VN Ren'Py Away from Home [Ep.1-28] [vatosgames]

[_exodus_]

Burnout. Not just for the dev but also for the players.
In the begining you're like a demigod with new people coming in every day praising you for your work, after a while the patreon plateaus and there's no new pledgers,all you have is the same people whining and complaining, expecting you to do stuff. Just a normal 9 to 5.

I personally think that there should be a rule or something, that if you can't finish your game before the 2 years mark you should abandon it and start anew.
There should be more incentive for devs to make smaller games and not take on these gargantuan fucking behemots, especially for fresh devs with little experience.

That's a terrible idea, you rush a Dev to finish their projects you gonna have a long list of problems, it also want stop people from bitching and complaining. Some people just wait for the opportunity to turn on devs and spew venom, there are just some unhappy people in here. I'll wrap this up by saying even though I may be disappointed we haven't had an update on a while, the Dev is still active and this special shows me that he's ready to get back to work, in the meantime I'm gonna play and enjoy the various game new and old that deserve recognition.

 

[Draverik]

That only happens if your main motivation for making the game is Patreon bucks. And that pretty much guarantees burnout and a shitty result. If you started making a game just because...you wanted to make a game, the Patreon plateau means jack shit. You have a creative block, you temporarily close the Patreon and take your time. But that can't happen when you gotta have them keep paying no matter what.

People seem to forget that erotic games existed before Patreon, just fewer. But what used to be a simple paypal donation from someone who appreciated your hobby, became a steady income stream via subscription model. And the incentives changed, attracting new people who came in with dollar signs on their eyes. That's the very reason you see the never-ending behemoths you mentioned. There is obvious incentive to keep the stream going as long as possible.

It's pretty much what happened to the mainstream gaming industry, just on a much smaller scale and with more amateur practices.

True, Patreon is both a blessing and a curse. There wouldn't be so many new games coming in every month if it wasn't for the promise of getting rich and hopefully someday becoming a next incestor etc.
And while there might be some devs out there who aren't really doing it for the money, they all get mixed up with the bunch once they start their Patreon, that's just my opinion.
And it would be foolish of them to not jump in on the train and earn some money on the side at this point so we can't blame them really.

 

[TheTrumanShow]

Well I guess I'm in the minority then because I love the Christmas specials for this game and hope Vatos keeps doing them, I haven't seen two of my favorite milfs since the last update and was glad to be able to fool around with both of them regardless if it was canon to the story or not. As far as the main game goes, August wasn't that long ago and the Dev is still active on his platforms, it's not like he's been radio silent for a year and randomly dropped a Christmas special so I'm not gonna jump on the bandwagon and circlejerk yet.

 

[Deleted member 4041066]

Damn, what a tease this Christmas special was...it just made me more hungry for these lovely pixel ladies. Hopefully Vatos makes a strong comeback in 2022.

 

[Wicked Garden]

That's a terrible idea, you rush a Dev to finish their projects you gonna have a long list of problems, it also want stop people from bitching and complaining. Some people just wait for the opportunity to turn on devs and spew venom, there are just some unhappy people in here. I'll wrap this up by saying even though I may be disappointed we haven't had an update on a while, the Dev is still active and this special shows me that he's ready to get back to work, in the meantime I'm gonna play and enjoy the various game new and old that deserve recognition.

Never underestimate the role PTSD plays with some of these people, some have a battered woman syndrome when it comes to their relationships with Devs. So there's always gonna be that lot that's just unhappy no matter what the Dev does, there's some pretty crappy Devs out there that have caused this, but Vatos isn't one them. He may not have been active daily and frequent with his updates as people would have wanted but at least he's not releasing his updates once every Christmas. This game is still very much alive and once he releases a full update some of the same people complaining are gonna go back to sing praises, while the others will find something else to gripe about, that's the F95 way after all.

 

[RoadWulf]

So the main game hasn't updated since August, but.... Christmas special...

Ok...

You know, for the future Devs, a Christmas Render (singular) is usually good enough.

 

[DanThaMan]

So the main game hasn't updated since August, but.... Christmas special...

Ok...

You know, for the future Devs, a Christmas Render (singular) is usually good enough.

I heard somewhere that the dev lost all the progress for what should have been the 0.15 update, so they made the Xmas update for this year to give at least something to the paying patrons.

 

[Dyhart]

So the main game hasn't updated since August, but.... Christmas special...

Ok...

You know, for the future Devs, a Christmas Render (singular) is usually good enough.

Especially since to my knowledge 100% of these specials(halloween, christmas) have nothing to do at all with the main story. Not canon in the slightest.

Even more mind boggling is why they are requested. "hey devs, can we have something that has nothing to do with the actual story in place of actual story progression?"

 

[clowns234]

So the main game hasn't updated since August, but.... Christmas special...

Ok...

You know, for the future Devs, a Christmas Render (singular) is usually good enough.

Especially since to my knowledge 100% of these specials(halloween, christmas) have nothing to do at all with the main story. Not canon in the slightest.

