VN Ren'Py Abandoned Acquainted [Ch. 1 v0.1.0] [Yuno Gasai]

[dddkingddd]

I see what you mean but I kind of disagree. I admit, "rival" was a pretty strong word there. It was more like I was just looking for a replacement for BADIK. I didn't like the last two episodes and I was looking for something at least good enough that wasn't going to take 1 year per update. I'm not saying Yuno's writing was great but it was good enough. Some of it didn't make much sense, a good amount of "texting-speak" even though it's supposed to be a story, etc. but I don't think the writing was that bad compared to others I've seen.
- Example 1: Life in Santa County. The best example of some ass-writing. It just needed to be mediocre with its level of renders and couldn't even accomplish that.
- Example 2: Westview Academy. It's good enough but it feels like one big fever dream. Kind of incoherent and you're left to infer 90% of the context.

You're definitely right that BADIK is better but DPC isn't without his weaknesses as a writer. He has some really strong points but also some bad ones. There were inconsistencies with how the MC acts at times, the plot is pretty much just an endless soap opera where conflicts just keep getting kicked further down the road, and relationships are just spinning their wheels in place even AFTER the Crossroads decision. I think given enough time and experience, Yuno could've at least reached an acceptable level. The game had at least somewhat of a coherent plot and as long as no one dies in a house fire (lol) he would've at least been on the right track. Also, there were some others I had high expectations for as well but those didn't really pan out for different reasons. BADIK definitely above mediocre writing but I'd say I liked the renders of this game better. I'd say that rather than it having good writing, it had other qualities that made it all work together. It's just that it could only be maintained if we weren't left to ruminate for an entire year each time on what didn't work.

I'd actually play off your point about there being very few devs who are actually good at writing. There are so few, that I'm honestly never really expecting much in terms of writing. It's fucking fantastic when I do find one but it's not exactly the clincher in what becomes really popular. There are a few other games that others would argue have better writing than BADIK but aren't as popular. Some aren't even close. The sheer number of games with garbage writing has lowered my standards. It just needs to not be horrible writing, have great aesthetics, and not take more than 6 months for an update to be on par with BADIK. But it turns out Yuno took even longer for his only release for this game so ... yea.

Yea, I feel that sentiment about passion. DPC isn't without his faults but that man definitely has passion. (Although, I'm gonna be honest. With Ep 9 and some of the weekly status reports I've seen, he almost seems like he's gotten bored with the game.) With the recent trend, it makes me wonder whether he's one of the unicorns or this small pocket of indie games is just kind of falling off. Also, yea I'm the same way. I've got a list of stuff that's updated but I just don't have the mind to start from the beginning again. Some of it's "gimmicky" stuff I've lost interest in, half of it needs a good proofreader, and the other half is just boring with nothing really memorable.

Anyways, thanks for hearing me out man. You don't have to read all that. I just wanted to cover all my bases on what I thought about *Acquainted compared to BADIK and other VNs.

i enjoyed the read, i like to hear people's thoughts on these things. its not as if this is a conversation i could have with many, if any, of the people i know irl.

you mentioned that you weren't a fan of the last 2 episodes of badik and here i am thinking "man i haven't gotten past ep 7". badik may be one of my personal favorites on this site, but it doesn't have all that much replayability since you can unlock everything by being either promiscuous or reserved, going for good girls or baddies (2 routes). not just that, but all the minigames and routine tasks there are to accomplish on the phone in free roam segments makes me just dread replaying it. i'd still say its definitely more fleshed out than most though. that said, all it took was me being preoccupied with college for like a week to start thinking "damn, i really don't feel like getting back into it". the completionist in me wants to unlock, see and experience it all, being so bothered by the "50%" under the scenes in my gallery, but the other side of me can't deny that the game just doesn't draw me back in. this game, however, was a good few tiers lower in terms of substance in my honest opinion. it falls into a place that leaves much to be desired.

i see the quality of writing in these games falling on a spectrum, and most games fall somewhere in the grey area between horrendous and peak fiction, but i personally find enjoyment in both extremes. one of my favorite developers on this site is Lust Fight actually. the dev of Sorrow and Joy, two of the (arguably) worst written games on here. i also get way too much enjoyment out of Life Is Isekai, which is a totally, unarguably horrible game lol. i feel as though those types of games bring a different kind of enjoyment through the short-term, instant gratification you get from all the bs that happens, seemingly at random. the fever dream of an experience makes me laff lol. they're funny bad yk? still, they're more amusing to me than mediocrity.

i have (i think) 3 updates of badik to go through but i can agree with what you've said about it. in terms of the mc's inconsistent behavior, at first i was willing to consider that he was just code switching, treating different types of people to different sides of him, but those wires get crossed and sometimes i would question the language he's using with certain women. then again, i have noticed that your dik rating (which changes often enough early on) affects the way he articulates himself. its pretty obnoxious but creative still.
the problem with games like badik is that they have no real direction. simulating the daily life of a college student might enhance immersion, assuming it remains realistic. thing is, the game is just full of spectacular events ain't it? it really just moves from one thing to another, reason being, there'd be absolutely nothing of substance if it did pursue realism through monotony. ultimately, for the sake of content, the game shapes up into one without direction. where are we going?
to the next event.
that's where.

this game caught my eye, not because of the writing, but because of it's potential direction. there was a mystery, things might've gone somewhere. there was something i wanted to return to and i was willing to deal with the mc's insufferable personality to get to it. it's a bad habit of these game devs to write up a smooth brained mc that thinks about nothing but sex, has 0 personality and has no mf clue how to talk to women. goddam this guy was annoying. the game certainly is pretty enough, even though every female has the same body, many have the same face and most of the differences between them were minor, like blemishes and hair. i still gotta give it to the dev for the way the environments were built and the way the lights were set up. seeing subsurface scattering, a bit of volumetrics and the classic depth of field makes everything easier on the eyes, i can appreciate that. what upsets me is that he seems to really lack the passion that is necessary to put together any meaningful piece of art.
i watched as he posted this game up when his patreon was making double digits. i saw it rise, peaking just under 2k, then fall to 13k. thinking "what the hell happened" i took a closer look and saw that his updates were months apart. he was painfully absent to the community he had managed to build. the fool caught lightning in a bottle and let it loose and it pisses me off. what pisses me off more is the fact that he could probably drop another v.1 title now and get just as much hype again. here i thought the community had a real contender. its just the lack of care that gives me flashbacks to monster girl island's dev that made a life changing sum of money from a game that made no progress in 6 years.

