Buletti
Engaged Member
- Nov 7, 2023
- 2,299
- 4,121
- 349
Incredibly quick off the mark, I'm impressedthanks as always for posting these for people to read here!
Cannot promise to make it every time 
Ren'Py Black Incense [S01E01] [Himeros Studios]
- Thread starter Himeros Studios
- Start date
Cannot promise to make it every time
iscokeit
Newbie
- Jul 12, 2018
- 34
- 24
- 190
That's all very fair. I'm not one to replay scenes I've already seen either unless they're exceptional, but well-written female POVs are so rare in this space that it would be a shame to never be able to come back to them. I think the JDMOD for Good Girl Gone Bad and the way it can account for every choice or combination of choices is the gold standard for a scene replay when there are so many variables.
That I am essentially nitpicking is a good sign, in any case. Looking forward to the update!
- Jul 26, 2023
- 19,478
- 53,303
- 922
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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the fourth Black Incense development diary. The writing for the next release is nearing completion (with image generation also coming along nicely), and I’m on track to share it with you later this month. I can’t wait for you to see what’s coming next.
A quick housekeeping note before we begin: my Reddit account is currently suspended for reasons I’ve yet to discover. I followed every sitewide and subreddit rule carefully (I even had a spreadsheet to track them given how strict some mods can be), so I suspect it’s a mistake from some automated process. If it isn’t resolved soon, I’ll simply create a new account. I just wanted to mention it here so no one thinks I’ve vanished from the platform. Development is continuing exactly as planned.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about something central to how Black Incense works beneath the surface: the traits and skills system, and how it shapes every decision you make in the game.
Character Stats in Black Incense
I’ve always liked games with stats. They give you the sense that your character isn’t just a blank slate, but a reflection of the choices you’ve made, a living record of who they are and what they’ve been through. I knew from the beginning that Black Incense needed a system like that: one that allowed for deep character customisation, meaningful differences between playthroughs, and a way for success and failure to flow naturally from the kind of person the player has shaped Molly into.
But the usual RPG attributes didn’t fit. Black Incense isn’t a world of warriors and armour classes. It is the story of a 19–20 year old woman navigating modern London and the darker, stranger layers beneath it. Strength and toughness mean far less here than subtlety, composure, or social awareness. I wanted a system to reflect that.
The result is something custom-built for this story: a stats system designed for a game about power, secrecy, temptation, and transformation. It’s built around two interlinked layers: Traits and Skills, which together define how Molly sees, reacts to, and influences the world around her.
Just one possible variation of Molly. Yours may vary...
Traits
The easiest way to think about Traits is that they define who Molly is, while Skills describe what she learns. By the end of the Prologue, her Traits are largely set as the product of her upbringing, experiences, and personality, whereas her Skills will continue to evolve as the story unfolds. Traits form the foundation of her character: the fixed parts of nature and nurture that shape how she sees and reacts to the world.
When designing them, I wanted something that felt true to Molly and to the kind of story Black Incense tells. I divided her Traits into three broad aspects: Body, Mind, and Soul. Each aspect contains two core traits, together covering the full spectrum of human capability I wanted the game to reflect.
Body Traits
- Vitality: Physical health, endurance, strength. The fitness of the body.
- Finesse: Coordination, grace, precision. The ability to act with control and subtlety.
- Intellect: Logic, analysis, memory. The sharpness of conscious thought.
- Empathy: Emotional intelligence, charm, reading others. The art of understanding and influence.
- Intuition: Instinct, perception beyond reason. The quiet voice that notices what the mind can’t explain.
- Willpower: Focus, determination. The alignment of desire and action.
If you’ve already played the Prologue, you’ve seen how Molly’s Traits (and her starting Skills) are shaped by the choices you make across the first two decades of her life, including her star sign, archetype, clique, hobbies, relationships, and more. By the end of that sequence, the kind of person she’s become is largely set. After that point, Traits change little; they define the parameters of who she is, while her Skills define what she can still become.
The system allows for different styles of play. You can specialise Molly in two Traits, giving her sharper definition in certain areas (with a minor boost in a third), or build her as a generalist jack of all trades. A specialist Molly might unlock slightly more unique opportunities tied to her strengths, but there’s no “correct” build. You can play her as intuitive and charismatic, logical and agile, physical and wilful, or any other combination that fits the story you want to tell. It is entirely up to you.