Even more mind boggling is why they are requested. "hey devs, can we have something that has nothing to do with the actual story in place of actual story progression?"

Maybe he just needed to step away and do something different. Recharge, if you will. I'm ok with that.

 

[Dyhart]

I mean I can understand that. I've just seen too many "updates" have this. Even standard once a month updates go the "Christmas special" which is just a side story and never happened once the regular updates resume.

Didn't mean for it to sound like I was singling this dev out. That wasn't my intent.

 

[Ara-sH]

When is next main update?

 

[Veriko666]

Burnout. Not just for the dev but also for the players.
In the begining you're like a demigod with new people coming in every day praising you for your work, after a while the patreon plateaus and there's no new pledgers,all you have is the same people whining and complaining, expecting you to do stuff. Just a normal 9 to 5.

I personally think that there should be a rule or something, that if you can't finish your game before the 2 years mark you should abandon it and start anew.
There should be more incentive for devs to make smaller games and not take on these gargantuan fucking behemots, especially for fresh devs with little experience.

I kind of agree with your sentiment but I personally think that the issue won't be fixed that way. A good dev or dev-team will know how to limit itself. There are way too many devs that make games with tons of characters in them for sake of variety but that dilutes the story quite a bit in most cases. It also makes story progression slow and increases the dev time. But it's their vision so the only solution is for their customers (patreons) to be more selective of who they support.

It's pretty crazy when you consider how much money some of the devs make on this and take a LONG time to release updates. Not saying it's the case for this game but I see devs making way more than a monthly salary making these games and they still claim to be working IRL. It's also crazy how long they take to release updates. Yes they are often only one person developing the game but considering that there's games like Manor Lords that is also being developed by one person and only been in development about 3 years and will soon come to Early Access on steam. This is one of the main reasons why I don't support game devs on here with my money now. I won't complain about the dev time or how much they make since I don't pay them but it's a little weird to me that people do.

 

[Agent York Morgan]

But what used to be a simple paypal donation from someone who appreciated your hobby, became a steady income stream via subscription model.

and that is why Patreon might eventually drive this industry into the ground. Hopefully.
So we can start over again with better payment models.

If you're receiving a steady monthly income, then there should be a steady output.
Burnout? personal issues? health issues? Pause Patreon.

Some developers will see how much money other devs make with little to no work, that they start doing it themselves.
That much is clear.

This is a general rant and I'm not talking about this dev in particular because I haven't been following them closely.

 

[DA22]

and that is why Patreon might eventually drive this industry into the ground. Hopefully.
So we can start over again with better payment models.

If you're receiving a steady monthly income, then there should be a steady output.
Burnout? personal issues? health issues? Pause Patreon.

Some developers will see how much money other devs make with little to no work, that they start doing it themselves.
That much is clear.

This is a general rant and I'm not talking about this dev in particular because I haven't been following them closely.

Actually even Patreon has already a better model, if as a dev you want a professional relation with your patrons. It is not easy though to go from one payment model to other if you started with the support one, but they do have a model where patrons pay per update instead of monthly support.

To me patreon has many more disadvantages like someone having put (relatively) a lot of money in a game losing all rights for future when not supporting even one month and so on if you want to see it as a commercial relation where you buy something.

On the other hand it is up to us ourselves to have a look on what a dev produces over time and then support for an amount we are comfortable with over time, if you stay on high tier for a dev that only does very small updates regularly or reasonable big ones over a very long time that is up to yourself in the end.

 

[Poutsos]

My favorite game along with Demon Boy, I'm a Patreon and this update was trash. The trash of trash. Lets hope the dev can provide something new... We will cancel our subscriptions if he doesn't deliver in next update, all 50 Patreons will be gone !!!! So lets hope he can get something done

 

[clowns234]

My favorite game along with Demon Boy, I'm a Patreon and this update was trash. The trash of trash. Lets hope the dev can provide something new... We will cancel our subscriptions if he doesn't deliver in next update, all 50 Patreons will be gone !!!! So lets hope he can get something done

I am curious how you became spokesman for all 50 patreons. Was there a meeting?
(BTW, he has more than 50 patreons.)

 

[Poutsos]

Nop, we didn't had a meeting, what is your problem exactly?

My team has 50 Patreons, good luck to the others

 

[clowns234]

Nop, we didn't had a meeting, what is your problem exactly?

My team has 50 Patreons, good luck to the others

Whether you choose to continue supporting or not is your choice. So no, I don't have a problem. I did find your comment unique. How did you come to be a team of 50 patreons? Do you all work together?

If his numbers suddenly drop by 50, I will now know why.

 

[Spatenklopper]

I'm a Patreon and this update was trash.

Well, as a Patreon you should know that this wasn't an update, just a Christmas special.
So the only trash here so far is your comment.

 

[hds666]

Just finished making a scene gallery mod for the 2022 Chrismas Special, with OEJ's blessing for using one of his mods as a framework.