i share in your standards towards the writing in these games. honestly, they only need to not be horrible, and if they're horrible, they have to be really really horrible. bad enough to enjoy if i'm not taking it seriously. bad enough to make me consider that the dev barely speaks a lick of english. those turn out as funny as dramatic vfx in indian soap operas. i've learned a long time ago to lower my standards, though i still struggle to continue to follow most of the lengthy avns i've played. some may have decent writing in certain aspects, but fall flat in others areas. there are times that i've found games that have great organic dialogue, endearing comedic timing but the writing during h-scenes makes me want to turn the game off lol. all the build-up, often for something so unromantic. personally, i'd do it different

 

[MF_DOOM]

On a more serious note:
Acquainted was one of the few VNs I had high hopes for at the start of this year. I was hoping at least one of them broke out and even someday rivaled BADIK. At this point, none of them have panned out. Kind of the opposite really. I'm a little burnt out on this trend of VNs with potential just gaining a lot of attention then sputtering out before it ever gets anywhere. I might even just be losing interest in this medium of entertainment in general.
It's weird. It's like this market is over saturated but at the same time there's not much to play. Dev cycles keep getting longer and longer, they just slowly ghost the project, or they're just barely good enough to bother with.

There are maybe 2 or 3 games that I still look forward to and everything else is just:
1. Wait 7 months or longer (Although it feels like it's getting easier to count how many VNs don't take more than a year for an update)
2. Play from the beginning because I forgot everything and don't even remember why I found it interesting.
3. Say, "meh, that update was okay"
4. Lose a little more enthusiasm for the VN and VNs in general.
5. Repeat steps 1 - 4.
*Worst ones are the VNs that haven't updated in almost a year or more. I go back to thread and think, "I don't know even remember I found this good in the first place. Why am I bothering to check for status updates from the devs?"

It's whatever, I guess. I've either been too busy or too tired to really sit down and play all of these throughout this whole year anyway. I've got a whole queue of ones I haven't updated yet because I think "Yea, I don't want to actually make the time or have the energy to play this just to wait another 8 months to do it all over again". Plus, I don't have any skin in any of them so I can't really complain. Not anymore at least. Although, it's probably not a bad thing to slowly move on from AVNs. Unless another one comes along that can eventually replace BADIK and isn't going to require us to be following along for the next 10 years, I'll probably be done once BADIK is finally finished (maybe even before then, that shit's probably going to take at least another 3 to 4 years). Does anyone else share a similar sentiment or am I just kind of burnt out?

Still, not gonna lie. If there was an experienced dev smart enough to put Paris from Acquainted, Heidi from Bare Witness, and Tara from Chasing Sunsets all in one game, my interest would inexplicably come back.

I agree with you, I think the Patreon model is a bad one for games in development, there is no financial incentive to keep the dev cycle short and actually finish the game. Being a milker is easier, why not sit on your ass all day and smell your own farts and get 12K a year?
The only VNs I still play are Our Red String, Unbroken and Chasing Sunsets(the last update was Meh tho, and they turned to milking practices as well).

 

[Kas96]

Ye now writes a book about how to smell fart and at the same time earning 12k per month... Man writing paragraphs about how can be a successful milker

 

[LizaS]

i enjoyed the read, i like to hear people's thoughts on these things. its not as if this is a conversation i could have with many, if any, of the people i know irl.

you mentioned that you weren't a fan of the last 2 episodes of badik and here i am thinking "man i haven't gotten past ep 7". badik may be one of my personal favorites on this site, but it doesn't have all that much replayability since you can unlock everything by being either promiscuous or reserved, going for good girls or baddies (2 routes). not just that, but all the minigames and routine tasks there are to accomplish on the phone in free roam segments makes me just dread replaying it. i'd still say its definitely more fleshed out than most though. that said, all it took was me being preoccupied with college for like a week to start thinking "damn, i really don't feel like getting back into it". the completionist in me wants to unlock, see and experience it all, being so bothered by the "50%" under the scenes in my gallery, but the other side of me can't deny that the game just doesn't draw me back in. this game, however, was a good few tiers lower in terms of substance in my honest opinion. it falls into a place that leaves much to be desired.

i see the quality of writing in these games falling on a spectrum, and most games fall somewhere in the grey area between horrendous and peak fiction, but i personally find enjoyment in both extremes. one of my favorite developers on this site is Lust Fight actually. the dev of Sorrow and Joy, two of the (arguably) worst written games on here. i also get way too much enjoyment out of Life Is Isekai, which is a totally, unarguably horrible game lol. i feel as though those types of games bring a different kind of enjoyment through the short-term, instant gratification you get from all the bs that happens, seemingly at random. the fever dream of an experience makes me laff lol. they're funny bad yk? still, they're more amusing to me than mediocrity.

i have (i think) 3 updates of badik to go through but i can agree with what you've said about it. in terms of the mc's inconsistent behavior, at first i was willing to consider that he was just code switching, treating different types of people to different sides of him, but those wires get crossed and sometimes i would question the language he's using with certain women. then again, i have noticed that your dik rating (which changes often enough early on) affects the way he articulates himself. its pretty obnoxious but creative still.
the problem with games like badik is that they have no real direction. simulating the daily life of a college student might enhance immersion, assuming it remains realistic. thing is, the game is just full of spectacular events ain't it? it really just moves from one thing to another, reason being, there'd be absolutely nothing of substance if it did pursue realism through monotony. ultimately, for the sake of content, the game shapes up into one without direction. where are we going?
to the next event.
that's where.

