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

[allanl9020142]

Unfortunately it seems to me that even a November release is a very optimistic scenario. Development times are getting ridiculous at this point.

I've been wondering... Would anyone think any less of the game if the mini games, the special renders and all the bells and whistles were absent? Sure, it gives the overall work a high polish, makes it stand out production-wise but at what cost in time? Of course I can't possibly know how long designing and implementing something like the Brawler or the Mansion mini game takes, or rendering the specials, but if such things add a month or two in development just so the game is 1% better it isn't very cost-effective. Even if the dev has the motive to prolong production, they risk displeasing and losing patrons if the development time becomes unreasonable. And adding a few weeks development time for a new mini game and a new series of special renders is unreasonable imo.

It goes without saying that this is my personal opinion and my estimations could be way off. But I think most of us are here for the story and the characters (and the smut) and would gladly trade all the extras for a few weeks, hell, even days less development time.

I actually kind of like those things to be honest ... EXCEPT FOR D&D.

Man, the interlude stopped being worth like 5 months ago. Hopefully no more of that superfluous shit and from now on it's just proper updates

Yea if we're looking at a potential December release then if you think about it, we might have had ep 9 by now or at least in October. I liked the Interlude. I understand what he was trying to do with it. I understand that Zoey's flashback stuff would have to be showed at some point either way but at the same time I'm starting to get kind of salty about it lol

It's pretty funny that the "team" that released Fresh Woman could only create a Bollywood parody of BaDIK with a primitive plot where you rewind dialogs for porn scenes. And in four months, the "team" creates short episodes for an hour of gameplay. And PinkCake alone, for a long time, makes a masterpiece what worth to wait.
"dev miking" - that trolling line become boring

I actually like FreshWomen but if we're just comparing the rate of (amount of content/time in development) and disregarding the quality of the story, poses, renders etc. for a moment. I feel like at best, they're producing at the same rate and that's as a TEAM compared to DPC by himself. At the end of the day, I can't really see what DPC could just delegate to other people other than maybe playtesting and posing animations/renders but the problem there is 1. Only DPC knows how he wants the game to feel like playing through (and so far he's on point btw) and 2. If someone else did do the posing but wasn't up to standard or how he wanted it then they'd waste even more time by going back and doing it again. Two heads wouldn't be better than one in this case.
As far as producing the actual renders and animations, that seems more like how many rigs you've got rather than hands. Which he can afford by himself already so there's no point.
As for quality, while I do like FreshWomen it can feel kind of "empty" or "sterile" at times. While BADIK came right out of the gate with it making it feel like an actual "world" and has only improved since then.

 

[Darkwen]

Maybe some of us or others have guessed or recognized some upcoming story elements. With the wrong previews, perhaps these theories could be confirmed and thus become real spoilers.

Personally, I wouldn't care, because a spoiler still doesn't tell the whole story, but only in which direction the story goes.

IDK it depends on what the spoiler is like a "No, I'm your Father!" thats a pretty big spoiler now the holloween costumes I'm good with them being spoiled not because I don't care but because they don't matter other then for eye candy

 

[allanl9020142]

I actually understand why it's taking so long. I think scenes with a lot of objects and hard geometry became a new challenge for him and slowed down development for several weeks. Add complicated animations to this.
Did it make sense? Probably not.
We saw a long animation in the sex scene with Sage and Quinn. Was she good? Perhaps. Did it make sense? Probably not.
If you remove this animation, the scene itself won't get worse. It's the same here. He was talking about a minute-long animation (most likely a sex scene with Josy and Maya). Just imagine you're watching this scene, you like it, but you see an Maya's animation who riding a dick for a minute while the camera smoothly spins around her. And you start thinking. "Damn, it's beautiful," you say to yourself. "But it didn't make sense." If you cut this animation in half, it wouldn't get any worse.
Perfectionism is good, but not when it comes to game development. Game Dev is about optimization and compromise.
It's strange to say this, but it's not the lack of assistants that will kill the game, but his perfectionism. Due to his manic desire to show everyone what he can do, the development can last up to 2 years per episode in the future.
The game will be released. He will get a lot of positive feedback and realize that he is on the right track. And we'll receive one episode a year again. It's a vicious circle.

