I would advise the developer, given its improved PC configuration, to rework the game's rendering. Improvements should be made to the lighting, skin tones, modeling and body details of the characters, as well as to the animations, which are basic but currently serve their purpose (albeit rather infrequently). It will take practice and time to raise quality to a more professional level.
This line of thinking has killed more games than i can count. If a dev wants to rework their game it should be held back, without exception, until the game is complete, only then does it make any sense. I've seen arguments for it but outside a dev completely screwing themselves with a narrative dead-end, warranting a rewrite, or having an absolutely atrocious intro in comparison to their first or second update, none of the arguments i've ever read have lead a favorable outcome once the dev committed to a rework, it always, always, ends with a dead and unfinished game.
This line of thinking has killed more games than i can count. If a dev wants to rework their game it should be held back, without exception, until the game is complete, only then does it make any sense. I've seen arguments for it but outside a dev completely screwing themselves with a narrative dead-end, warranting a rewrite, or having an absolutely atrocious intro in comparison to their first or second update, none of the arguments i've ever read have lead a favorable outcome once the dev committed to a rework, it always, always, ends with a dead and unfinished game.
I was simply sharing my opinion on the current state of the game, with a few non-binding observations and suggestions. What the developer decides to do with it is entirely up to them. I don't think the principle of making technical or narrative changes is wrong, as long as they improve quality and audience satisfaction.
I'm not responsible for any unforeseen circumstances that may affect a developer, nor for any delays, poor excuses, lies or even fraudulent ventures.
Apart from individuals who use this pretext to hold back their game, make as little progress as possible or stagnate while collecting money, the problem seems to be one of motivation (lack of inspiration, burnout, lassitude or discouragement) or organization.
In the final two instances, the responsibility falls to the developer - challenges that can be surmounted through goodwill and integrity.
In practice, a developer can choose to implement changes gradually without disrupting the game's progress, take a break to apply them all at once, or incorporate them at the end if time and resources allow.
Sometimes these are crucial steps in correcting major problems or flaws in a game. It's not always feasible to postpone these corrections until the end, especially in the case of severe technical failures compromising game stability, minor flaws altering the player experience, or writing problems affecting player interest and commitment.
If a developer decides not to intervene in the face of these problems during development, he risks losing the interest of his audience, which in turn impacts the earnings that can be reinvested in the game and, consequently, the final sales revenue at release.
So, contrary to your assertion, these changes and revisions can be quite relevant if they benefit the final product and serve the interest of the public, i.e. the buyer.
In the end, it seems that only one symptom or factor is being addressed, rather than the multiple underlying causes of the abandonment, discontinuation, or constant stalling of these games.
I recently read that during MF sex (not porn) "only 4% of women climax from penetration alone", so how important are strap-ons and penetration for real life lesbian sex at all compared to a good Foreplay?
Obviously strap-ons are visually important for lesbian porn produced for a male audience, but what about the female lesbian audience?
I mean, in porn? Yeah, not big on strap action. At home? I fucking love it!
If we are oversharing here, then I will speak on both my and my partner's behalf and say that while fingers, lips, and toys might get us closer to climax... well, sometimes it's more about the journey. There is something about getting railed, feeling her weight pressing against your back or right on top of you or as she pins you against the wall, struggling to catch her lips as your ass meets with her pelvis over and over... you feel her breathing on your neck, the sweat, the exertion, the passion... Fuck... I think I'll have to come back to the update another time; I need to go find my girlfriend.
This is going to be a bit of a different one and quite long, so grab something to drink and sit tight.
6 months ago, on the 17th of February 2024, I reluctantly clicked "publish" for a little thing called Actual Roommates.
I was sure it would die in obscurity. 6 months later, here we are!
I wanted to make a post to thank you all for your support, being it monetary, spreading the word around or even just by downloading and giving Actual Roommates a chance.
As I said I was convinced that no one would care about it, the market for AVNs got very saturated after 2021-2022, it didn't have the most amazing renders or the most gripping story, just a talking cat and an horny protagonist. Despite that, the game was received positively.
And yet, the game almost died one month in.
Only a select group of friends knew what I was doing, but they all had 0 experience with DAZ Studio, coding, and very limited experience with VNs in general.
