Should I publish my game on itch as a prototype and work on it later?

[MaxGamz]

For some context, I’m a student, and it’s kind of difficult for me to find time working on my projects. I always wanted to publish my work on game jams however a lot of my ideas take a long time for me to finish. What I made is playable but it’s no where near a game. Should I work on it more than publish it, or update it with time?

[Bobble68]

I am also a student with minimal real experience so take this with a grain of salt, however I have also thought about this a good deal so I'll share my two cents. In short - there's no real answer.

I guess the real question you should ask yourself is why and where you want to publish - here are some different perspectives:

• You want to get feedback on your game - this is probably the best reason to share your game. Getting feedback early on before you put a lot of work into things that might not make it into the final game is incredibly helpful. For this, I would recommend sharing the game here, as people here tend to be more technical and more forgiving, as well as likely to give good feedback (not all feedback should be taken at face value, however).
• You want people to see your game - this can be achieved pretty easily, there are people who will play new games on Itch.
• You want lots of people to see your game - easier said than done. There's lots of different methods for this but can be difficult, so it really depends how far you want to go with this - however my unqualified opinion is that you only get one first impression, so it might be worth holding off publishing to places like Steam or Itch until your game is in a playable state.
• You want to make money from it - I'm imagining this isn't your motivation, but if it is, there are very different consequences. People who pay for a game will give feedback, however it will be from the perspective of 'I payed money for this, did I spend it well'.

Should I work on it more than publish it, or update it with time?

Ok, that might have been a lot, and more than you were looking for, but I guess my real answer is that it depends on you. Neither of those things are mutually exclusive, you can work on it more and still update it with time. But my own opinion? I'd love to see what you've been working on, and sharing your work can help with learning tremendously.

[MaxGamz]

I am also a student with minimal real experience so take this with a grain of salt, however I have also thought about this a good deal so I'll share my two cents. In short - there's no real answer.

I guess the real question you should ask yourself is why and where you want to publish - here are some different perspectives:

• You want to get feedback on your game - this is probably the best reason to share your game. Getting feedback early on before you put a lot of work into things that might not make it into the final game is incredibly helpful. For this, I would recommend sharing the game here, as people here tend to be more technical and more forgiving, as well as likely to give good feedback (not all feedback should be taken at face value, however).
• You want people to see your game - this can be achieved pretty easily, there are people who will play new games on Itch.
• You want lots of people to see your game - easier said than done. There's lots of different methods for this but can be difficult, so it really depends how far you want to go with this - however my unqualified opinion is that you only get one first impression, so it might be worth holding off publishing to places like Steam or Itch until your game is in a playable state.
• You want to make money from it - I'm imagining this isn't your motivation, but if it is, there are very different consequences. People who pay for a game will give feedback, however it will be from the perspective of 'I payed money for this, did I spend it well'.

Should I work on it more than publish it, or update it with time?

Ok, that might have been a lot, and more than you were looking for, but I guess my real answer is that it depends on you. Neither of those things are mutually exclusive, you can work on it more and still update it with time. But my own opinion? I'd love to see what you've been working on, and sharing your work can help with learning tremendously.

Thank you so much for your input! Honestly I just want others to see the kind of stuff I’m planing but my main goal is to publish my game on a game jam to get more eyes on it, but I didn’t think of trying it out on here first. Maybe I’ll just wait for future jams and publish my game later on while I’m still working on it.

[Bobble68]

my main goal is to publish my game on a game jam to get more eyes on it, but I didn’t think of trying it out on here first. Maybe I’ll just wait for future jams and publish my game later on while I’m still working on it.

I don't think most game jams will allow that - most jams require the game to be made within a set time with an exception of using libraries, and probably won't take too kindly to preprepared games. There might be some that do, but usually the challenge is doing it quickly.

[MaxGamz]

my main goal is to publish my game on a game jam to get more eyes on it, but I didn’t think of trying it out on here first. Maybe I’ll just wait for future jams and publish my game later on while I’m still working on it.

I don't think most game jams will allow that - most jams require the game to be made within a set time with an exception of using libraries, and probably won't take too kindly to preprepared games. There might be some that do, but usually the challenge is doing it quickly.

Oh I understand. I guess I’ll wait until I get a better grasp of making games. But hopefully in the future I’ll be able to compete.