Skills
If Traits define who Molly is at her core, Skills represent what she has learned, and the abilities she can train, refine, and adapt as her story unfolds. Each Trait connects to three related Skills, forming a network of eighteen in total. Together they reflect the full range of things Molly might attempt in a world like Black Incense: physical, intellectual, social, and psychological.
I wanted the list to feel broad enough to capture modern life and the particular mix of mystery, temptation, and danger at the heart of the game. These are ways of expressing how Molly interacts with her environment, with other people, and with herself.
Vitality Skills
- Athleticism: Your speed, stamina, and physical capability for dynamic movement
- Martial Arts: Your trained combat technique and ability to apply force with discipline
- Sensory Acuity: Your heightened awareness of sight, sound, touch, taste, and bodily positioning
- Handwork: Your fine motor precision with tools, instruments, and mechanical tasks
- Stealth: Your ability to move quietly, unseen, and without drawing attention
- Somatics: Your physical attunement and responsive coordination with other bodies
- Cyber: Your skill with computers, digital systems, and networked technology
- Cryptics: Your ability to decipher patterns, codes, and complex problems
- Erudition: Your depth of general knowledge across many fields
- Charisma: Your ability to inspire warmth, trust, and attraction in others
- Dramatics: Your talent for performance, roleplay, and emotional expression
- Social Media: Your skill at curating your image and influencing perception online
- Sixth Sense: Your knack for sensing danger, tension, or unseen events
- Second Sight: Your flashes of foresight and perception beyond the obvious
- Animal Magnetism: Your instinctive rapport and ease with animals and living beings
- Endurance: Your capacity to withstand stress, fatigue, and hardship
- Influence: Your power to impose your will and steer others through sheer determination
- Manifestation: Your ability to turn your visions and desires into tangible reality
Implementing Traits and Skills in Black Incense
On paper, this system might sound complex, but in practice it’s straightforward. Like in most role-playing games, there are moments when Molly’s success or failure depends on a stat check. Maybe she’s trying to slip past a security camera, charm someone into revealing information, or hold her nerve in a dangerous situation. In those moments, the game quietly checks her relevant numbers in the background to decide the outcome.
Most of these will be skill-based checks, since each skill already factors in the trait it’s tied to. Occasionally, there will be direct trait checks where only the broader attribute applies, for example, a test of pure Intellect or Willpower.
Under the hood, it works like this: for any check, I set a target score in the code. If Molly’s total meets or exceeds it, she succeeds and moves down one narrative branch; if she falls short, she fails and experiences a different outcome.
There’s no random number generation in Black Incense. While RNG can be a great mechanic in many games, I don’t think it adds much to this one. Since you will never know the exact thresholds for success, every risky choice still carries weight without needing to implement a system of dice rolls.
Here’s how those calculations fit together. Trait checks are simple: if a scene calls for Intellect, the game uses Molly’s Intellect score directly. Skill checks are slightly more nuanced, blending the relevant trait with the skill derived from it. For example, Martial Arts draws from both Vitality and Martial Arts.
To keep both traits and skills meaningful, I use a simple formula: half the relevant trait score (rounded up) plus twice the skill score. Since traits are rated out of ten and skills out of five, the total possible value for any check is fifteen.
So, if Molly has a Vitality of 8 and Martial Arts of 3, she would score 10 out of 15 on that check. Strong, but not infallible. Whether that’s enough depends entirely on the difficulty of the moment.
And if all this is making your eyes glaze over, don’t worry, the game handles it automatically. All you really need to remember is simple: high numbers help, low numbers don’t. Build the version of Molly you want to roleplay, whether that’s a quick-thinking manipulator, a graceful infiltrator, or a stubborn survivor. The system will take care of the rest.
Black Incense's backend every time you encounter a skill check
No Bad Options
I mentioned earlier that there are no “bad builds” in Black Incense, and that’s a deliberate design choice. I talked a lot about this philosophy in last week’s dev diary, but it bears repeating. My job as a developer is to help you tell the story you want to tell, not to punish you for the way you choose to play. It’s the same principle that guides a good DM in tabletop role-playing. The player sets their direction, and the world responds.
