VN Ren'Py Dual Family [v1.22.1ce] [Gumdrop Games]

[Pal_]

Someone know the last post on patreon ?

he posted a new message on his page... does anybody has acces to it can tell us whats that all about... this is the first game i played and i rly rly enjoyed it... however form what i see the guy is not serious at all .. was just wondering what kind of excuses he finds

 

[Siddington]

I have been utterly speechless reading these last few pages and now seeing a possible July/August release window for this update. I have since been able to collect my thoughts, so here they are.

Just what the hell is happening with the development of this update. Let's go through the "Post-Work: What Remains!" section by section.

Writing - This I can at least partially understand. He gives us an idea of how long it took him for the previous update and estimates how long it will take given the larger size of Part X. Given that this is a Gumdrop estimate though, take it with a pinch of salt as usual. Whilst work on this could of been started during the wait for rendering, it's always liable to get messed about and thus probably best left for last.

Composition - You've got to wonder why this and the next post-work section were left until after rendering. It either stinks of poor planning during the development process or it was an afterthought added late on. It's not like this is an intense action movie score that has to be tailored to the beats of the movie itself and thus can only be done in post.

Animation - See above. I'd be interested to know exactly where in the development process of this update animations were "contracted out". I've heard people mention last December, so have these contractors been hard at work since then? Surely work on them hasn't only been started in post? Gumdrop had to know these could be time consuming and thus had work on and planned according... right? Perhaps his development updates shed more light.

Overall, I see no reason why at least two of the above aren't already completed and ready to go. It's honestly either incompetence on his part at this point or he is artificially inflating the time it takes to release this update, as people have suggested in the past. Stupidly I've given him the benefit of the doubt on many occasions when I've spoken to him on Discord but it's not hard to see where this goes now. I can already foresee a hold up of some sort with either the Animations or Composition pushing back the release. Either one of the 3rd parties will let him down entirely, or some unknown illness will prevent them completing the work on time. Obviously now I'm just being stupid, but you honestly can't rule it out entirely with Gumdrop can you.

 

[Godkratos]

I have been utterly speechless reading these last few pages and now seeing a possible July/August release window for this update. I have since been able to collect my thoughts, so here they are.

Just what the hell is happening with the development of this update. Let's go through the "Post-Work: What Remains!" section by section.

Writing - This I can at least partially understand. He gives us an idea of how long it took him for the previous update and estimates how long it will take given the larger size of Part X. Given that this is a Gumdrop estimate though, take it with a pinch of salt as usual. Whilst work on this could of been started during the wait for rendering, it's always liable to get messed about and thus probably best left for last.

Composition - You've got to wonder why this and the next post-work section were left until after rendering. It either stinks of poor planning during the development process or it was an afterthought added late on. It's not like this is an intense action movie score that has to be tailored to the beats of the movie itself and thus can only be done in post.

Animation - See above. I'd be interested to know exactly where in the development process of this update animations were "contracted out". I've heard people mention last December, so have these contractors been hard at work since then? Surely work on them hasn't only been started in post? Gumdrop had to know these could be time consuming and thus had work on and planned according... right? Perhaps his development updates shed more light.

Overall, I see no reason why at least two of the above aren't already completed and ready to go. It's honestly either incompetence on his part at this point or he is artificially inflating the time it takes to release this update, as people have suggested in the past. Stupidly I've given him the benefit of the doubt on many occasions when I've spoken to him on Discord but it's not hard to see where this goes now. I can already foresee a hold up of some sort with either the Animations or Composition pushing back the release. Either one of the 3rd parties will let him down entirely, or some unknown illness will prevent them completing the work on time. Obviously now I'm just being stupid, but you honestly can't rule it out entirely with Gumdrop can you.

Right... I followed this developer years ago until he stumbled in releasing updates. It took him longer and longer for every single update and now after "one year", he still hasn't updated the game yet...wtf?!
Sorry, but after so long, its save to say that he is obviously fooling his patreons and followers really hard. With the amount of money he gets, the updates should come a lot faster and also more frequently. All he does is taking the money and keeping it flowing by dropping some "news" on his account and making excuses after excuses why he can't deliver anything. It's sad that there a are still people supporting such behavior.

Even more sad is, that there are some very promising projects out there and more thrustworthy developers that don't threat there followers like this. And they have now a hard time to get their projects known, when at the same time, a dev like him make a shitload of money for doing more or less nothing.

