Penguin Thoughts #3 - My Liege Released!
“Good afternoon, this is Sam Reich reporting on Breaking News. We are coming to you live from the SugoiPenguin Gaming offices in Saint Paul where just earlier this week they made earth shattering news by launching their first product on time. Our correspondent on the ground is speaking with a representative from the game studio now.”
“Thank you Sam, I’m here with the lead project manager over My Liege now. Tell me, how has this inaugural launch gone for SugoiPenguin Gaming?”
“Meow meow, mao, mrrrrr, meow”
-Jellybean’s little kitty dreams I assume
My Liege Launched!
That is right kiddos, My Liege is officially live for purchase on Steam! It has been quite the journey so here are some fun facts about the game and it’s development.
Development began July 2023
320 C# Classes written
346 Unique playable events/matters that can occur in game
1137 Unity “Assets” (terrain, prefabs, 3d objects, etc.)
43 Git branches, 56 pull requests, and 374 commits
450+ Jira Tasks/Issues
18” of Hair Loss1
1Technically not lost, though I do not know where my hair ended up. It was a donation to Wigs for Kids, hopefully some kid out there is looking fabulous now!
The People Who Helped Bring This Into Existence
“Wait, is he gonna get all sappy on us? I wanted to hear how the release went…” Yes I am, and guess what, tough.2
I am immensely proud of the product that I have made, it truly is more than I ever imagined it would be.
I could not have made this alone though. My friend group has been incredibly supportive throughout, giving me praise when I deserved it and feedback when I needed it. My Liege is full of scenes/dialogue/characters that are better because of somebody caring enough to be invested in what I was working on.
Everybody that ever tested the game, tried the demo, or simply watched a video I made and took the time to comment. Those interactions are small, yet were a constant reminder that I was making something that spoke to people.
Most of all, Andrew and Mitch have been the bedrock that SugoiPenguin Gaming LLC stands on. Your steadfast encouragement and refusal to let me downplay my progress is monumental and My Liege simply would not exist without you.3
2Don’t want the sap? Go right ahead, skip this section, I’m a footnote, not your mother.
3See, was that so bad? I hope it warmed your heart just a little bit, but not too much. I don’t want my newsletter to give heartburn.
How I Managed The Final Stretch
The last few weeks can be a very strange time for any software project. I thought I was prepared, I thought my time with FAST implementing numerous year long rollouts made me ready for how to handle the leadup to release.
Obviously, I was wrong.
Here was the plan:
Implement fixes from playtesting in February
Create builds for Steam early March
Verify builds for Steam early March
Continue all marketing activity that I started in February
This plan followed the best practices that I had learned as a salaried professional. Avoiding risk by avoiding big changes. Managing stress by budgeting appropriate time to dedicate to tasks. It was perfect!4
Here was what ACTUALLY happened:
Implement fixes from playtesting in February
Realize portions of the story needed rework based on feedback
Retest
Create builds for Steam early March
Decide to add in eyebrows to characters with 2 weeks to go
Discover meeple animations were not properly set up, add in animations that are missing
Retest
Create more builds for Steam late March
Fix five “soft lock” errors with 3 days to go
Create final build with 2 days to spare
Do half as much marketing effort as you planned
Do I regret deviating from the plan? Only a little. At the end of the day, all of the things that I did are still only half of what I envisioned including on launch so I did manage the work to some extent. What matters most is I am proud of what My Liege became, from the beginning of the project, to the last layers of polish.
4The best-laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry. To a Mouse is one of my favorite poems, thankfully though a farmer did not destroy my game with a plow.
What Comes Next?
Something! I say that as a joke, but only half so. I’m not entirely sure what comes next long term. I DO however have plans in the short term!
Post launch ad campaign; YouTube ads have done a decent job of getting eyeballs on the steam page. I plan on doing another round with some changes to see if I can get better conversion post launch.
My Liege content updates; I am not planning big new story arcs, but I have ideas for how to add more variety to the existing gameplay. I also have some additional interactions and animations that I did not want to risk shoe-horning into the release build late in the process.
Community engagement; I have plans for additional YouTube content, being as accessible as I can be as the games dev, and in general fixing any reported issues.
Other than that, I can’t quite say what else is next. I 100% intend to continue this momentum and want to keep being a “creative” as part of my life. Whatever form that takes, I plan to continue Penguin Thoughts, just may not be as focused on the development of My Liege.
-Addison aka Jellybean and Juliet’s dad
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