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

[PashafromRussia]

In this never ending debate on DPC hiring staff to speed up production:

One major factor that doesn't get discussed enough (or maybe it does and I'm just not paying attention) is there is still the main bottleneck in the rendering of images and animations.

DPC provided a critical comment in his May 13 status update:

So 26 (lengthy) animations are gonna take two weeks?

Once again, referencing mpa71's BigTable™ for the data, episode 8 had 358 animations. So if you take two weeks for 26 animations, extrapolate that out for 358 animations, and guess how many weeks you have? Just over 6 months worth!

Now it's not a perfect science, the run time of each animation is obviously a key factor in determining rendering times, but regardless, DPC (last I heard) has 8 x RTX 3090 GPUs at his disposal. He is a rendering machine!

So while all that shit is rendering away (and I've only talked about the animations, there were also 4158 images rendered for the last episode too) he's working on other things (and sleeping occasionally I presume).

From most of his reports, DPC has renders (images and/or animations) queued up and processing pretty much all the time. He has 8 of the most powerful GPUs money can buy, and I presume he doesn't have 7 of them idling away while he presses "Next to Continue" on the one rendering PC for each item; obviously he'd be utilising the shit out of them all.

What good would employing more people do? Why not just buy more and more GPUs; every time someone whines things aren't coming out fast enough, just buy another GPU. Obviously I'm getting facetious now...

Based on some data that ename144 has provided for CoBD, Phillygames is averaging 55 renders and 2.8 animations per week (since chapter 11).

ename144 again has summarised some data on previous releases of Pale Carnations, at the time the episode averaged 82.4 static and 4.5 animation renders per week.

I understand Pale Carnations is done by a two-man band. I'm not sure if Phillygames is a solo artist or if he has people on the books.

DPC has been churning out on average 138 renders and 8 animations per week since episode 1 was released. While the image render rate hasn't changed much over the years, the animation render rate just keep going up (and they are getting bigger), last episode averaged almost 12 per week.

So I could hunt through all the other games out there that people consider good quality, and try to find the details on each one of them, but what would I be achieving? Proving that on his own, DPC's output is 2-3 times faster than other developers who already have teams? I think that's what we'd find.

Employing people would just prove to be a headache with very little positive impact on delivery time since DPC is doing all the work himself in parallel to the rendering process.

And anyway, knowing DPC, if he did employ people and magically streamlined shit so productions was even faster, he'd just decide to deliver more over the same time frame. Eventually the whole game would be animated with no static renders.

TL;DR?

• DPC churns out a lot more images and animations per week than other developers.
• DPC queues up the images and animations and has them running 24/7 on 8 RTX3090 GPUs.
• DPC works on everything else while these renders are processing.
• People are whining he should get others involved to make it a faster process.
• People don't get that the payoff would be little if he did that.
• DPC would just make the game bigger if things got faster.

In this never ending debate on DPC hiring staff to speed up production:

One major factor that doesn't get discussed enough (or maybe it does and I'm just not paying attention) is there is still the main bottleneck in the rendering of images and animations.

DPC provided a critical comment in his May 13 status update:

So 26 (lengthy) animations are gonna take two weeks?

Once again, referencing mpa71's BigTable™ for the data, episode 8 had 358 animations. So if you take two weeks for 26 animations, extrapolate that out for 358 animations, and guess how many weeks you have? Just over 6 months worth!

Now it's not a perfect science, the run time of each animation is obviously a key factor in determining rendering times, but regardless, DPC (last I heard) has 8 x RTX 3090 GPUs at his disposal. He is a rendering machine!

So while all that shit is rendering away (and I've only talked about the animations, there were also 4158 images rendered for the last episode too) he's working on other things (and sleeping occasionally I presume).

From most of his reports, DPC has renders (images and/or animations) queued up and processing pretty much all the time. He has 8 of the most powerful GPUs money can buy, and I presume he doesn't have 7 of them idling away while he presses "Next to Continue" on the one rendering PC for each item; obviously he'd be utilising the shit out of them all.

What good would employing more people do? Why not just buy more and more GPUs; every time someone whines things aren't coming out fast enough, just buy another GPU. Obviously I'm getting facetious now...

Based on some data that ename144 has provided for CoBD, Phillygames is averaging 55 renders and 2.8 animations per week (since chapter 11).

ename144 again has summarised some data on previous releases of Pale Carnations, at the time the episode averaged 82.4 static and 4.5 animation renders per week.

I understand Pale Carnations is done by a two-man band. I'm not sure if Phillygames is a solo artist or if he has people on the books.

