VN Ren'Py Being a DIK [v0.10.1] [Dr PinkCake]

[abcde]

This response gives a clear picture of DPC's mentality. As anyone could have hypothesised, he is developing this game for no one else's sake, other than his own. This is his life's work, and he wants it to be perfect, down to the tiniest of details. That is why he will happily increase the quality of renders, the length and quality of animations, as well as include more characters, free roam events and mini-games. In his mind, this makes the game more perfect, and he could not care less if it means the player will only get to play one episode per year.

He is refusing to make any sort of compromises that could benefit the development cycles. To avoid needing to compromise, he defends himself with arguments that don't make sense, and are contradictory to other statements he has made. For example, he says shorter update times would inevitably mean cutting content and deviating from what he has planned. This clearly is not true: he has repeatedly stated that he is increasing the quality of both the renders and the animations, as well as writing code that is increasingly complex. Could he not, then, settle for an appropriate level of quality in order to avoid longer rendering times? Could he not choose to make less elaborate minigames that are less taxing from a programming standpoint? Of course he could, but he does not want to, because he is developing the game for himself.

Additionally, he states that the episodes are planned long in advance, and that his hands are therefore tied. He simply cannot reduce the size, because it has already been determined. This is also a lie. DPC said he planned for Episode 9 to be smaller than Episode 8, yet that did not happen. This proves that his plans are not set in stone, and that he adds elements that weren't planned, or else he would never have been able to say that the episode was going the be smaller in the first place. Could he not choose to not include all of the extra, unplanned content he evidently decides to include? Of course he could, but again, he is developing the game for himself.

It is a fact at this point that DPC is adding content that doesn't matter to the overall impression of the game. Madame must be the most obvious example of this. She is there for one reason, and one reason only, which is to provide an opportunity for lewd scenes. More lewd scenes, in a game that already has 15 other more interesting characters to choose from, and which is already packed with lewd content. To say that this is unnecessary is an understatement - it is a complete waste of time. Yet still, plenty of rendering capacity has been dedicated to her. By no means is Madame the only example either, the game is riddled with a whole range of "nice-to-haves", that aren't crucial for your experience. D&G, the mansion mini-game, characters such as Becky, Nora and Sandy, and improvements to a render and animation quality that was already stellar, are factors I would easily place into the "nice-to-have" category. This could have been done differently, but once more, he is developing the game for himself.

Should DPC compromise on his vision? I think he should. It's a nice argument in theory that Patreon is just a platform for people to make goodwill donations to support the work of creators, but this just isn't true in practice. When you make the game a reward for pledging, you are essentially selling a product, and your patrons become your customers. At that point, I feel like you should factor in how long you are taking to produce the product in question. I expect nothing to change, though, because patrons are some of the most uncritical individuals I have ever come across. They will accept just about anything, regardless of whether the creator is trustworthy or not. This is also why DPC can make claims such as "my recommendation would be to stop supporting me", because he knows that he has a massive audience of people who will mindlessly praise anything he puts out. The statement makes him seem grounded, but I doubt he would be so dismissive of criticism if he didn't have such a huge backing of patrons who have no expectations whatsoever.

It truly is extremely unfortunate that the development is heading in this direction. Without a shadow of a doubt, Being a DIK is the best AVN out there, but we will soon reach a point where we only get to enjoy it once per year, and will need to remain committed for another ten years to see its completion. That just isn't reasonable. If DPC told you after Episode 1 that the game is likely going to take 14 years to finish, I don't think your reaction would have been "sounds good", so I don't see why that should be acceptable now.

I guess you can still hope that, even though DPC says he will not change, he still got himself some food-for-thought that could subconciously affect the time between updates. I still wouldn't expect it, though, because he is developing the game for himself, and has a tremendous number of supporters that have no problem with that.

I just wish he would go back and make updates like episode 3 and 4 having an update take 3 to 4 months for an update those updates were big enough with 2000 to 2500 renders instead he just wants to keep inproving everything which is commendable but his reasons are bullshit if he gave a shit about his supporters he would release more frequently i mean 1 update a year maybe even longer that's insane.

