This was started a few months ago and devs are planning to start a new game already because this one isn't making enough money. When you abandon or change projects so quickly, things don't look good.
It looks like you have no passion for your project, you want money fast and that's not the better approach to gain a fan base imo.
To say we have no passion is the furthest thing from the truth I have heard.
Project Start Time & Project Launch =/= same time from a developers perspective, but I can see how it is for a player. Sin & I first met on April 8th 2020 in
this thread. Plans of development began that day. Actual development started the following week, (and by today's standards for a couple of months much less efficiently) Sin wanted to make a Male protagonist game at the start, and I wanted to do a Female protagonist one. We talked about that issue for a couple of days off and on. I can be rather persuasive and got my way. I believe I said something along the lines of, "At a later date we can male protagonist game. For now lets try female"
From April 8th to December 25th all of our development may as well have been taking place in a hidden vault. That's 8.5 months of finding assets, building a gui, making outlines, writing story lines, rendering, coding, finding music, going back proofreading, adding new lines, deleting renders, photoshopping, saving some renders for later a million little things polishing everything up. Long story short, a significant amount work with 0 feedback and 0 dollars. Just two guys working together as a team wanting to make something great. Plus sometimes we don't always agree on every little thing, so we gotta make some compromises and learn to deal with each other in the best way. Remember, we are strangers that met on the internet then thrown into a huge project together and live halfway across the world. Sometimes we get mad at each other over dumb shit but we deal with that like adults.
Finally launch day comes. Not a bad launch, we are doing okay. All the way back at page one we got this gem:
"No male mc ???. Then ta ta bye bye"
That was far from the last time that sort of thing has been tossed our way. There is a major bias in favor of male protagonist games that in all fairness in spite of being aware of this bias I didn't think the bias was as big is it is when choosing to go the female protagonist route. Back in the day way early in development I did promise sin we would make a male protagonist game too.
I had considered writing Damaged Goods in a way similar to"Our Red String" as in you follow a male protagonist sometimes but you follow a woman protagonist other times. Although it's entirely possible for us to make it in such a way I think it may force some players to play as a protagonist against their choosing.
When it comes to our development style if there is one consistency that can be seen is that make things flexible and versatile. You want trans on off? You want walk through or not? Friend or enemy Natasha? spank the girls or not? yes or not to all sex acts? how do you want to handle the shower situation? Do you want the evening with Mark or Alice? and so on.
We have gotten a fair share of the Female protagonist fans. The problem is that is a much smaller group than male protagonist fans. Decisions may seem quick, but have been well thought out and for a long time. Even if we were making a million dollars right now we would still be making a 2nd game.
If fast money was our main concern we would be making a loli game. It's a much smaller market with much higher paydays, and much much less competition. We could steam roll that market and be making 2-3 grand per month in a few months easy.
Money is not unimportant to us. We both sacrifice noticeable luxuries and amenities in real life to be game developers, and have been doing so for almost a year now. About 10% of our monthly development costs are paid by supporters for which we are grateful. (Not account for 8.5 months of free work bringing us into the $9,000 spent on the game so far range)
We are choosing to go back to our roots, and fullfill that agreement long ago to make a Male protagonist game as well. There are different story lines, and possibilities for a male protagonist. It's better not to waste such ideas, and bring them to good use.
Sometimes it can also be a bit exhausting working on the same project all of the time. Being able to mix it up work on a 2nd one brings a bit more joy we are enthusiastic about having more options to work with, and focus back and forth on both projects.
Also, as a writer there is a lot of time where I just sit and wait for renders. If there are 2 stories to write then I can get back to work again faster. Sometimes I gotta wait a week or so with nothing to do and it gets boring.
We are fully aware we are taking on more responsibilities, but we can handle it.
I understand it may not look good for some people, and oh well. People can think what they want. Not gonna let a naysayer run the show. I love proving people wrong.
Would you look at a parent who is having 2nd child as a parent who is automatically going to neglect that first kid and not love it anymore? No, of course not. The same is true of game development.
The bottom line is Sin and I make the games for ourselves first, and our audience second. We were under the radar completely for almost 9 months not showing you guys anything much at all working for free that whole time. The games will be completed one way or another.
