The Coup Project

Goals and Direction

So I suppose I'll start off with a bit of a description of what all is going on here. I'm a programmer by trade, and for the past several months, off and on, I've been working on this little project in my free hours. Between my schedule, skills, and interests, the result is the text-based Carnal Coup, to be presented here shortly. I have ambitions to take the project further, though, particularly in the artistic department. Lacking in that department myself, I have brought a few artists onto the project (who will get special attention in a later post).

Good art costs money, however, and so I've decided that the time to take my little hobby project and take it live is at hand. So with that said, I'd like to lay out where I'm taking this project, and where you, the players, can play a role.

• For starters, I'll be offering the game for free to all for the next few weeks, and some version of it will remain free. I'm looking for player comments, bug reports, anything that can help turn the game into one worthy of putting a buck down on. The game will be offered for both PC and online via WebGL, but I will say up front that PC will be the primary target; WebGL often tends to be a bit more finicky. Even so, bug reports are always welcome.
• Once the game's had some time for polish and further content, I'm planning to take it to Patreon, which I currently have slated for March. The exact rewards structure will come later, but I am planning to follow the model of a delayed public release each month, and one or two releases a month with the latest for paid Patreons, among other bonuses.
• Content wise, the game will first be focusing on the Commandos and Roboticists. Following them, a second pair of races will be chosen. These will be taken to somewhere between mid- and end-game level. Following that, I'll go back and fill in some of the gamification currently kept out in order to make what content the game has more accessible. Citizens in particular will get a heavy focus around that point. Then I'll fill in more of the endgame, and then on to the rest of the races!
• Note: The scheduling priorities are subject to change, particularly depending on player response. I'm not currently prepared to put a "final release" date on the schedule, but I anticipate this keeping me busy for at least a good year.  

I will say that I'm planning to keep my goals for this project modest. I'm not anticipating being able to quit my day job based on Patreon, therefore the objective will be largely focused on paying for game expenses, in particular art. If the game breaks even, that'd be a win for me!

And that's probably enough of the nitty-gritty for now, I expect I'll be talking Patreon again in a month or so. Until then, I expect to have some more interesting things to talk about. 😉