3.30 star(s) 55 Votes

fifo5310

Active Member
Feb 25, 2018
560
2,702

November Release Schedule

November is going to be a busy month with lots of updates coming. Here is the planned schedule:
  • 11/7 - Online version patch
    Different enhancements and upgrades for the online game.
  • 11/9 - Bitch patron level content release
    Release of all new content for the Bitch level tier
  • 11/14 - *Secret Project* release
    Release of something that I've been working on recently that is pretty cool
  • 11/21 - downloadable content release
    New downloadable game version available
  • 11/22 - New monthly content release
    Brand new content available as we move into the second half of EP5. Previous content release to the Little Bitch tier
 

DirectXD1943

Member
Dec 9, 2022
124
1,129
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.

View attachment 2971232

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?
Those are some great analytics. I'm always curious what devs can do to make content accessible but also allow them to make money, and I feel like the most successful patreons for AVN's I've seen regularly release their content for free on their own: Summertime Saga, Harem Hotel, Karlsson's Gambit, Eternum, etc. They all have fantastic quality, release the content for free willingly, and make money. Obviously these aren't the usual middle-of-the-road AVN's, but from what I've seen, every time a dev tries to cut off F95 or itch free users and dismisses criticism like Icarus is doing, it always ends badly. The free game downloads are them essentially forgoing the individual cheque for advertising, and so long as the quality is good then generally speaking they do well. Icarus is clearly too stubborn to get that.
 

WastedTalent

Active Member
Dec 11, 2020
953
1,524
Those are some great analytics. I'm always curious what devs can do to make content accessible but also allow them to make money, and I feel like the most successful patreons for AVN's I've seen regularly release their content for free on their own: Summertime Saga, Harem Hotel, Karlsson's Gambit, Eternum, etc. They all have fantastic quality, release the content for free willingly, and make money. Obviously these aren't the usual middle-of-the-road AVN's, but from what I've seen, every time a dev tries to cut off F95 or itch free users and dismisses criticism like Icarus is doing, it always ends badly. The free game downloads are them essentially forgoing the individual cheque for advertising, and so long as the quality is good then generally speaking they do well. Icarus is clearly too stubborn to get that.
Well it's been said repeatedly in multiple threads that most dev's are lucky to break $500-600 U.S a month only a handful make actual living wage at this. Yet we see more and more that they are trying to get more in a niche market where not many get to that level. Yet knowing this they all expect to be the exception to the rule which is a nice dream but honestly this should be a passion or hobby that's what most dev's tell me even the successful ones that I have talked to. Most of them have other income streams in the way of a job or personal investments who knows their personal business but they all say it's unstable at best from a financial stand point. On top of all that most economies are still in recovery mode from covid so that makes even less to go around. That being said I support some dev's and I do hope that the money aspect improves for them but also caution them to be realistic in their expectations. Beyond that all we can do is sit back and wait to see what happens.
 
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Radiffy

Newbie
Sep 10, 2017
89
48
damn Im so fucking petty.. I want to do almost every opposite choice that walkthrough tells me to do
 

Bob69

Uploading the World
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Mar 2, 2019
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Bitch Squad [v0.4.5] [IcarusLabs] - Update only

Looks like the Ren'py/Python change makes it so, a update only patch doesn't work at all. As I didn't find a fix I removed the link. You need to download the full game.
 
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SlapE

Well-Known Member
Dec 4, 2022
1,816
5,079
This is one game I won't mind some spoilers...
Anyone happy to oblige?.....Last I played...MC was... well...a bitch :cry: .. Did that change?
Yeah, I also haven't played the last couple of updates. I'm just waiting for a few updates to see if the MC will actually grow a pair, and if he can actually makes some progress with certain characters and story lines. I don't mind slow burn when the MC isn't utterly useless.
 

XV71

Active Member
Feb 25, 2020
634
3,237
Bitch Squad [v0.4.5] [IcarusLabs] - Update only

The patch may break your game, use at your own risk.
Ren'Py/Python version changed, read the Spoiler before installing!

THIS IS A COMPRESSED VERSION OF THE UPDATE PATCH. THE ORIGINAL ONE WOULD BE ~4GB AND WOULDN'T MAKE SENSE IF YOU WANT THE GAME UNCOMPRESSED DOWNLOAD THE FULL GAME FROM OP.

Win/Linux Compressed: v0.4.0 -> v0.4.5 [639 MB]
- MEGA - - Pixeldrain

Mac Compressed: v0.4.0 -> v0.4.5 [616 MB]
- MEGA - - Pixeldrain

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Please @ me or quote this post if there is a new version that doesn't show up on the "Latest Updates" page.
Don't know what this means
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 
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Bob69

Uploading the World
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Don't know what this means
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

Before loading the script.
ValueError: unsupported pickle protocol: 5

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "renpy/bootstrap.py", line 275, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
File "renpy/main.py", line 427, in main
renpy.loader.index_archives()
File "renpy/loader.py", line 263, in index_archives
index = handler.read_index(f)
File "renpy/loader.py", line 135, in read_index
index = loads(zlib.decompress(infile.read()))
File "renpy/compat/pickle.py", line 45, in loads
return cPickle.loads(s)
ValueError: unsupported pickle protocol: 5

Windows-10-10.0.22621 AMD64
Ren'Py 7.6.0.23040102+nightly

Wed Nov 22 18:22:10 2023
Could be that the Python/Ren'py change made the patch unusable. It technically should work. But you probably need to download the full game. Ima go test it.
 
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3.30 star(s) 55 Votes