I really hope that I'm wrong and there are some good reasons for such a poor development worklflow.
But to be real, I don't believe it.

 

[bass63]

Perhaps there is some way to report him to Patreon? Maybe he is violating some "terms of use" agreement in not producing yet still collecting? Maybe this is a money laundry? How can he continue to milk people of such sums of money with no release of product in exchange for compensation?

Funny he has time to make a new web page and move payments over to it, time to release a Christmas release, which sucked btw, and time to write his long winded, flowery updates. His renders didn't finish until at least January which is also suspect. With $7k in revenue per month he should be rending on half a dozen ASIC based machines. With his production times he must be rendering on 1 old Tandy X86. Joking of course but still his time frames are just way too long. Bottom line, while he was sitting on his ass watching his renders take 9 months, he should have literally all of the content written and the animations proceeding as the scenes finished rendering. This way he would be in final edit phase now instead of starting fresh with animation and story. The final product, if ever released, will end up being an hour of game play with a dozen or so poor animations and then he will be finished.

Meanwhile the good devs produce 30 minutes of solid game play and an excellent storyline every 30 to 45 days. Something is surely amiss. I personally think $7 k per month will fund some nice vacations and is most likely what he is doing when he isn't releasing another "update or pinup".

 

[Daxidix]

Perhaps there is some way to report him to Patreon? Maybe he is violating some "terms of use" agreement in not producing yet still collecting? Maybe this is a money laundry? How can he continue to milk people of such sums of money with no release of product in exchange for compensation?

Funny he has time to make a new web page and move payments over to it, time to release a Christmas release, which sucked btw, and time to write his long winded, flowery updates. His renders didn't finish until at least January which is also suspect. With $7k in revenue per month he should be rending on half a dozen ASIC based machines. With his production times he must be rendering on 1 old Tandy X86. Joking of course but still his time frames are just way too long. Bottom line, while he was sitting on his ass watching his renders take 9 months, he should have literally all of the content written and the animations proceeding as the scenes finished rendering. This way he would be in final edit phase now instead of starting fresh with animation and story. The final product, if ever released, will end up being an hour of game play with a dozen or so poor animations and then he will be finished.

Meanwhile the good devs produce 30 minutes of solid game play and an excellent storyline every 30 to 45 days. Something is surely amiss. I personally think $7 k per month will fund some nice vacations and is most likely what he is doing when he isn't releasing another "update or pinup".

In my opinion yes people could try that,but he has a new website where he is moving all his patreons. In the end this situation will keep the same if people continues to support his business whether is on patreon or on his website.

 

[N1K17Y]

literally anyone who posted in this thread has done more work than gumdrop has in the last year

 

[exirock]

wow almost a year without an update is being that long, wtf is this dev doing?, for what i can see this guy got a dream job 7k$ a month doesnt need to work damn where can i sign for this job.

 

[ilikemomsonincest]

he posted a new message on his page... does anybody has acces to it can tell us whats that all about... this is the first game i played and i rly rly enjoyed it... however form what i see the guy is not serious at all .. was just wondering what kind of excuses he finds

Don't worry about it, everything he posts there is meaningless filler and lies, no point in reading it.

 

[ilikemomsonincest]

I have been utterly speechless reading these last few pages and now seeing a possible July/August release window for this update. I have since been able to collect my thoughts, so here they are.

Just what the hell is happening with the development of this update. Let's go through the "Post-Work: What Remains!" section by section.

Writing - This I can at least partially understand. He gives us an idea of how long it took him for the previous update and estimates how long it will take given the larger size of Part X. Given that this is a Gumdrop estimate though, take it with a pinch of salt as usual. Whilst work on this could of been started during the wait for rendering, it's always liable to get messed about and thus probably best left for last.

Composition - You've got to wonder why this and the next post-work section were left until after rendering. It either stinks of poor planning during the development process or it was an afterthought added late on. It's not like this is an intense action movie score that has to be tailored to the beats of the movie itself and thus can only be done in post.

Animation - See above. I'd be interested to know exactly where in the development process of this update animations were "contracted out". I've heard people mention last December, so have these contractors been hard at work since then? Surely work on them hasn't only been started in post? Gumdrop had to know these could be time consuming and thus had work on and planned according... right? Perhaps his development updates shed more light.

