Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to respond with such a well thought out answer.
This post is currently the only piece of this game to be found on itch, it does not have it's own page or anything of the sort. I was considering starting with a Devlog, so that's where I am coming from. I apologize if there was confusion about that. Should I put something up and not worry about a Devlog yet?
I'm just hesitant about showing something so early in development.
Well, if it's still kind of a secret project you can keep it that way for now without any issues. Since it's story-driven I would wait with an announcement until all* of said story is represented within the game (since while the current gameplay looks serviceable, right now there's no indication that this will have more than a few textboxes worth of story - if any). Because if that announcement really takes off but you need to move apartments/houses, be hospitalized, get writer's block or fall into depression, then much of that momentum you might have gained would be lost. If you have a look at the MMORPG-scene there's never a shortage of announcements, Kickstarters, and the like but often enough a project takes longer than expected or gets cancelled which leaves a lot of bitter people (like me!♥) who will grow very weary of "announcements" that don't at least have actual gameplay that they can show off. ("Look at this single character walking in a straight line through an alley of trees without any other characters/mobs in sight. Aren't you impressed by our shaders?" is kind of a trope when it comes to MMORPG-announcement trailers.)
Sorry if that was too much of a tangent...
I think having some kind of teaser for your game less than a month before it comes out could help raise interest. But my personal advice would be to delay said teaser until you already have something that is at least flawed but entertaining nonetheless - that way you will still have something to show for if life gets in the way.
Also a bit of unsolicited advice: Get a friend to check out your game every now and then. They don't have to approach it like professional tester - just let them dick around in it without giving them directions and ask them what they thought. And if they tell you something along the lines of "Yeah, it's good...", then you have either kind friends who are either terrible liars or exceptionally bad at expressing their thoughts and opinions. :)
* (or if it's on the scale of Money Island 2: most of the story)
Thank you for the advice, I think I am going to hold off on publishing anything, as I am at least a good year or two away from the project I want to end with, especially considering college. Sometimes I just get restless working so hard on something I can't show the world.
I do have friends and family (anyone who will, really) play-test my games often. A great debugging process is watching someone after handing them a controller and saying "Try to break this"; so, you are right about that.
It's refreshing to read something from someone who really sounds like they know the ins and outs of game development. Are you a developer?
Not being able to show your game to a wider public can be annoying. But on the other hand you don't have to deal with feature requests, bug hunts against the clock, mean-spirited comments, people uploading your game to other sites (claiming it's their game), ... and other passing joys.
As for my insights into game development... In open forums I try to not give too much away about myself one way or the other, so I'll simply say: Thank you for the flattery. :)
