Poll of the Day > Welp, looks like Sneaky Ninja isn't coming out in May 2017.

(+) Yeah! (+)

@SullyTheStrange, time to update that Steam release date box

-_- Updated (on back end at least), thanks for the heads up.

I am sorry. May this be the last time I fail you.
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:(

still haven't played it
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Plan on getting the Wii U version myself
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what's making it take so long?
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helIy posted...

what's making it take so long?

Oh boy could I write an essay on that :P

Boils down to a few main reasons:

- Some ideas got bigger from the original plan and more ideas were added, the dreaded "feature creep" you might hear developers talk about. After all, the very very very original idea was essentially a basic mobile game, and it's grown so much bigger than that
- I kinda thought I would have more help. Two friends from college joined in at some point a few years back, but were only able to put in pretty much one month of work before they got full-time jobs and had to stop. So I've been the only programmer and artist for the vast majority of development. I don't blame them for it but obviously it slows things down a lot
- It's my first FULL game, so it's very difficult to judge how long something will take until I'm done with it, hence the dozen wrong release date predictions
- I don't want to release a broken or unfinished game, period. So I spend a lot of time fixing the little things, making sure things feel right, and polishing stuff up. It still won't be perfect, but I wholeheartedly agree with the ol' Miyamoto quote, "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever". Lately though, my philosophy has been halfway between that and "finished, not perfect"... It's been five years, so it's time to release this thing.

The newest wrench in the release is... I'm getting married. Awesome, but another small roadblock. :P That's at the end of June, and then we're going away for a week. I was reeeeally trying to release by May to avoid this, but it didn't quite happen, so now I'm aiming for July. And I'm trying damn hard to make it happen.
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SullyTheStrange posted...

The newest wrench in the release is... I'm getting married. Awesome, but another small roadblock.

this is an acceptable reason
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SullyTheStrange posted...

I don't want to release a broken or unfinished game, period. So I spend a lot of time fixing the little things, making sure things feel right, and polishing stuff up. It still won't be perfect, but I wholeheartedly agree with the ol' Miyamoto quote, "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever".

That's not true though. Patches, yo.

Sad to hear.
I liked what I saw of it.

All your reasons are so familiar it's sad.
I have several games I gave up on due to just "shit happens".
I hope you can push past it and release (and congrats on the marriage!)

Good luck!

typical kickstarter.

SkynyrdRocker posted...

That's not true though. Patches, yo.

knivesX2004 posted...

Sad to hear.
I liked what I saw of it.

All your reasons are so familiar it's sad.
I have several games I gave up on due to just "shit happens".
I hope you can push past it and release (and congrats on the marriage!)

Good luck!

Thanks! And yeah, they're probably very familiar reasons to most developers, it's not a unique story by any means. At least I'm not in any danger of giving up on it. I'm 95% done, I just need to finally finish it.
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SullyTheStrange posted...

- Some ideas got bigger from the original plan and more ideas were added, the dreaded "feature creep" you might hear developers talk about. After all, the very very very original idea was essentially a basic mobile game, and it's grown so much bigger than that

This seems like it would be the biggest thing to slow down the release. Just make sure you have the features in it that you wanted so that you can release it. Additional features can be added in later via patches/updates. Maybe even expansions of some sort, depending on the features.
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Will you be at MAGFest again? It was good to see you.
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When that finally releases, I'll need to buy some keys from you for giveaways (since I can't gift to US or Europe now, thanks Valve).
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

This seems like it would be the biggest thing to slow down the release. Just make sure you have the features in it that you wanted so that you can release it. Additional features can be added in later via patches/updates. Maybe even expansions of some sort, depending on the features.

I may end up doing a director's cut sort of thing anyway, to release on the Switch. Rumor says (and this isn't inside info in any way whatsoever, I know absolutely nothing about the Switch that the public doesn't know) that Nintendo doesn't want to accept late ports unless it has additional content, so I could definitely use that as an excuse to add in some of the features I left out.

Zareth posted...

Will you be at MAGFest again? It was good to see you.

Good seeing you too! Always fun meeting people from the interwebs. I think you're the first PotDer though. :P

I'd love to go to MAGFest again, it was a great show. Submissions usually don't open up until closer to the event though, maybe September or sometime around there. I'm trying to get into PAX West right now with the Indie Megabooth (went with them to GDC 2016 which was cool), and I'll be going to Super Smash Con (which has an indie game section for some reason) in August for the third year, if anyone's going to that!

DeltaBladeX posted...

When that finally releases, I'll need to buy some keys from you for giveaways (since I can't gift to US or Europe now, thanks Valve).

Oh yeah, that sucks. :( I'd be happy to do some shady backroom deals with ya!
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SullyTheStrange posted...

Oh yeah, that sucks. :( I'd be happy to do some shady backroom deals with ya!

Awesome
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