If you’re unsure how to distribute your points on your first playthrough, don’t worry. No combination of Traits or Skills will ever lock you out of major storylines, relationships, or factions. You won’t hit a game over because you didn’t invest another point in Vitality at the start. Instead, different builds will open different perspectives, new ways to solve problems, uncover secrets, or approach challenges, without closing off the others entirely.
The system exists to amplify the experience, not to turn it into a numbers puzzle. Your Molly’s strengths will shape the tone and texture of her story, but the heart of the game remains choice, consequence, and character.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you to everyone supporting Black Incense. Your encouragement and feedback make a real difference. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or just tell me what build you are most excited to play in your game; I’m always happy to chat about design or plans for future updates.
Next week, as we move closer to release, I’ll be talking a bit about how I’m structuring paid and free versions of the game from this month onwards, and how funds from this project will be used to speed up production and keep improving quality.
Until then, thanks again, and have a great week.
Himeros
- Jun 23, 2025
- 46
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Buletti
Engaged Member
- Nov 7, 2023
- 2,299
- 4,121
- 349
Dev Diary 5: Sustaining the Vision
Just now
Hello everyone. I’m very happy to say that the next release of Black Incense is nearly complete. A few final pieces are still in progress, but my aim is to have it ready for you next week.
And since Tuesday has come around again all too quickly, it’s time for another dev diary (read last week's dev diary here). With the first full episode of Season One almost ready, I want to use this week’s entry to talk a bit about how I’ll be handling paid and free releases from here on, and more broadly, about how Black Incense will begin to support itself as an ongoing project.
Money can be an awkward topic in creative work, but it’s also a necessary one. My goal here isn’t to make a pitch, but to be transparent about how I plan to fund the game’s growth, what that funding enables, and how it ties into my longer-term ambition of making a living as an independent developer.
So, without further delay…
A Fair Release Model
When I released the Black Incense Prologue last month, I decided it should be completely free to play. That was a pragmatic choice. I believed I’d made something people would enjoy, but I couldn’t expect anyone to gamble on a paywalled game from a new developer they’d never heard of. The Prologue needed to stand on its own as a substantial introduction, something that could showcase both the game itself and what I want Black Incense to become. My hope was simple: if people played it, liked it, and saw its potential, they’d want to follow where it goes next.
The response has far exceeded anything I imagined. The feedback, the word of mouth, the messages of support, all of it has meant a great deal. And the fact that so many of you chose to support the project financially, even when the full game was available for free, honestly meant the world. It’s a huge motivator, and I’m incredibly grateful.
With the next release, I’ll be moving to a two-tier release model, the same structure used by most long-running indie and adult games. Here’s how it will work:
Paying subscribers on Patreon will receive each new release as soon as it’s finished, every month.
Free players will always have access to the complete game up to and including the previous month’s release, along with a short preview of a couple of opening scenes from the newest build.
So, for example, this month’s paid release will include Season One, Episode One in full, while the free version will update to include the entire Prologue plus the opening scenes of the new episode.
This structure strikes the balance I’ve been looking for. If you’re excited about following the story as it develops and want to experience new chapters right away, you can. And if you aren’t ready to commit to a monthly subscription, you’ll never be locked out.
The main reason I like this approach is that it rewards consistency and quality. I don’t expect anyone to support Black Incense out of goodwill alone. People back games that earn their trust. A release model like this lets you follow the project for free until you decide it’s worth supporting. It keeps me accountable to deliver something worth paying for, and it keeps the community open to anyone who wants to come along for the ride.
How Support Fuels Growth
That brings me to the next point I wanted to talk about. I often mention in these diaries that every bit of support helps me continue building Black Incense and expand what’s possible, but I’ve never really broken down what that means in practice.
Broadly speaking, the impact of support falls into three areas.