DPC has been churning out on average 138 renders and 8 animations per week since episode 1 was released. While the image render rate hasn't changed much over the years, the animation render rate just keep going up (and they are getting bigger), last episode averaged almost 12 per week.

So I could hunt through all the other games out there that people consider good quality, and try to find the details on each one of them, but what would I be achieving? Proving that on his own, DPC's output is 2-3 times faster than other developers who already have teams? I think that's what we'd find.

Employing people would just prove to be a headache with very little positive impact on delivery time since DPC is doing all the work himself in parallel to the rendering process.

And anyway, knowing DPC, if he did employ people and magically streamlined shit so productions was even faster, he'd just decide to deliver more over the same time frame. Eventually the whole game would be animated with no static renders.

TL;DR?

• DPC churns out a lot more images and animations per week than other developers.
• DPC queues up the images and animations and has them running 24/7 on 8 RTX3090 GPUs.
• DPC works on everything else while these renders are processing.
• People are whining he should get others involved to make it a faster process.
• People don't get that the payoff would be little if he did that.
• DPC would just make the game bigger if things got faster.

I think we all don't fully understand what the development of such a large project as BAD alone is fraught with.

* The load increases with each release, his mental and physical capabilities are depleted and the probability of simply getting sick from overwork is high. One day off is clearly not enough, the guy needs a full 2 days off and the working schedule is 8-9 hours a day.. But he can't afford it because he works alone.
* Lack of a fresh look from the outside. Pink has surrounded himself with an army of fans who accept any controversial decision he makes. There is practically no feedback, he does not perceive any criticism (he bans for criticizing the game). Such insensitivity will lead to the fact that much more strange plot solutions will appear that Maya's credit will seem to us a good plot twist. Any creator needs an editor, be it Stephen King or Cormac McCarthy.
*As I have already said, the team is needed not to reduce the development time, but to improve quality and reduce the load. Will the game suffer if some freelancer does the environment? Will Pink's creative vision be destroyed if someone will devoloper a mini-game on Pink's technical assignment? Does DPC need to polish the game itself and prepare it for release in GOG and Steam instead of doing creative work? Just imagine that rough work like polishing will be transferred to freelance. Pink then would not have lost 2 months to prepare the game for digital release.
*I think that the disadvantages of working alone are already noticeable, but over time they will become more and more. Big projects are always done by a team. Summer Saga is made by a team of several people, NLT Games also employs several people. The team allows you to distribute responsibilities evenly, as a result of which one aspect of the game does not look better or worse than the other. DPC will not be able to evenly give the same quality in all aspects of the game.
Branching will be under attack. He will not be able to implement all branches equally well. Maya and Josie's path is still the weakest, which even Pink himself doesn't seem to care about, and the freeroams in episode 8 was incredibly boring.

 

[Arigon]

I think we all don't fully understand what the development of such a large project as BAD alone is fraught with.

* The load increases with each release, his mental and physical capabilities are depleted and the probability of simply getting sick from overwork is high. One day off is clearly not enough, the guy needs a full 2 days off and the working schedule is 8-9 hours a day.. But he can't afford it because he works alone.
* Lack of a fresh look from the outside. Pink has surrounded himself with an army of fans who accept any controversial decision he makes. There is practically no feedback, he does not perceive any criticism (he bans for criticizing the game). Such insensitivity will lead to the fact that much more strange plot solutions will appear that Maya's credit will seem to us a good plot twist. Any creator needs an editor, be it Stephen King or Cormac McCarthy.
*As I have already said, the team is needed not to reduce the development time, but to improve quality and reduce the load. Will the game suffer if some freelancer does the environment? Will Pink's creative vision be destroyed if someone walks a mini-game on Pink's technical assignment? Does DPC need to polish the game itself and prepare it for release in GOG and Steam instead of doing creative work? Just imagine that rough work like polishing will be transferred to freelance. Pink then would not have lost 2 months to prepare the game for digital release.
*I think that the disadvantages of working alone are already noticeable, but over time they will become more and more. Big projects are always done by a team. Summer Saga is made by a team of several people, NLT Games also employs several people. The team allows you to distribute responsibilities evenly, as a result of which one aspect of the game does not look better or worse than the other. DPC will not be able to evenly give the same quality in all aspects of the game.

Again
You wonderful gentle people prove the point that this simply can't continue.
I don't care if DPC swore on his mother's grave or similarly serious oath, there will never be 20 episodes of THIS GAME.

He will have to do some drastic paring back on all the branching soon just to retain his sanity. Or maybe that is already lost lol?