this game caught my eye, not because of the writing, but because of it's potential direction. there was a mystery, things might've gone somewhere. there was something i wanted to return to and i was willing to deal with the mc's insufferable personality to get to it. it's a bad habit of these game devs to write up a smooth brained mc that thinks about nothing but sex, has 0 personality and has no mf clue how to talk to women. goddam this guy was annoying. the game certainly is pretty enough, even though every female has the same body, many have the same face and most of the differences between them were minor, like blemishes and hair. i still gotta give it to the dev for the way the environments were built and the way the lights were set up. seeing subsurface scattering, a bit of volumetrics and the classic depth of field makes everything easier on the eyes, i can appreciate that. what upsets me is that he seems to really lack the passion that is necessary to put together any meaningful piece of art.
i watched as he posted this game up when his patreon was making double digits. i saw it rise, peaking just under 2k, then fall to 13k. thinking "what the hell happened" i took a closer look and saw that his updates were months apart. he was painfully absent to the community he had managed to build. the fool caught lightning in a bottle and let it loose and it pisses me off. what pisses me off more is the fact that he could probably drop another v.1 title now and get just as much hype again. here i thought the community had a real contender. its just the lack of care that gives me flashbacks to monster girl island's dev that made a life changing sum of money from a game that made no progress in 6 years.

i share in your standards towards the writing in these games. honestly, they only need to not be horrible, and if they're horrible, they have to be really really horrible. bad enough to enjoy if i'm not taking it seriously. bad enough to make me consider that the dev barely speaks a lick of english. those turn out as funny as dramatic vfx in indian soap operas. i've learned a long time ago to lower my standards, though i still struggle to continue to follow most of the lengthy avns i've played. some may have decent writing in certain aspects, but fall flat in others areas. there are times that i've found games that have great organic dialogue, endearing comedic timing but the writing during h-scenes makes me want to turn the game off lol. all the build-up, often for something so unromantic. personally, i'd do it different

 

[dddkingddd]

View attachment 2924005

that's aight. its only the guy that i responded to that i care to read my wall of text

 

[xXwankerXx]

Fuck, this one's abandoned too ?? Not much of a surprise, given the lack of response from the dev and the fact that it was released a year ago, but it's still sad to see another promising game with a lot of beautiful LIs bite the dust.

 

[allanl9020142]

i enjoyed the read, i like to hear people's thoughts on these things. its not as if this is a conversation i could have with many, if any, of the people i know irl.

Wow, that's the first time anyone's ever said that. Thanks. Lol.

you mentioned that you weren't a fan of the last 2 episodes of badik and here i am thinking "man i haven't gotten past ep 7". badik may be one of my personal favorites on this site, but it doesn't have all that much replayability since you can unlock everything by being either promiscuous or reserved, going for good girls or baddies (2 routes). not just that, but all the minigames and routine tasks there are to accomplish on the phone in free roam segments makes me just dread replaying it. i'd still say its definitely more fleshed out than most though. that said, all it took was me being preoccupied with college for like a week to start thinking "damn, i really don't feel like getting back into it". the completionist in me wants to unlock, see and experience it all, being so bothered by the "50%" under the scenes in my gallery, but the other side of me can't deny that the game just doesn't draw me back in. this game, however, was a good few tiers lower in terms of substance in my honest opinion. it falls into a place that leaves much to be desired.

Yea, that's kind of true. If you're not someone who cares about all the different variables you can get for some innocuous scene then there really isn't much else that's new to see. For me, it was a relatively new experience in terms of production level for VNs. That's why I initially enjoyed it so much.

Oh, wait. You don't like free roams? Ep 9 is basically one, giant free roam so...have fun with that. Still, I kind of like the mini-games. Just not the English tests (I swear, DPC got some inspiration from Bully. Even Tommy and Jamie remind me too much of whats-his-face and Petey from that old Rockstar game). Honestly, for BADIK it wouldn't be a big deal to just forget about it for a few years at this point. It's going to take a long ass time for it to complete anyway. And if you just never get back to it, there's nothing lost there either.

Ep 8 just felt kind of empty. Felt like a chore to play more than once. Don't want to spoil too much. Ep 9 was a slog because, again, it was basically a giant free roam separated by a few breaks to indicate different stages of time throughout the party.

i see the quality of writing in these games falling on a spectrum, and most games fall somewhere in the grey area between horrendous and peak fiction, but i personally find enjoyment in both extremes. one of my favorite developers on this site is Lust Fight actually. the dev of Sorrow and Joy, two of the (arguably) worst written games on here. i also get way too much enjoyment out of Life Is Isekai, which is a totally, unarguably horrible game lol. i feel as though those types of games bring a different kind of enjoyment through the short-term, instant gratification you get from all the bs that happens, seemingly at random. the fever dream of an experience makes me laff lol. they're funny bad yk? still, they're more amusing to me than mediocrity.

I know what you mean about Acquainted and Yuno's writing not being up to par. I just feel like it was better to give Yuno the benefit of the doubt here. First-time dev and all that. DPC had Acting Lessons before BADIK as well so he's had experience (again, like not burning a character alive this time lol). BADIK is similar to Acquainted in that both really felt like "lightning in a bottle" moments. It's just that the former really seized the opportunity and the latter couldn't handle it.

Alright, alright. I feel like I wasn't being fair to Westview Academy. It's NOT incoherent and I really do like it. Rather than a fever dream, it feels like someone wrote ideas for each scene on the back of a napkin. It goes from point A to point B with no real details or elaboration. I like the dev's sense of humor which is why I still play it. It's just that if I were to compare it to a meal, it'd be like eating a bunch of candy and thinking, "Did I just eat? I don't know." Empty calories. However, Life in Santa County is truly some ass, bro.

the problem with games like badik is that they have no real direction. simulating the daily life of a college student might enhance immersion, assuming it remains realistic. thing is, the game is just full of spectacular events ain't it? it really just moves from one thing to another, reason being, there'd be absolutely nothing of substance if it did pursue realism through monotony. ultimately, for the sake of content, the game shapes up into one without direction. where are we going?
to the next event.
that's where.

No, yea. Completely agree. That sums it up pretty well. Ep 8 wouldn't have left a bad taste if we got a faster follow-up and Ep 9 wouldn't have felt like a waste if we didn't wait a year and some change for it. That's another reason why it feels like it's just soap opera stuff. The story isn't THAT deep and people continue watching just to see what happens the next week. It definitely has great, sentimental scenes and I appreciate those parts. It's just that endings are overly-dramatic cliffhangers and you don't really feel all that satisfied in terms of both character/story development you wanted to see or any resolutions to previous conflicts. Just like you said, it's all "stuff's happening, stuff's happening, Lily's tight ass, stuff's happening, and here's the next cliffhanger". So great scene writing but not much overall substance. Nothing really happened. It's not taking any real steps to progress a story. It's a great experience but that's the problem. It doesn't really last long if the next one's a year (or longer) away. Great while in the moment but only holds together as something because people are already expecting the next one sooner rather than later. It's like a fireworks show but between each bright and loud "BANG" there's a 10-minute interval of empty sky. It's a VN so I understand shit takes time but that's how big of a delay 1 year feels compared to 6 or 8 months.

