When's the best time to start showing your game?

[OblivionSkull21]

A few months of development? When there's a working demo?
I'm wondering when the best time to show your game is. I'd be afraid if I show it too early people might steal it or steal my self-made music...
This really is focusing on when I should post my game's topic in the In-Progress section.

I'm a one-man developer and I've been working on my game for over a year (a few months in actual work-time). I don't have a demo yet and won't be having one until I can program my first two boss fights and some puzzles, unless I decide to release a very short demo (5-10 minutes).

 

[Widget]

This logic is like "I don't want to release my game, people will just pirate it".

Just show what you got when you want to. There's no point worrying about these things. If people are going to steal from you, they're going to find a way no matter what.

My suggestion on starting to show your game is start whenever you feel like you can make consistent updates.

 

[OblivionSkull21]

This logic is like "I don't want to release my game, people will just pirate it".

Just show what you got when you want to. There's no point worrying about these things. If people are going to steal from you, they're going to find a way no matter what.

My suggestion on starting to show your game is start whenever you feel like you can make consistent updates.

Not release it per say, but start showing it to people so I can build a crowd. The game won’t be released for a few years

The fear isn't that it would be pirated, as that's unavoidable... but rather the fear that my game or idea/art/music would be stolen and used by someone else.

 

[YanBG]

I wouldn't worry about the idea(show only parts of it). Art can have watermarks and you don't have to post the music(for the demo it can be in the exe).

 

[NazGhuL]

Hi. If you already worked on a good product and gamers know you, you could, at the very start of your project (a serious one) post a couple of artworks and start gathering attention. Otherwise, you should wait to have something concrete. At least a gameplay video and at best a demo. Then, you start some kind of devlog that you update regulary.

If you do something awesome, you will be pirated. That's a fact. Your goal is to build something unique and so much good that anybody will recognize your stuff in another rip-off game.
(Anyway, you'll be rich and will hire the best lawyers!)

 

[Mert]

The best time to show up your project to world is:

1- When you have a in-game footage that at least shows the main idea that includes a little bit of gameplay.
2- Gradually update the content and show it to the people. You must be careful at this stage, you wouldn't want to spam too much as it'll make people to ignore you.
3- Do it until you finish your project's alpha/beta stage. If your project is big, start with alpha. Otherwise, start by beta.
4- Try to minimize the period of the Alpha/Beta stage.

X- Never be discouraged by pirates. People will always want the best and updated version of your game no matter what. Work on your project first, then you can implement security precautions later on.

And here's the biggest tip that you can learn on the market:
IF SOMETHING IS BEAUTIFUL, PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BE INTERESTED IN IT.

 

[OblivionSkull21]

The best time to show up your project to world is:

1- When you have a in-game footage that at least shows the main idea that includes a little bit of gameplay.
2- Gradually update the content and show it to the people. You must be careful at this stage, you wouldn't want to spam too much as it'll make people to ignore you.
3- Do it until you finish your project's alpha/beta stage. If your project is big, start with alpha. Otherwise, start by beta.
4- Try to minimize the period of the Alpha/Beta stage.

X- Never be discouraged by pirates. People will always want the best and updated version of your game no matter what. Work on your project first, then you can implement security precautions later on.

And here's the biggest tip that you can learn on the market:
IF SOMETHING IS BEAUTIFUL, PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BE INTERESTED IN IT.

What exactly do you mean by the alpha and beta stages? I don't quite understand those. Is Beta pre-release?

 

[Mert]

What exactly do you mean by the alpha and beta stages? I don't quite understand those. Is Beta pre-release?

Technically, they mean pre-release stages.

Imagine you have a promising game, people seem to be liking it. You release it and find out that it had many bugs and issues, or people want you to change some of the content. It's a loss! Many people won't even play your game again.

The solution is to launch your game in stages and let people know that you are currently working on your game and any issues will be fixed in the final version.

PS : There is no strict difference between Alpha & Beta stage, but Alpha is the phase where you'd work more on the core of the game(programming bugs & errors) and Beta is the phase you work more on features(balance, gameplay etc.)

 

[NazGhuL]

Before, it was called beta. Now it's called early access.

 

[ajan-ko]

Just show it at begining. If the idea sucks (which is happen 90% all the time), the response will be weak. If the response weak, you drop that project and make another idea.

Make sure you have decent mockup art. Not some square temporary sprite.

 

[Yal]

As soon as your game looks interesting, you should start posting about it. Record GIFs when any of the following happen and post them to social media to build interest:

• You finish something new, like an area, a boss, or a new game mechanic or powerup.
• You revamp visual stuff and it looks better now.
• A spectacularly weird glitch occurs. People love watching fun weird glitches (as long as it doesn't happen to them while they're playing).

If you're not active on the internet, people won't find you.

Also, as @ajan-ko suggests, switch away from placeholders to okayish art ASAP so you can make cool stuff to draw people in. A lot of asset flips manages to sell somewhat decently just because of this: cool art will make people think your game is good, no matter whether the gameplay is good or not. Even if you'd say gameplay is more important, people don't think like that, so you need to focus on making your game LOOK awesome as well or nobody will be interested.

 

[Niels]

When you have a vertical slice

 

[sitebender]

People say always be showing your game, but I say wait until it has the art style 95% done and then spend a year or two claiming to work on it. Like how there are plenty of Kickstarter projects that the final game doesn't change too much from the Kickstarter demo.

If your project is too undesirable, people may just tune out your project all together. Then again you could go for the "Project XYZ" and show it off at all stages of development, then when you're at that 95%, change its name to "Real game."