 

[Ottoeight]

You speak correctly. Now, perhaps, comes the most important stage in the history of the game that we love so much. The fact that he wrote such a big comment in patreon already says a lot. This means that even among his devoted patrons there was a large critical mass of those who don't share his vision and he had to respond. On the one hand, this is a positive moment. Transparency in development is a rare quality for local developers, but on the other hand, it suggests that he himself is worried about the timing of development, but by his own admission he can't control himself.
Examples with Friday's Prophets and a fraud say that he isn't as stable and thick-skinned as it seems to us. The criticism reaches him. Although not directly, but he hears criticism and this may force him to make a decision. Everything he wrote in the comments is of course more marketing tricks than answers to the question. His arguments in the style of "if you don't want to wait, you don't support" or "that you want stripped-down content or a full game" are a classic marketing manipulation, which made me remember with a smile about the advertising companies of scandalous EA or Sony games.
In my opinion, DPC is at an impasse. He lost control of the project and resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't control it. What he says are excuses, not answers. He is not a milker, he is a talented person who seems to have reached his ceiling and he has nothing more to say except "more renders, more animations". Perfectionism is good at short distances, but it starts to sharpen you from the inside if the race is more than 5 years old. Zoey's animations in the interlude and short animated scenes speak about his ambitions and, oddly enough, about his vulnerable ego. He wants to be the best. His egoism really becomes a parable about pagans.
The reaction to episode 9 and the development of episode 10 itself will become extremely important. He can emotionally make 10 episodes short in order to show everyone and prove that his vision is correct, and we, the players, limit him.
But I hope it doesn't happen. The waiting is shit, but he is what he is.

My honest feeling is that I'd be mildly surprised if we saw 2 more episode after episode 9.

He's just said that he won't change his working schedule and habits, he's just said that the plot and every episode's content has been planned since long, and we know the game is supposed to have 4 Seasons and 16 episodes.

Since 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, I can only draw the necessary conclusion that the game will never be completed.

 

[Tauro Thurius]

My honest feeling is that I'd be mildly surprised if we saw 2 more episode after episode 9.

He's just said that he won't change his working schedule and habits, he's just said that the plot and every episode's content has been planned since long, and we know the game is supposed to have 4 Seasons and 16 episodes.

Since 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, I can only draw the necessary conclusion that the game will never be completed.

 

[test7777]

This response gives a clear picture of DPC's mentality. As anyone could have hypothesised, he is developing this game for no one else's sake, other than his own. This is his life's work, and he wants it to be perfect, down to the tiniest of details. That is why he will happily increase the quality of renders, the length and quality of animations, as well as include more characters, free roam events and mini-games. In his mind, this makes the game more perfect, and he could not care less if it means the player will only get to play one episode per year.

He is refusing to make any sort of compromises that could benefit the development cycles. To avoid needing to compromise, he defends himself with arguments that don't make sense, and are contradictory to other statements he has made. For example, he says shorter update times would inevitably mean cutting content and deviating from what he has planned. This clearly is not true: he has repeatedly stated that he is increasing the quality of both the renders and the animations, as well as writing code that is increasingly complex. Could he not, then, settle for an appropriate level of quality in order to avoid longer rendering times? Could he not choose to make less elaborate minigames that are less taxing from a programming standpoint? Of course he could, but he does not want to, because he is developing the game for himself.

Additionally, he states that the episodes are planned long in advance, and that his hands are therefore tied. He simply cannot reduce the size, because it has already been determined. This is also a lie. DPC said he planned for Episode 9 to be smaller than Episode 8, yet that did not happen. This proves that his plans are not set in stone, and that he adds elements that weren't planned, or else he would never have been able to say that the episode was going the be smaller in the first place. Could he not choose to not include all of the extra, unplanned content he evidently decides to include? Of course he could, but again, he is developing the game for himself.

It is a fact at this point that DPC is adding content that doesn't matter to the overall impression of the game. Madame must be the most obvious example of this. She is there for one reason, and one reason only, which is to provide an opportunity for lewd scenes. More lewd scenes, in a game that already has 15 other more interesting characters to choose from, and which is already packed with lewd content. To say that this is unnecessary is an understatement - it is a complete waste of time. Yet still, plenty of rendering capacity has been dedicated to her. By no means is Madame the only example either, the game is riddled with a whole range of "nice-to-haves", that aren't crucial for your experience. D&G, the mansion mini-game, characters such as Becky, Nora and Sandy, and improvements to a render and animation quality that was already stellar, are factors I would easily place into the "nice-to-have" category. This could have been done differently, but once more, he is developing the game for himself.