Edit: Gotta be 100% transparent. I still think BADIK is the best overall VN but because of my points made above, I've gotten kind of whatever about it. Which is why I had high hopes for Acquainted and other VNs replacing it in my personal rankings.

this game caught my eye, not because of the writing, but because of it's potential direction. there was a mystery, things might've gone somewhere. there was something i wanted to return to and i was willing to deal with the mc's insufferable personality to get to it. it's a bad habit of these game devs to write up a smooth brained mc that thinks about nothing but sex, has 0 personality and has no mf clue how to talk to women. goddam this guy was annoying. the game certainly is pretty enough, even though every female has the same body, many have the same face and most of the differences between them were minor, like blemishes and hair. i still gotta give it to the dev for the way the environments were built and the way the lights were set up. seeing subsurface scattering, a bit of volumetrics and the classic depth of field makes everything easier on the eyes, i can appreciate that. what upsets me is that he seems to really lack the passion that is necessary to put together any meaningful piece of art.
i watched as he posted this game up when his patreon was making double digits. i saw it rise, peaking just under 2k, then fall to 13k. thinking "what the hell happened" i took a closer look and saw that his updates were months apart. he was painfully absent to the community he had managed to build. the fool caught lightning in a bottle and let it loose and it pisses me off. what pisses me off more is the fact that he could probably drop another v.1 title now and get just as much hype again. here i thought the community had a real contender. its just the lack of care that gives me flashbacks to monster girl island's dev that made a life changing sum of money from a game that made no progress in 6 years.

I usually don't have problems with MCs, unless they have 2 brain cells and no spine. That makes it terrible to read. If I'm going to be completely honest, I don't really remember much of the dialogue for Acquainted. I was too distracted by the "WTFs", etc. All I remember was that there was at least some intrigue regarding the plot and the writing was apparently tolerable enough for me to not hate it. For me, it was kind of up in the air where it might go but as long as it didn't get any worse it was probably going to be a pretty popular game.
I don't really want to beat on Yuno too much. Kind of just seemed like a lot of people jumped the gun because of the attractive render models (myself included). But he had no prior dev experience, was doing this part-time, and this was only the first release. We had no idea how long he took for that one release and he didn't have a proven track record on anything. Basically, I think he just couldn't handle the commitment and floundered. Still, if he drops a completely different title out of nowhere that pretty much tells me everything I need to know.

I agree with you, I think the Patreon model is a bad one for games in development, there is no financial incentive to keep the dev cycle short and actually finish the game. Being a milker is easier, why not sit on your ass all day and smell your own farts and get 12K a year?
The only VNs I still play are Our Red String, Unbroken and Chasing Sunsets(the last update was Meh tho, and they turned to milking practices as well).

Yea, I don't know. I try to see devs on a case-by-case basis. There are definitely milkers but I don't like to jump the gun until I can see the writing on the wall.

In DPC's case with BADIK, it's more of a problem with him not knowing when to stop his "artistic genius" or at this point it feels like he's just bored with the story and is adding in a bunch random stuff.

In Yuno's case, like I said above, I just think he was in way over his head. Seemed like he had a full-time career and not just some job to just live. So even less incentive for him to stick to it. Still pretty shitty of him to not pause Patreon payments while being radio silent for months and even to this day. In that case, he's a passive milker. Still shitty but why reject free money? Also, I really feel in my gut that he just treats this as a hobby and not something serious. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an update at some point and then another one a century later or something crazy. It's just that, what I've seen from other devs is basically actively scamming gullible people by dropping a "Hello, still alive" every once in a while and maybe a game update every other leap year.

Yo, nice taste in music btw. I think you're the first one I've seen on this site that isn't into some kind of euro-metal death rock or whatever the fuck it is. I don't judge, it's just nice to see someone who also likes Madvillain (Madlib and MFDoom)

 

[MF_DOOM]

Yea, I don't know. I try to see devs on a case-by-case basis. There are definitely milkers but I don't like to jump the gun until I can see the writing on the wall.

Sure, I am just saying Patreon money doesnt encourage productivity too much.
If they had to sell their game like any other game dev in the world based on quality, reviews and one time payment I bet dev cycles would not take as long since they would not get paid to waste time.

Yo, nice taste in music btw. I think you're the first one I've seen on this site that isn't into some kind of euro-metal death rock or whatever the fuck it is. I don't judge, it's just nice to see someone who also likes Madvillain (Madlib and MFDoom)

Yep, been into hip hop since the 90s.

 

[allanl9020142]

Sure, I am just saying Patreon money doesnt encourage productivity too much.
If they had to sell their game like any other game dev in the world based on quality, reviews and one time payment I bet dev cycles would not take as long since they would not get paid to waste time.


Yep, been into hip hop since the 90s.

Just to be clear. I do agree with you on Patreon overall. It's a weird system. I've talked about it before on this thread. In theory, it was supposed to be a way to support a creator directly and give them the freedom to work at their own pace, on their own terms, and produce whatever the hell they want. That's great.

It has positives and negatives but I just think the whole idea of supporting a creator indefinitely is bizarre. Especially when you realize that some of them are making way more money than the average donor. In some cases you've got some minimum wage student giving money to someone making 6 figures a year. Like, damn. That's ass-backwards.

I wish there was something else but it's too late to go back now. What dev wouldn't want a system where money rolls in whether or not any content was actually produced that month? Let alone any work done at all on the project.

On the flipside, I feel like there wouldn't be as many people trying to do this stuff like this in the first place without a system like Patreon. "I can work on this part-time while still getting paid and eventually maybe earn enough to make it into a full-time thing". DPC for sure wouldn't be fucking around with some in-game, in-phone gallery app if he had to worry about paying the bills but if Patreon hadn't been around, there probably wouldn't be BADIK. In the end, it made it easier for creators/indie devs to produce content that they would be satisfied with and (ideally) the patron would be satisfied with.

