Ren'Py Big Brother: Another Story Rebuild [v0.09.00] [Aleksey90]

[Scorby]

I hate "dreams/fantasies" in these type of games. It kills the build up and anticipation of progressing though the story with characters. They're like massive spoilers. Really disappointing to see them in this game, even if they are hot. I've seen them done in a way where they imply instead of show, and those work decently well, otherwise they just ruin the carrot.

Only reason I can think of why devs include them is in an attempt to get ahead of criticism like "there's not enough sexual content in this game" during the early stages of development. Even if it's not that, I don't see why a dev would want to potentially dampen or kill the incentive to play through the game for their audience. I'd rather wait for the whole meal to cook than skip straight to dessert.

 

[keer]

https://f95zone.to/threads/big-brother-another-story-rebuild-v0-06-01-aleksey90.43101/post-15701649

 

[khumak]

I hate "dreams/fantasies" in these type of games. It kills the build up and anticipation of progressing though the story with characters. They're like massive spoilers. Really disappointing to see them in this game, even if they are hot. I've seen them done in a way where they imply instead of show, and those work decently well, otherwise they just ruin the carrot.

Only reason I can think of why devs include them is in an attempt to get ahead of criticism like "there's not enough sexual content in this game" during the early stages of development. Even if it's not that, I don't see why a dev would want to potentially dampen or kill the incentive to play through the game for their audience. I'd rather wait for the whole meal to cook than skip straight to dessert.

I have no problem with dreams or fantasies in this type of game, but to me the best use case for them is to get some "fake" sex scenes in there for characters that are going to be a slow burn. So for the easy conquests there's not much point in a sex dream, you're better off doing a real scene. For someone you're not going to get to fuck for real until like 3 years into development, that's who you want a few sex dreams for. So I can understand why he's doing them in this game. The problem is that's pretty much ALL he's doing. There's no real progress with anyone (as of the last version I played, haven't played the new one yet).

 

[Scorby]

I have no problem with dreams or fantasies in this type of game, but to me the best use case for them is to get some "fake" sex scenes in there for characters that are going to be a slow burn. So for the easy conquests there's not much point in a sex dream, you're better off doing a real scene. For someone you're not going to get to fuck for real until like 3 years into development, that's who you want a few sex dreams for. So I can understand why he's doing them in this game. The problem is that's pretty much ALL he's doing. There's no real progress with anyone (as of the last version I played, haven't played the new one yet).

I can also understand why a dev might do it, which is why I mentioned it, but still I don't think there's a good reason to do it. In my opinion it sacrifices too much for too little payoff. Granted this is subjective, what works for you might not for me, but a huge part of the appeal for adult games for me is the steady ramping up sexual content with each character. Dreams/Fantasies kill that aspect of the game. It's like going to see a film and being shown the how it ends within the first 10 minutes or skipping to the last season of TV show. Most of the entertainment and excitement comes from everything before that, the journey of how you get to the end game content. I would happily and preferably wait patiently for that payoff.

It's also not as though that there aren't alternative solutions to tide over or throw a bone to those who don't care about the build up or aren't as patient. Most of these types of games will typically have a side character, or one main character who you can progress through faster and access sexual content early, which is a much better solution IMO as you get to have your cake and eat it too. Kira effectively served that function in this series and Alice had a quicker progression than Lisa or Ann. Another solution is to focus development more heavily around one character at a time. I'm not necessarily saying those are the right or only solution for this game, only that there are other options that don't spoil the content before it even gets going. Throwing the fantasies in just comes across as a ill-advised attempt to stave off critiques (it could also just be a creative choice, we don't know) and judging by recent comments it's not working.


PS: For some added context, I've been following this game since it's first release and have largely agreed and supported the dev's decision to restart the project due to technical debt and think people who are being critical of the length of the development cycle largely don't understand just how much work and time this sort of project takes, especially for such a small team. Having said that I have been and remain quite critical of some of the decisions that have been made since the reset, especially in regard to the visuals and rendering. The project saw a real dip in quality compared to the first iteration's visual fidelity, although recent screenshots for this update suggest there may be some reason to optimistic on that front, we'll see when the update goes public.

 

[WtfwinPC]

guess i'll be skipping this release, really disappointed in the progress and hope that the creator might take this time to look into hiring help or using AI to speed things up in the future. If he wants to make money off this game and even publish it on steam he needs to put more effort into it.

 

[Cowboy84]

View attachment 4395219

Happy New Year everyone, Game Mod and Walkthrough Mod - updates coming soon​

Not sure, if this was posted earlier.. here you go..