Should DPC compromise on his vision? I think he should. It's a nice argument in theory that Patreon is just a platform for people to make goodwill donations to support the work of creators, but this just isn't true in practice. When you make the game a reward for pledging, you are essentially selling a product, and your patrons become your customers. At that point, I feel like you should factor in how long you are taking to produce the product in question. I expect nothing to change, though, because patrons are some of the most uncritical individuals I have ever come across. They will accept just about anything, regardless of whether the creator is trustworthy or not. This is also why DPC can make claims such as "my recommendation would be to stop supporting me", because he knows that he has a massive audience of people who will mindlessly praise anything he puts out. The statement makes him seem grounded, but I doubt he would be so dismissive of criticism if he didn't have such a huge backing of patrons who have no expectations whatsoever.

It truly is extremely unfortunate that the development is heading in this direction. Without a shadow of a doubt, Being a DIK is the best AVN out there, but we will soon reach a point where we only get to enjoy it once per year, and will need to remain committed for another ten years to see its completion. That just isn't reasonable. If DPC told you after Episode 1 that the game is likely going to take 14 years to finish, I don't think your reaction would have been "sounds good", so I don't see why that should be acceptable now.

I guess you can still hope that, even though DPC says he will not change, he still got himself some food-for-thought that could subconciously affect the time between updates. I still wouldn't expect it, though, because he is developing the game for himself, and has a tremendous number of supporters that have no problem with that.

DPC has already earned more money than most people earn in a lifetime and could literally stop working right now and still get tons of money from Patreons over the next 2-3 years at least with some posts and previews once in a while.

Therefore his claim that he would continue development even if noone would support him or that people who do not share his vision should stop supporting him are just empty words. If he truly meant what he said, he would do something to show his appreciation of his supporters like pausing payments until release, lowering prices or giving some of the higher tier benefits to lower tier patreons.

As he isn't doing anything in that regard, it just shows that DPC is running his business as usual and isn't "developing the game for himself", but just using that excuse as so many creators do, same as the "you are not buying a product, you are supporting the development etc." stuff.

I do not like the fact that DPC does not hire any help with the amount of money he earns, but he is a control freak and has his vision so that is still kind of acceptable (except for those Jill previews and otherwise screwed up renders, like come on, get someone to do quality control on your renders and re-render them if they turn out bad)

His loyal supporters are defending him for many things, but when he is claiming that the animation render queue takes a few more weeks, when he could easily upgrade or scale out his system just from a small percentage of his monthly earnings, then you know that he is milking it for all its worth and I don't see any argument that would proof the contrary.

Sadly, money corrupts and you can clearly see it with DPC over the last few years. If you are rich you just want to get richer, so instead of buying some more hardware which he wouldn't even notice on his bank account he knows that he can just let things render for weeks and still get paid.

This game is one of the best and every release is awesome, but if DPC truly invested the money that people give him in "support of development" in any reasonable matter, you would see 2 updates with the size of EP9 per year with probably even better quality.

 

[allanl9020142]

It's reverse psychology, some patrons might have been pissed otherwise, but because DPC is hyping the episode so much and they take his word as gospel, instead they just get on the hype train and help him fight back against the people who criticize the long development period.

Is ... that reverse psychology? Idk, I can't think straight right now. I don't know why I always go on here when I'm tired as hell instead of just going to sleep.

 

[Lightaces]

What kind of problems?

Driver problems, I hear. I do not know the details, just that there is some issues which have not yet been resolved. I mean, it's not like it is unusual for tech companies to let the beta testing happen after release.

 

[Train of Thought]

My honest feeling is that I'd be mildly surprised if we saw 2 more episode after episode 9.

He's just said that he won't change his working schedule and habits, he's just said that the plot and every episode's content has been planned since long, and we know the game is supposed to have 4 Seasons and 16 episodes.

Since 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, I can only draw the necessary conclusion that the game will never be completed.

 

[ThaDude1977]

How do you take screen shots in game? on pc.

