Ren'Py Desert Stalker [v0.18.3] [Zetan]

[xapican]

You mean Patreon, right?

Yes, that is the root of all

 

[asakura14]

is the game still in betA? I see that the description read "steam" version.

 

[alanrock]

is the game still in betA? I see that the description read "steam" version.

Beta is no more, full Steam ahead ...

 

[asakura14]

perfect, I knew that ususally it says "c" for the complete update, thanks

 

[Crazy4Oreos]

I think this whole thing is blown out of proportions
Anyhow, I hope my answer satisfies you because that's all I can provide.



With the somewhat recent Patreon review (and the then-upcoming Steam review) some time ago, that particular scene with the render angles it had could be perceived as risky -for the wrong reasons imho- as it was too early in the game, before we've had a chance to establish characters or settings.
We were a bit uncomfortable about risking our presence on those platforms (and, frankly, the existence of the game) with this small part, so after much discussion we removed it.

Could it make an appearance again in the future? It's likely, but not in the exact form it was.
That's all there is to it. No grand conspiracy or something.

As for the dynamics, I agree it showed them nicely but we do have plenty of other scenes showing it, so the overall feeling is not lost imho.


I personally wasn't deflecting or anything, simply answered to a person that pretty much said "I fear they will slowly remove Ain from the game" that is this not the case.

See above, no excuse or anything, just a fact that adding more renders of Ain is pretty much evidence that we don't plan to remove her or whatever.

And in any case, if we wanted or were forced to remove her entirely, we certainly wouldn't do it 2 renders at a time. That would take ages.

Reasonable. It'd be cool if someone could release a mod l8r to include both new and old removed content.

 

[Cynicaladm]

Good answer and thank you for the explanation. You mean Patreon, right? Because there is also a SS, and while not everyone can or will switch from patreon to SS, that could be the main source of income without losing too much. Some successful devs are only on SS and for now they don't seem to censor anything

Looking at the numbers, Patreon holds the Lion share of the contributions. Part of keeping your customers happy is also not making it difficult for said costumers to remain... Well... Your customers.
Asking people to change platform when they might be tied to however many other patreons on the current one is a sure way to lose a noticeable chunk of them.

 

[xapican]

perfect, I knew that ususally it says "c" for the complete update, thanks

Someone of the Team confimed that they changed the Letters for .x numbers, so yeah first build

 

[kiziero]

Do u guys get the no more content sign that we used to get?I think i finished the content on this update but i still havent got that sign

 

[Acesaw]

says i need to go to the queen but there no option to go to the palace and i spam sleep for more then 10 times and still not working lol.

 

[Lordroedor]

Some of you might have missed it, but only a few months ago, Patreon got in a huff and banned/blocked the account (And relative monetization) for this game. Reasons were stated to be it violating their content policy.

As is often the case, the relevant content moderator probably never even opened the game and just hit the game based on things read on this very forum or whispered in his ear by some disgruntled asshat.

Either way, a course correction, however minimal, was deemed as necessary to show some consideration to the intimation of the Patreon people, and to be able to say we made enough modifications to fall back within the guidelines.
We needed the game to go back to flying under the radar on that platform, which constitutes, so far, the main dev's main source of income.
it was considered more prudent to not shove NSFW action with Ain in people's faces in one of the first hot scenes of the game.
Will a day come when the game will have its revenue stream spread across multiple platforms enough to be able to give one of them the finger if they impose limitations? we will have to wait and see.
Maybe, in that case, a revisit to that particular scene could be considered.
Until then, the scene is as you see it.
That said, you people should be happy about all the good stuff that did remain in the game, which is most everything else.
The panic inducing block could have meant axing a whole bunch of potentially controversial content, and it didn't.

There are no further cuts planned, which is not to say that a potential rework of a scene, if DS deems it necessary for quality purposes, might not change minor details or flavours in said scene... no guarantees on that can and will be given at this time, but there is no immediately apparent need for any of that, nor is there some kind of plot going on to soften or normalise the game to some standard one or the other player might not agree with.

We still mean to act as freely as we like in creating the content and giving it context, but we do live in the real world, and if those 5 renders, with the implication in world and character building are so important to you, I suggest to play that particular scene on an old version of the game, or just look in the image folder of said version and put it on your screen as a wallpaper.
The freedom to be as out there and outrageous as we might like does come with some, sometimes self imposed, boundaries, and is not any stronger than the freedom to be less outrageous if we feel it's better for the story, the game, the overall product. The patrons of the game understand that this freedom is also freedom from the preference of one or the other contributor, or fan of the game.

Amazing answer. I didn't even notice those renders disappearing. So much incredible content...

Also, I said previously that the violence was softening. While I don't think that's bad by itself (I insist, I prefer it that way), I think that's a fact very easy to observe. When you start the game you can kill a few characters that have a lot of content associated to them later (if you don't kill them). Cool characters. You can kill them or letting them die for no real reason other than watching roasted elf as dinner or similar.

That doesn't happen later, or it's less frequent, as updates roll. Which, I mean, makes sense. If the developers work hard to make content, allowing the player to cut the content before starting in a wimp would be dumb.