Hmm, yea I didn't really care too much about the Sage and Quinn scene. I just thought "oh yea, that was great" but wasn't really hyped about the particulars about how long it was, how it was made, etc.
At the end of the day, I think I just have to play ep 9 to make up my mind. It might even explain why I felt ep 8 wasn't that great overall. Patrons will sing praises regardless but if it's not as great as the longer development time is implying then I just don't think the longer animations are worth it.
I do like the mini-games and free roam stuff though. Feel like it breaks up the monotony. Though ep 8 only had finishing up the last round of the mansion game and it felt like there wasn't much to do in the free roams. Some of even felt like half of a regular free roam. Wasn't much side character stuff either from what I remember. So I can't really see how that could've made too much of a difference. I have a bias but part of what felt missing about ep 8 was the lack of that stuff.
Except D&D, that was awful. If I'm not pursuing a relevant character during a replay I just try to die as soon as possible to skip it. But that also had its own animations and renders specifically for it so idk.

 

[Room639]

I've been saying that DPC is milking the development time for a while now. Glad to see there's some momentum behind this idea. A full year between episode releases is absurd. The man could easily create as good of a game (possibly even better) with a small staff supporting his efforts AND releases would be more frequent. Don't buy this bullshit of some "solo vision" that he can only achieve alone. He's not Joyce writing Ulysses, he's making an indie adult game, and his competitors are rapidly catching up (and passing) his work.

Something else to consider - Opening episodes of seasons have rarely been blockbusters and have usually been used to set up the rest of the season. There's a good chance the payoff for waiting a full year isn't as big as people think (not yet, at least).

Don't even get me started on the lack of previews. He has 4000 images and he can't use any of them? Total nonsense.

But at least we get a Halloween episode in... November. That's cool.

 

[always86]

Apologies for the late replies. This could be a bit of a marathon so I’ll try to be brief but not miss any points

(Edited to add some spoilers so it's no so much of a wall of text)

Spoiler: Ottoeight

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Spoiler: DarkKiller

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Spoiler: Karlimirst Part 1

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Spoiler: Karlimirst Part 2

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Spoiler: Karlimirst Part 3

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Spoiler: Karlimirst Part 4

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Spoiler: Karlimirst Part 5

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Spoiler: Hecatompylos Part 1

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Spoiler: Hecatompylos Part 4

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[hakuna-matata]

Unless you're a dog or 70+ years old the chances for that are pretty small.

Sadly, you never know sometimes. A couple of years ago, I had to go to a funeral. He was 14.

 

[siliseric]

I'm not sure what changed but in my playthroughs but Derek did have a threesome with Arieth and Jacob while I was a massive DIK and didn't when I was a massive CHICK.

I'm wondering if it's potentially whether you tell him to make a move on Camila (I told him not to as a DIK because I wanted her, I told him to go for it as a CHICK because she's unattainable on that route).

I believe it depends on whether or not you stay and party at the DIKS mansion, or go back to dorm and hang with Maya. I think if you stay and dance with sage or hook up with sarah, Derek will hook up with Arieth. If you leave and go back to Maya, Derek doesnt hook up with Arieth. It could be the opposite, but that is the moment that decides it.

 

[Ottoeight]

I don’t think Derek banged Arieth as the crabs news got out before he had the chance. The black haired goth girl was getting it from two guys in the last episode.

I'm not sure what changed but in my playthroughs but Derek did have a threesome with Arieth and Jacob while I was a massive DIK and didn't when I was a massive CHICK.

I'm wondering if it's potentially whether you tell him to make a move on Camila (I told him not to as a DIK because I wanted her, I told him to go for it as a CHICK because she's unattainable on that route).

Pay attention when Chad shows Dawe the pictures where Arieth is banging the DIKs: one of them is the infamous Arieth-Jacob-Derek threesome.

Moreover, when the DIKs give MC the phone they talk about Arieth: every DIK says he had sex with her except MC and Nick.

 

[scarp1]

Come on, this is getting ridiculous now. Episode 9 has been in development for over six months already, and it seems like we're still 1-2 months away from a release. I think that six months is too long even for the entire episode, let alone to only be at 80-85 % completion...

