Ren'Py Desert Stalker [v0.16b] [Zetan]

[GetOutOfMyLab]

I agree and it's even better, if the dialogue choices of this scene aren't just flavour, but have some impact down the line. But still, the scene was boring imo. It didn't need to be another sex scene, but looking at an obelisk isn't my idea of a good time.
The setup to this scene was Ain being jealous of the time Shani spends with Zaton, so I was expecting Ain to get to experience the daily stalker business at least a little bit. They didn't even get to meet other stalkers, just looked at an obelisk, and now Ain is supposed to not be jealous anymore.
If they wanted to talk, then they've had plenty of opportunity to talk at home. But I thought they wanted to spend some quality time. This could've even been a funny bit, in which Zaton helps Ain with her household chores and shopping and stuff.

Idk. I just feel like the Ain scene could've deserved more dev time, even with no sex. I think that's also true for Rabiah's household scene, but that was at least a setup for a new sandbox section, so we know there's gonna be more to it in the future.

On the contrary, I think this was a sweet moment between Ain and Zaton and is just a small piece of what they will do together during their bonding sessions. She didn't seem so much interested in the stalker business as she was interested in spending some alone time with her father that didn't involve getting one or all of her holes plugged.

 

[Kellermann]

Going forward, I think MC could ask Ain if she wants to take charge of the next household event, whether it is hosting visitors or celebrating the next holiday, when they worship goats and ritually bathe in priestess titty milk or whatever the fuck Zeta does for religion.

She could assign roles to people (Kat clearly wants to be the harem chef...among other things), pick decorations, choose outfits, select meals, and generally just order the slaves around. Ain seems to like domestic type things and it would give her a purpose at the home. I'm sure Zahra would agree to it. That should cheer up Ain and make for a more enthusiastic lewd scene afterwards.

 

[DarkDank]

Can we bang the queen yet?
My god, I want to dominate her.

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Can we bang the queen yet?
My god, I want to dominate her.

Not yet.

 

[DarkDank]

Not yet.

Ah. Shame.
Best girl Shani has content though...right?

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Ah. Shame.
Best girl Shani has content though...right?

Queen will have her time.

Nothing new in this update (since she's started her mission in the zone), but she had a scene in the previous update.

 

[KnightOwlSC]

if the metric by which you judge a game is the quantity of tissues you get to use at every release...

Not defending the original poster since he's obviously an idiot but I do think it feels small to me as well BUT I suspect that's a result of unrealistic expectations based on how much content there is already vs. the version #.

I haven't been around from the start but I assume the first version must have shipped with ALOT of content? Otherwise I'm really confused as to how we get from 0.1 to 0.8 which has an insane amount of content since it doesn't seem that we could have gotten so much if the individual updates had been this size?

 

[sauron93]

I don't think some people appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into creating the renders alone. The camera angles, the lighting, figuring out which poses to use and the clothing (not just what the models wear, but how it falls on their bodies). Things that are in the background. Then, to have such high-quality renders such as in Desert Stalker...it takes a lot of time, even if you have a great graphics card, especially with animations. I know another dev who was doing an animation with a 3090 GPU...said it took 18 hours to render. That's not counting the painstaking animating process within Daz, basically feels like stop-motion animation.

As a patron of DS, I'm not upset about waiting 4 months. They're doing a great job.

I know it takes time and the quality of what he put out is amazing, but the update was still short(I guess for 4 months?). And no, im not even talking about fap material. The games that get abandoned starts in this path, which is the only thing that actually worries me.

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

I know it takes time and the quality of what he put out is amazing, but the update was still short(I guess for 4 months?). And no, im not even talking about fap material. The games that get abandoned starts in this path, which is the only thing that actually worries me.