1. Covering the Core Costs of Development
Making Black Incense isn’t expensive compared to most commercial projects, but it’s not cost-free either. Each month there are a handful of fixed expenses that keep production running. Most of these are cloud fees. The image generation and AI training all happen remotely because my own hardware is, to put it kindly, minimal. On top of that, I use Claude Code as a coding assistant to streamline implementation into Ren’Py. It’s a tool I could technically replace with manual work, but doing so would slow each release by at least a week.
Those subscriptions and processing costs are the foundation that keeps everything moving. Thanks to the support so far, those baseline expenses are now covered, which is a big milestone in itself. It means every new supporter now helps push development forward rather than just keeping it afloat.
2. Building Momentum and Scaling Up
The second category is where things get exciting: the tools, assets, and collaborations that could expand Black Incense far beyond what one person can achieve alone. There are features and production upgrades I can already see a path to, but which depend on budget, investments that would let me work faster, polish scenes more deeply, and add dimensions that are currently out of reach.
The list isn’t exhaustive, and not every idea will necessarily make sense to pursue, but these are the concrete ways your support can accelerate what’s next, roughly ordered from the smallest improvements to the most ambitious.
Where Support Goes
To give a clearer picture, here’s how I plan to reinvest the game’s earnings as Black Incense grows. Some of these are practical upgrades, others longer-term improvements, but all share the same goal, to make each release faster, better, and more ambitious than the last.
More caffeine
Slightly tongue-in-cheek, but not entirely. More coffee means more writing hours. Everybody wins, except my adrenal glands.
Better AI and cloud subscriptions
Right now, I’m still limited by the usage caps on the tools I rely on most. During the Prologue’s development, I regularly hit Claude Code’s usage limits and burned through my Google Colab credits long before the end of each month. Increasing those subscriptions is one of the first upgrades I’ll make as it would remove a major bottleneck and speed up development timelines significantly.
Paid file hosting
As the game grows, so will its file sizes. Free hosting works for now, but it won’t scale indefinitely. Moving to professional hosting will keep downloads stable and fast for everyone.
Paid advertising (done properly)
This is something I want to experiment with carefully. We’ve all seen the garish ads for adult games that look like malware. That’s absolutely not what I want Black Incense associated with. But there are legitimate channels that could help the project reach new audiences, particularly in communities that already value narrative and sensual storytelling. For example, podcasts or creators in the erotica and narrative fiction spaces strike me as a natural fit. If a modest advertising budget can connect Black Incense with people who’d genuinely love it, that’s money well spent.
Funded QA testing
As the game expands, so does the likelihood of small bugs sneaking through, no matter how carefully I test. Even something as simple as a “bug bounty” rewarding players who spot and report issues, would make post-release patches faster and more reliable.
Commissioned assets
I enjoy being a one-person production line doing everything from writing, to art, to music, to UI, but there are areas where professional assets could elevate the experience. Commissioning certain pieces, like refined UI elements or high-impact visuals, would give Black Incense the polish and premium feel I ultimately want it to have.
Social media and promotion support
One thing I’ll always keep doing myself is engaging directly with the Black Incense community, answering questions, sharing progress, discussing ideas, and hearing feedback. That connection is one of the best parts of developing this game.
What I’d eventually like help with is the external side of promotion: reaching new audiences, managing social media posts across multiple platforms, and maintaining a consistent public presence outside the Patreon community. Right now that work takes roughly 10–20% of my time each week. This is time I’d rather dedicate to writing, art, and deeper interaction with players here. Having someone handle the broader outreach would make development faster while letting me stay focused on what matters most: the game and the people following it.
An upgraded laptop
This would be transformative. My current device is a beloved relic with roughly the processing power of a baked potato. Upgrading to a modern laptop with a serious GPU would multiply productivity across the board with faster image generation, smoother editing, and the ability to experiment with animation, which is something I’m eager to explore once the main release rhythm is established.
3. Towards Full-Time Development
All of these upgrades feed into a larger goal. My long-term ambition is to make Black Incense my full-time work. Right now, it’s effectively my second job, one I love far more than my first, but it still means long evenings, late nights, and weekends spent building this world.
The dream is gradual but simple: to reach the point where the project earns enough to let me reduce my day-job hours step by step. Five days to four, four to three, and eventually full time. Every step in that direction means more hours each week to write, create art, polish systems, and expand Black Incense into something truly vast in scope and depth.
