VN Ren'Py Abandoned Ecchi Sensei [Day 22-23 Final] [BlueCat]

[jamdan]

By this point, this needs to get either an onhold tag or an abandoned tag. The excuses and delays are adding up and we have 0 proof anything is actually being done at all. Whatever Skummy says doesn't mean anything, he isn't a team member. He's just a player like the rest of us is/was. And Bluecats every-so-often updates are basically meaningless, since they actually contain no proof either. Just excuses and contradictions.

 

[Smarmint]

Alright, guys. For those of us that are regulars around here, I would like to hear everyone's best estimate.

From 1 to 100%, in your mind, what is the likelihood that there is any significant new content at all; that Bluecat has actualy done anything at all to work on Ecchi Sensei over the last 16 months?

Is there any chance at all, in your opinion, that Bluecat has actually produced any new content as he claims, and is actually working on it, but just waiting for a translater (or whatever the delay reason of the month), or is everything from Bluecat and repeated by Skummy is just a smokescreen so Bluecat and Latecomer can collect as much Patron cash as long as possible?

I'll start:
Even if their Patreon drops to $100 a month, it is still free money. Bluecat and Latecomer will milk it until it goes down to under $100 a month.

Since nobody has seen a single line of dialog or a single image from the supposedly already created new content, nor has the merge been completed, which we have all seen can be done in an afternoon by a non-coder, my best estimate of the chance Bluecat has done anything for 16 months, and is working at all on on Ecchi Sensei now is:

2%

What about you all? Anyone out their with more faith than me? Are there any estimates as high as 10%? 20%? 50% or more?

Let's hear everyone's best estimate.

 

[stevejerks]

For whoever said that MTL's are accurate enough for solid translations, thanks, I've been looking into it for Blue's sake to help get things back on track. There isn't much to add here, but I just wanted to let that be known as it is a serious option due to the decrease in cost if you only need to proofread instead of hiring translators.

So yeah, thanks for that reality check, I'm not always able to see those options and they can slip through the cracks a bit, and having solid options is always good.

I'd honestly say using an MTL is the best solution at the moment. It gets stuff rolling again, and faster. The end product might not be perfect, but Blue can always put out the update, then fix the bad text later afterward.

 

[Juliana]

Has anyone tried reporting Blue Cat to Patreon for not following through with promises and asking for a refund (if you're still donating xD)? I'd imagine if enough people did that, patreon might have to do something which could force Blue Cat to do something.

I kinda feel bad suggesting a nuclear option, but Blue Cat's already made his ultimatum and nothing came of it (He did claim the images for the next week were pretty much done, so he should have *something* to show and he still hasn't). So I think it's time his supporters make their ultimatum.

 

[Wolfen5]

For whoever said that MTL's are accurate enough for solid translations, thanks, I've been looking into it for Blue's sake to help get things back on track. There isn't much to add here, but I just wanted to let that be known as it is a serious option due to the decrease in cost if you only need to proofread instead of hiring translators.

So yeah, thanks for that reality check, I'm not always able to see those options and they can slip through the cracks a bit, and having solid options is always good.

The issue with this is that you yourself mentioned knowing about MTL's and claimed they weren't good...
"MTL is a last resort, its utter shit, no reason to use it unless literally nobody can be found for work-you should always be having a human translate. As it stands its a wait and see again like everything, but if this next one falls through I'm stepping in and finding translators myself."
So is it a change of heart toward MTL's because you didn't really know about them but asserted you did..or is it a deflection since it was brought up so much in the previous posts and this is to quiet them down. Really trying to understand here.

 

[OctoSky]

So is it a change of heart toward MTL's because you didn't really know about them but asserted you did..or is it a deflection since it was brought up so much in the previous posts and this is to quiet them down. Really trying to understand here.

Sounds more like a drowning man grasping for something to keep afloat. Maybe he has come down to reality, sees this for the sinking shitshow that it is, and is now throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks just to get this moving along.

 

[jamdan]

Alright, guys. For those of us that are regulars around here, I would like to hear everyone's best estimate.

