Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #94 (One Week. Can I Even?)

     One week til my birthday where I wanted to release demo 6 as a present to myself. Turns out, I can't. The next demo will most certainly be delayed until early November. This past week has just been stacked with distractions and I spent 3 full days working with my dad at work fixing hurricane damage. The labor left me sore and exhausted so I took a day off, then I had a brony meetup at UCF I've been planning for weeks, then the Pokemon Sun & Moon demo came out, and then I had to make some charts for my Dad to work with, and at the end of it all, I realize I haven't touched the game at all in like, 7 days.

     It's been a lackluster week as far as progress goes, but Yotes Games marches on...

I'm reminded of my BronyCon 2016 panel often, and I want 2017 to be the year of maximum hype.
The game will actually be finished and hopefully loved by thousands already.

I feel a special kind of excitement in my heart when
I spot new fan art of something I made.

   Completed:

• New Sound Effects
• Edited NPC Emoticons
• Delayed Demo 6
• Planned Victory Isle Scenario & Greenlight Demo in Great Detail
• Postponed Ultra Form Feature
• Studied the Pokemon Sun/Moon Demo

     Lessons Learned:

• Maybe the free version of BGP should be like the Sun/Moon demo and not just be a cutout of the first section of the real game.
• Or maybe I'm better off staying on track for this one and trying the "specially made demo" idea for BGP 2.

       Never have I been as sleepy as I've been this week. I feel like laying down and taking it easy for a week straight. But then I'll miss that January Greenlight deadline...
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   Downloads:

     With all the BGP Let's Plays going on, I wonder if a coordinated demo launch with giving them all foresight and early access would lead to much bigger spikes in Itch.io downloads...

    Featured:

     Not entirely related to anything I'm doing, but look at the drop off rate of Let's Plays in action. Episode one Gets about 50 views, then episode 2's viewership is cut by half, then 3 is halved again. After that it seems to mellow out as the dedicated viewers watch the entire series. I see similar things happen to Markiplier videos. It's just something to keep in mind.

     For Let's Plays, people often just want to peek their head in the door and see if the game is any good. Maybe download it to experience the rest for themselves. First impressions are everything, so make sure your first 10-15 minutes (starting from the title screen) are jaw-dropping. The end of a YouTuber's first episode will be the point of a lot of people's purchasing decision.
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     Hoping to make a lot more progress this week. Gonna get some extra sleep and crack down on gamedev starting tomorrow.