Update lengths vary by developer and you can't really use the standard of one developer to determine what is right for another. There are developers that only release once a year. There are developers that release every 4 months, 2 months, bi-monthly, etc. They also all have differences in the quality they release, too. Some sacrificing the higher-quality in favor of quicker releases (or, they just don't have the hardware to do better). As I mentioned, the animations themselves can take a lot of time. For me, we got a good amount of content/changes for 4 months:

New Content:
- Added 1 story scene
- Added 9 events:
- One Ain event
- One kitchen event
- One event at the market
- Expanded Fairy's content (repeatable)
- Added Rabiah's home in the world map with 4 events
- Added a Harem scene (Emilia / Zahra) (repeatable)
Reworks and Revisions:
- d2b (Palace visit)
- d2c (first Queen visit)
- Reworked d2d (Leaving the Palace)
- Reworked d4g (Second Queen visit)

Apart from that...you mentioned worries about abandonment. The games that get abandoned are those who bit off more than they can chew, they lost interest, they didn't get the support they were expecting, or some other reasons. They also often tend to go quiet on Patreon/SS/Discord, etc. The folks behind Desert Stalker are active on discord. They did not bite off more than they can chew. They post multiple times per month on Patreon (status updates, polls, wallpapers), they are clearly passionate about the game, they have over 1,000 supporters on Patreon, and are even active here in this thread. The risk of abandonment is so incredibly low.

They also are thinking long-term. Everything they are building up to for the final product for what I imagine will be sold on Steam. The people who buy and play the final product for the first time are likely going to be blown away about how great the game is, with all of it's story-building, unique settings, beautiful art, various repeatable events that will be available.

I'm sure I sound like a fanboy now...but damn. Who are any of us to dictate for them what is a reasonable amount of time for any amount of content that is completed?

 

[disC0rdia]

Well... Mixdrop, Racaty & Gofile downloading with something between 50-200 kB/s, while Mega always complains about Transfer Limit.
Possible to upload to workupload or mediafire?

Damn, i miss those times when NOPY was still around ...

 

[Crel]

Yeah, those three hosts are always slow for me. Anonfile is always good though, and pixeldrain often is. Wish they'd get more use.

Also really happy to see a new update here, definitely one of the few games I keep an eye out for!

 

[Paz]

I haven't been around from the start but I assume the first version must have shipped with ALOT of content? Otherwise I'm really confused as to how we get from 0.1 to 0.8 which has an insane amount of content since it doesn't seem that we could have gotten so much if the individual updates had been this size?

Going strictly by render amount, something I don't think accurately depicts content and frankly dislike, but can serve as a decent baseline metric, is something like this (off the top of my head):

Spoiler

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So I'd say it's somewhat consistent lately, and on the upper end of the scale. One difference in early stages is that the game was on-rails in a way, as it was the whole intro to the setting.
Now there are a lot more paths, characters and whatnot to split the content, that it might not feel as laser-focused, and I get it.

Or variations in the same scene, which is work done but people won't encounter.
E.g. the Queen scene in the arena. Players will either get the thermae or the prison continuation, but not both.
That might also add to the feeling of being "shorter".

 

[Olsens.M]

they didn't get the support they were expecting, or some other reasons.

This is no excuse. If you are starting a job as an artist, doesn't matter what kind of art you do, You have to have ways to fund your work. Again, as a starter. No one knows you. Some people releases a 1 minute VN demo and expect to get support to keep doing it. If that is their mindset, they already started wrong.

No one here is mom and dad of any developer to hold their hands and help them to achieve their goals. we are customers and we buy quality but we also buy credibility. We can't have credibility from someone who starting and we don't know what their intentions are / where they come from. I see many people saying they are doing a lot, or planning a lot to get support on patreon, etc, and then they disappear. I see a lot of people milking games to get money from people without delivering anything.

It is like hiring someone to paint your house, paying them a lot of money and never get your house painted. There are many Developers who works like this (specially starters).

So if they want support, they have to deliver at least one completed project and show us they are reliable first. Reason why I mostly only buy games out of steam when I know the devs has a line of work.