I'm not going to touch on "Oh, it gives more time to devs to make something good instead of being forced to put something out" because I don't know how I feel about that. You kind of end up with the productivity problem you addressed. They end up taking their sweet-ass time to do anything at all and even if they do weekly reports, you have no way actually knowing of whether any work was even done. Also, what happens if the dev takes the game in a direction you don't like or does something else you don't agree with? "Haha, too bad. Thanks for the years of monthly donations, idiot."

I bet a lot of VNs I like wouldn't even exist without Patreon. Still, there are definitely people who take advantage of Patreon, etc. Also, not everyone's good enough to get to the point of going full-time just on Patreon and the occasional Steam sales.

I do agree with you on Patreon not incentivizing productivity but it's not all bad. Just kind of dumb from a consumer's perspective. It wasn't really supposed to be a producer-consumer type of deal. It was supposed to be creator-patron. It's the part where people make business models off of it that things get shaky for me. My personal rule was if I really liked a dev, I'd just donate for the months they put out an update for the game. That seemed a little more fair to someone who views it as buying a product rather than supporting a creator regardless of anything else. Even then, you'd essentially be paying for part of a game when you think about it.

Overall, it definitely made things easier for creators which is good but for sucks for everyone else who doesn't "believe in the dev's vision" or something like that. Also, just without it there probably wouldn't be this many AVNs, etc. We'd still be stuck in some 2000s era shit nobody would give enough of a fuck about to even complain about. Although, might not be a bad thing ... I've really only played a couple in the past few months and haven't even bothered with anything else. Kinda burnt out as I've said before. Shit, I only played Acquaintance once.

At any rate, I think Yuno should at least pause Patreon payments if he's not even going to bother with at least letting people know anything at all but at the same time I'm more wondering what the people who are still supporting are even thinking.

 

[MF_DOOM]

My personal rule was if I really liked a dev, I'd just donate for the months they put out an update for the game. That seemed a little more fair to someone who views it as buying a product rather than supporting a creator regardless of anything else. Even then, you'd essentially be paying for part of a game when you think about it.

I do it too with some games like Unbroken and Our Red String but I will definitely will never just support someone all year round. Why would I pay $60 per year for some indie not well-made porn game when I can spend this money on a finished game like Baldur's Gate 3 for about 200 hours of game time and sex with a bear?

 

[dddkingddd]

Wow, that's the first time anyone's ever said that. Thanks. Lol.


Yea, that's kind of true. If you're not someone who cares about all the different variables you can get for some innocuous scene then there really isn't much else that's new to see. For me, it was a relatively new experience in terms of production level for VNs. That's why I initially enjoyed it so much.

Oh, wait. You don't like free roams? Ep 9 is basically one, giant free roam so...have fun with that. Still, I kind of like the mini-games. Just not the English tests (I swear, DPC got some inspiration from Bully. Even Tommy and Jamie remind me too much of whats-his-face and Petey from that old Rockstar game). Honestly, for BADIK it wouldn't be a big deal to just forget about it for a few years at this point. It's going to take a long ass time for it to complete anyway. And if you just never get back to it, there's nothing lost there either.

Ep 8 just felt kind of empty. Felt like a chore to play more than once. Don't want to spoil too much. Ep 9 was a slog because, again, it was basically a giant free roam separated by a few breaks to indicate different stages of time throughout the party.


I know what you mean about Acquainted and Yuno's writing not being up to par. I just feel like it was better to give Yuno the benefit of the doubt here. First-time dev and all that. DPC had Acting Lessons before BADIK as well so he's had experience (again, like not burning a character alive this time lol). BADIK is similar to Acquainted in that both really felt like "lightning in a bottle" moments. It's just that the former really seized the opportunity and the latter couldn't handle it.

Alright, alright. I feel like I wasn't being fair to Westview Academy. It's NOT incoherent and I really do like it. Rather than a fever dream, it feels like someone wrote ideas for each scene on the back of a napkin. It goes from point A to point B with no real details or elaboration. I like the dev's sense of humor which is why I still play it. It's just that if I were to compare it to a meal, it'd be like eating a bunch of candy and thinking, "Did I just eat? I don't know." Empty calories. However, Life in Santa County is truly some ass, bro.


No, yea. Completely agree. That sums it up pretty well. Ep 8 wouldn't have left a bad taste if we got a faster follow-up and Ep 9 wouldn't have felt like a waste if we didn't wait a year and some change for it. That's another reason why it feels like it's just soap opera stuff. The story isn't THAT deep and people continue watching just to see what happens the next week. It definitely has great, sentimental scenes and I appreciate those parts. It's just that endings are overly-dramatic cliffhangers and you don't really feel all that satisfied in terms of both character/story development you wanted to see or any resolutions to previous conflicts. Just like you said, it's all "stuff's happening, stuff's happening, Lily's tight ass, stuff's happening, and here's the next cliffhanger". So great scene writing but not much overall substance. Nothing really happened. It's not taking any real steps to progress a story. It's a great experience but that's the problem. It doesn't really last long if the next one's a year (or longer) away. Great while in the moment but only holds together as something because people are already expecting the next one sooner rather than later. It's like a fireworks show but between each bright and loud "BANG" there's a 10-minute interval of empty sky. It's a VN so I understand shit takes time but that's how big of a delay 1 year feels compared to 6 or 8 months.

Edit: Gotta be 100% transparent. I still think BADIK is the best overall VN but because of my points made above, I've gotten kind of whatever about it. Which is why I had high hopes for Acquainted and other VNs replacing it in my personal rankings.


I usually don't have problems with MCs, unless they have 2 brain cells and no spine. That makes it terrible to read. If I'm going to be completely honest, I don't really remember much of the dialogue for Acquainted. I was too distracted by the "WTFs", etc. All I remember was that there was at least some intrigue regarding the plot and the writing was apparently tolerable enough for me to not hate it. For me, it was kind of up in the air where it might go but as long as it didn't get any worse it was probably going to be a pretty popular game.
I don't really want to beat on Yuno too much. Kind of just seemed like a lot of people jumped the gun because of the attractive render models (myself included). But he had no prior dev experience, was doing this part-time, and this was only the first release. We had no idea how long he took for that one release and he didn't have a proven track record on anything. Basically, I think he just couldn't handle the commitment and floundered. Still, if he drops a completely different title out of nowhere that pretty much tells me everything I need to know.


Yea, I don't know. I try to see devs on a case-by-case basis. There are definitely milkers but I don't like to jump the gun until I can see the writing on the wall.