The Road to Independence
I wanted to expand on that last point, because it’s really at the heart of why I’m doing all this. I genuinely love the process of game design, the writing, the world-building, the technical problem-solving, and I’d still be creating something even if nobody were watching. But the amount of time Black Incense demands each week only makes sense if it’s building toward something larger: the goal of making my living as a full-time game developer.
That’s the long-term ambition. One day, I want to be able to set aside my day job and focus fully on Black Incense. It won’t happen overnight, but there are enough independent creators who’ve managed it to prove it isn’t a fantasy.
Being able to do that would transform what’s possible for the game. Faster releases, more polish, new systems, new characters, everything accelerates once time stops being the limiting factor.
It also means something more personal. I hope, eventually, for Black Incense not only to fund the subscriptions, hardware, and creative assets that make it grow, but also to support me in a way that lets me keep creating for the long haul. That can feel like an awkward thing to say out loud, because creators are often expected to talk only about how funding benefits the project, not themselves. But the truth is, the two are inseparable. Sustainable art requires a sustainable artist.
Writers seek to make a living from their books, filmmakers from their films, musicians from their music. I’d like to make mine from the game I’m building here, by producing consistent, high-quality work that earns its audience through effort and trust. If Black Incense continues to grow, that future feels achievable, and that’s an incredibly motivating thought.
And that brings me to something I believe very strongly: the relationship between a developer and their supporters should never feel transactional. You’re helping shape the conditions that make deeper, more ambitious storytelling possible. Every bit of support goes back into expanding what this project, and I, as its creator, can achieve.
That's why I’ve also tried to make the community around Black Incense feel like part of the creative process itself. From the start, I wanted supporters to have a genuine sense of involvement, not just from early access, but a window into how the game takes shape. That’s why I share behind-the-scenes posts, occasional lore drops and artwork that never appears elsewhere, and run polls that help guide which storylines or characters I focus on next. It’s my way of saying thank you, and of keeping the process open to the people who make it possible in the first place.
That’s all for this week. As I mentioned at the start, I’m aiming to release the next update of Black Incense next week, which means the next dev diary may arrive slightly later than usual so I can publish it after launch.
Until then, thank you again for reading, for sharing, and for helping turn this from an idea into something real.
Himeros
Just now
Hello everyone. I’m very happy to say that the next release of Black Incense is nearly complete. A few final pieces are still in progress, but my aim is to have it ready for you next week.
And since Tuesday has come around again all too quickly, it’s time for another dev diary (read last week's dev diary here). With the first full episode of Season One almost ready, I want to use this week’s entry to talk a bit about how I’ll be handling paid and free releases from here on, and more broadly, about how Black Incense will begin to support itself as an ongoing project.
Money can be an awkward topic in creative work, but it’s also a necessary one. My goal here isn’t to make a pitch, but to be transparent about how I plan to fund the game’s growth, what that funding enables, and how it ties into my longer-term ambition of making a living as an independent developer.
So, without further delay…
A Fair Release Model
When I released the Black Incense Prologue last month, I decided it should be completely free to play. That was a pragmatic choice. I believed I’d made something people would enjoy, but I couldn’t expect anyone to gamble on a paywalled game from a new developer they’d never heard of. The Prologue needed to stand on its own as a substantial introduction, something that could showcase both the game itself and what I want Black Incense to become. My hope was simple: if people played it, liked it, and saw its potential, they’d want to follow where it goes next.
The response has far exceeded anything I imagined. The feedback, the word of mouth, the messages of support, all of it has meant a great deal. And the fact that so many of you chose to support the project financially, even when the full game was available for free, honestly meant the world. It’s a huge motivator, and I’m incredibly grateful.
With the next release, I’ll be moving to a two-tier release model, the same structure used by most long-running indie and adult games. Here’s how it will work:
Paying subscribers on Patreon will receive each new release as soon as it’s finished, every month.
Free players will always have access to the complete game up to and including the previous month’s release, along with a short preview of a couple of opening scenes from the newest build.
So, for example, this month’s paid release will include Season One, Episode One in full, while the free version will update to include the entire Prologue plus the opening scenes of the new episode.