Overall, I see no reason why at least two of the above aren't already completed and ready to go. It's honestly either incompetence on his part at this point or he is artificially inflating the time it takes to release this update, as people have suggested in the past. Stupidly I've given him the benefit of the doubt on many occasions when I've spoken to him on Discord but it's not hard to see where this goes now. I can already foresee a hold up of some sort with either the Animations or Composition pushing back the release. Either one of the 3rd parties will let him down entirely, or some unknown illness will prevent them completing the work on time. Obviously now I'm just being stupid, but you honestly can't rule it out entirely with Gumdrop can you.

He is artificially increasing the development time, because he's not working on the game. He's lazy. He could release sooner and make more money per month, but then he'd have less money to collect each month. He'd rather collect less money per month for more months, because that gives him significantly more time where he can feel financially comfortable while spending his days sitting on his ass not doing anything (can't say I really blame him for that though tbh).

And you have to remember this post work nonsense is all probably just more lies. Who knows if the rendering is actually done, who knows what really is finished and what isn't, who knows if he actually contracted animations, etc. it's all just lies he's telling because he missed another release date, just like all the lies he's told before when he's missed pass release dates. Of course Gumdrop should have been working on the writing while doing the rendering, of course the composition and animations should be done by now. It doesn't make sense as to why those things weren't completed in the year it supposedly took him to render everything. But the reason why it doesn't make sense is because it's just more lies told to pacify his patreon supporters, gumdrop doesn't care if it doesn't make sense and makes him look incompetent as long as it keeps his patreon supporters happy.

Gumdrop is just lazy and doesn't actually work on the game, or he spends very little time doing so. I'm sure he gives himself deadlines for when he should complete something, but he procrastinates and doesn't do it because he has no real incentive too. He doesn't want to work and he's still making a lot of money on patreon, so he just says fuck it. And then when his patreon supporters are making enough noise about the release date, he'll come out and tell some lies to quiet them and go back to the same thing.

Don't think too hard about what's going on behind the scenes, it's not that complicated. Gumdrop is just simply lazy and is not actually working on the game like he pretends he is.

 

[J II D]

He is artificially increasing the development time, because he's not working on the game. He's lazy. He could release sooner and make more money per month, but then he'd have less money to collect each month. He'd rather collect less money per month for more months, because that gives him significantly more time where he can feel financially comfortable while spending his days sitting on his ass not doing anything (can't say I really blame him for that though tbh).

And you have to remember this post work nonsense is all probably just more lies. Who knows if the rendering is actually done, who knows what really is finished and what isn't, who knows if he actually contracted animations, etc. it's all just lies he's telling because he missed another release date, just like all the lies he's told before when he's missed pass release dates.

Gumdrop is just lazy and doesn't actually work on the game, or he spends very little time doing so. I'm sure he gives himself deadlines for when he should complete something, but he procrastinates and doesn't do it because he has no real incentive too. He doesn't want to work and he's still making a lot of money on patreon, so he just says fuck it. And then when his patreon supporters are making enough noise about the release date, he'll come out and tell some lies to quiet them and go back to the same thing.

Don't think too hard about what's going on behind the scenes, it's not that complicated. Gumdrop is just simply lazy and is not actually working on the game like he pretends he is.

Also add fear to the equation.

Because i am 99% sure that the content that he produced nowhere near justifies a year of development.
And he probably knows that, so he holds it off longer and longer and making that situation even worse.

There is no doubt that whoever is still pledging to him should be in a mental hospital, but i am pretty sure that when he releases his update... It's going to be such a disappointment and facepalms around the internet.
And i really do believe that at that stage a lot of fanboys/fangirls will see the light and stop supporting it.

Of course at that point Gumdrop will come with new promises and a couple good updates to get the cash flowing again so we can have this all over again.

People like Gumdrop should never be allowed to use sites like patreon...

 

[Darth Bane]

Anyone consider the support he's getting isn't for Dual Family? ie I think there's a group of people out there that would throw money his way for certain renders that most would find 'troubling.' The letters 'p' and 'd'. Dual Family could just be a front. The patrons who were genuinely supporting him for Dual Family have stopped their pledges and the rest might be getting exactly what they're paying for.

 

[whippetmaster]

Maybe his site could be reported to patreon for offering incest and rape content? That would cut him down a few thousand at least.