In DPC's case with BADIK, it's more of a problem with him not knowing when to stop his "artistic genius" or at this point it feels like he's just bored with the story and is adding in a bunch random stuff.

In Yuno's case, like I said above, I just think he was in way over his head. Seemed like he had a full-time career and not just some job to just live. So even less incentive for him to stick to it. Still pretty shitty of him to not pause Patreon payments while being radio silent for months and even to this day. In that case, he's a passive milker. Still shitty but why reject free money? Also, I really feel in my gut that he just treats this as a hobby and not something serious. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an update at some point and then another one a century later or something crazy. It's just that, what I've seen from other devs is basically actively scamming gullible people by dropping a "Hello, still alive" every once in a while and maybe a game update every other leap year.

Yo, nice taste in music btw. I think you're the first one I've seen on this site that isn't into some kind of euro-metal death rock or whatever the fuck it is. I don't judge, it's just nice to see someone who also likes Madvillain (Madlib and MFDoom)

please excuse the long wall of text. i feel like its easier to approach a message when it is segmented and annotative like yours but i'm not entirely sure how to quote messages like that lol.

badik is one game on this site that definitely has some significance to me. in terms of the avns i've played, i initally started with those that have visuals made using koikatsu, then honey select, then daz3d. honestly, my first impression of daz visuals was not a plesant one. they seemed uncanny since they lean greatly towards realism, yet most devs here can't fancy themselves 3d artists either. it is already very difficult to capture realism in 3d without the use of cgi and motion capture, but the unnatural movements, physiques and expressions from the characters in some of these games really turned me off for a very long time. badik is the first daz3d avn i'd ever played and its the game that got me accustomed to those types of visuals by maintaining my attention and interest for quite a while. i'd say that this is because the game is undeniably better written than those that update every other week. more effort is put in, more money is invested, the game looks, sounds and reads entirely differently and that was what made me so invested. as the game progresses though, i started feeling as though the writing got dumber for the sake of introducing conflict and manifesting some type of imaginary stakes. personally, bella is one of my all-time favorite characters and the way dpc made mc fumble their date made me cringe so hard it physically hurt. i would've much preferred conflict with bella to arise from the mc's relationship with her BEST FRIEND jill. sure, the internal struggle with her guilt, being a married woman, definitely added character, but it always seemed so strange to me that jill was never even an afterthought, even as far as episode 7. i mean, she did give jill her blessing to pursue mc, yet, she's slowly falling for him herself, while indulging in him intimately.

i guess dpc didn't get the memo that people on this site (for the most part) absolutely despise sandboxes lol. honestly i feel like the only game that did that correctly (that i am aware of) is summertime saga. the sandbox in that game genuinely feels liberating. you can do what you want, when you want, pursue who you want and navigating locations (both on the map screen and in buildings) feels coherent, continuous and easy. too many of these games create a sandbox where navigating boils down to spam clicking the entire screen and hoping you mouse over an interactable. i cannot tell you just how many times i've gotten COMPLETELY lost in the free roam segments in badik LOL. it helps that summertime saga is a hand drawn game with a unique art style that allows places and items of interest to stand out much more.

i wanted to give yuno the benefit of the doubt as well, i was interested in seeing what came next and meeting the characters that were presented in the art, but not yet introduced in-game. the reason i've really been going so hard on the dev is really due to the neglected opportunity. i also feel that a first time developer may not be great at rendering, coding, music or sound design, but if you're gonna be making a visual NOVEL....come on man....take a class in writing
i'm loving these recommendations btw lol. i find it easier to start something entirely new, than to continue a game that i've neglected for a while. i also find it easier to consume content that doesn't take itself too seriously. i mean, i do profusely enjoy literature that presents itself in earnest, but in order to truly affect me, it has to be good. often times, what you get from these devs is barely (if ever) good enough.

what dpc is doing now, is holding onto a habit that he could afford to abandon. it is one that he SHOULD abandon. his first game was a success, his current project is among the best, he really and truly does not need to end each chapter with a dramatic cliff-hanger. at this point, he has enough recognition already, the endings of each chapter should really feel like the ending of a game, it should feel like a closing act, a resolution that provides some degree of catharsis. he should be more confident that people will return, still wanting to know what comes next for our mc and the girls. character development really is too slow and, to a degree, non-existent for some girls. though, i guess that's just what happens when you attempt to introduce so man characters to your game. the analogy you used, comparing the game to fireworks, just works all too well.

maybe i am beating on yuno a bit much.
i am still quite upset about the lack of passion, but when you said "we have no idea how long he took for that one release" i felt a tinge of guilt being so critical of this project. one side of me wants to say "if he took so long then he had ample time to put some good writing into this". that's the hater in me lol. truth is, i definitely understand the amount of time, effort and work that goes into producing something like this and i've gotta give that to him. he likely won't see or read this though, so no harm. i'm still keeping an eye out for the random new title though. i'm not sure exactly when this project was abandoned, but his patreon still looks to be active to me.

i agree with you on your take on the pateon model and the way devs treat it. you really should look at it on a case-by-case basis. i do believe (really and truly) that MOST devs are milkers, because most devs are truly lacking in passion and you see that, not only in their consistency, but in their effort and investment. the writing, the soundtrack, the ui, their interactions with the community, their update and upload schedule etc. crowd funding really does give devs the option of being total waste men, but at the same time, i definitely do see some individuals that show real passion.
as much as people like to poke fun as Lust Fight (and they do. almost bullied him into quitting and he abandoned his games) the guy would still update his game, regardless of how much money he was making. there was a time when the dude literally had 0 subs, still working on his shit. as of rn he's totally stranded with no current ongoing projects and no cash flow from this direction, yet he recently mentioned that he's learning coding to make a new game.
i cannot remember the last time anyone gave that guy money to do anything related to game development. that's gotta be passion and that's definitely a contributing factor to my support.

PS: its ALL CAPS when you spell the man name. MFDOOM

 

[MF_DOOM]

PS: its ALL CAPS when you spell the man name. MFDOOM

Yes, but MFDOOM and MF DOOM was taken so I settled for MF_DOOM.

 

[Deleted member 6087084]

Sad I loved the artstyle and characters

 

[allanl9020142]

please excuse the long wall of text. i feel like its easier to approach a message when it is segmented and annotative like yours but i'm not entirely sure how to quote messages like that lol.