DPC has clearly let the scope of this game get out of hand, because there is no legitimate reason for why an update would require close to 5,000 new renders. My only conclusion is that he is spending an ungodly amount of time making scenes for every single secondary character in the game, and building free roam events that could be an entire game in and of themselves. And for what? Does it honestly make the game that much better?

It feels like this has been a trend ever since Episode 5, with each update essentially being centered around a couple of massive free roam events, with bits of story sprinked in here and there. The game has lost its direction, and has expanded to and unreasonable level where there is an absurd amount of content for things that don't matter to the overall story, such as mini-games, free roam events and too many secondary characters. I cannot claim, with my conscience intact, that I consider the recent episodes to have been so much better thant the first season of Being a DIK, even though they take 50 % longer to develop.

And before I get a ton of backlash, I realize that DPC delivers quality that is absolutely terrific, and I can enjoy all the content just as much as the next person. However, the current trend suggests that this game will soon be release on a once-per-year basis. Given the we probably have 8-10 episodes remaining, we're looking at completion in 2030. That is not reasonable, and DPC clearly needs to get back on track so that updates are release more frequently.

Pretty sure they could release an update every two months, just expect 2 scenes and 15 mins of playing time.

So 6 updates a year, sounds great, then you realise this year long wait update will have just as much content if not more that 6 updates over the year.

Yes we would get to play it more frequently but I for one actually like longer updates as opposed to shorter more frequent ones, I just seem to enjoy it more.
Plus I'm not sure this game would work as well with short updates with all the different paths we can take. People on say Bella's route would be waiting many updates for content as we would need to fill other short updates with other girls.

 

[ChrisDark]

any similar games to this, in terms of romance and gut wrenching story telling plus music e.g. MC with Bella and Jill story devolopment

 

[FappingWorldwide]

Pay attention when Chad shows Dawe the pictures where Arieth is banging the DIKs: one of them is the infamous Arieth-Jacob-Derek threesome.

Moreover, when the DIKs give MC the phone they talk about Arieth: every DIK says he had sex with her except MC and Nick.

Wait wait, IIRC Nick reveals that she got to him too. I think Jacob then tells him that he has crabs, and that he should use the remaining medicine that is in the mansion.

It’s only the MC at that point who hasn’t been with her.

 

[Green Isosceles]

any similar games to this, in terms of romance and gut wrenching story telling plus music e.g. MC with Bella and Jill story devolopment

Sorry but no, this is the mountain top. Check out Intertwined.

 

[BigBlueDude]

Quinn doesn't deserve happiness.

Thats pretty petty in my opinion. I think almost everybody deserves some form of happiness after getting their comeuppance. In theory im not against prostitution and think it should be legal everywhere but Quinns version of it with coercion/blackmail and drugs is abhorrent to me and she needs to pay for it. Her story is probably the most interesting one in the game really, the justification she has and what goals she has. Is she a petty crook (money goal) or a bad politician (power hunger) or a broken person doing broken shit because thats all she knows? Petty, bad and broken are my choice of words because shes not very good at what shes doing, the ship is leaking everywhere. Regardless, at the moment shes extremely interesting, top 2 character in the game storywise for me.

But even the simple graphics games have better geometric coherence across all renders and scenes than this game for bella. Sometimes she is narrow and overly slim with balloon boobs and other times wide bodied. Sometimes the face looks attractive, sometimes ugly. I mean wtf... Other models don't suffer this issue or I haven't noticed it. As far as I remember Sage model also had the same problem in some scenes. When they r dressed they all look attractive okay but when nude certain renders looks kind of clumsy

I thought models r kind of static content. Is it not?

YES!

Of all the women and girls in the game Bella proportions are the absolute worst. They change so much, her ass, hips and breasts morph and change in practically every damned scene, sometimes from render to render. Shes still my favorite character with Quinn due to the mystery of her character and the complexity her feelings in regard of MC and others shown or not shown, Jill, Husband, Burke, Cathy etc.