This structure strikes the balance I’ve been looking for. If you’re excited about following the story as it develops and want to experience new chapters right away, you can. And if you aren’t ready to commit to a monthly subscription, you’ll never be locked out.
The main reason I like this approach is that it rewards consistency and quality. I don’t expect anyone to support Black Incense out of goodwill alone. People back games that earn their trust. A release model like this lets you follow the project for free until you decide it’s worth supporting. It keeps me accountable to deliver something worth paying for, and it keeps the community open to anyone who wants to come along for the ride.
How Support Fuels Growth
That brings me to the next point I wanted to talk about. I often mention in these diaries that every bit of support helps me continue building Black Incense and expand what’s possible, but I’ve never really broken down what that means in practice.
Broadly speaking, the impact of support falls into three areas.
1. Covering the Core Costs of Development
Making Black Incense isn’t expensive compared to most commercial projects, but it’s not cost-free either. Each month there are a handful of fixed expenses that keep production running. Most of these are cloud fees. The image generation and AI training all happen remotely because my own hardware is, to put it kindly, minimal. On top of that, I use Claude Code as a coding assistant to streamline implementation into Ren’Py. It’s a tool I could technically replace with manual work, but doing so would slow each release by at least a week.
Those subscriptions and processing costs are the foundation that keeps everything moving. Thanks to the support so far, those baseline expenses are now covered, which is a big milestone in itself. It means every new supporter now helps push development forward rather than just keeping it afloat.
2. Building Momentum and Scaling Up
The second category is where things get exciting: the tools, assets, and collaborations that could expand Black Incense far beyond what one person can achieve alone. There are features and production upgrades I can already see a path to, but which depend on budget, investments that would let me work faster, polish scenes more deeply, and add dimensions that are currently out of reach.
The list isn’t exhaustive, and not every idea will necessarily make sense to pursue, but these are the concrete ways your support can accelerate what’s next, roughly ordered from the smallest improvements to the most ambitious.
Where Support Goes
To give a clearer picture, here’s how I plan to reinvest the game’s earnings as Black Incense grows. Some of these are practical upgrades, others longer-term improvements, but all share the same goal, to make each release faster, better, and more ambitious than the last.
More caffeine
Slightly tongue-in-cheek, but not entirely. More coffee means more writing hours. Everybody wins, except my adrenal glands.
Better AI and cloud subscriptions
Right now, I’m still limited by the usage caps on the tools I rely on most. During the Prologue’s development, I regularly hit Claude Code’s usage limits and burned through my Google Colab credits long before the end of each month. Increasing those subscriptions is one of the first upgrades I’ll make as it would remove a major bottleneck and speed up development timelines significantly.
Paid file hosting
As the game grows, so will its file sizes. Free hosting works for now, but it won’t scale indefinitely. Moving to professional hosting will keep downloads stable and fast for everyone.
Paid advertising (done properly)
This is something I want to experiment with carefully. We’ve all seen the garish ads for adult games that look like malware. That’s absolutely not what I want Black Incense associated with. But there are legitimate channels that could help the project reach new audiences, particularly in communities that already value narrative and sensual storytelling. For example, podcasts or creators in the erotica and narrative fiction spaces strike me as a natural fit. If a modest advertising budget can connect Black Incense with people who’d genuinely love it, that’s money well spent.
Funded QA testing
As the game expands, so does the likelihood of small bugs sneaking through, no matter how carefully I test. Even something as simple as a “bug bounty” rewarding players who spot and report issues, would make post-release patches faster and more reliable.
Commissioned assets
I enjoy being a one-person production line doing everything from writing, to art, to music, to UI, but there are areas where professional assets could elevate the experience. Commissioning certain pieces, like refined UI elements or high-impact visuals, would give Black Incense the polish and premium feel I ultimately want it to have.
Social media and promotion support
One thing I’ll always keep doing myself is engaging directly with the Black Incense community, answering questions, sharing progress, discussing ideas, and hearing feedback. That connection is one of the best parts of developing this game.