 

[Turret]

Anyone consider the support he's getting isn't for Dual Family? ie I think there's a group of people out there that would throw money his way for certain renders that most would find 'troubling.' The letters 'p' and 'd'. Dual Family could just be a front. The patrons who were genuinely supporting him for Dual Family have stopped their pledges and the rest might be getting exactly what they're paying for.

That is actually a very probable scenario, Darth Bane! The Dark Side is strong in that one, no wonder you would find out! It is a hell of a lot better than believing 2/3 of our politicians are supporters of gumdrop, since they are equally lazy, spineless and ballless (no matter the hanging kind or the tummy-internal ones).

 

[ilikemomsonincest]

Anyone consider the support he's getting isn't for Dual Family? ie I think there's a group of people out there that would throw money his way for certain renders that most would find 'troubling.' The letters 'p' and 'd'. Dual Family could just be a front. The patrons who were genuinely supporting him for Dual Family have stopped their pledges and the rest might be getting exactly what they're paying for.

I don't get what you mean by 'p' and 'd', but I don't believe in any of the front or money laundering theories. I think he just has delusional fanbases. I think it's because Gumdrop was the first person to try and make a slow moving and realistic (even though DF is not realistic at all imo) western M/S incest VN. M/S incest is the most popular fetish here, and I think slow moving and more realistic VNs are definitely the best to fap to. I've played a ton of Japanese VNs and the slower moving ones are all my favorite at least.

So I think by being the first person to take that approach, on top of having good renders, he was able to suck a lot of people in to start supporting him, and now he has a lot of people desperate to see it through and get some pay-off for all the buildup that they don't see Gumdrop for the conman that he is.

Plus he seems to be pretty active in the community and on discord and now people probably feel like they 'know' him or have some type of personal relationship to him which makes them more likely to keep their pledge. It's honestly kind of like a cult lol

 

[Joshua Tree]

@MatSapo That's true, too. That's how I approach the game.

TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS THREAD, this is my PERSONAL view (mod hat is off).

At first, I enjoyed the renders and the story at the beginning but after the trip, the story took a nosedive and instead of intensifying the player's desire to follow the relationships, most of us disconnected from it. It's no longer immersive. And by then, one deadline had been missed. That was the first time. Shame on gumdrop.
Then, he had the beach update that was seeming to pick up the pace but it felt "jarring" like it was some other reality. Then the next update was like 2-3 weeks late and it was them returning home. But the story got even stranger. THAT was the "shame on me" part. That was the point where I stopped following the game. I learned my lesson.
If you kept following it after that point, shame on you.
He promised that big huge update in April/May of last year... and missed the deadline. If you still followed him at the point, shame on both of you!
Recently, he broke his promise of January then late Februrary/ early March. And now it's July/August? If you're still following him at this point, I really have no hope for you. I really don't. This time, the shame is on you.

Wouldn't this only apply if you actually pledge to him? At least if you pledge you can come to expect something, sometime. But if you don't he doesn't ow us anything at all or? If he break one release date, then another, why come to expect he will do it the third, or forth time? One day it might get released, maybe not, but why care about it? Ever since the shit storm Breeding Seasons turned out, I come to expect nothing from any creator tbh. If something get released it just a positive surprise. If not, just shrug it off and find something else. There is enough of people I regard as fools out there supporting one thing or the other, but regardless of what I say or do, I can't really stop them, and tbh, not my business either.

 

[yandex]

Anyone consider the support he's getting isn't for Dual Family? ie I think there's a group of people out there that would throw money his way for certain renders that most would find 'troubling.' The letters 'p' and 'd'. Dual Family could just be a front. The patrons who were genuinely supporting him for Dual Family have stopped their pledges and the rest might be getting exactly what they're paying for.

Care to elaborate on that? I am struggling at grasping what you are hinting towards.

 

[yandex]

This here is the definition of HOPELESSNESS

Let me start by saying that I truly love this game and it is among my personal top games, in no short part due to the daughter, the possibilities, and I can't compare any other game to this one. But ... where to begin, even if we look at it completely objectively without any bias and prejudices against GumDrop (& I truly hope that this game comes to fruition however unrealistic that maybe) , this looooooong overdue update is nothing major in the overall span of game, 1 of the 30 parts, and there isn't gonna be any satisfaction in this update, far as I remember sexual relations are to be established in the act-3 i.e. still 10 more updates apart from this coming one before we even get to experience anything sexual with main characters, at this rate, a year and a half for 1 part, 15 years before the sexual content begins ? This is hopeless, Good for all the people who are truly unaffected by this sordid mess, I feel it everytime, I can't help but not feel something special for this game. This is hopeless, we are *ucked.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Maybe his site could be reported to patreon for offering incest and rape content? That would cut him down a few thousand at least.

