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

[SomboSteel]

The problem is that everyone has their own subjective opinion about what should be removed. I think there isn't much content in the game that needs to be removed that the majority of the fanbase will reach a consensus on. And this creates a dangerous precedent: as soon as DPC agrees with the opinion of a group of people and removes some content, "screamers" will immediately crawl in from all the cracks and demand from the devto remove everything they don't like. So I probably agree that let him do everything with his vision.

Yes, management is a tough thing. People have been teaching this in college for years, no wonder. DPC can be incredibly talented at creating interesting and exciting stories, can work well with DAZ, be a good programmer... but a bad manager. It is not for nothing that separate specialists are engaged in management in companies.

In the last part, you did a great job of describing the Ubisoft-type issue of open worlds. In Ep.9 there were objective problems, free-roams were somewhat...overloaded. It was ok for me, but some didn't like it. Free roams like HOTs party Ep.7 with no more than 1000 renders, I consider the golden mean.

i get what you are saying, but when it comes to DPC we can all pretty much agree that he already caters to a certain type of player since developing BaDIK (this is a psuedo-harem game where are the girls always like you even if you "dump" them, with nothing even like tangentially related to NTR, and Jill being added last minute for reasons that are speculative but ultimately i think its obvious he wanted to get a virgin character in there to cover all his bases for his target demographic).

AL was a very different beast where he wasnt making real money from it and just had a story he wanted to tell, with flaws and left field endings and all. he used to feel more like he had stuff he wanted to get out and share with others; experiences/emotions/trauma/whatever. there was some strange stuff in that story, but it was his strange stuff. and because of that i would have agreed with you 100% on BaDIK if it was made with similar zeal and principle where he was clearly sticking to his own vision.

but BaDIK has already been compromised by the lowest common denominator and i dont think thats debatable. AL was distinctively DPC, whereas BaDIK is distinctively vanilla and non-challenging content by comparison. and thats not shitting on the quality because BaDIK is quite good. if DPC's goal was to make the very best bog standard Animal House/American Pie/every other teen sex movie that has been made, then congrats to him because i think its likely mission accomplished. but after AL i had higher hopes for him as a creator/storyteller than to kinda just sell out and make the most wide reaching and non threatening AVN possible

thats just my two cents

 

[allanl9020142]

It looks like he's going to create a big and interconnected, living world by making the characters feel more alive and not just occasional extras that just exist.
Looking at his Patreon - it works, subscribers do not leave him. Personally, I prefer big episodes, I don't like short games. It pissed me off back in 2017-18 when I got a miserable 300-500 renders, albeit often.


I don't see any prerequisites for DPC to burn out, or for his audience.
In addition, the game is very famous. If someone leaves, new subscribers come - the number of his subscribers is now on a stable plateau.
This guy has been working like this for 5 years, and the only break he took was a two-week vacation. Of course this guy is a big snowflake, but he does a good job, this is his muse and he is simply obsessed with his creativity. I see no reason for anything bad other than a potential accident or illness.

Hey, man. You said this new update would be coming out in August. Meh, whatever I still haven't gotten around to finishing the rest of my playthroughs for ep 9. See you in September...? November...?

You know we would be on to episode 11 if it wasn't for the Interlude.

Do you mean we'd have ep 10 by now and he'd be working on ep 11 right now? Most likely. Or did you mean that we'd have ep 11 by now because I don't the Interlude affected things to that extent.

Still, it wouldn't really have affected much in the grand scheme of things since it looks like DPC is committed to this ... I don't know what anymore. Something like a runaway train, I guess. We'd still be looking at 1 update per year. Interlude took 3 months but ep 9 took 10 months or something. I can't remember. It's been a while. I remember it coming out (something like) a year and one month after ep 8 came out so I just subtracted 3 months. That seems like the bigger headache. Which is one of the reasons I don't visit this thread as much as I did before.