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

This is no excuse. If you are starting a job as an artist, doesn't matter what kind of art you do, You have to have ways to fund your work. Again, as a starter. No one knows you. Some people releases a 1 minute VN demo and expect to get support to keep doing it. If that is their mindset, they already started wrong.

No one here is mom and dad of any developer to hold their hands and help them to achieve their goals. we are customers and we buy quality but we also buy credibility. We can't have credibility from someone who starting and we don't know what their intentions are / where they come from. I see many people saying they are doing a lot, or planning a lot to get support on patreon, etc, and then they disappear. I see a lot of people milking games to get money from people without delivering anything.

It is like hiring someone to paint your house, paying them a lot of money and never get your house painted. There are many Developers who works like this (specially starters).

So if they want support, they have to deliver at least one completed project and show us they are reliable first. Reason why I mostly only buy games out of steam when I know the devs has a line of work.

I think maybe you missed the point of my post.

 

[KnightOwlSC]

Going strictly by render amount, something I don't think accurately depicts content and frankly dislike, but can serve as a decent baseline metric, is something like this (off the top of my head)

I was wondering if there could have been more render re-use (or just longer scenes with more text across the same render) so I took a look at the day#.rpy files (I know there are other files but as you say it was a decent baseline) and while the day9 file is definitely on the smaller side 1/2 the day files are around the same size (or even smaller). I've actually replayed and taken different routes so that would help explain why it feels like such a huge game

 

[Olsens.M]

I think maybe you missed the point of my post.

I missed because, as you said, you were really sounding like a fanboy and I am giving my view as a customer. At the end of the day all these guys wanna earn money from their work and me as a customer. I wanna pay for something concrete, not for the idea of it.

So it doesn't matter to me if they are active replying here and there, if they are not delivering what I think it is worth my money and support.

That was my way of summarize everything you said.

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

I missed because, as you said, you were really sounding like a fanboy and I am giving my view as a customer. At the end of the day all these guys wanna earn money from their work and me as a customer. I wanna pay for something concrete, not for the idea of it.

So it doesn't matter to me if they are active replying here and there, if they are not delivering what I think it is worth my money and support.

That was my way of summarize everything you said.

You quoted one aspect of my post where I was giving reasons other developers might abandon their games and showing why it does not seem that the folks behind Desert Stalker would abandon their game. So what you quoted and said made little sense to the point I was making.

But yes, you are correct. If you're putting money into their patreon and don't feel you're getting what you deserve, by all means, it's up to you whether you want to consider doing so.

It does seem that folks forget the point behind Patreon, though. From Patreon's about page:


The key being, "fans pay their favorite creator a monthly amount of their choice in exchange for exclusive access, extra content, or a closer look into their creative journey." and "fans get to rest easy knowing that their money goes directly towards creating more of what they love".

So far, Desert Stalker patrons are still receiving all these benefits. If you want a finished product, wait and buy it on Steam.

 

[Catherine♡]

As someone who has been stalking*wink wink* this thread since 0.1, can't believe there are people saying that the devs are 'milking' the patrons...are we playing the same game?

 

[Majindevil]

Ain was pretty much portrayed as a empty headed sex doll until now. In order to do more with the character he had to do a scene like this one specifically that avoided sex. Because everything with the character up until now was sex related.

Btw anyone have an idea of what the 3d model for the house is ?

if you mean the villa of the main char it should be

You must be registered to see the links

but it seems it is no longer on the daz store

 

[Hildegardt]

On the contrary, I think this was a sweet moment between Ain and Zaton and is just a small piece of what they will do together during their bonding sessions. She didn't seem so much interested in the stalker business as she was interested in spending some alone time with her father that didn't involve getting one or all of her holes plugged.

I just feel like it could've been an even sweeter moment, if they went sledding down some dunes or something like that. Idk, to me their quality time lacked a bit of quality.