Should we start snitch on any creator on Patreon we might not like, because their content might not follow their political agenda? All that does is to put creators of adult games on the platform under higher scrutiny.

If someone believe he is doing something illegal, then file some charges, get your name down on a paper, and point your finger. Throwing out conspiracy theories and psyche yourself up at this level, so fk'n pointless. Must be better things to spend your calories on.

This thread full of warning signs of why you shouldn't support him. Any new to his game that find this thread, should pick up the clues quite fast. And if they still decide to, well that is on them. Attacking him for being whatever, or those that support him, have no value, what so ever. I know some would take it as a personal victory if the thread got slapped with an abandoned tag, but c'mon, unless it was locked in addition it wouldn't stop people from post in it. And even then, it wouldn't stop people from start new threads either.

 

[Devon Rehab]

I've said before that I'm still interested in where this game is going. I'm not a pateron but I'm guessing the people who are have something about this game that causes them to keep paying out no matter how long it's taking. For me it's the father's side of the story and the father/daughter route and the the route for Karen. I'm not as interested in playing as the son but last time I tried his side of the story Karen said she doesn't like the daughter because she looks down on Karen and isn't as nice or innocent as she tries to portray herself as. The surface differences between the daughter and Karen, and their possible romantic and/or sexual interest in their father/uncle has me honestly interested in their stories and how they will react to your choices in their particular routes.

 

[Turret]

(...)For me it's the father's side of the story and the father/daughter route and the the route for Karen. I'm not as interested in playing as the son but last time I tried his side of the story Karen said she doesn't like the daughter because she looks down on Karen and isn't as nice or innocent as she tries to portray herself as. The surface differences between the daughter and Karen, and their possible romantic and/or sexual interest in their father/uncle has me honestly interested in their stories and how they will react to your choices in their particular routes.

I too prefer the Dad/Daughter route, not only because the Son is an unmitigated a..hole. The D/D path is the only one were there is real happiness and togetherness, no matter sexual or non-sexual tension, in the game. e.g. At the beginning the Son is also noted for thinking the Mom is the main culprit for their breaking up family, it is only the fact he has a soft spot for Milfs that can begin to change. Conversely, while the other characters note the stronger closeness of D/D, it is more than once said that those two were already close well before.

The Son even spells it out that part of his hate for the Dad stems from the fact that the father has a far closer relationship with the daughter for a long time than with him. When you play both routes it becomes clear that the son is a nutcase, one that did not become it from the family breakup, but was one before too. He is obnoxious, prone to violent behaviour and unable to handle the fact that the daughter dislikes Karen (to a major degree) and him (to a lesser degree, the two siblings can have relative good relations if you chose so) not because she tries to play up her innocence, but cause he and Karen are steaming full speed on a self-destructive path and do not listen to those around them.
Karen, well, she is a toxic mess, even more so than her manipulative, hard-as-nails Mom, the sis-in-law. While the Aunt wants the Dad to return to her, his former lover, (with the daughter in tow is fine too, the aunt likes the daughter clearly) and is busy throwing a wrench or two into the Dad/Mom marriage when there is a chance, she "just" wants to hasten the "normal"break-up. Bad enough, but she has (twisted) feelings for the Dad and she too, does not want her sister to hurt more than "necessary" (on one route you can see that the two sisters relationship is notreally so bad and strained as it seems sometimes), so she wants to hasten the final break-up more or less secretly.
Karen on the other hand is the kind of the even more toxic person that says "I want this and that now, I´ll get it, no matter the fallout". While her Mom is far from a good parent, Karen´s behaviour is ouch more than it could be. The ONLY positive action she does in the whole game (and that is even coincidental since she could not know how close to suicide Mara is) is inviting the son to her party where he can (but does not have to) save Mara from suicide and later set up a date for these two. Outside this possible path Karen is nothing but a toxic, manipulative influence.