Oh, I don't know how everyone else does it but I just highlight the part I want to reply to, right-click, then it'll give you the option to either "quote" or "reply" to the highlighted part. Choose reply.

badik is one game on this site that definitely has some significance to me. in terms of the avns i've played, i initally started with those that have visuals made using koikatsu, then honey select, then daz3d. honestly, my first impression of daz visuals was not a plesant one. they seemed uncanny since they lean greatly towards realism, yet most devs here can't fancy themselves 3d artists either. it is already very difficult to capture realism in 3d without the use of cgi and motion capture, but the unnatural movements, physiques and expressions from the characters in some of these games really turned me off for a very long time. badik is the first daz3d avn i'd ever played and its the game that got me accustomed to those types of visuals by maintaining my attention and interest for quite a while. i'd say that this is because the game is undeniably better written than those that update every other week. more effort is put in, more money is invested, the game looks, sounds and reads entirely differently and that was what made me so invested. as the game progresses though, i started feeling as though the writing got dumber for the sake of introducing conflict and manifesting some type of imaginary stakes. personally, bella is one of my all-time favorite characters and the way dpc made mc fumble their date made me cringe so hard it physically hurt. i would've much preferred conflict with bella to arise from the mc's relationship with her BEST FRIEND jill. sure, the internal struggle with her guilt, being a married woman, definitely added character, but it always seemed so strange to me that jill was never even an afterthought, even as far as episode 7. i mean, she did give jill her blessing to pursue mc, yet, she's slowly falling for him herself, while indulging in him intimately.

It's actually the opposite for me. I started playing the ones with Daz and it was the Honey Select stuff that felt weird to me at first. In fact, my preference for Daz really displays itself when I'm willing to break my personal rule of not trying an Early Dev VN until at least "1,000 renders" or 4 updates because well ... shit like this happens. I broke my rule for Acquainted because it looked so good and it was a time where other VNs either were still in their dev cycles or everything else just looked so unappealing in terms of render models and overall render quality.

(Edit: Oh yea, one more thing. I actually enjoy sandboxes ... which really says a lot when I say I didn't like how Ep 9 was just a giant free roam. And yea, haha BADIK's counter-intuitive map navigation is well-known. There are some sandboxes that I just dislike because the dev confuses difficulty with hellishly tedious by leaving out basic QoL features but yea, sandboxes are never usually a minus for me.)

I actually had a conversation with someone else on this site and DPC's writing was briefly mentioned. Basically, DPC is a GREAT writer for self-contained scenes. "Moments", I guess. He really knows how to bring it all together with the dialogue, render posing, music, etc. It's just that in terms of character writing and overall plot, not so much. Honestly, I think one of the major reasons why BADIK is so popular is that it's so nostalgic for a lot of people who've watched American Pie, played games like Bully, and even the tried and true tropes from the late 90s to the early 2000s. (Just look at those old Disney Channel original movies and all that classic whiteboi rock stuff, man the nostalgia hits hard lol). Doesn't have to be too deep but has a certain charm to it that people just don't really see these days.

He makes some pretty questionable decisions when it comes to writing characters and presents an illusion of choice with all the "hidden variables" you can get that don't really change the story but sometimes have a separate render or two. Only to be forced along the predetermined path. The reason why it worked is because he was so good at perfectly writing those old tropes we all like. Even then, it just kind of feels like he phoned it in a little bit for Ep 8 and 9 for some parts. It's a contentious topic so I won't get into it but I hope it doesn't become a trend. It just reminds me of some hack writer for some Netflix show that just inserts pop culture references or current social "blah blah blah, I don't care. I don't want to think about it right now" that makes you roll your eyes.

I don't think the writing got "dumber" regarding what you're referring to. If you really think about it, that's just how he writes in general. LOL. He'll write in a way that makes things feel contrived either for the sake of convenience or because he doesn't know how to create natural conflicts. It's understandable. Too many routes for him to make it something perfectly cohesive. Bella can't have a conflict with MC and Jill if the player isn't playing on MC's route. That's pretty much the problem with what happened at the end of Ep 8 and a little bit into Ep 9. Stuff happens that doesn't really make sense relative to the importance based on what path you're on and DPC just kind of does an ass pull to cover it up. Just to be clear. I really don't mind it. I don't care about the soap opera-level writing because 1. it'd be incredibly difficult to write something different for all the intertwined variables and 2. as long as it still has that fun theme and he just keeps it going rather than taking a year or longer to do it, I'll be too distracted to care.

Instead of "Bella's date sucked and now I have to wait another year at the least for some kind of resolution or excuse for why it sucked" it could be "Bella's date sucked but at least we'll get another episode sometime in the summer with some more distractions and maybe an ass-pulled explanation for what happened". The distractions really aren't as effective when they're so far apart.

what dpc is doing now, is holding onto a habit that he could afford to abandon. it is one that he SHOULD abandon. his first game was a success, his current project is among the best, he really and truly does not need to end each chapter with a dramatic cliff-hanger. at this point, he has enough recognition already, the endings of each chapter should really feel like the ending of a game, it should feel like a closing act, a resolution that provides some degree of catharsis. he should be more confident that people will return, still wanting to know what comes next for our mc and the girls. character development really is too slow and, to a degree, non-existent for some girls. though, i guess that's just what happens when you attempt to introduce so man characters to your game. the analogy you used, comparing the game to fireworks, just works all too well.

Yea, again. I think that's just how he writes, lol. I don't assume he thinks that he needs the cliffhangers. It's just that he wants them lol. It's not so much a habit but rather his core as a writer is being melodramatic. He can't help it. Again, which is fine. It's just, you know, keep em coming damn it. No one's waiting around for some half-assed excuse for what happened to Character B in the last episode. We just want to see the next sparkly thing. It's not a secret that's how he writes. Just look at how he ended Acting Lessons .

i wanted to give yuno the benefit of the doubt as well, i was interested in seeing what came next and meeting the characters that were presented in the art, but not yet introduced in-game. the reason i've really been going so hard on the dev is really due to the neglected opportunity. i also feel that a first time developer may not be great at rendering, coding, music or sound design, but if you're gonna be making a visual NOVEL....come on man....take a class in writing
i'm loving these recommendations btw lol. i find it easier to start something entirely new, than to continue a game that i've neglected for a while. i also find it easier to consume content that doesn't take itself too seriously. i mean, i do profusely enjoy literature that presents itself in earnest, but in order to truly affect me, it has to be good. often times, what you get from these devs is barely (if ever) good enough.

maybe i am beating on yuno a bit much.
i am still quite upset about the lack of passion, but when you said "we have no idea how long he took for that one release" i felt a tinge of guilt being so critical of this project. one side of me wants to say "if he took so long then he had ample time to put some good writing into this". that's the hater in me lol. truth is, i definitely understand the amount of time, effort and work that goes into producing something like this and i've gotta give that to him. he likely won't see or read this though, so no harm. i'm still keeping an eye out for the random new title though. i'm not sure exactly when this project was abandoned, but his patreon still looks to be active to me.