 

[Bendover885]

any similar games to this, in terms of romance and gut wrenching story telling plus music e.g. MC with Bella and Jill story devolopment

Don't know exactly what you mean by gut‐wrenching, but if you like the slow burn types, you may want to check out Hillside.

 

[Oliver Wendell Homely]

Come on, this is getting ridiculous now. Episode 9 has been in development for over six months already, and it seems like we're still 1-2 months away from a release. I think that six months is too long even for the entire episode, let alone to only be at 80-85 % completion...

DPC has clearly let the scope of this game get out of hand, because there is no legitimate reason for why an update would require close to 5,000 new renders. My only conclusion is that he is spending an ungodly amount of time making scenes for every single secondary character in the game, and building free roam events that could be an entire game in and of themselves. And for what? Does it honestly make the game that much better?

It feels like this has been a trend ever since Episode 5, with each update essentially being centered around a couple of massive free roam events, with bits of story sprinked in here and there. The game has lost its direction, and has expanded to and unreasonable level where there is an absurd amount of content for things that don't matter to the overall story, such as mini-games, free roam events and too many secondary characters. I cannot claim, with my conscience intact, that I consider the recent episodes to have been so much better thant the first season of Being a DIK, even though they take 50 % longer to develop.

And before I get a ton of backlash, I realize that DPC delivers quality that is absolutely terrific, and I can enjoy all the content just as much as the next person. However, the current trend suggests that this game will soon be release on a once-per-year basis. Given the we probably have 8-10 episodes remaining, we're looking at completion in 2030. That is not reasonable, and DPC clearly needs to get back on track so that updates are release more frequently.

We are not waiting six (or more) months for an "update"; we are waiting for an episode. These are two completely different things. In BaDIK's story arc, each episode is a deliberately crafted section, each with its own conflict, climax (or multiple ones, har har), and drama. Each ends on a cliffhanger or major story note. In short, longer development times for subsequent episodes are inevitable with this kind of player-choice-led storytelling. The only other choice is for the developer to diminish subsequent episodes, which eventually will cause interest in the game to erode or even collapse.

The episodic approach of the game makes each release mandatory playing for most people. Small updates inevitably do not include many players' chosen love interest or they dislike that there's no real advancement of the story; as a result, pirate players start checking for updates much less frequently and those players who put their money where their mouths are stop their financial support because they no longer like the dev's work.

While it's true that DPC wants to improve the episodes by showing off his increasingly longer animations and more photorealistic renders, he is also telling an increasingly complex and sophisticated story with more and more characters. Also, as episode 9 is going to be the first after our romance choice at the end of 8, expectations will be high: expectations of good story and hot scenes, yes, but also expectations that our MC will get to spend lots of quality time with our new girlfriend(s). That's lots of required content, including at least one super hot lewd scene with the new girlfriend(s). On top of that, DPC needs to move all the non-sex-related storylines and events forward, creating plots that are likely to become increasingly varied as our choices accumulate. No doubt this is why DPC ended BaDIK on a major choice; he must have felt he needed to reduce the complexity of the story. This forced simplification in order to manage deadlines even happens to major game studios. Just look at what happened to Cyberpunk 2077 or Mass Effect 3.

All that aside, it amuses me enormously to see people on a pirate site complaining about the dev "milking supporters," and I never the same complaints made on Patreon, where the only supporters who matter are. Patrons are genuine supporters, not customers. Patrons are not simply buying a product. Like the patrons of art and culture in antiquity, Patreon patrons support artists. That means that patrons trust their artists to create their work as they--the artists--see fit. As long as the trust remains, the artist is going to do just that. If you really want to send DPC the message that you're not happy with the wait time, join his Patreon for a month, then cancel the next month after leaving him a note, saying: "This cow is now a bull. You will milk me no more, sir." Maybe DPC will get the hint and ask:

 

[Oliver Wendell Homely]

I've been saying that DPC is milking the development time for a while now. Glad to see there's some momentum behind this idea. A full year between episode releases is absurd. The man could easily create as good of a game (possibly even better) with a small staff supporting his efforts AND releases would be more frequent. Don't buy this bullshit of some "solo vision" that he can only achieve alone. He's not Joyce writing Ulysses, he's making an indie adult game, and his competitors are rapidly catching up (and passing) his work.

