Here is a post and response from DrPinkCake on Patreon:
Poster A
Can't wait to see how the HOTs'll react with the MC living with them!
DrPinkCake
Sage's branch is indeed interesting. ^^
Then there was this one:
Poster B
Please don't take this the wrong way because your game is probably the best of its kind. But if the free roam events take up so much time why not ditch them in favour of creating additional characters, scenes, and story lines? I can't speak for everyone but I personally find the free roam scenes don't add anything to the experience except frustration. This is because you often have to play the game through several times to get all the scenes and they're so time consuming.
DrPinkCake
Because it's an important part of the game. Everyone likes different and I respect your opinion, but I'm making the game of my dreams not anyone else.
Free roam events elevate the game, gives you a breather, allows you to use the phone which has a big purpose in the game. They make a Visual Novel into something different and fresh.
Simply by removing the free roam events, wouldn't get you the update faster. Renders (animations) will always be the bottle neck. Besides, you're asking to add other content instead of free roam. That is not speeding up an update either, that's just shifting content.
If you don't enjoy replaying the game, you could hack renpy and use the console to unlock what you missed.
Poster B
I suggested ditching them in favour of creating addition characters, scenes, and story lines. I didn't suggest ditching them to cut down in development time. Yes you're the developer but to say you're making this exclusively for yourself is offensive to everyone contributing their money to your game. You don't have to do as I ask but at the very least don't insult me for making a suggestion.
DrPinkCake
I'm sorry if you took that as an insult Mark, it wasn't meant to be that.
This sentence has been on my front page since day one of doing this "I create these games for myself, but I love to share my creations with you." and I will always stand by it.
Every day since I started doing this, fans/players/haters want to change things with the games I make. While I appreciate feedback and ideas, there is simply no way to satisfy 100% of players. That's why I've settled for making myself happy with my creations, because if I'm not happy creating them there would be zero motivation for me to work so hard on this game, giving up a huge part of my life to do this. There's nothing that burns a creator out faster than not loving what they do.
I understand that I get huge support from patrons and you collectively make this possible for me to do. But that support doesn't mean that my creative freedom can be bought; no one is forced to donate. I've received plenty of offers to change things in my stories and games, some have offered me a lot of money for it. I've declined every single one of those offers.
To be perfectly clear, I'm not cutting/skipping content/scenes with other characters in favor to add free-roams. I'm still making every single scene and piece of dialogue that I intended for each episode. If I removed free-roams, the episode would look the same minus the free-roam.
I hope you understand and accept my apology.
Needless to say this little discussion generated quite a bit of commentary, both positive and negative.
By the way, the free-roam sections are my least favorite parts of this game. Makes it too sandboxy for me. Personal preference. Although I will admit that some of the most amusing scenes come during free roam, especially the chats and Rooster sections.
Also, I need to say that I fully agree with DPK's paragraph above about making a game that pleases himself. I hate it when developers try to appease the multitudes. It only leads to burnout and abandoned games. When those games are not abandoned, they just turn into cookie-cutter imitations of each other.