As I was putting together chapter 2 I was lonely, isolated. I only wanted to finish the chapter and go back to playing videogames with my friends.
And then, a DM on discord changed everything.
For some reason I caught the eye of Asia The Magical Gurl, dev of Projekt Moon. They invited me to their discord server and OH BOY!, there's some very talented people in there.
Overnight I went from having no one to talk to to have a server full of fellow devs to mine for information, criticism and boob gifs.
This is the first of many thank-yous and it goes to Asia: thank you for pulling me up from the metaphorical darkness, you are a wonderful human being and one day I'll give you the biggest and tightest hug I can muster.
In said server, after having calmed down from the shock of realizing that Moonbox was in there and trying to not embarass myself from fangirling all over the chat, I got friendly with 3 wonderful individuals: TheSugarRay, TheDevian and FireValley.
Me and FireValley being "newbs" in this environment grew up a lot as devs together, learning things as we go, being coached by other, more experienced, devs, and I can't wait for his game, Dragon of Calon Valley, to FINALLY be released (I played the alpha, it's good shit!).
TheDevian (of Bonds of Blood fame) is sooooo fucking gooooooooooood at 3D modeling and has a deep knowledge of DAZ Studio. I can't count the amount of times I was struggling with something and he'd just pop up, dispense knowledge, then go back to, I presume, play Fallout for the 1200th time.
Ray is my bro. I fucking loved his game, Candied Oblivion, and we bonded over that. I love people that, despite not taking themselves too seriously, still work their butts off and he fits that mold to a tee. Also trolling him on twitter is one of my favourites past times and we constantly put up with each other's bullshit. Even if the game dies tomorrow, the experience of having found Ray makes all of this worth it.
But, of course, the game would be a mess of bad grammar and errors if it wasn't for my right-hand woman, someone who loves girls probably even more than me (actually, DEFINITELY more than me): Lunaedge.
She's one of my closest friend, I've known her for over a decade and the fact that she accepted to embark with me in this dumb journey still baffles me. I've asked her to share her thoughts about it, and here they are:
"Hi everyone! Professional nitpicker Luna here~ ^_^ I
just wanted to thank you all for playing Hanako's game!
I've known them for [REDACTED] years and when they first pitched the game and asked me if I wanted to lend a hand with supervising the script, I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda confused.
I'd played a single AVN in my entire life (Katawa Shoujo btw, very different style but go check it out if you haven't experienced it yet!) and I had no idea there was such an active, diverse and dedicate community around them.
But the moment I laid eyes on the first Chapter's early draft I was immediately sold. I knew they could weave a captivating story (they had to deal with my plot-derailing shenanigans A LOT playing D&D lmao), but I wasn't expecting the level of detail, passion and attention that Hanako poured into every single render and how believably, genuinely LESBIAN the characters felt right off the bat. As they shared with me and a bunch of other friends the early creative process and its weird HW-related hiccups I couldn't help but become a fan of their work.
I'm incredibly proud of being part of this, I am sure that the best is yet to come and I can't wait to share more hilarious, heartwrenching and spicy moments with all of y'all, especially if they involve Arisu or Sarah "
If you end up reading this, Luna, thank you! From the bottom of my heart! Without you this game's success would not have been possilbe! [EDIT: There's, obviously, a typo there that Luna immediately caught. I'm gonna leave it and the rest up just as a testament of how important she is]
Two more people I want to individually thank, before we move to some exciting stuff, are TRL_3D and SexyShelly.
They were the first two that reached out to me to let me know that they enjoyed the game and that helped A LOT during those dark beginnings.
Both are actually very talented, with Shelly releasing Shelly's Future Past and TRL_3D will release SOMETHING in the future, if only to stop me from badgering him to do so.
As a player, we don't always grasp all the doubts a game developer can feel.
HanakoXVN, Actual Roomates is a great game.
As others wrote before me, good story, endearing characters, a sexy badass MC, lot of humor...
And you deliver 5 chapters in just 6 month!
Not bad at all for a first game.
Hell, I'm not a cat person, but I think Spoon is one of the major character. And the game won't be the same without him.
I think it's a sign of good writing.
