The developer's intentions are understandable, but this game is not worth any money.
- Thread starter IcarusLabs
- Start date
- Dec 28, 2017
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Accusing a game dev of wanting to make money with their game, as if it were an outrageous thing to do, is one of the most nonsensical things I've ever read on this site.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about how good or bad this game is. In any case, the dev is actually working on the game and releasing content, so of course he wants to get a reward for his work.
I'm not a paying subscriber, so I can only analyze his decision to go online from a practical point of view. I just had a look at his Graphtreon stats and it doesn't look like this decision did him much good so far.
This graph covers the last 12 months. As you can see, there are three peaks coinciding with the January, March and July releases. The bump after the March release wasn't that high (it peaked at 85 patrons), but the other two are really sharp and surpassed 100 patrons from the 60-something he had right before the release. This means that Icarus has a number of loyal subscribers, but he also gets a bunch of temporary subscriptions from people who just pay when a new version is out.
Now, if you look at the right end of the line you can see there has been hardly any variation in September, when the fully online version was released. So much so that he's only gained 5 new supporters after the release and currently sits at 65.
Maybe I'm reading this wrong; maybe some people prefer to subscribe only after every other update, and that's why the March release was't as successful as the January and July ones, so the same was expected to happen in September. Maybe it's still soon and some people subscribe when the update is available for certain tiers. I don't know, but my initial impression is that the online-only version hasn't been a success.
hoshin0119 btw did you mean that the online version goes public after 3 weeks?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about how good or bad this game is. In any case, the dev is actually working on the game and releasing content, so of course he wants to get a reward for his work.
I'm not a paying subscriber, so I can only analyze his decision to go online from a practical point of view. I just had a look at his Graphtreon stats and it doesn't look like this decision did him much good so far.
This graph covers the last 12 months. As you can see, there are three peaks coinciding with the January, March and July releases. The bump after the March release wasn't that high (it peaked at 85 patrons), but the other two are really sharp and surpassed 100 patrons from the 60-something he had right before the release. This means that Icarus has a number of loyal subscribers, but he also gets a bunch of temporary subscriptions from people who just pay when a new version is out.
Now, if you look at the right end of the line you can see there has been hardly any variation in September, when the fully online version was released. So much so that he's only gained 5 new supporters after the release and currently sits at 65.
Maybe I'm reading this wrong; maybe some people prefer to subscribe only after every other update, and that's why the March release was't as successful as the January and July ones, so the same was expected to happen in September. Maybe it's still soon and some people subscribe when the update is available for certain tiers. I don't know, but my initial impression is that the online-only version hasn't been a success.
hoshin0119 btw did you mean that the online version goes public after 3 weeks?
Giving money to creative workers? Perish the thought, clearly they need to be paid in exposure.
(this comment is not directed really at the person quoted and is taking the piss, if it wasn't obvious
)
- Aug 20, 2020
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No one said anything about making money doing adult VNs being outrageous.
In this particular use, I've been following the project since it's started.
Dev peaked in July (after 0.4 release) and in July he announced the online version; also in July he got significant criticism from the playerbase about the MC development (and some other things related to the story development) - this can be traced back as well, as his Patreon earnings.
I understand that huge chunk of internet whiteknights need to work with their forks daily as otherwise they don't feel their existence justified, but it's just getting way too funny nowadays.
- Nov 24, 2021
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This is just my personal opinion, but I don't think developers are charity workers. If someone doesn't feel that a game is worth paying for, They can simply choose not to play that game. Waiting for someone to share the game for free every time it gets updated and enjoying it for free while evaluating its worth is the wrong thing to do. Evaluating a game should only be done by those who have paid a fair price for it.
- Aug 20, 2020
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I usually support fairly small content creators here and hope that they can"blow up", so I can finish the game at some point in time, and that their project won't be dropped. I don't really get jealous if someone pirates their stuff as that's how you can become "popular" and get your work noticed (typically, in the adult VN ecosystem). That's how the cookie crumbles.
About Icarus (I'm assuming you are his supporter, so my apologies for being blunt): pretty much no one would have known about his game without f95. He had an interesting story to tell, but failed to deliver (imo) - that's about it. I hope his online DRM thingy will bring him calmness of mind.
- Nov 24, 2021
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Your words are not wrong either. Thank you for your valuable opinion.