From 1 to 100%, in your mind, what is the likelihood that there is any significant new content at all; that Bluecat has actualy done anything at all to work on Ecchi Sensei over the last 16 months?

Is there any chance at all, in your opinion, that Bluecat has actually produced any new content as he claims, and is actually working on it, but just waiting for a translater (or whatever the delay reason of the month), or is everything from Bluecat and repeated by Skummy is just a smokescreen so Bluecat and Latecomer can collect as much Patron cash as long as possible?

I'll start:
Even if their Patreon drops to $100 a month, it is still free money. Bluecat and Latecomer will milk it until it goes down to under $100 a month.

Since nobody has seen a single line of dialog or a single image from the supposedly already created new content, nor has the merge been completed, which we have all seen can be done in an afternoon by a non-coder, my best estimate of the chance Bluecat has done anything for 16 months, and is working at all on on Ecchi Sensei now is:

2%

What about you all? Anyone out their with more faith than me? Are there any estimates as high as 10%? 20%? 50% or more?

Let's hear everyone's best estimate.

I think this is basically what happened.

- The merge starts. Bluecat was legitimately working on other content while the merge was being coded.
- A little while later, the coders realized the game is a complete mess and they can't figure out how to do the new features.
- Bluecat then started posting about the delays and merge issues. However, he was still working on new content.
- Later. The coders realized this is unfixable, and they need to redo a lot of stuff. By this point, BC was pretty much done with the content he had planned to make.
- A little more times goes by....

And this is where the real issues start. BC and the team realized that they're still making a good bit of money, so let's drag this out a little more. I don't believe, not even a little, that they planned this whole thing from the start. That takes planning and competence. They fully intended to get the merge done and release new content shortly after, they have no prior history of being shady as far as I know. They just happened upon the fact that they don't actually have to do anything to make decent money.

And that's when the excuses start to pile up. Can't figure out the new features. Can't figure out the save system. Can't find translators. And they somehow have to recode renpy itself to make their stuff work. Which is completely nuts.

So, as of now, I think pretty much nothing has been done for a few months at least. BC has finished new content. The merge is either complete or got abandoned. And they're just dragging it out a little more before they finally post a new update when they're funds dip too low. 3k is still a lot more than most games get, so it'll probably take a while.

As far as Skummy goes. They should be, by far, the angriest one of us all. Skummy is a fan, just like the rest of us. But BC has been sending him out (or he is doing it willingly) to be the sacrificial lamb and a punching bag for the rest of us. Meanwhile, BC and latecomer are still lurking around here. Latecommer has been posting in other threads too. But they haven't dared to come in here in months, since latecommer dropped by a while back to talk about the coding stuff.

But honestly, I'm not mad at all. I liked the game, but it was never one of my favorites. This tread is just entertainment at this point.

 

[OctoSky]

Alright Skummy, if that is even your real name, I got a question: In January 2021 Bluecat says that Latecomer is his main translator, now here we are 13 months later and Bluecat is telling you which then tells us that he needs a translator. From what I've read or took from what I read was that Plan B was to put the merge on hold or abandon it completely to work on new content. Now my question: If Latecomer is the MAIN TRANSLATOR, why does he need a translator? What happened to Latecomer?

Wanna be trustworthy? Wanna be transparent? Want us to at least think you are a decent person? Than answer this honestly and without bullshit PR speak.

 

[KnuckleDragger79]

As far as Skummy goes. They should be, by far, the angriest one of us all. Skummy is a fan, just like the rest of us. But BC has been sending him out (or he is doing it willingly) to be the sacrificial lamb and a punching bag for the rest of us. Meanwhile, BC and latecomer are still lurking around here. Latecommer has been posting in other threads too. But they haven't dared to come in here in months, since latecommer dropped by a while back to talk about the coding stuff.

This would be more believable if he was not sucking BCs cock in every post he made. I have a feeling that he is on BCs payroll as well and has the sole purpose of being the scape goat.

 

[HansDampf788]

Well I prefer to play the game in English, the German translation is awful to say the least...

Ok, so I just randomly started the second week set the language to German and oh my good I couldn't even make it through the sex scene with Mao. I mean WTF is that writing?!?!?!
Well, at least now I know why no one wants to translate the scripts for Bluecat.

