Revisiting the question of 'Commercial Quality'

No, this isn't that topic you are all thinking about (which has been hammered to death).  Polish?  Just hire professionals.

The question is instead a revisit of the subject of 'Why'.

Today's gamers are spoiled.  They have so much content at their disposal.  They have so much choice that to avoid confusion, they have to draw an arbitrary line separating what interests them... to find their "wheat" among the "chaff".  Those games that don't pass that arbitrary line can be treated with derision and flippant comments, even though the people behind those projects most likely worked just as hard as everyone else.

There is so much freeware out there, and if Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is crap, then with freeware it is more like 99%.  Many people don't even bother with freeware, since they seek the high production values of commercial titles.

Other advantages of commercial titles are:
- you can actually do some official marketing/advertising for them.
- they're bigger fish in a smaller pond.  One of my best online friends has counted about 500-600 freeware projects in the English visual novel scene and only about a dozen to 15 or so commercial projects.  If you're in a smaller pond that's supposed to have a higher standard, then you naturally attract more attention.
- they get pirated!  Even though freeware is freely available, most people don't attribute value to them unless someone else recommends them.  But since one has to usually pay to get a commercial title, that naturally attaches a psychological value to the work in question.  So all of a sudden something is worth it... worth the effort of uploading to torrent sites and sharing.  People want something of value, but they want it cheap or free.  Something that was free to begin with doesn't usually have value, well, at least compared to something that used to cost a lot more.

My inner conflict occurs because I want the status and attention afforded to commercial titles, but I don't want the headache and responsibility that comes with them.  I want people to put in some effort to obtain and enjoy my game -- it doesn't have to be paying money up front, as long as it's some demonstration that obtaining the game is worth the effort.

To that end, we have thought up some brilliant tactics.  I'm not performing a full disclosure just yet, but it also ties in with the fact my "Brutally Efficient Production Technique" in obtaining and reusing resources for my game turns out to be more brutally efficient than I first thought!  Not just Elspeth's Garden, but this other project which I'm involved with (hopefully to arrive around the same time late this year or early next year) also employs my production style that even though I didn't specifically set out to make event CGs and even if I made only a few sprites, every single screenshot of the game is unique and it is theoretically possible to play through the entire game without displaying the same exact graphic!

Why this brilliant plan to generate more unique combinations from the same pictures than is theoretically possible? Because I'm lazy, and I lack talent (and lack funds for outside help)?  Not necessarily... I want my artists to take it easy as well, and I want to use their work in the best way possible (which means no more spending 15 hours on a picture that will be displayed for only 5 seconds).

If there is a better game already made, then do not bother.

I was involved in making an item shop simulation game almost four years ago.  It was basically the shop portion -- the original grand idea (which was cut down) was to have town and dungeon exploration as well.  But then recently Recettear came out, not to mention the Atelier series of games were translated, the most recent one being Atelier Rorona.  They both epitomized the ultimate 'item shop RPG' experience.  I actually prefer Atelier Rorona not just for its art style but because the spirit of the game was more in tune with our original game concept... namely fulfilling orders by crafting/synthesizing items, rather than buying/selling to maximize profit and meet debt which was Recettear's main theme.

So now that I believe that the ultimate item shop game was already made, I no longer feel compelled to pursue any item shop game in the foreseeable future, since the market was already satiated.

I've been playing some games recently as a form of 'market research', and to double-check my own design ideas against what has been implemented already.  And sure enough, if your idea is good, then it has been done already.  For example, Grotesque Tactics was the best example of an isometric RPG game that transitioned well from free exploration mode to tile-constrained movement during the turn-based combat phase.

So I already encountered a game that already has the mechanics I envisioned perfected.  But I'm still going to go ahead with my game, because it has a story that just begs me to tell it.  I'm still going to mix and tweak some mechanics though just so that the experience flows a bit differently.

At this point, I'm not going to meet the original deadline I set for myself, but I am still motivated to finish this game.  It's essentially my testimony to the world.