 

[Lightaces]

one episode a year is totally insane

Depends on the size of the episode. But it hasn't been a year, it's been 8 months, and will probably end up about 9 months. Midlife Crisis has been in development for 4 years, and isn't as big as the two episodes DPC will have put out this year. Similar can be said about a number of other games on this site.

 

[allanl9020142]

Reading through the 8 pages of comments I missed since taking a nap and it occurred to me that this update is probably going to be fucking Maya-focused. Just. Fucking. Super. Bitch is dead fucking last in the popularity polls and is attached to Josy because..."reasons"...I guess because nobody would bother with her ass if Josy wasn't included.
I'm really, REALLY hoping for an option to hook her up with Zoey so they can ride off into the sunset (and off a fucking cliff) together.

She was great at first. Every time I've replayed the game from the beginning I think, "Such a shame."

I'll never understand the people who get worked up over this. He won't hire a team because he doesn't want to. He doesn't need to. He will not be personally benefited in any way whatsoever if he does.

• DPC enjoys making the game - why would he hand it over to others to do things he likes?
• The time it takes to develop the game directly converts to money - why would DPC do something he doesn't want to do purely to speed the game up and result in less revenue over time?
• Hiring people costs money - why would DPC commit to an ongoing cost for something he doesn't want to do?

It's fucking crybaby children who want the game faster and can't think past their own flaccid cocks.

My problem with the argument is more just the practicality of hiring a team in his case. Hiring a writer is iffy, it could be make up for his shortcomings as a writer or totally ruin everything. Animations and static renders seem pretty cut-and-dry, all he needs is an army of robots. Everything else I just imagine someone doing something like posing an animation, DPC not liking it that way, then having to go back and change it his way which would waste even more time. Whether you like it or not, he's going to do things his way and if he doesn't like it then he's going to keep trying until he does with or without a team.

When Ep.9 is released, the same thing will happen as it happened in November 2021. Explosive growth of subscribers, just then Ep.8 was released.
And then again it will gradually fall to the average values that we see now. People are tricky and don't pay all the time, sign up for a month to download a game and then screw it up.
A good lifehack for those who don't want to pay $20 every month.

I mean that's what I do. I feel like that's pretty fair, though. I don't want to wait for a whole season on Steam. I don't know shit about the other platforms and even if I did, they might be sketchy. It just makes sense to get it straight from the source as a one-time transaction rather than an ongoing donation.

Everything must be done so that the MC's dick becomes the last for our Rio, the narcs can peck each others asses. She just needs to get rid of Quinn's influence.
I don't think Lily uses anything stronger than weed.

I am generally sure that DPC has reached the peak of its capabilities in the number of audience and has reached a plateau. By the way, you can see a small surge, this is the release of Interlude, then stabilization at the current 11.5-13.5k / month.

I think "narc" in this case might mean an undercover cop or something.

 

[Lightaces]

**EPISODE 8**

* 10/22/2021 – Final status update / Start of beta testing
* 02/11/2021 – Final preview released
* 03/11/2021 – Beta testing status report
* 09/11/2021 – Release date announced
* 19/11/2021 – Episode 8 released

Historically, there is about 1 month between when DPC announces beta testing starting and the episode being released. If we are hopeful that the animations will be on the faster side of the 4-5 weeks, that puts us at the status update for 02/12/2022.

If that turns out to be when he announces beta testing, it is feasible that a January 2023 release is possible. I think a lot of the initial testing will be internal during this month of render time and so hopefully the work load for his beta testers will be smaller, however this is still the largest update to date and with an assumed huge number of variables due to the new path system. We could be looking at a normal to long beta test period.

Testing this should be MUCH easier, as the testers don't have to test the whole game anymore, which DPC has said they used to have to do. It is still a big game, and of course there are a bunch of branches, but still, should be a bit simpler.

 

[UnoriginalUserName]

How do you take screen shots in game? on pc.

Windows key + print screen saves screenshots in your pictures/screenshots folder. Be aware sometimes it sort of..."lags" a bit, so you may have to tab out then back in to the game THEN take the screenshot to get the proper image. Trial and error will get you used to it.

 

[Lightaces]

Driver problems, I hear. I do not know the details, just that there is some issues which have not yet been resolved. I mean, it's not like it is unusual for tech companies to let the beta testing happen after release.