Anyway, I learned my lesson last year. Which means I'm going to go back to doing ... pretty much anything else for the next 2 to 3 months or so. October sounds about right to check in again. Any later than that and if I'm remembering right (10 months), it would mean the runaway train's getting even worse. lololol

 

[Asmerdelius]

I've been following this game for quite awhile now and am somewhat invested, loving it to date. I'm following the throuple route because IRL I experienced what we called in the 80's a "Three's Company" lifestyle from high school into college. I was involved with a pair of bisexual girls for nearly two years together and that relationship was one of the best of my life. Sadly it ended via an automotive tragedy but it is my hope DPC doesn't go in such a direction with this example. After that incident I went down the winding road of dating every girl in my local Pink Rose, manwhoring much as the MC can, even ending up one night after closing dancing for the girls, thank god it was pre-cellphones. Much later I finally settled down with someone special and had a son who I'll someday share the lessons I learned. Considering how Acting Lessons ended I hope and think we at least deserve a chance for a happy ending with Being a DIK, though with Vinnie, Nick, Dany, and Karen lurking in the shadows who can say for certain if that's even possible...

 

[SomboSteel]

I get what you're saying. I prefer BaDIK over AL because I play those games to have fun and I don't like that overdramatic stuff. Not saying one is better than another *universally*; just stating my personal preference. But, I think DPC and his BaDIK deserve merit besides the personal. I know it's a parody from the teenage high-school/college movies from the 80s up to American Pie and on; and, if it's not a true harem game, it's, at least, what I call a "Don Juan or Casanova game", so, nothing new under the sun (I like those games, but I'm trying to not be personal here). When it comes to the universe of AVNs, though, I think he was quite innovative. Back then, everyone was doing incest games and he came up with something different. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he made the first of this HS/College genre or, if it wasn't the first, the others were so irrelevant that I didn't even notice 'em (and I think I played every classic made during the Genesis 3 era and early Genesis 8 era). So, kudos to him for doing this, becoming a reference, and earning his retirement money.

And, yeah... A game like this had to have "The Virgin" archetype since it has almost all stock characters from the setting he chose for his game. But I'm not blaming him for that. I'd do the same if I were in his shoes and planning a game like this when no one else was doing it.

fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own preferences.

but for me, the reason i started donating to his patreon back in the day of AL was because it was literally unique and a breath of fresh air in this otherwise over saturated gaming marketplace. it may not have been as polished as BaDIK and it wasnt perfect, but it felt real compared to every other uninspired story on this site. he was telling a story for the basically just the joys of creating something of your own and sharing something personal, which i respected and appreciated.

and whether the audience overall liked AL, i imagine many others felt similarly to me as that game put him on the map. if BaDIK came out first with all the rough edges AL came out with, while it might have been more superficially popular it might not have helped elevate him to his current position in this genre as a genuine creator/innovator.

like i said before, if his true dream was to just make the best version of this BaDIK story ever told in AVN format then congrats. but i think if so much money wasnt at stake, DPC probably dreamed of other stories he would rather have told that might not have been so lowest common denominator. there was a glimpse of something in AL that no longer really exists in BaDIK and to me it feels like the DPC back then is just a different person than the DPC that we have now.

 

[RNasc4444]

fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own preferences.

but for me, the reason i started donating to his patreon back in the day of AL was because it was literally unique and a breath of fresh air in this otherwise over saturated gaming marketplace. it may not have been as polished as BaDIK and it wasnt perfect, but it felt real compared to every other uninspired story on this site. he was telling a story for the basically just the joys of creating something of your own and sharing something personal, which i respected and appreciated.

and whether the audience overall liked AL, i imagine many others felt similarly to me as that game put him on the map. if BaDIK came out first with all the rough edges AL came out with, while it might have been more superficially popular it might not have helped elevate him to his current position in this genre as a genuine creator/innovator.

like i said before, if his true dream was to just make the best version of this BaDIK story ever told in AVN format then congrats. but i think if so much money wasnt at stake, DPC probably dreamed of other stories he would rather have told that might not have been so lowest common denominator. there was a glimpse of something in AL that no longer really exists in BaDIK and to me it feels like the DPC back then is just a different person than the DPC that we have now.

AL is my least favorite game of all time. Straight up. I literally got into AVN's during the first few months of Covid by coincidence. My first game was Melody. Loved it. AL was my second. Almost gave up AVN's entirely about 60% into it. Basically control skipped the last 40% of that game because I could not find a single tiny shred of enjoyment playing it. Yet my morbid curiosity led me to finish it.