Big Brother: Another Story Rebuild

Spoiler: Update/Change Log: (v0.07)

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Thank you OnlyFunz. Happy New Year to you.

 

[CJAM2002]

A problem Aleksey seems to have is that they're underestimating how much work is needed to finish off Chapter 1. So far we've been told that 0.06 was going to be the end of Chapter 1. But then 0.06 released and Chapter 1 wasn't finished yet. We were then told that 0.07 was going to be the end of Chapter 1. Low and behold, 0.07 has released and it's not the end of Chapter 1.

I understand the whole needing to restart every update thing because the game is non-linear. That's fine. I understand that.

But I do feel like Aleksey is making announcements about where Chapter 1's progress is at too early. I feel like Aleksey should focus on each update individually. I feel like the scope of Chapter 1 has increased since the initial 0.06 is the end of Chapter 1 announcement.

Also feel like we need some more focus on Ann and Lisa, especially considering they are the slow burn romances of the game. Alice and Kira are much faster burns, so I feel you can space out their progress a bit more. Also, the addition of Mia is a fresh addition that I like. Makes this incarnation of BB feel a bit more unique in that respect.

Guess we'll see if 0.08 is actually going to be the end of Chapter 1 or not.

 

[gramaton]

hahaha, 4 months for that?

no progress with Alice
no progress with Ann
minimal progress with Lisa
hardly any measurable progress with Mia


All the promises made during the rebuild. The layers will make everything go even faster, cleaning up the code will make everything go faster. There is less content from update to update.

At this rate of progress, it will take another five or six updates before Lisa even sleeps naked (which wasn't possible in the old version). With a maximum of three to four updates a year, we're talking about the end of 2026 until that happens. I'll give the game three more updates until it's discontinued. Unless there are still too rich people who just pay without wanting to get anything in return.

The rebuild is now over two years old. He claims 10 years of development time for the entire game. That means he wanted to be 20% of the way there by now. Hahaha, if that's 20%

He perfectly joins the ranks of people who cash in on Patreon and do nothing more for it. And that's another example for me of never supporting anyone at Patreon, because there are too few people who actually do something for this support.

you always can do better, my man

 

[thinman78]

you always can do better, my man

I didn't say that and that's not my point. With this slow progress, does anyone really expect the game to be finished at some point? And what is Aleksey's goal?

Most games here are abandoned because the developers are overwhelmed and don't feel like it anymore (my opinion). But I don't see that happening with Aleksey. He brings out a mini update every few months and these are mostly dreams where he no longer has to worry about progress in the game.

Patreon plays well for him here. You pay monthly in the hope that something will come. Whether something comes is then up to the developer. But again, the amounts are too small to really hurt most payers. As a developer, you have a fairly fixed income and then have to motivate yourself to do something for it. And I don't see the motivation with Aleksey, just the cashing in. That's my point of criticism.

Quonix is a good counterexample to Aleksey, because I think he also develops on his own. The updates are also manageable at around 5 minutes, but come on time every month. Here, the hope that something will come for the money on Patreon is also fulfilled.

 

[fukmada]

you always can do better, my man

That's ridiculous. People are allowed to complain. It's fine to make a half-assed update if the guy took some time off, but he should be upfront about it. People waited a long time for an update, and it came with expectations that he had worked on it. Why are you being such a shill? Are you his personal reputation manager?

 

[christopher thompson]

definitely no hero's on here

 

[Gok]

I doubt there are high paying patrons those who do pay that price, don't want to admit they're paying for it not even for clout..

 

[filochard]

I doubt there are high paying patrons those who do pay that price, don't want to admit they're paying for it not even for clout..

There's no need for high paying patrons anymore
Dec 29, 2024 (for patrons €30 / Tier 5)
Dec 30, 2024 (for patrons €20+ / Tiers 4+)
Dec 31, 2024 (for patrons €10+ / Tiers 3+)
Jan 1, 2025 (for patrons €5+ / Tiers 2+)
Jan 2, 2025 (for all patrons / for all Tiers

 

[Qalx]

There's no need for high paying patrons anymore
Dec 29, 2024 (for patrons €30 / Tier 5)
Dec 30, 2024 (for patrons €20+ / Tiers 4+)
Dec 31, 2024 (for patrons €10+ / Tiers 3+)
Jan 1, 2025 (for patrons €5+ / Tiers 2+)
Jan 2, 2025 (for all patrons / for all Tiers

April 1, free for all...

 

[BigRedRadio]

I hate "dreams/fantasies" in these type of games. It kills the build up and anticipation of progressing though the story with characters. They're like massive spoilers. Really disappointing to see them in this game, even if they are hot. I've seen them done in a way where they imply instead of show, and those work decently well, otherwise they just ruin the carrot.

