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

2.10 star(s) 190 Votes
Discussion Reviews (190)
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Deleted member 1150609

Member
Jan 9, 2019
173
829
The0neBL said:
so is the game abandoned or not? is the dev just dilly dallying or has he really dropped the game and moved on? or has the dev just run away (though his patreon has posts from December 2019)?
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He is doing nothing other than lying to cover up the scam, the project is abandoned (2+ years of no release, missed "deadlines" and multiple proven lies told, which are too many to list here, read old posts).

He posts some generic posts every now and then so his current patrons keep thinking the project is alive. We call it a scam (not just "milking") for a reason. You wouldn't expect a scammer and proven liar to stop writing posts, to basically admit he abandoned the project, would you? it takes literally a few seconds to write those posts and it costs nothing.

You need to look at the evidence (or utter lack of it) to understand why this is a scam: https://f95zone.to/threads/dual-family-v0-98-ce-gumdrop-games.1870/page-467#post-2398851
 
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Dependable_223

Dependable_223

Engaged Member
Jan 3, 2019
3,043
4,930
well he had 900 patreons now its down to 822 patreons so lets hope this trend continue and he start losing more if he suddenly releases an update we know it was about the money..
 
The0neBL

The0neBL

Member
Donor
Feb 22, 2018
187
63
For a scammer he sure has a fuck ton of patreons. Is he working on any other games (don't see any on his patreon page though)? Also how is he getting away with 2 years of no substantial release. I would expect his patreons to have dwindled by now.
 
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Deleted member 1150609

Member
Jan 9, 2019
173
829
The0neBL said:
For a scammer he sure has a fuck ton of patreons. Is he working on any other games (don't see any on his patreon page though)? Also how is he getting away with 2 years of no substantial release. I would expect his patreons to have dwindled by now.
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I think a significant number of them are dormant, from people who don't notice they are still giving money to this dude. See the recent post where someone shows how low the comment/patrons ratio is on his patreon (projects that aren't abandoned have higher ratios). Then you have to consider newer people who don't know any better and are unaware that this scammer has done nothing for over 2 years, and is currently doing no work at all.

For what is worth, a while ago a known shill here got obviously upset when someone brought up the possibility of his patreon being a front for some other, possibly illegal, business (he set up an alternative payment method on his site before he abandoned the project, don't know how much he is making there). To judge its validity, it would be helpful to know if there are any similar cases on patreon (dead project for more than 2 years still receiving thousands with a drop of only about 10/15%, with low comments/patrons ratio, with virtually no proof of work, etc.). If there aren't any similar cases, and this case is exceptional, then this idea doesn't sound so crazy.
 
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The0neBL

The0neBL

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Donor
Feb 22, 2018
187
63
8 grand a month is a lot of free money. What has he written in his latest post anyway? Anyway we should be warning people to stay away from his patreon. I still don't understand how he has the gall to keep posting as if nothing has happened.
 
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Deleted member 1150609

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Jan 9, 2019
173
829
The0neBL said:
8 grand a month is a lot free money. What has he written in his latest post anyway? Anyway we sure be warning people to stay away from his patreon. I still don't understand how he has the gall to keep posting as if nothing has happened.
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His posts are mostly gibberish and also to set-up his next excuses. People here have consistently predicted his future excuses based on these posts. Like scammers and manipulative people usually do, he is never honest upfront, he waits a few months before giving the excuse, setting it up with previous posts. Browse older pages here to see examples. His current excuse is that he is looking for an animator after the previous one had to do military service. He has been commissioning some animations for almost a year (they are taking over a year to do now, how crazy is that?) to give himself a new excuse for not doing any work: https://f95zone.to/threads/dual-family-v0-98-ce-gumdrop-games.1870/post-2958018 . To sustain the scam he is using a tiny fraction of the money he took from the people he scammed to keep fooling them.
 
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_DarkDesires_

_DarkDesires_

Member
Jan 3, 2018
326
473
Anyone know how the "Act 1 Part IX/X" is supposed to translate to the F95 versioning of 0.98? Curious how he's working this scam, has he been telling on his patreon 2 years straight that he's working on Part X/Act 2 Part I? Smart gimmick to fool people tho for sure
 
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Deleted member 1150609

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_Skyfire_ said:
Anyone know how the "Act 1 Part IX/X" is supposed to translate to the F95 versioning of 0.98? Curious how he's working this scam, has he been telling on his patreon 2 years straight that he's working on Part X/Act 2 Part I? Smart gimmick to fool people tho for sure
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A few months ago, he claimed to be working on some "open world" act 2 (as usual, no evidence is ever shown). At the same time, he is unable to show any evidence of the last part of act 1, which he claimed to be working on for 2 years (he literally claims to have 3k images rendered sitting there, yet somehow he can't show any evidence). Currently he is using the animator as an excuse to keep the scam going. Next excuse will surely be the "complexity" and "bugs" of the "open world". In reality, he has done nothing for the last 2 years and is currently doing nothing, they are just more embarrassing lies by a chronic liar, don't even bother with them.
 
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fotogaik

Member
May 13, 2017
485
843
Maybe he's really smart and has finished the game completely, but will release it piece by piece over the next ten years? I know I would do that if I could get away with it.
Funny though how the budget (i.e., total income) for this game now exceeds the budget of some A games (and is certainly one of the highest funded indie games).
 
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lint77

lint77

Member
Nov 18, 2017
169
694
Looks like people are starting to drop off. Not nearly enough though.