Meh, I don't knock him for the writing so much. From what I've seen, Yuno was already well-known for his Daz renders or something (I don't really know. Literally anyone else probably does) and he just thought to make an attempt at a full-blown VN. I'm guessing he took so long because he kept the same hobby-mindset for making 3D renders. Go to work, come home, maybe work on it for an hour, maybe work it on the weekend. I can imagine all the time he wanted to put into it went into working on it. Not so much improving his skills. Honestly, that's fine. If an update suddenly comes out after 2 years or something, I'll still play it (if I'm still playing VNs at that time). It's good as a hobby for him and to make a little beer money from people who make questionable decisions with their money but as a project and potential full-time thing, it's dead in the water. I wouldn't feel guilty about it. It just kind of is what it is. It kind of goes back to judging based on a case-by-case basis. Just change the perspective on to view the project, I guess. Rather than a project someone seriously wants to make into an ongoing thing, it's more like a hobby someone does whenever he has the mind to work on it. This is all my own assumptions, btw. Don't take my word for it. He could be dealing with an 80 hour work week for all I know and really wants to make this work. I'm just assuming based on what I've seen.

i agree with you on your take on the pateon model and the way devs treat it. you really should look at it on a case-by-case basis. i do believe (really and truly) that MOST devs are milkers, because most devs are truly lacking in passion and you see that, not only in their consistency, but in their effort and investment. the writing, the soundtrack, the ui, their interactions with the community, their update and upload schedule etc. crowd funding really does give devs the option of being total waste men, but at the same time, i definitely do see some individuals that show real passion.
as much as people like to poke fun as Lust Fight (and they do. almost bullied him into quitting and he abandoned his games) the guy would still update his game, regardless of how much money he was making. there was a time when the dude literally had 0 subs, still working on his shit. as of rn he's totally stranded with no current ongoing projects and no cash flow from this direction, yet he recently mentioned that he's learning coding to make a new game.
i cannot remember the last time anyone gave that guy money to do anything related to game development. that's gotta be passion and that's definitely a contributing factor to my support.

Luckily(?), Yuno didn't really put out enough shit yet for me to make an accurate judgement on whether he's a milker. The whole vibe just feels so "casual" for it to feel like milking. Although, it doesn't help his case that he hasn't paused Patreon payments. If he was smart about it, at least. He would've rushed something out and make a post every 3 months but this feels like something else.

I'm honestly not sure about how many devs are milkers. I'm just usually averse to calling devs milkers. They might be, I don't know for sure. It's usually just more like a personal assumption I make than something objective. I admittedly just don't pay attention to most games that don't update often. I'm saying this after seeing tens of VNs just sputter out and go into development limbo (which is probably why I'm burnt out). For the ones I do follow, it feels like most of them are making an effort. At least half of them are even decently active on this site.

I think there a handful of devs that I've seen that just go full-blown milking. I'm not talking about the ones that start out with the ambition but whose initial enthusiasm eventually peter out (I feel like most don't know where to take the story after so long). I'm talking about "Yea, we just hired 1000 people!" then take a year to put something out, give an excuse about working with a new "something-or-other" but say they've got the hang of it now, and then still take just as much time even though there's apparently a whole-ass team working on it.

Yea, if a dev really shows passion. You really can't help but root for the game and the dev. I'm also kind of the opposite. I don't really like trying anything new. Especially if it's early dev (which is why I usually wait). 9 out of 10 times, it usually has terrible or no proofreading. A few updates come out and then ... it's abandoned.

Also, ay yo! Another fan.

 

[Neko-Chan Pacifica]

its sad to see this game become abandoned I actually high hopes it wouldn't, the graphics and models are just beautiful. I can guarantee that out of 100 vn's on my ssd, 90
5 or more have become abandoned which id really annoying to say the least.

 

[Kazanovaromeo]

abandoned

 

[XV71]

had no doubt this was going to happen, a lot sooner than I expected, I was thinking after 2 or 3 updates it'll be abandoned.

 

[gentlemanclub]

its sad to see this game become abandoned I actually high hopes it wouldn't, the graphics and models are just beautiful. I can guarantee that out of 100 vn's on my ssd, 90
5 or more have become abandoned which id really annoying to say the least.

same here brother and I can't even pinpoint why the dev started their projects just to abandon them. Were they planning to make it big with their projects in a short amount of time? Or simply just wanted to make a quick buck and see what happens.

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

same here brother and I can't even pinpoint why the dev started their projects just to abandon them. Were they planning to make it big with their projects in a short amount of time? Or simply just wanted to make a quick buck and see what happens.

if the game gets abandoned it really sucks but I can understand that life happens but to go radio silent without giving us even an explanation

and I don't know if something happened to Yuno Gasai because I know him personally Yuno is a brother and I never thought he would do something like this

I hope Yuno is all right

 

[XV71]

if the game gets abandoned it really sucks but I can understand that life happens but to go radio silent without giving us even an explanation

and I don't know if something happened to Yuno Gasai because I know him personally Yuno a brother and I never thought he would do something like this

I hope Yuno all right

yeah hope nothing happened to Yuno, but that's not gonna stop me from being a pessimist, could just be a successful case of the dev wanting money, getting the money, dev has gone, some cases, if the dev isn't satisfied with the money coming in the game gets abandoned so they usually make the game look really good to draw in money on 1st release, pretty sure yuno had patrons before posting this game from the wallpapers and custom renders crowd, I mean yuno managed to get an RTX 4090 so hopefully didn't just bail on this after getting it, which would suck. if anything this is all thanks to the suckers who throw money at a 1st release because it's pretty.