In any case, this will end in a disappointingly abrupt way, and yes, I will be here to pass out the tissues. Just read what these guys wrote! DPC is not going to relinquish any kind of responsibility. That is not who he is.

As a result, just like the Death Star II was fully operational, when everyone thought it wasn't, you all are going to have to severely adjust your thinking to just how much DPC will be able to do and for how long before terminal burnout sets in, if it hasn't already.

Sigh...
Facepalm away
Peace

 

[LizaS]

Again
You wonderful gentle people prove the point that this simply can't continue.
I don't care if DPC swore on his mother's grave or similarly serious oath, there will never be 20 episodes of THIS GAME.

He will have to do some drastic paring back on all the branching soon just to retain his sanity. Or maybe that is already lost lol?

In any case, this will end in a disappointingly abrupt way, and yes, I will be here to pass out the tissues. Just read what these guys wrote! DPC is not going to relinquish any kind of responsibility. That is not who he is.

As a result, just like the Death Star II was fully operational, when everyone thought it wasn't, you all are going to have to severely adjust your thinking to just how much DPC will be able to do and for how long before terminal burnout sets in, if it hasn't already.

Sigh...
Facepalm away
Peace

Never change, Arigon.

I always laugh at your posts in this thread. Not because I think that you're wrong (you have pretty fair reasoning), but because I always find your comments entertaining! The way you deliver your arguments are impeccable.

If it does end like the way you say (I hope not), I will also be there, eating popcorn and laughing at the turn of events.

 

[TuffyTenToes]

Gee, I wonder why Mr. Pink doesn't want to show up his face around here

 

[Arigon]

Gee, I wonder why Mr. Pink doesn't want to show up his face around here

He used too... He got insulted and said fuck off basically. He still has his secret service monitoring all us DPC fans but seriously not worshiping him fans.
I wouldn't come here. He banned me from his Discord, Patreon, and Steam comment sections, and I paid for his game lol.
Anyhow.!!!

Never change, Arigon.

I always laugh at your posts in this thread. Not because I think that you're wrong (you have pretty fair reasoning), but because I always find your comments entertaining! The way you deliver your arguments are impeccable.

If it does end like the way you say, I will also be there, eating popcorn and laughing at the turn of events.

Count on it! 70-100 characters needing some kind of input??? That is insanity. He has painted himself into a corner.
Death by sheer porn overload.
I guess there are worse ways to go, but there are a lot better!
Peace

 

[PashafromRussia]

Gee, I wonder why Mr. Pink doesn't want to show up his face around here

And in vain. If he had read dalli_x theories and shazba posts, the game would have become much better.

 

[kami sin]

I will be playing this game for the first time
so any tips or advise
like any good mods etc.

 

[Arigon]

I will be playing this game for the first time
so any tips or advise
like any good mods etc.

Naw
don't use mods the first time. Just like your MC, raw dog it all the way, I mean, what could go wrong?!

 

[shazba]

Again
You wonderful gentle people prove the point that this simply can't continue.
I don't care if DPC swore on his mother's grave or similarly serious oath, there will never be 20 episodes of THIS GAME.

He will have to do some drastic paring back on all the branching soon just to retain his sanity. Or maybe that is already lost lol?

In any case, this will end in a disappointingly abrupt way, and yes, I will be here to pass out the tissues. Just read what these guys wrote! DPC is not going to relinquish any kind of responsibility. That is not who he is.

As a result, just like the Death Star II was fully operational, when everyone thought it wasn't, you all are going to have to severely adjust your thinking to just how much DPC will be able to do and for how long before terminal burnout sets in, if it hasn't already.

Sigh...
Facepalm away
Peace

I actually think the branching will be easier than the previous paths. Up until now all sorts of paths and permutations of relationships were possible. I'm gonna try to list them off the top of my head, and I'm sure to miss something:

1. M&J only
2. M&J and Jill
3. M&J, Jill and Sage
4. M&J, Jill, Sage and Bella
5. M&J and Sage
6. M&J, Sage and Bella
7. M&J and Bella
8. Jill only
9. Jill and Sage
10. Jill, Sage and Bella
11. Jill, Sage, Bella and Jade
12. Jill and Bella
13. Jill, Bella and Jade
14. Jill and Jade
15. Sage only
16. Sage and Bella
17. Sage, Bella and Quinn
18. Sage, Bella, Quinn and Jade
19. Sage and Quinn
20. Sage, Quinn and Jade
21. Sage and Jade
22. Bella only
23. Bella and Quinn
24. Bella, Quinn and Jade
25. Bella and Jade
26. Quinn only
27. Quinn and Jade
28. Jade only

And that doesn't even include that you could start a path with Jade but have it end prematurely due to M&J, same goes with Quinn's path ending due to Jill and so on. Or that Cathy, Riona, Lily, Nicole etc are all thrown into the mix. Actually I should have added Nicole and Lily into the above combinations, but I really just can't be fucked (lucky that's not DPC'c attitude!), but that would just blow it out even further.

