Min viable product

Started by DU_DeadlyFlops, June 09, 2014, 04:04:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

DU_DeadlyFlops

Well I hate to be cynical, but I think it is safe to say that the Kickstarter is going anywhere. While that seriously bums me out, I think I see an opportunity in this. I'm a project manager for an iOS and Android development house. I don't want to pretend that I know what kind of struggles you guys are going through with this, because this project is out of my area of expertise. However, I think I see some things here that have held a lot of our really cool projects back.

Basically I think you guys should look at putting out a Minimum Viable Product. Looking at the Kickstarter i saw a lot of features that looked like they were unnecessary. Were they really fucking cool? Yes (especially the mini objectives). However, that doesn't mean you should include it; at least not as part of your core feature set (maybe those would have been cool to start the stretch goals with). Some of that shit is going to be expensive to execute on. If you guys include every kick ass idea you have into this thing, it is going to feature creep like a bitch. Pump out the most simplistic version you guys can and then iterate.

While it blows that the Kickstarter didn't perform as expected, maybe this gives you an opportunity to really evaluate what the core components of the PS experience are. It may be hard to think like this because we've been bedfellows with SvM for 8-9 years, but its a really weird concept to people who are alien to it. Having an MVP allows newcomers to see how the game flows and experience how unique it is. This could grow the fan base in a way that trying to articulate this stuff in a Kickstarter description can't and get people excited about investing money to make the game better.

And lastly, it shows people that you can deliver something. Kickstarter may be crowdsourced, but it is still an investment. People want to know that you will be able to execute if they have skin in the game.

Anyways, I really hope that the kickstarter has not discouraged you guys. I really respect the amount of sweat that has been put into this thing. It has such huge potential.

frvge

The MVP is basically the same as the other SAM games. Getting the basic gameplay done is the hardest. Mini-objectives are literally just subclassing the normal objectives and assigning them to another team. The hardest will probably be the Sound Wave Vision, but that's not harder than Motion Tracking would be.
Quote from: savior2006SCDA has more bugs than a rain forest.
Quote
Treat your customers with respect you make more customers. Treat your customers like pirates, you make more pirates.