DPC replied to a comment on Patreon:
I agree with DPC that quality takes time and I'm not going to complain about the production times in and of themselves. But I also think he's completely ducking out of the question of whether he's using his time effectively.
It's hard to believe there's no fat to cut out of the game when Madame Rose has been given such a prominent spot in the last two episodes, for example. It's also unclear how much value these lavish animations are adding to the game. Personally, I feel like the added lighting has actually make the new renders look worse than the more simplistic versions in Season 1; it makes minute flaws stand out more and calls attention away from the emotional content that (IMHO) should be the focus. And a lot of the animations in the Interlude (Zoey spinning on the stool, the small motions of characters in the tattoo parlor, etc.) were annoying distractions. The game would have been
better for using simple static renders.
The term 'gilding the lily' exists for a reason: at best you're wasting huge resources beautifying something that was already beautiful, and at worst you're replacing a natural beauty with something artificial and tacky. The point being that even once the game is completed, there's no guarantee DPC's inability to cut content will have made the game better simply because it has more stuff in it.
Now obviously that's going to be a judgement call and DPC is certainly in a position to make that call. For all the high gloss and professionalism DPC cultivates, at the end of the day BaDIK is a passion project; he's telling the story he wants to see. I can respect that even if I don't agree, but does make me worry about the future of this game. Creating art is always a delicate balancing act: focus too much on the audience and you have nothing to say worth hearing, but focus too little on the audience and no one will be able to understand the message you do have. If DPC is laser-focused on his own ideal to the exclusion of all else, the end result is likely to be extremely idiosyncratic.
As far as Episodes 10-12 being smaller than Episode 9, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be extremely cynical here. I get that DPC is really excited about the Halloween events, but from my point of view he's deluding himself. First, because DPC already undermined the Halloween party by making it the third giant party in a row; if he knew Episode 9 was going to have a heavy party focus, maybe do something else in Episode 8 to cleanse the palate. It's especially bad since several of the post-crossroads relationships are difficult to mesh with a big frat party: Jill is unlikely to attend, and Bella and Maya/Josy need to be kept secret. For those branches, the party feels more like a minefield than a celebration. That's an awkward place to stage such a massive set-piece.
There's also the question of what comes next. DPC can say he plans to go smaller, but he hasn't really demonstrated he can do that. The closest thing to a smaller episode he's attempted was Episode 5, which starts with a wall-to-wall fuckfest at the preps party then slams us with the destruction of the mansion AND a side-helping of Bella/Jill antics. He doesn't seem to like the idea of lulls in the story, even though they're an important part of making the peaks feel significant. Until he shows that he's capable of restraint, I think it's entirely fair to worry about him padding out Episodes 10-12 with empty spectacle just to keep them from feeling short/cheap. That has some short term appeal, but it may actually make the story of the game worse in the long run despite the added production time.
Hopefully I'm wrong to worry. If the party-planning mini-game works like the mansion repair game (we work towards a long-term goal all season long), maybe DPC really does intend to go a little more low key in Season 3. That would help the Halloween party stand out, and at least give us a shot at some smaller, tighter episodes 10-12. So we shouldn't lose hope. But man, seeing DPC make comments like the one above does nothing to nurture that hope.
Being generous to DPC for a moment, I think the jury is still out on the question of whether he went overboard this time. Don't get me wrong, I'm leaning in that direction myself, but it could be that the episode is a total knockout and justifies every day it took to create. Fan response to episode 9 could be so overwhelmingly positive that it simply reinforces his belief in what he's doing and the way he's doing it. We'd only see him start to question his approach if, after playing the episode, people come out with comments like this in sufficient numbers:
"Sure, it was good...but was it really 9 months' worth of development time good?"
That's a crunch question, I think. And by taking as long as he has this time around, he's pretty much guaranteed that it will factor in to how a lot of people play the episode. After the initial buzz has faded...was it worth it?
Among the things I'll be looking out for is the 1 minute 23 second long animation that is included somewhere in episode 9. Remember we know from the status updates that that animation alone took very nearly one whole month to render. It could be amazing...but will it be amazing enough that you wouldn't trade it to knock about four weeks off development time right now?
Like any creative endeavour game development is about choices: what do you spend your time and resources on, what's worth spending your time and resources on. For the verdict on whether he got the balance right for episode 9 we'll have to wait another 1 minute 23 seconds worth of development time and cross our fingers that it was worth it.
Yes, precisely this. If that 1:23 animation achieves something a short animation could not (be it staging, emotional content, titillation, what have you), then DPC is doing the right thing and the long production times, while unfortunate, are ultimately a good thing. But if we could achieve the same effect with a couple of 10 second animations and some better editing, then DPC's perfectionism is ultimately harming his own game, whether he wants to admit that or not.