Al that shit is pretty fucking convoluted, and it's worked fine.

Now since the "crossroads", we're looking at:

1. M&J only
2. Jill only
3. Sage only
4. Bella only
5. Others (basically all combinations of the below group)
   1. Quinn
   2. Jade
   3. Nicole
   4. Lily

I'm not sure how much Nicole's relationship with the mc is gonna progress. I get the impression they will just fuck from time-to-time, I don't think he's really the one she's looking for.

The Jade relationship is possibly about to go south big time due to this family meeting, or they could keep up their tryst.

It looks like there's going to be more happening with the Lily relationship since she wants to "Roll" with the mc.

And surely the Quinn relationship will keep progressing.

Oh yeah, and then there's Zoey!

So to me, it doesn't look like it's going to get more complicated with these branches, it'll actually be less so.

 

[PashafromRussia]

I actually think the branching will be easier than the previous paths. Up until now all sorts of paths and permutations of relationships were possible. I'm gonna try to list them off the top of my head, and I'm sure to miss something:

1. M&J only
2. M&J and Jill
3. M&J, Jill and Sage
4. M&J, Jill, Sage and Bella
5. M&J and Sage
6. M&J, Sage and Bella
7. M&J and Bella
8. Jill only
9. Jill and Sage
10. Jill, Sage and Bella
11. Jill, Sage, Bella and Jade
12. Jill and Bella
13. Jill, Bella and Jade
14. Jill and Jade
15. Sage only
16. Sage and Bella
17. Sage, Bella and Quinn
18. Sage, Bella, Quinn and Jade
19. Sage and Quinn
20. Sage, Quinn and Jade
21. Sage and Jade
22. Bella only
23. Bella and Quinn
24. Bella, Quinn and Jade
25. Bella and Jade
26. Quinn only
27. Quinn and Jade
28. Jade only

And that doesn't even include that you could start a path with Jade but have it end prematurely due to M&J, same goes with Quinn's path ending due to Jill and so on. Or that Cathy, Riona, Lily, Nicole etc are all thrown into the mix. Actually I should have added Nicole and Lily into the above combinations, but I really just can't be fucked (lucky that's not DPC'c attitude!), but that would just blow it out even further.

Al that shit is pretty fucking convoluted, and it's worked fine.

Now since the "crossroads", we're looking at:

1. M&J only
2. Jill only
3. Sage only
4. Bella only
5. Others (basically all combinations of the below group)
   1. Quinn
   2. Jade
   3. Nicole
   4. Lily

I'm not sure how much Nicole's relationship with the mc is gonna progress. I get the impression they will just fuck from time-to-time, I don't think he's really the one she's looking for.

The Jade relationship is possibly about to go south big time due to this family meeting, or they could keep up their tryst.

It looks like there's going to be more happening with the Lily relationship since she wants to "Roll" with the mc.

And surely the Quinn relationship will keep progressing.

Oh yeah, and then there's Zoey!

So to me, it doesn't look like it's going to get more complicated with these branches, it'll actually be less so.

The question here is not complexity, but how high-quality and interesting each of the branches will be. Previously, the paths of the girls mutually intersected with each other, complementing and contrasting with each other. Jill looked interesting against the background of aggressive Sage and Bella looked elegant and sophisticated against the background of rude Quinn. I don't believe that all paths will be equally good.

 

[Darkdevil66]

I actually think the branching will be easier than the previous paths. Up until now all sorts of paths and permutations of relationships were possible. I'm gonna try to list them off the top of my head, and I'm sure to miss something:

Yes there's one, the most horrendous and feared path. A path even most hardcore Jill-solo path players wouldn't take :

The Chaste path.

 

[TuffyTenToes]

I wonder if Bianca will only be pursuable if you are on Jill's path, if you are you get to see more of Bianca but if you aren't and you sit with Quinn on the park you get to see Bianca's boyfriend kissing one of her friends.

I can't wait to comfort her several times.