 

[Wolfen5]

Sounds more like a drowning man grasping for something to keep afloat. Maybe he has come down to reality, sees this for the sinking shitshow that it is, and is now throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks just to get this moving along.

Though I can see that my post seems disparaging towards Skummy, that wasn't really my intent. It just seems to me that the two quotes I referenced are paradoxical and was requesting clarification from the one posting both. Also, not disagreeing with you but with such lack of any evidence..who knows where it stands?

 

[OctoSky]

Though I can see that my post seems disparaging towards Skummy, that wasn't really my intent. It just seems to me that the two quotes I referenced are paradoxical and was requesting clarification from the one posting both. Also, not disagreeing with you but with such lack of any evidence..who knows where it stands?

No mate. My comment was not disparaging towards Skummy, more like finally pulling the blindfold off. What I meant was I think Skummy finally sees that the excuses are not working anymore. He sees that Latecomers head is so far up his ass that he can't see his PC to work on the merge. He sees that people are dropping this game, the profits are dropping. So what I meant was I think he is so desperate for Bluecat to get content out that he says "Fuck it, lets use MTL". Even if he hates it, he knows its progress towards updating this game. Sometimes I don't explain properly.

 

[OctoSky]

Please don't engage trolls or negative posters, it only encourages more activity on their end, and creates a big fuss for everyone involved.

This merge will be out this year, by which I mean at least a testers version and thus a pirated copy I'm sure, if it isn't that's probably the end of this game most certainly. Until said time arrives, however, there's still enjoy gas left in the tank to get us to the end of the year.

Well, well, well. . .What do we have here? Well guys. From Skummys mouth to us. Should have looked harder to add this to my compilation. From October 27th. Just in case anyone was wondering.

 

[Deleted member 1471]

Alright, guys. For those of us that are regulars around here, I would like to hear everyone's best estimate.
...
Let's hear everyone's best estimate.

0%.

Clusterfucks like this don't turn around, in my experience. Losses are cut, assets are salvaged, communication dwindles, and doors close. You need to start a project with a strong core team if you want any chance of recovering from a momentum loss of this magnitude.

Starting with a weak, inexperienced team? Starting with THIS incompetent team? Forget about it. This is their first project. They fucked up. Here's to the next one.

 

[Smarmint]

I think this is basically what happened.

- The merge starts. Bluecat was legitimately working on other content while the merge was being coded.
- A little while later, the coders realized the game is a complete mess and they can't figure out how to do the new features.
- Bluecat then started posting about the delays and merge issues. However, he was still working on new content.
- Later. The coders realized this is unfixable, and they need to redo a lot of stuff. By this point, BC was pretty much done with the content he had planned to make.
- A little more times goes by....

And this is where the real issues start. BC and the team realized that they're still making a good bit of money, so let's drag this out a little more. I don't believe, not even a little, that they planned this whole thing from the start. That takes planning and competence. They fully intended to get the merge done and release new content shortly after, they have no prior history of being shady as far as I know. They just happened upon the fact that they don't actually have to do anything to make decent money.

And that's when the excuses start to pile up. Can't figure out the new features. Can't figure out the save system. Can't find translators. And they somehow have to recode renpy itself to make their stuff work. Which is completely nuts.

So, as of now, I think pretty much nothing has been done for a few months at least.

You are giving Bluecat a little more credit that I am, in that you think he actually has a decent amount of material he is sitting on, but this is quite plausible. To be fair, he released quite frequent and sizable updates at the start, so he can make content when he wants to.

Your assertion that the money was too good to pass up, so Bluecat is intentionally stalling, hits the nail on the head. While 90% of AVN games would never even start without the Patron model, it definitely encourages this type of manipulative, dishonest behavior.

Just look at all of Bluecat's very few quoted comments. He is dismissive at best, and outright hostile most of the time. Most devs would be begging for forgiveness and trying to win back his fans loyalty by pledging specific actions and following through on it, but not Bluecat! Plus he sends Skummy out to do his dirty work of passing on his fake excuses to keep the game from being marked abandoned, because Bluecat is afraid to speak for himself.

