So during my reconstruction of Bot Battle 2, and seeing how long it's taken (no surprise, it took this long the first time I built it, and the one time I rebuilt it as well), I decided that the absence of Bot Battle 2 that has happened so repeatedly and also the time span with which the map was actually available, compared to when it wasn't, was just unsustainable.
Part of me is trying to drive up engagement so I can then maybe fund a team that can execute my ideas better and quicker than I do, this is all long-term, but also because I am looking for an actual living wage. Sustaining this with minimum engagement or reward is just really difficult for me, especially now that I am grown up and very often need to use my own profits for various personal or collaborative endeavors.
But engagement is only a part of it, in reality I've finished more than half the map already (reached to Level 6-2 specifically) and I decided, since publishing maps is free and requires no real effort, I'd just have at least the first few levels up until I finish the rest; because it's taking so long for me, and I might be a bit more busy in the upcoming days since summer break is pretty much over, so I figured having at least part of it up is good, especially for those looking to replay it quickly, or explore within the levels themselves, or just mess around generally. There's no harm in having it up, even if it is not complete thus far.
And this also incentivizes me to work quicker on the rest of the levels, having it around and having engagement, even minimal amounts of it, makes it easier for me to equate it with "Well, if I had the rest of the levels, engagement would be even better." that is to say; there being an actual tangible feedback to it, rather than it all being in the wind.
So, releasing an unfinished product is not justified in the case of a full-on video game obviously, but for a map which you can update regularly and is free of charge, I see it as a net positive rather than negative; you get to experience whatever I've finished, polished, and game tested (thanks to Fortnite-UEFN finally running simultaneously because there's much less load when each map isn't cobbled up into one), so this will maybe even be more polished than when it was inside of the Bot Battle group of maps; mostly because of memory strain causing abrupt issues, but also because I got to play test it more than once, and I realize that when the game isn't lagging all the time, the map is always fun to me, I love replaying it over and over just because; I get to play test it but it is also an opportunity for me to look through my map as I play test it and see what I can polish for future entries in the series. That headspace is quite good to be in for creative endeavors specifically.
Well, anyways, now it's the map with levels from 1-1 to 6-2, and more coming very soon. I might also release them on a level-to-level basis, or maybe all at once, depends how quickly I finish levels; the idea is to avoid long periods of time without updates or content, even dropping drips of content is still better than no content at all, and it also helps me get into the habit of prioritizing constant updates and releases, rather than just spending so much time on one project or update, getting paralyzed, then getting busy, then seeing how much dev bloat there is and losing incentive, then starting over... it is a messy loop, one which mostly people who were in similar fields feel as well. So a lot of this is very self-disciplinary to me, I would say.
All that said, I hope you all enjoy this more polished and refined but ultimately accurate to day-one release Bot Battle 2.