AL is the reason why I will never give a single cent to DPC despite BaDIK being the ONLY game that has never left my top 5 (although it was never my favorite either). AL left such a sour taste in my mouth, I will never be able to bring myself to support DPC in any way.

AL is also the reason why I WILL NEVER, EVER again play an unmodded game. It's the reason I devoted several hours learning how to use URM and other editing tools. DPC is why I will never again play an AVN in the exact way the dev wants me to. Not when I have an alternative. If I can't mod it or edit it, I'll never play it.

So I'm right there with you. AL's impact as an AVN was absolutely massive, and it did put DPC on the map. In my case though, for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Outlier69]

Almost gave up AVN's entirely about 60% into it.

Was it because of the house incident?

 

[Meushi]

like i said before, if his true dream was to just make the best version of this BaDIK story ever told in AVN format then congrats. but i think if so much money wasnt at stake, DPC probably dreamed of other stories he would rather have told that might not have been so lowest common denominator. there was a glimpse of something in AL that no longer really exists in BaDIK and to me it feels like the DPC back then is just a different person than the DPC that we have now.

I don't know why you're characterizing the game/development as a sellout. DPC straight up said he was aiming for a more light college romp from the get go, and was inspired by things like Animal House/American Pie. There's zero evidence he ever wanted to tell some other version of the story, he's delivered exactly what he said he was going to do.

I liked AL, but never expected BaDIK to be in a similar vein. So it's something of a mystery to me how anyone could feel expectations aren't being met.

DPC is definitely a different dev compared to when he started out though. He was quite engaged at f95 initially. Though it's not surprising he soured after all the vitriol thrown his way about the AL twists. Not unique to DPC either, losts of devs who were active here retreat if there's a lot of angst or their game gets big (so they spend all their time in official channels).

 

[Lostanddamned]

I don't know why you're characterizing the game/development as a sellout. DPC straight up said he was aiming for a more light college romp from the get go, and was inspired by things like Animal House/American Pie. There's zero evidence he ever wanted to tell some other version of the story, he's delivered exactly what he said he was going to do.

I liked AL, but never expected BaDIK to be in a similar vein. So it's something of a mystery to me anyone could feel expectations aren't being met.

DPC is definitely a different dev when he started out though. He was quite engaged at f95 initially. Though it's not surprising he soured after all the vitriol thrown his way about the AL twists. Not unique to DPC either, losts of devs who were active here retreat if there's a lot of angst or their game gets big (so they spend all their time in official channels).

He has also said that he took inspiration from the videogame Bully and weirdly - Catcher In The Rye (which really doesn't have a good ending).

 

[Aldrac]

The game files were wiped from my computer so I need to download them again. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I think I download season 1-2, install that, download the patch to season 3, copy those files to the season 1-2 folder, then download season 3 and paste those in season 1-2 folder also? If not, can someone tell me how to do it?

 

[Aldrac]

Thanks. I'm not the brightest bulb in the knife drawer.

 

[yossa999]

AL is the first AVN to show me that this kind of game can have a story. That there's more to this than just a cartoon pixels sex show. That the story depends a lot on the author and his writing talent (obvious, right?), and not every AVN is about the molestation of a sleeping landlady or the corruption of a helpless virgin. And since I've seen enough horror movies, I'm not afraid of shocking twists in the games, so AL was a real discovery, quite unique among other AVNs of that time. I had no doubts when I bought BaDIK on the Steam as the first season came out, because it was the game of the dude who made AL.

 

[ProxyGist]

I still hope DPС is smart enough to realize that he can't keep increasing the number of renders in every update. He has to stop at a certain number and keep himself in line. One chapter a year is what most fans agreed on. One episode a year and a half or two years in my opinion is not the death of the game, but the death of the fandom. And besides, a 2 year cycle is not healthy. Of course, the game is kept on a constant influx of new fans, but a 2-year cycle will not be able to attract new fans or their activity and interest will be short. My thought is that it has to stop at some point. 6 years to develop the remaining chapters of a game is a huge amount of time, especially for one person.
So, my guess is that he'll stick to a 10/11 month cycle for the next few years.

 

[Joshy92]

I wonder if the next episode will come out near my birthday.
That's October 7th
you guys don't care but I'm telling you anyway.

