You are right players have to take it on good faith that a dev is really doing what the dev claims, and is working to put out a quality game that is more for the players entertainment than the dev's bank account. There are devs I would say that do put players first and want to tell a well thought-out story, I can think of 2 off hand.
It seems a dev can only use a game as a cash cow for so long before players start to get frustrated and leave.
Like many DMD fans I am willing to give Mr.Dots the benefit of the doubt that he is trying to out out a good story (DMD).
Regarding “Melody” - The work on the on the pre-script plot layout and characters imo is better than DMD. So on that end it is a quality game. The script suggestions I made as well as others, and script portions I’ve been given to review are on par with the second half of the first chapter of DMD. I won’t see the actual game and therefore any of the non-leaked renders until you all do, but I would doubt they are not on par with later term DMD quality.
Given the inputs and suggestions we’ve made in the scripting, I am hoping you will see some scenes that are much more cinematic in style than in most of DMD. If so, we can hopefully talk about them on or after 3/23 and see if they work or don’t work.
I have a new opinion that DMD and Melody are more of an an auteur product, which also would explain why I feel MDot’s control and his not farming out render work is so important.
The
auteur theory, which was derived largely from Astruc's elucidation of the concept of caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), holds that the director, who oversees all audio and visual elements of the motion picture,
is more to be considered the “author” of the
movie than
is the writer of the screenplay.