What I’d eventually like help with is the external side of promotion: reaching new audiences, managing social media posts across multiple platforms, and maintaining a consistent public presence outside the Patreon community. Right now that work takes roughly 10–20% of my time each week. This is time I’d rather dedicate to writing, art, and deeper interaction with players here. Having someone handle the broader outreach would make development faster while letting me stay focused on what matters most: the game and the people following it.
An upgraded laptop
This would be transformative. My current device is a beloved relic with roughly the processing power of a baked potato. Upgrading to a modern laptop with a serious GPU would multiply productivity across the board with faster image generation, smoother editing, and the ability to experiment with animation, which is something I’m eager to explore once the main release rhythm is established.
3. Towards Full-Time Development
All of these upgrades feed into a larger goal. My long-term ambition is to make Black Incense my full-time work. Right now, it’s effectively my second job, one I love far more than my first, but it still means long evenings, late nights, and weekends spent building this world.
The dream is gradual but simple: to reach the point where the project earns enough to let me reduce my day-job hours step by step. Five days to four, four to three, and eventually full time. Every step in that direction means more hours each week to write, create art, polish systems, and expand Black Incense into something truly vast in scope and depth.
The Road to Independence
I wanted to expand on that last point, because it’s really at the heart of why I’m doing all this. I genuinely love the process of game design, the writing, the world-building, the technical problem-solving, and I’d still be creating something even if nobody were watching. But the amount of time Black Incense demands each week only makes sense if it’s building toward something larger: the goal of making my living as a full-time game developer.
That’s the long-term ambition. One day, I want to be able to set aside my day job and focus fully on Black Incense. It won’t happen overnight, but there are enough independent creators who’ve managed it to prove it isn’t a fantasy.
Being able to do that would transform what’s possible for the game. Faster releases, more polish, new systems, new characters, everything accelerates once time stops being the limiting factor.
It also means something more personal. I hope, eventually, for Black Incense not only to fund the subscriptions, hardware, and creative assets that make it grow, but also to support me in a way that lets me keep creating for the long haul. That can feel like an awkward thing to say out loud, because creators are often expected to talk only about how funding benefits the project, not themselves. But the truth is, the two are inseparable. Sustainable art requires a sustainable artist.
Writers seek to make a living from their books, filmmakers from their films, musicians from their music. I’d like to make mine from the game I’m building here, by producing consistent, high-quality work that earns its audience through effort and trust. If Black Incense continues to grow, that future feels achievable, and that’s an incredibly motivating thought.
And that brings me to something I believe very strongly: the relationship between a developer and their supporters should never feel transactional. You’re helping shape the conditions that make deeper, more ambitious storytelling possible. Every bit of support goes back into expanding what this project, and I, as its creator, can achieve.
That's why I’ve also tried to make the community around Black Incense feel like part of the creative process itself. From the start, I wanted supporters to have a genuine sense of involvement, not just from early access, but a window into how the game takes shape. That’s why I share behind-the-scenes posts, occasional lore drops and artwork that never appears elsewhere, and run polls that help guide which storylines or characters I focus on next. It’s my way of saying thank you, and of keeping the process open to the people who make it possible in the first place.
That’s all for this week. As I mentioned at the start, I’m aiming to release the next update of Black Incense next week, which means the next dev diary may arrive slightly later than usual so I can publish it after launch.
Until then, thank you again for reading, for sharing, and for helping turn this from an idea into something real.
Himeros
TLouis2
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Buletti
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Right now you seem to not share any Money stats nor can I see a stretch goal.Thanks as always for posting!
Gladly made
My guess is that is a deliberate decisions even though it might encourage more people to jump the fence.
Did you take anything of that into consideration?
- Jun 23, 2025
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It's a good question. In terms of keeping earnings private vs public, it's a pragmatic choice. I looked into it, and data seems to suggest the best way early on when you are building your base is to keep earnings hidden, and then to make them visible later on. It's all to do with the psychological principle that people are more likely to sign up to something that they see is already doing well (you're more likely to choose a restaurant that is already full than one that is only a quarter full). Whilst I'm really pleased by the first month's numbers, it will still take a number of months before I'm at a stage where I think displaying this will be a net positive rather than a net negative.