Something else to consider - Opening episodes of seasons have rarely been blockbusters and have usually been used to set up the rest of the season. There's a good chance the payoff for waiting a full year isn't as big as people think (not yet, at least).

Don't even get me started on the lack of previews. He has 4000 images and he can't use any of them? Total nonsense.

But at least we get a Halloween episode in... November. That's cool.

ICSTOR? Is that you?

 

[Ilhares]

If you really want to send DPC the message that you're not happy with the wait time, join his Patreon for a month, then cancel the next month after leaving him a note, saying: "This cow is now a bull. You will milk me no more, sir."

While I don't believe I have ever accused DPC of milking (because I have seen some devs that seriously do), I will say this. The excuses/reasoning used on some delays, combined with him initially saying ep 9 was his intention to start with shorter/smaller episodes again, and looking at what's come out of him in the last several updates make me think..

"Sure, maybe he's not milking it yet, but he's sure getting a good feel-up of that teat."

 

[allanl9020142]

Where? The only dev who I've seen who has even come close to passing DPC in render quality is Ocean and his games are also on a very slow update schedule (although he appears to be speeding up). Both of his games though are at a very early stage so the stories do not compare to BaD yet, although I have high hopes for Summer's Gone.

No dev is even close to reach DPC's level of quality in both graphics and story.

I think I like Ocean's renders more. I mean I really like the aesthetics. In fact, it's the only reason I keep playing it. The writing is kind of cringe and forget about suspending disbelief, I'm throwing disbelief out the window.

 

[Cabin Fever]

200,000 units sold of FreshWoman on steam. Now Imagine those numbers for Being a DIK and DrPinkCake still cant hire a team. Really saying things like he wants to have control over his own game. He will be the boss. Everything that will be in the game is what he wants.
Really he should stop being greedy and hire people when his game probably sold more units than most Indie developers.
He is just milking people at this point and if he makes just 10% of what he makes now it will make no difference on the game.
Call him out people.

How to say "I'm just an impatient horny fapper with less than 2 brain cells and doesn't know the difference between project management and creating art" without saying "I'm just an impatient horny fapper with less than 2 brain cells and doesn't know the difference between project management and creating art".

It has never been about being a boss or how much more or less DPC can make. It has always been about creating what he wants to his own exacting standards, and the joy he derives from doing just that.

 

[Ilhares]

It has always been about creating what he wants to his own exacting standards, and the joy he derives from doing just that.

Going to disagree with you on the latter point. Once upon a time, maybe, but since he made the focus of it being his livelihood, it's not about the joy he derives, it's absolutely about the money. Just ask our boy SomboSteel about that one.

I've had to work on projects with other people before. Sometimes things can be done and work well. Often times it's a hindrance. When I agreed to take over hosting a game server for folks I made it clear that I would, but I had one simple policy. There is no 'rule by committee'. I will absolutely listen to people and their input, but I am not obligated to bow to their wishes at any point. I was really tired of people wanting to halfass certain things "just to get it done", where I feel if it wasn't done right, it wasn't done at all, it was just another layer of fuckups that had to be fixed.

Now you've got DPC, the man with his vision. He knows what he wants, he knows how he wants it done.
Finding somebody who'd want to help you on a project? Probably not too difficult.
Finding somebody who is also skilled/good at doing what you want to do? A little more challenging.
Finding somebody who shares your vision and complements it? That's more challenging.
Finding somebody who is all of the above, and gets the work reliably done on time? Good fucking luck.

As I understand it, DPC does have somebody else doing the 2D art, but their style is pretty unimpressive, almost all the girls look the same outside of a few minor cosmetic details. It also has absolutely zero impact on the game at large, so we neither gain nor lose anything here.

I would, in almost every scenario I can imagine, prefer having no help at all rather than the kind of help that I have to go through later with a fine-toothed comb to correct, due to any misunderstandings or disagreement on any particular point/method.

I sure was shit wouldn't be splitting the money I make to survive and feed a family with if I had to do that. 200% manpower does not result in 200% production speed, so it damn well isn't going to be worth 50% income loss (or whatever ratios may be used).