Just looked it up on the DAZ forums, and it looks like it is mostly a physics problem, so dForce, rather than a rendering problem.

 

[Decent-Win]

How do you take screen shots in game? on pc.

Ren'py has a screenshot key just press S.

 

[Lightaces]

How do you take screen shots in game? on pc.

The S key.

 

[Bhavya17]

Is dark assassin blogspot stopped?
I can't find his ports
any other website for Android ports?

 

[StultusAnglicus]

Sometimes I just don't understand this thread., today it's all about
"It's taking to long REEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Are you a patreon?
A)No. ..... ...... ...... Then simmer down you self-centred scumbag.
B)Yes. ....... ...... So stop paying him??? He literally said that if you don't like it you should stop paying him/being a patreon.

 

[koplak1d]

Is dark assassin blogspot stopped?
I can't find his ports
any other website for Android ports?

his site is deleted, though still uploading in

You must be registered to see the links

 

[test7777]

Sometimes I just don't understand this thread., today it's all about
"It's taking to long REEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Are you a patreon?
A)No. ..... ...... ...... Then simmer down you self-centred scumbag.
B)Yes. ....... ...... So stop paying him??? He literally said that if you don't like it you should stop paying him/being a patreon.

Boiling down everyone that is complaining for valid reasons to "Its taking too long ..." doesn't really make sense. If someone does someting morally wrong or behaves like a scumbag, everyone should be allowed to comment, no matter if they pay that person or not.

I for one am commenting because I love the project and always planned to support DPC, however its just sad to see that he is no better than so many other devs that at some point effectively just posted previews but never released updates anymore. DPC could be better without having to compromise on his "vision" or whatever he calls it, but the money has just gone to his head.

Also:

DPCs 2000 Patreon goal was literally:

I'll buy a dedicated animation PC. That's right, one powerful PC fully dedicated to rendering animations. This means that each update will include more and/or longer animations.

He is now at 12000 patreons...

He is also says:

So, no matter the sum you pledge, you're not buying a game from me, you are supporting the game development and, moreover, you're motivating me to complete the projects I start.

As he obviously is not investing the money from most of his patreons in the game (or else there would be no delay for the last rendering animations), does that not mean that many patreons are not actually supporting the game development but rather whatever exquisite lifestyle he is living?

He could without issues invest some of his patreons money into more hardware to support the development of the game. Development would still take a long time since he does everything himself, which is also fine, but then again, why not for example hire people to double check your renders e.g. for lighting issues. If he is such a perfectionist as he claims to be, how come Jill looks terrible in every second render, Josy's teeth look like metal in some renders (especially in the white dress at the party, obvioulsy a difficult render for lighting) etc. Unless of course, it was his "vision" that Josy would have metal teeth

He wouldn't even have to hire someone for it, just put a bulk of 100 renders on Patreon every now and then and let your Patreons report back if any render has issues. So many simple things could be done to improve the quality of the game and/or reduce the time between updates just a little bit, yet he does not do anything.

 

[Heycock]

I do not like the fact that DPC does not hire any help with the amount of money he earns, but he is a control freak and has his vision so that is still kind of acceptable (except for those Jill previews and otherwise screwed up renders, like come on, get someone to do quality control on your renders and re-render them if they turn out bad)

His loyal supporters are defending him for many things, but when he is claiming that the animation render queue takes a few more weeks, when he could easily upgrade or scale out his system just from a small percentage of his monthly earnings, then you know that he is milking it for all its worth and I don't see any argument that would proof the contrary.

Ok, but that's not how the "business" work. Money you spend is not a waiste, is an inversion, and DPC knows it better than us couse he has actually heavely invested in the game in the past and even in the present.
If DPC bought the equipment and that acelerate the production speed he could stop loosing patreons or even increasing them and in turn he would make more money, and not less as you claim.
He has lost 3 k patreons in the last 8 months couse increasing times of development. As you will understand the delay damage him in terms of money, doesn't benefit him. So if you claim is that he delays the production for money... well, no, that's simple unrealistic.

I will put this in the most simple way. He looses money couse he makes updates take longer and longer. His patreons finally told him so in his face. And his answer was, "I don't give a fuck, I will do it how i like it":

That's the exactly oposite from a guy driven exclusively by money.