We'll see where we stand (relatively) soon.
i mean, i appreciate his work ethic and i trust that he isnt deliberately and maliciously stalling to get more money over time. but this does kinda seem like a long winded series of excuses that always amount to "it's my way or the highway" and implies that there is literally nothing possible on this earth that he could ever do to speed up production or to trim the fat overall on BaDIK. If every single major story beat is already "mapped out in advance", then there is no reason other than his own lack of self control (or desire to stall) for every episode to be bigger than the last and take longer to release.
also some of the stuff he said is kinda confusing to me: like him talking about how if he didnt use his current system that players on different branching paths would have differing amounts of content. Do people expect every single path to have 1:1 ratio of equal content??? That seems stupid because each of the LIs have different stories, and they cant possibly all be of equal importance in the big picture. so some girls would get more content but that doesnt make it "wrong" that makes it a natural story that is not padded out with filler crap to make each path be "fair" and equal with the others. Like Sage and Maya are clearly major players in the story no matter what path you are on, so it makes perfect sense that if you are on their designated path that they will "feel" like the have more content because they kinda do and thats okay. then some of the other stuff he says kinda comes off as like veiled threats, which im not sure if that was his intention or not.
if i could ask him a question, it would be "Does he think its okay to continue to balloon each new episode, even though he said himself that everything is already planned out in advance?" If his answer is "no", then we dont share the same mindset. And id say that since he already makes more money than most of us combined ever will in our lifetimes, maybe if he decides to add new stuff that delays the episode (or make something like the Interlude) that he should pause all the donations on Patreon himself until he is back on schedule. just my two cents
Honestly, I'm not really a fan of pausing Patreon payments. Obviously milking exists and it's a bad thing, but at the same quality DOES take time and I don't think creators should be ashamed of that. To me, pausing payments should be reserved for cases where the game production really is halted, like if a dev needs to shelve his hobby for an extended time to focus on his actual job, that sort of thing.
Otherwise, even if the dev isn't working as quickly as they themselves want, I think it would be better if they left payments on and left it up to us as patrons to decide whether their output is worthwhile. If we want to hold devs' feet to the fire, I think transparency is a much better tool: we should insist on regular communications that properly convey what is being worked on and where the targets are. In that sense I think DPC scores fairly well despite the long production times, though a few more numbers in the early process would be nice.
Just a little optimistic perspective to share regarding the duration of episode 9's development.
A lot of popular games here follow a tradition of a Halloween and/or a Christmas special. I find these tedious as they are typically a complete break from the game's canon. It's painful because it has nothing to do with the story other than using the same characters (even if some of them aren't even
in character for the special), and obviously the main game development grinds to a halt during this process.
We've already had the deviation of the Interlude that many feel was highly unnecessary, so if DPC took another break from the game's core just to do a random Halloween special, that'd be another kick in the balls.
Instead, we have a fully integrated Halloween special embedded into the main story. An episode,
and a special, all rolled into one. Where instead of a deviation from the main story, the Halloween component continues the story. I'd rather that, than a special, anytime.
So, at the end of the day, or year as the case may be... When episode 9 comes out, it'll be episode 9 plus a special. Perhaps justifying the excessive wait this episode has enforced on us. And perhaps future episodes won't be this long.
Like I said, an optimistic perspective, even if shrouded in delusion.
Not to rain on your parade, but as I said above, I'm not sure how well integrated this Halloween special is going to be. It's an awkward fit with 3 of the 5 branches, to say nothing of reintroducing Zoey. I feel like it's another victim of the way DPC mishandled the crossroads.
But we'll see. I appreciate you trying to keep my spirits up.
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.
There may be some crybabies out there, but I think the vast majority are just frustrated because building a team
*IS* the proper response to a project that is beyond the scope of a single individual. Even in the world of art, visionaries still benefit from support. It took a lot of supervision by George Lucas for ILM to deliver the special effects that make the original Star Wars trilogy legendary, but I doubt we'd have been even better off waiting for Lucas to personally craft each of those effects himself. Indeed, the success of
Empire suggests we might have benefitted from Lucas needing to work through the right intermediaries.
But at the end of the day, running a business is a very different thing than developing a game. George Lucas was comfortable becoming a businessman to make it easier to create movies; Dr Pink Cake isn't comfortable becoming a businessman to make it easier to produce games. It's a shame for us, but it is what it is.
So no, I don't think people wishing DPC would hire a team are being crybabies. I do think they're ultimately lamenting that we live in an imperfect world, so there's not much to be gained debating the matter. But they aren't being malicious or stupid, and it can be cathartic to vent about it once in a while. Cut them a little slack.