For me personally, the reasons why I don't like online versions of games can be broken down into three points:
- To be able to play, I need to have internet access. Even in my own home this isn't always a given. I have a room in the cellar that I sometimes go to to have some peace and quiet from the rest of the family, but the WiFi doesn't reach down there. I have LAN in the room, but I can't always be arsed to switch cables with the PC there and my Notebook.
- If a game dev decides for some reason to discontinue a game and pull the online version, I lose all access to the game forever.
- This point isn't as much online vs offline version as it is Renpy vs other game engines: The vast majority of game engines for visual novels don't come with the same amount/quality of features as Renpy. The most important for me personally are the fast forward feature (especially for games with multiple paths), being able to change the text speed (I always want text to appear instantaneously), being able to click anywhere or use the space bar to get to the next bit of text, and a basically unlimited amount of save slots.
- To be able to play, I need to have internet access. Even in my own home this isn't always a given. I have a room in the cellar that I sometimes go to to have some peace and quiet from the rest of the family, but the WiFi doesn't reach down there. I have LAN in the room, but I can't always be arsed to switch cables with the PC there and my Notebook.
- If a game dev decides for some reason to discontinue a game and pull the online version, I lose all access to the game forever.
- This point isn't as much online vs offline version as it is Renpy vs other game engines: The vast majority of game engines for visual novels don't come with the same amount/quality of features as Renpy. The most important for me personally are the fast forward feature (especially for games with multiple paths), being able to change the text speed (I always want text to appear instantaneously), being able to click anywhere or use the space bar to get to the next bit of text, and a basically unlimited amount of save slots.
- Dec 28, 2017
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Oh boy, if you'd seen me in some other threads you'd know that I'm far from an internet whiteknight. I'm willing to bash milkers like anyone else; in fact I've been criticized myself at some point for being too harsh on a certain dev.
You said:
Icaruslab may have made a wrong decision with this online thing and probably with certain other aspects of his game, but he doesn't go month after month milking his supporters without releasing anything. Regardless of how questionable his decisions may be, he's working on the game, that's why I considered that saying he's always been very hungry for money was unfair.
- Aug 20, 2020
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I'm still waiting on Kaffekop to drop that promised Sins of the Father update... It's been a year.
Man his reason for making this an online only game is so fucking suspicious lmao.
Yeah there's no other solution to this, this entire weird scheme of making a website and account setup was much easier than compression.
Yeah there's no other solution to this, this entire weird scheme of making a website and account setup was much easier than compression.
- Jan 27, 2017
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It's bullshit all he got to say because of piracy. He acts like he host the sites he upload the game too.
All I will say I guess I will miss fucking Annie thats about it.
- Nov 6, 2017
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Huh was scrolling through some games that had not been updated for a while and this was one of them, and yikes reading the comments and understanding why there has been no update ouch is all I can say.
Shame that the dev felt that way about people playing the game on here.
Making a website to play the game online only because of file size has to be one of the funniest/dumbest excuses to avoid piracy I have heard. Just be honest about it.
Anyway the game was promising but nothing groundbreaking either, so a shame for sure but not a massive loss at the end of the day.
Edit: Looked at the browser version an it is missing a lot of basic quality of life things like backlog skipping saving etc and it brakes totaly when there is a message to look at on the phone the text goes off screen and the game softlocks, crazy. What a mess.
Shame that the dev felt that way about people playing the game on here.
Making a website to play the game online only because of file size has to be one of the funniest/dumbest excuses to avoid piracy I have heard. Just be honest about it.
Anyway the game was promising but nothing groundbreaking either, so a shame for sure but not a massive loss at the end of the day.
Edit: Looked at the browser version an it is missing a lot of basic quality of life things like backlog skipping saving etc and it brakes totaly when there is a message to look at on the phone the text goes off screen and the game softlocks, crazy. What a mess.
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- Aug 14, 2022
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- Dec 11, 2021
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- Dec 11, 2021
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LMAO WTF IS THE DEV THINKING MAKING THIS ONLINE ONLY
That's just sad, and a good way to stop new people from seeing your game. Shame too because I was liking the game, I think it offers something different from the standard VN here. But nothing justifies whatever the fuck they doing, online only smh
That's just sad, and a good way to stop new people from seeing your game. Shame too because I was liking the game, I think it offers something different from the standard VN here. But nothing justifies whatever the fuck they doing, online only smh