be sending traffic to the offbeatr site, while instead it should generate more exposure for us as well.

If it is not picked up by a lot of people that would also mean there is less interest in our project (or in adult gaming in general) than we hoped. But we think it is worth trying out these projects because it would be great if we could grow as a company so we have more resources to improve the product.

Well, we will see hows thing work out. Never shot is always missed.

Thanks for thinking with us!

Very good about the video. You might want to include something about the BDSM bits (nipple clamps etc.) too.

I have to say I wonder which "adult community" you are talking about. Offbeatr by itself probably does not have that large a community. See my other post in the Offbeatr thread, the most successful projects have addressed existing specific communities (outside Offbeatr!), not a generic "adult community" - I don't know how you would go about addressing the "adult community", certainly a project page in Offbeatr is not going to do it?

In general, you can't judge interest in your project if people have never heard about it. As you said (in the Offbeatr thread), the percentage of people voting is not bad at all. You are just not reaching enough people. Don't assume Offbeatr visitors make up any significant percentage of your potential clientele.

--Juddre

Off beater will take sometime to get to where it needs to be. As for the game itself there are many ardent fans like me working hard behind the scenes promoting and speaking about this game in many adult forums. There is a lot of interest and it will only get better when the new version comes out. I think the the new improvements, many of which came from the thoughts and ideas of members of this forum will highlight the potential of this game and bring in even more fans. Of this I am quite certain.

@juddre,phyros33

With adult community we basically mean people who like adult (18+) games, so maybe it is not a good description. I guess better would be to say the adult gaming community.

If the offbeatr project will not be successful it is probably due to the lack of interest in the offbeatr site itself. We do not see it as a reflection on XStoryplayer.
But if we could add more resources to the development through offbeatr, it would help us releasing new updates faster.

You could say it is a risk putting it out there because there is a chance it could fail. But we also see it as a way to get more publicity, and if it works out a way to attract more resources to the development of XStoryPlayer.

The fact that people actively support us (on other forums and sometimes even with donations) really helps us (and we are very grateful for it, because without them we could not exist).

The BDSM element is not in the video, because even for sites like offbeatr there are restrictions on how far you can go. Because Samantha likes the bdsm in the game it is allowed, but that would not show in the video. Even with the 3d characters we are walking on a thin blue line as it is. Violence in a game is not the problem (like shooting or hanging someone), but when you combine it with sex you got an explosive mixture in your hands.

Thanks guys!

If you don't really need the Offbeatr project to succeed, then it's of course perfectly fine to limit the investment in the Offbeatr project and concentrate on promoting your own website. There is a direct link to the Offbeatr project on your homepage anyway.



Hmm? What's preventing you from adding some dialogue where e.g. the player threatens to use nipple clamps on her and she says "yes please", and then showing that in the video? I'm not sure if something like that is already in the game, but adding it should be easy enough.

But of course there is always a possibility of offending potential voters / customers. Another possibility would be to use that video only when targeting BDSM sites (i.e. not on Offbeatr).

--Juddre

@Juddre

To make larger steps we do really need the offbeatr project.
Most of us are working on other projects as well to pay the bills.
And if we could hire people for full-time modelling that would really help us building releases faster.

But we do think that if PC gaming will remain to exist in the future things will work out (in the long run).
Even if we cannot release often we keep up on improving the product, mostly because we really like 3d adult games.

On the offbeatr site, you make reference to stories with the titles Transformation Dreams and Black Moon Voyage, but there is nothing about them on your own site. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. You need to talk about this stuff. You need regular updates that tell people what you're doing with the game and what kind of progress you're making. And the updates need to be more often than "every once in awhile."

At the very least, tell us what these stories are about. If the estimated release of v2.2 is correct (12/2013), then that's a long time to wait. I get it, you're a small development team, but what's to keep you from talking about your progress on the game on a weekly basis - however minimal that progress is, believe me, people will want to hear about it. How long do you think people will be interested if the progress updates maintain their currently sporadic nature?

@ObiJohnKenobi

I understand the need for people to stay informed. But we also dont want to raise expectations too high by weekly updates on what we are doing.

The two new stories you mention are long away in the planning, and we can only make them if we have enough funding. Thats why we did not put them on the forum yet.

We really do want to release new updates often, but we do not have the resources to do that. So I hope you understand.

Hey Guys!

I bought the game - it's awesome! Also the posibilities for the future I think will be huge. I checked out the movie on offbeatr and I must say - WOW! I like the way you guys created that motion thing, where you can tell the NPC where and how to stand/sit/knee down/and so on! Also the slober while deep throating is nice

BUT!

I think you should really start launching more often small updates. With small I do not mean updates with so many new features, i mean small updates that bring in may be one or two new animation (like the spit while deep throating) or something like that. Those are small extras which fresh up the experience in the game!

It is very cool that you want to bring out a perfect update that brings out all new features at once, but I don't think it is that much a good idea. You have to think about this: nr. 1: you are a small team which does not have the time for intensiv testings and running the game on so many different system builds.
nr. 2: you might want to get some feedback for certain updates if we like it or not, if you should change something, if it's working good or does it have bugs/glitches? With one massive huge update that will be hard - not only for us discovering every little new thing, also for you having to fix problems - more features - higher risk on getting bugs.

Also I think that a little "release test" thing would be cool. You don't have to implement the update directly into the final, you could first do a roll out (let's say "beta" version of a patch) to be tested so you can gather some feedback, you know?

The way you are going is great! You listen to the community and wish for feedback - thats a great point - but since you are a small team you should work with small updates!
As example your video - how many features are already implented into that version?