 

[Arigon]

Yes there's one, the most horrendous and feared path. A path even most hardcore Jill-solo path players wouldn't take :

The Chaste path.

yeah....
Fuck that...
Peace

 

[PashafromRussia]

I wonder if Bianca will only be pursuable if you are on Jill's path, if you are you get to see more of Bianca but if you aren't and you sit with Quinn on the park you get to see Bianca's boyfriend kissing one of her friends.

I can't wait to comfort her several times.

Jill behaves like an exemplary princess and has sex only under the full moon and by candlelight. MС wants to play with Jill's anus and feed her a cream pie right down her throat. But then Bianca comes to the rescue. She doesn't say shit about fate and signs, she swallows and fucks like a wild pig when mating. As a result, Jill notices more and more traces of yogurt on the corners of her lips and can't figure out where, because she doesn't buy yogurt!

 

[felicemastronzo]

I wonder if Bianca will only be pursuable if you are on Jill's path, if you are you get to see more of Bianca but if you aren't and you sit with Quinn on the park you get to see Bianca's boyfriend kissing one of her friends.

I can't wait to comfort her several times.

if you don't hang out with Jill you haven't even met Bianca yet, and even if that happened basically she would be just another side girl, it's one thing to be best friends with your girlfriend, it's another to be friends with someone you know, she loses a lot of interest...

The question here is not complexity, but how high-quality and interesting each of the branches will be. Previously, the paths of the girls mutually intersected with each other, complementing and contrasting with each other. Jill looked interesting against the background of aggressive Sage and Bella looked elegant and sophisticated against the background of rude Quinn. I don't believe that all paths will be equally good.

actually this will continue at least in the immediate term, because it will not only count who you chose, but also who you left behind (the most obvious cases are Bella for Jill or Sage for Jade)

some characters have yet to face their big drama, and at that time MC will have to interact with them and it will make a difference whether we chose them, abandoned them, or were "never" romantically interested in them

 

[sixart]

TL;DR?

Nope


Points were good yet I add this one to the pile...

I would ask ( from pros and cons as well ) do you think that DPC is some sort of retard " child " that needs the insight of thousands of randos ?!?

He's a grown ass man for fucks sake !

I think it was already estabilished that he is successful... that does not come by on it's own... so whoever is oh so worked up about his mental state or is " threatening " to pull his/her support ( financially or otherwise ) should just go and check out their own backyard first As long as people get scarred from an AL scene ( yeah the fire ) I don't think THEY should be worried about the mental state of another... and as for support wasn't it always so that it depends on you ?!

It's not like the end of the world... that'll come soon

Spoiler: !

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[Arigon]

Nope


Points were good yet I add this one to the pile...

I would ask ( from pros and cons as well ) do you think that DPC is some sort of retard " child " that needs the insight of thousands of randos ?!?

He's a grown ass man for fucks sake !

I think it was already estabilished that he is successful... that does not come by on it's own... so whoever is oh so worked up about his mental state or is " threatening " to pull his/her support ( financially or otherwise ) should just go and check out their own backyard first As long as people get scarred from an AL scene ( yeah the fire ) I don't think THEY should be worried about the mental state of another... and as for support wasn't it always so that it depends on you ?!

It's not like the end of the world... that'll come soon

Spoiler: !

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Naw. He’s really a precocious dwarf, 3’2” (cock size) whose wound so tight that when that mega flopped blows a stress nut, Putin’s lil red button won’t mean jack shit!

 

[NoboodyDies]

Did the first preview of Josy ever get shared?

 

[Oliver Wendell Homely]

Ep1 of Badik was launched on feb 2019 just before the pandemic, at that point DPC had 600 patreons. Althought this seems nothing today the truth is everyone had smaller numbers back than than they have today. You can have funchecking the numbers here:

You must be registered to see the links

I'd never seen that site before. I was frankly surprised to see that the guy(s) making "Summertime Saga" is the number one adult game maker on Patreon, with nearly 29k patrons right now. I really enjoy "Summertime Saga" but would never have guessed.

 

[PashafromRussia]

Ep1 of Badik was launched on feb 2019 just before the pandemic, at that point DPC had 600 patreons. Althought this seems nothing today the truth is everyone had smaller numbers back than than they have today. You can have funchecking the numbers here:

You must be registered to see the links

A very good website. Allows you to track the dynamics. In fact, his business is not growing, the number of patrons remains at the level of 14 thousand, spikes occur only when an update is released.
NLT Games has already overtaken him, although a few months ago they were several thousand patrons behind. Regular content updates are bearing fruit.
Probably soon it will be overtaken by Adeptus Steve. He's literally breathing down his back.