You must be registered to see the links
 
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fotogaik

Member
May 13, 2017
485
843
lint77 said:
Looks like people are starting to drop off. Not nearly enough though.

You must be registered to see the links
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Nope. Take a look at the "All" chart. His highest earnings were $10,835 with 1,039 patron, and that was less than a year ago. His highest patron count was 1,073 in March 2018. He's not that far off the maximum.
Then take a look at the last 3 month. He's actually gained patrons since November.
You'll also notice that there's always a dip towards the end of the month.
One possibility is that payments are processed sequentially, but it doesn't make sense that they would take upwards of 20 days to process
It figures that patrons cancel subscriptions before the end of the month before deciding whether to continue. And then they DO SUBSCRIBE AGAIN. WHY!?!?!?
 
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DonutMan

DonutMan

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Dec 3, 2016
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lint77 said:
Looks like people are starting to drop off. Not nearly enough though.

You must be registered to see the links
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Have not heard of that site before, but assuming all the numbers are correct, that's a very interesting graph. Most of it makes sense in a frustrating way but one thing strikes me as odd: There is a 30% increase in his number of patreons between the first week of May '19 and 3rd week of September '19. There are two reasons I'm curious about this increase: 1) This is over a year after the last game update so I fail to see what is causing renewed interest in the game (to be fair I have not looked through his patreon posts so it's possible he was particularly convincing during this period). 2) The period of increase follows a 8.5 month period of consistent decrease during which he lost 40% of his patreons.

I'm very familiar with statistics, but since my background is laboratory research, it's entirely possible I'm missing some obvious business thing. Can anyone else explain this oddity?

Edit: It occurs to me he could have put his game up on Steam or some other site during this period which would introduce his game to a new audience and thus cause the spike.
 
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lint77

lint77

Member
Nov 18, 2017
169
694
DonutMan said:
Have not heard of that site before, but assuming all the numbers are correct, that's a very interesting graph. Most of it makes sense in a frustrating way but one thing strikes me as odd: There is a 30% increase in his number of patreons between the first week of May '19 and 3rd week of September '19. There are two reasons I'm curious about this increase: 1) This is over a year after the last game update so I fail to see what is causing renewed interest in the game (to be fair I have not looked through his patreon posts so it's possible he was particularly convincing during this period). 2) The period of increase follows a 8.5 month period of consistent decrease during which he lost 40% of his patreons.

I'm very familiar with statistics, but since my background is laboratory research, it's entirely possible I'm missing some obvious business thing. Can anyone else explain this oddity?

Edit: It occurs to me he could have put his game up on Steam or some other site during this period which would introduce his game to a new audience and thus cause the spike.
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I'm no expert on statistics, But the only reasonable explanation to me is that it's some kind of money laundering operation. :)
 
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Deleted member 1150609

Member
Jan 9, 2019
173
829
fotogaik said:
Maybe he's really smart and has finished the game completely, but will release it piece by piece over the next ten years? I know I would do that if I could get away with it.
Funny though how the budget (i.e., total income) for this game now exceeds the budget of some A games (and is certainly one of the highest funded indie games).
Click to expand...
No, if that were the case he would show evidence of it and marketing material would feature all the new assets all the time. He has done no work at all since he abandoned the project. His income has dropped around 15% since abandonment, with the scammer not only not releasing anything but also not showing any evidence of work FOR 2 YEARS. What you are assuming makes no sense at all. No rational "milker" would behave like this. This is not "milking", it's a scam: https://f95zone.to/threads/dual-family-v0-98-ce-gumdrop-games.1870/page-467#post-2398851

By giving new people here this idea that he is just "milking" you are making them believe something for which there is ZERO evidence, but which happens to benefit the scammer ("oh he was working after all, better keep giving him money"). Don't help the scammer keep fooling new people. He is a scammer, not a milker.
 
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fotogaik

Member
May 13, 2017
485
843
WinterW said:
No, if that were the case he would show evidence of it and marketing material would feature all the new assets all the time. He has done no work at all since he abandoned the project. His income has dropped around 15% since abandonment, with the scammer not only not releasing anything but also not showing any evidence of work FOR 2 YEARS. What you are assuming makes no sense at all. No rational "milker" would behave like this. This is not "milking", it's a scam: https://f95zone.to/threads/dual-family-v0-98-ce-gumdrop-games.1870/page-467#post-2398851
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You seem to be very angry. No need for that, I was only being sarcastic, a lot of people in this thread are.
By giving new people here this idea that he is just "milking" you are making them believe something for which there is ZERO evidence, but which happens to benefit the scammer ("oh he was working after all, better keep giving him money"). Don't help the scammer keep fooling new people. He is a scammer, not a milker.
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Doesn't matter whether he's a scammer or a milker and contributing doesn't affect the end result. If he's a scammer and patronage dwindles down, he doesn't care, he moved on with his life. If he's a milker, he would have released something by now just to quiet down the critics.
I don't get the "better keep giving him money" attitude. Suppose somebody needs $12,000 (before patreon fees) and three months to finish a game. If he was getting $4,000 a month and three months pass (and a total of $12,000 is funded) and there's no release, it's prudent to withdraw funding until then. He got what he asked for, and if there is a delay, tough luck. Unless there's a good reason why the game is late and over the planned budget (and there's rarely a good reason), you want the release to happen.
There are proverbs about throwing good money after the bad and fool me once, fool me twice.
 
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2.10 star(s) 190 Votes