Dumb... but I admired it as brave and unusual. It surprised me a lot, it was weird and exciting. That's all.

I don't think there's a conspiracy... more like... more coherent lines of work? I don't know.

 

[dolfe67]

Amazing answer. I didn't even notice those renders disappearing. So much incredible content...

Also, I said previously that the violence was softening. While I don't think that's bad by itself (I insist, I prefer it that way), I think that's a fact very easy to observe. When you start the game you can kill a few characters that have a lot of content associated to them later (if you don't kill them). Cool characters. You can kill them or letting them die for no real reason other than watching roasted elf as dinner or similar.

That doesn't happen later, or it's less frequent, as updates roll. Which, I mean, makes sense. If the developers work hard to make content, allowing the player to cut the content before starting in a wimp would be dumb.

Dumb... but I admired it as brave and unusual. It surprised me a lot, it was weird and exciting. That's all.

I don't think there's a conspiracy... more like... more coherent lines of work? I don't know.

I don't know if the violence softens, but gating lots of content behind unexplained early decisions (like killing the elf cut mutant content or not saving Asha's sister cut the raider content) is a flaw that the dev took note and avoid doing again

 

[Lordroedor]

I don't know if the violence softens, but gating lots of content behind unexplained early decisions (like killing the elf cut mutant content or not saving Asha's sister cut the raider content) is a flaw that the dev took note and avoid doing again

It could be considered a mistake... or a bold decision XD

I know, I am delusional. Leave me be T.T

But yeah, I understand it's not efficient. The thing is, at the start of the game the killing is real, the choices are impactful. Later... the choices are more conventional. To be completely honest, if I was to publish such a game, I would remove those early choices that bring a wrong idea about what the player can expect from the game later, and I would make everything "conventional" that way, to make it more homogeneous. Consistent.

That's what I would do if I was developing the game and I know that the ME that's a player would be very sad about that choice. Making games is freaking hard man.

 

[With The]

i'm just wondering how much cut content for planned future update because of this patreon thing. sure dev will playing save now, basicly already missing one ball.

 

[Lordroedor]

i'm just wondering how much cut content for planned future update because of this patreon thing. sure dev will playing save now, basicly already missing one ball.

Publishing in steam should help in the long run. Support the steam release, share the news, etc... if they come to rely on steam more than other, more restricting platorms, we wouldn't have these situations that, while in this case is not a big deal, nobody likes. Not us, nor the developers.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Some of you might have missed it, but only a few months ago, Patreon got in a huff and banned/blocked the account (And relative monetization) for this game. Reasons were stated to be it violating their content policy.
[...]
it was considered more prudent to not shove NSFW action with Ain in people's faces in one of the first hot scenes of the game.

A chance that the moderator actually not played the game. There's way more against their, now 7 years old, rules than this.

 

[incog44]

Looking at the numbers, Patreon holds the Lion share of the contributions. Part of keeping your customers happy is also not making it difficult for said costumers to remain... Well... Your customers.
Asking people to change platform when they might be tied to however many other patreons on the current one is a sure way to lose a noticeable chunk of them.

Also, there is probably a decent chunk of people on Patreon who either forgot to cancel a subscription or keep it going year-round without noticing. It happens with every subscription service. A lot of people just forget to cancel things, myself included. So you'd be losing out on the "forgetters".

 

[jw1221]

Do u guys get the no more content sign that we used to get?I think i finished the content on this update but i still havent got that sign

Yeah I'm in the same boat. No new options even after spamming sleep a hundred times but doesn't say I've reached the end.

 

[incog44]

I don't know if the violence softens, but gating lots of content behind unexplained early decisions (like killing the elf cut mutant content or not saving Asha's sister cut the raider content) is a flaw that the dev took note and avoid doing again

I had a rule when I started this game on first release. Don't kill any women, because I'll probably be able to fuck them. Men? Kill on sight.

 

[Bullyoukos]

Glad everyone calmed down. A few very general thoughts that apply to most similar situations.

1. Don't be afraid to call it what it is. Removing content because you think it will ruffle "someone with power over you" 's feathers is self-censorship. The reason why it happened is more important than trying to avoid the word for PR reasons.
2. "Why is it important? It's just <low number> of scenes". It didn't matter before. It started mattering when the scenes were removed/altered.
3. "No plans for further changes" doesn't mean anything. Devs weren't planning to make any changes when the scenes were introduced originally. But something intervened. And as it happen once, it could happen a second time. No one knows.
4. "It happened once involving X character, that means they want to fade out X character from the story" is an incredible overreach. I know it comes from ignorance (that is, because the cause behind the action wasn't timely explained) but still. It's so incredibly easy for the dev to come and say "No, we don't." and end the discussion right then and there.

Congratz for the Steam release. I'll be waiting for the finished product.

 

[wedabest1]

Love the game and hope they are successful on Steam, but I am not replaying it just because the dev decided to make the new update incompatible with old saves. Maybe when the game is fully finished I will return and play all of it.