And in terms of stretch goals, I hadn't thought about this at all to be honest. It would be hard to say at this stage, after one release, what would be a reasonable figure to have in mind. My hope is that over the next few months as the game establishes itself there should be a modest but significant exponential growth to subscribers - most games seem to follow an S curve pattern like this, but the rate at which this will change is unknowable to me right now, so I'd rather just focus on putting out quality releases each month and see what that does to the figures before making any guesses.
Looking at what really successful creators are bringing in, I do certainly want to reach those kind of numbers, but that's a long term goal, and I don't think at this early stage it's necessarily a good thing to name an ambitious figure like this directly. Perhaps further down the line, but I'd certainly wait until I'd established myself a bit more before doing that!
- Jun 23, 2025
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No dev diary this week as this month's release is very close to completion, but there is a
1.The next release should be out within the next week
2. Despite previously stating I would be aiming for 25000 words per release, I accidentally ended up writing an extra 75000 words for this one. Whoops A lesson learned for me in terms of how much to build into a plan, but good for all of you!
3. A brief teaser image to keep you going until release:
You must be registered to see the links
I put at the top of a post I'd been meaning to create collating links to all public posts so far. Main things of note for those who are following the game is that:1.The next release should be out within the next week
2. Despite previously stating I would be aiming for 25000 words per release, I accidentally ended up writing an extra 75000 words for this one. Whoops
A lesson learned for me in terms of how much to build into a plan, but good for all of you!3. A brief teaser image to keep you going until release:
Buletti
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I expected you to write more than you planned, but I did not expect THAT.No dev diary this week as this month's release is very close to completion, but there is aYou must be registered to see the linksI put at the top of a post I'd been meaning to create collating links to all public posts so far. Main things of note for those who are following the game is that:
1.The next release should be out within the next week
2. Despite previously stating I would be aiming for 25000 words per release, I accidentally ended up writing an extra 75000 words for this one. Whoops
3. A brief teaser image to keep you going until release:
View attachment 5534243
Honestly mate you are complete bonkers.
I very very much appreciate the output you have. But Having Seen so many promising project go up in smoke I sincerely hope you keep your flame in check and not burn like a supernova to soon become a black Hole.
- Jun 23, 2025
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Thanks, yeah I didn't expect it either, but it is only the second release. I think the key thing each time is just to make sure I do reflect and learn lessons, it does confirm to me that my initial target (or even something slightly over) is a good thing to aim for. The thing that mostly did it was the one main nsfw scene (there's a couple more that are nsfw adjacent) has over 40 variations to it (will expand on that in spoilers below for people to avoid if they want to discover it for themselves) and alone takes up about 35000 words.
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So yes, next release WILL be smaller. Lesson learned!
TLouis2
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I'm pretty hyped to see what you've cooked up. It's nice to see the enthusiasm you're putting into this.
Buletti
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Dude, that sounds fantastic! And don't get me wrong, I am not sad that you accidently wrote war and peace in a few weeks. By all means, pump out as much as you can
Very much appreciate btw that you especially pay attention to the lesbian path and seem to keep the tone appropeiate. I really dislike being on a lesbian path and having the FMC fantasizing about dicks.
Cheers to you!
TLouis2
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Saerwen
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Wow! How I missed this gem? Intriguing story and attractive characters, I love character customisation too!
- Jun 23, 2025
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Dude, that sounds fantastic! And don't get me wrong, I am not sad that you accidently wrote war and peace in a few weeks. By all means, pump out as much as you can
Very much appreciate btw that you especially pay attention to the lesbian path and seem to keep the tone appropeiate. I really dislike being on a lesbian path and having the FMC fantasizing about dicks.
Cheers to you!
You're in good hands - it's a path (or I should say, multiple paths) I very much want to get right!
Welcome aboard, glad you like it so far! I only released the first release last month so you're still very much early doors. There'll be a new release out in the coming week so watch this space
TLouis2
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Buletti
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So will we really see the release here next week already? I thought you where going to publish the Public one month delayed? Or is this 1st update just a christmas gift?You're in good hands - it's a path (or I should say, multiple paths) I very much want to get right!
Welcome aboard, glad you like it so far! I only released the first release last month so you're still very much early doors. There'll be a new release out in the coming week so watch this space
Cheerio and a Merry Christmas!