Only reason I can think of why devs include them is in an attempt to get ahead of criticism like "there's not enough sexual content in this game" during the early stages of development. Even if it's not that, I don't see why a dev would want to potentially dampen or kill the incentive to play through the game for their audience. I'd rather wait for the whole meal to cook than skip straight to dessert.

Then you get the no content issue, basically the Devs just have to get eyes on screens early on and the dreams do that when they've a player base it's less of an issue but you need porn games to have early on and regular porn it's sort of the point.

I do take your point but unless the Dev can release the game fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus I don't see a good alternative

 

[Daveiy]

i hate Fantasy and Dream Sequences !! its so annoying and spoils the teasing fun. why do he care to implement those if he can just focus on an actual continuation of the game?

 

[por12]

i hate Fantasy and Dream Sequences !! its so annoying and spoils the teasing fun. why do he care to implement those if he can just focus on an actual continuation of the game?

miiiiiiiiiiiilk

 

[Scorby]

Then you get the no content issue, basically the Devs just have to get eyes on screens early on and the dreams do that when they've a player base it's less of an issue but you need porn games to have early on and regular porn it's sort of the point.

I do take your point but unless the Dev can release the game fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus I don't see a good alternative

My second post went into why I don't think that's true and that alternative solutions exist. It's far from an exhuastive list, I was just trying to demonstrate the point with a couple examples. I agree that releasing it fully formed wouldn't be a viable solution, at least for a small indie developer in this space.

It's also not as though that there aren't alternative solutions to tide over or throw a bone to those who don't care about the build up or aren't as patient. Most of these types of games will typically have a side character, or one main character who you can progress through faster and access sexual content early, which is a much better solution IMO as you get to have your cake and eat it too. Kira effectively served that function in this series and Alice had a quicker progression than Lisa or Ann. Another solution is to focus development more heavily around one character at a time. I'm not necessarily saying those are the right or only solution for this game, only that there are other options that don't spoil the content before it even gets going. Throwing the fantasies in just comes across as a ill-advised attempt to stave off critiques (it could also just be a creative choice, we don't know) and judging by recent comments it's not working.

 

[SAS3150]

He feeds his subscribers shit. They support him, but he doesn't have to do anything, he's happy with everything. You need to cancel subscriptions in order for it to start working.

 

[Scorby]

He feeds his subscribers shit. They support him, but he doesn't have to do anything, he's happy with everything. You need to cancel subscriptions in order for it to start working.

I'll never understand this entitled choosing beggar mindset.

"You know what will motivate them to work harder?! Let's remove any incentive and bully them into doing it! That'll work!"

Moronic

Don't take this as advocating for blind support. If you're like me and not happy with the direction the product, you can walk away with your support, give constructive feedback and suggestions, then consider coming back if/when you think they've improved again. If you have faith in the dev and the vision of the project, you might choose to continuing to support it in spite of any grievances. That's subjective and entirely up to the individual and what they think is worth spending their money on.

If you know anything about this type of work (I do it for a living), then you'll know that claims that they're "milking" or "not doing anything" are typically fucking dumb as bricks and the easiest way to tell whether someone understands the space or are just coping. It's like wearing a big sign saying "I don't know how any of this works". One guy a few posts back even suggested the dev should "just hire more help and put more effort in", because a dev who works a full time job and does this project in their spare time, alone, can surely afford to do that. The also suggested the dev should "just use AI" as though that would work and it's an easy fix. How to say you know nothing without saying you know nothing. That's like trying to diffuse a nuclear bomb and saying, "just use google" or "just use a hammer". Don't be that guy, think.

This type of project is hard, requires many completely different skillsets and is a lot of work, especially if you're a solo act and you're already doing it on top of other regular IRL stuff like a full time job (which I believe this dev does, he's mentioned he works/ed in agriculture). Every project has a different scope, with different pipelines, different demands, bottlenecks and limitations. Comparing projects and their progress has limited value. Bringing on additional help, especially when there's no guarantee of compensation and it's to work on someone else vision is even harder.

Don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. I see way to many people here jump to the conclusion that this or devs in general are intentionally trying to fuck over their supporters and take advantage of them, when it's far more likely and often seems even self-evident that they're just struggling to balance work on the project with other IRL obligations. You know, things like working a IRL job to pay the bills because the project doesn't make enough money to pay them, who'da thunk?

Badgering the dev and advocating the boycott of support because you don't think they're not slaving away enough is a sure fire way to see a project die. If that's your goal, it's petty and spiteful, but at least its consistent in it's logic. You do you I guess.