Card Game Poll Results!

 

Thanks to everyone who voted!

The card game got a really positive response, and that makes all of us really happy. While all the feedback we got on the idea before we started was positive and even enthusiastic, you can't tell how representative a small sample will be. I'm just glad that our idea didn't totally miss the mark.

Final Results:

Combining Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters and accounting for pledge tier vote counts.

Pro vs Con:

Just 1 & 2 vs 5, with unsure/don't care answers excluded.

I think the most interesting thing about this poll from a data standpoint is how exactly the raw votes line up with the results where higher pledge tiers get extra votes. Usually there's a little more discrepancy, but in this case it made only a minor difference, becoming slightly more positive.

The Plan

We're going to keep working on the Sex Card game. Even if we counted both "Unsure" and "Maybe Later" as full negatives, it'd still be 23 vs 69 or only 25% of the vote. I feel like a lot of the "Unsure" and "Maybe Later" answers were really more about not wanting to interfere with hucows, or perhaps hoping to get to the next expansion faster, rather than whether they cared about the card game (there's been a lot of interest in the transformatives expansion lately). I really don't want to interfere too much with hucows myself, and I'm also excited about what comes next. The sex system rework expansion has also been popular in the polls though, and I feel sex is one of the two areas where the game really needs some TLC. It also has the advantage of letting us plan things involving the card game into the expansions, such as adding hucow-specific cards, rather than going back and integrating after the fact.

As for how we go about it, there was a pretty even split between the "full steam" and "like it" group, but I think our plan is a pretty good compromise for either camp, and more importantly, is probably the best way to actually go about accomplishing things.

We've broken the process into two "phases". The first is making the foundation of the game. The initial design, coding everything, creating the mechanics, building the UI, establishing basic flow of the game. The second phase is taking that very basic game that comes from phase 1 and fleshing it out. adding more cards, adding planned mechanics and effects, and of course balancing and getting feedback.

The unique thing is that Phase 1 benefits most from being worked on intensively all at once, because until you finish you don't really have a game. When you finish, however, you have a game that while basic and simplistic, should be somewhat enjoyable to play as a sex minigame. Phase 2 on the other hand benefits much more from going slowly. Adding mechanics and cards can dramatically alter the game, and going too fast can result in an unfun mess. If you've ever played a card-based game and found that initially it seemed fine and maybe had some interesting features, but as you continue discover that there are a lot flaws in the way the game works as you reach the middle and late game, this is probably the reason.

So our idea is to spend a large percentage of our time over the next couple of releases on the card game completing phase 1. This is the more "full steam" period, until we have an actual fun little game to play. Not complete, by any means, but also not just a demo. There will be a game there to enjoy as we shift back to focusing primarily hucows. I would like to say this would be over with the 1.23 release at the beginning of January, but realistically given the holidays plus my fun with covid (info below) it'll probably spill over into January and the 1.24 release at least a little.

For phase 2, we'll continue adding a little each month, while most of our focus will be on hucows. We'll iteratively add cards, more level 2 mechanics, and then level 3 mechanics and cards. Improve the enemy AI and add more modes/objectives for different situations. The key is adding a little each month so that we can get feedback that is more focused on specific changes, and this will let us stay on top of the balance and fun of the game, and also let us watch the metagame. Phase 2 will take a long time, but in a way, it'll also be pretty cool, because every time you come back to a new release, you'll have new mechanics and things to explore. One thing we'll definitely do is have some sort of card guide in the game to both show what cards are in your current "deck", and also what cards exist that aren't in your deck (with a hint how to get them). 

The 'Rona

I'll be fine. Unfortunately due to my lung damage from my time in the military, this particular illness takes a lot out of me. I have to keep an eye on my O2 and generally take care of myself to make sure it doesn't cause anything too bad. Whether it's lower oxygen, fatigue, or just the cold itself, it results in a brain fog. As an example, it's taken many hours and way too much effort to put together this hopefully-coherent post. The good news is that this time it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as the last time I caught it in 2021, and it seems I'll be recovered faster. The bad news is that between taking care of the kids and then having it myself, it knocked out a big chunk of my work time. There's not really anything else I could've done about it, but I'm sorry nonetheless.

Thanks again for voting, and for all your support. Please be sure to keep the feedback coming! Your feedback is going to be really important for us to make the best game we can!