 

[KАRАMBA]

I wonder if the next episode will come out near my birthday.
That's October 7th
you guys don't care but I'm telling you anyway.

Now, I'm sure, DPC will make every possible effort to release the next episode by October 7th.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

i get what you are saying, but when it comes to DPC we can all pretty much agree that he already caters to a certain type of player since developing BaDIK (this is a psuedo-harem game where are the girls always like you even if you "dump" them, with nothing even like tangentially related to NTR, and Jill being added last minute for reasons that are speculative but ultimately i think its obvious he wanted to get a virgin character in there to cover all his bases for his target demographic).

AL was a very different beast where he wasnt making real money from it and just had a story he wanted to tell, with flaws and left field endings and all. he used to feel more like he had stuff he wanted to get out and share with others; experiences/emotions/trauma/whatever. there was some strange stuff in that story, but it was his strange stuff. and because of that i would have agreed with you 100% on BaDIK if it was made with similar zeal and principle where he was clearly sticking to his own vision.

but BaDIK has already been compromised by the lowest common denominator and i dont think thats debatable. AL was distinctively DPC, whereas BaDIK is distinctively vanilla and non-challenging content by comparison. and thats not shitting on the quality because BaDIK is quite good. if DPC's goal was to make the very best bog standard Animal House/American Pie/every other teen sex movie that has been made, then congrats to him because i think its likely mission accomplished. but after AL i had higher hopes for him as a creator/storyteller than to kinda just sell out and make the most wide reaching and non threatening AVN possible

thats just my two cents

I wouldn't be so sure that the game will be as safe as possible and will not throw any serious challenges to the player. We were only halfway through the game and if we go back to the AL experience, then all the serious shit started towards the end. Of course, if things go smoothly during seasons 3-4, nothing serious will happen, if MC doesn't receive consequences for his stupid decisions - I will be seriously disappointed.

Hey, man. You said this new update would be coming out in August. Meh, whatever I still haven't gotten around to finishing the rest of my playthroughs for ep 9. See you in September...? November...?

And for Ep.9 I was optimistic about the Halloween release.
This was a preliminary minimum estimate, then there was no talk of a two-week vacation and that in Ep.10 there would be ~5500 renders and even more complex animations. Some users even hoped for July, especially on Reddit.

Yeah... Indeed... I know too little about Blender (next to nothing), but animating in Daz is like those puppet stop-motion animations from yore you have to pose the puppet, film one frame, then do the next pose, film it, and so on... So most animations are either camera movements or those ones selling on the market (how many times you've seen that catwalk animation of a girl on a Daz/Ren'Py game?), so I think they add little to the game. Of course, every dev wants their games to look professional like the ones from the big studios, but, in the end, I think those devs are just indulging themselves. And I don't know how many of these games trying to be full of animations from their inception we'll see their completion. I bet many of them will be abandoned because their devs have planned something too grandiose for their capabilities (of course, I'm not talking about BaDIK here... DPC is well-established and can do those kinds of indulgences... People will complain, but, in the end, he'll still have his followers guaranteeing him his earnings, at least, for the foreseeable future).

If you look at the complex animations of Ep.9, the intro animation in Bella's house is mainly camera movements, but the animation before Act 3 (the one when the preps go under the wall to the party) is an extremely complex scene where the DPC portrayed many characters in movement. It could take week to pose this.

 

[KАRАMBA]

I still trust to Geralt.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

I still trust to Geralt.
View attachment 2809224

You made me kill Joshy92

 

[drifter139]

You made me kill Joshy92

no real loss

 

[znar25]

A rerun from ages ago, but a good one.....


Sage asks MC to send her that Chad in the gym video again as she lost it on her phone.

MC mistakenly sends Sage, the MC-Jade video.

 

[znar25]

I think I might do a playthrough with the mc fucking Lily.
It would be interesting if he fell in love with her.
She is pretty cool.
Shame she isn't a main girl.

I am in the camp that Lily is good people. She is just ambitious and ruthless at getting her goals. The earlier EP10 preview (Lily path, no other sides or influence) departs from the end of EP9 where she says, "don't fall in love with me".

For her, it is possible she is in love with MC.