Unfortunately, the natural progression of many games seems to be quick and high quality updates at the beginning to build a large following and get the monthly Patron cash up, and then updates get slower and slower, as the devs procrastinate more and more, and realize that they make the same money whether they work or not. In fact, they make more money by not producing updates, because once the game is completed, the money ends, so economically, the incentive is to drag it out as long as humanly possible.

 

[Skummy Ecchi]

I thought MTL's were shit because the ones I used sucked astronomically with context, and all the games in the past I have play that used MTL's had the most engrish ass language. Why did I change my tune? Because someone who knows better than me told me that modern MTL software is better than years past and that I should look into it. I took the advice of someone who knows better than me, and passed it on to Bluecat. I'll own that I was biased to this shit, but if it works then I'd say that's fantastic and apologize for my comments.

 

[Deleted member 156769]

Not everyone is cut out to make a good porn game. Many of us, however, can fake it for a couple of months. Guys like BlueCat have some talent so their initial efforts get some success. But actually following through and making this a job rather than a hobby is something else.

It's hard to understand from the outside, when you see how much money rolls in for comparatively little effort; the porn game industry is a case of way too little supply for a humongous demand. But guys like BlueCat aren't here because they've got a business plan. They're here because they are so mentally unstable that they can't function in normal society. Most of their time and energy is spend on escapism and the search for easy dopamine. Making a porn game fits in that pathology. With patreon, and the huge unsatisfied need for porn games, guys like BlueCat luck out. Their addiction makes them money, and tons of it.

But BlueCat didn't start Ecchi Sensei to make money, he started it to escape from reality. And after a few months, it wasn't fun any more. Reality had seeped in, the pressure was on, and the dopamine got harder and harder to achieve. So he dipped out. Not consciously, at first. He figured the desire to continue would return, as so many like him do. So he made excuses. And once he realised he was never going to get back in the groove, the excuses became malevolent. Because the money was great.

Guys like BlueCat, addicted messes of psychopathology, don't have a lot of money. Nine out of ten won't be able to hold down a good job, if any at all. And what income they have they spend to fuel their addiction. So this considerable revenue is hard to turn away, even once it had clearly turned into outright stealing. Many porn game developers in the same boat as BlueCat, to their credit, will stop billing their patreons, or otherwise communicate that the project is on hold. But others are desperate enough to just keep it going until the money stops coming in. With the counter still above €2k a month, that moment is still some ways away.

So do I think BlueCat is sitting on some content? Not really. I think the last few updates were already a struggle to get out. Do I think he consciously planned this to happen? No, certainly not. However, I do believe he's conscious of it now, and fine with it, in so far as a crippled addict can be fine with anything in his life. So 0% for me.

 

[Bloodguard]

So do I think BlueCat is sitting on some content? Not really. I think the last few updates were already a struggle to get out. Do I think he consciously planned this to happen? No, certainly not. However, I do believe he's conscious of it now, and fine with it, in so far as a crippled addict can be fine with anything in his life

So, are you saying he is actually mentally ill? That's a bit disturbing, but hard to argue with your logic.
Some very successful Hollywood folks have OCD that borders on psychosis, but people just call it art at the end of the day, as long as it makes piles of money.
I really enjoyed parts of the game, but that could be because he was willing to go places with the story, someone who was not actually unhinged, would not be willing to go. Interesting theory.

 

[Deleted member 3482284]

Alright, guys. For those of us that are regulars around here, I would like to hear everyone's best estimate.

From 1 to 100%, in your mind, what is the likelihood that there is any significant new content at all; that Bluecat has actualy done anything at all to work on Ecchi Sensei over the last 16 months?

Is there any chance at all, in your opinion, that Bluecat has actually produced any new content as he claims, and is actually working on it, but just waiting for a translater (or whatever the delay reason of the month), or is everything from Bluecat and repeated by Skummy is just a smokescreen so Bluecat and Latecomer can collect as much Patron cash as long as possible?

I'll start:
Even if their Patreon drops to $100 a month, it is still free money. Bluecat and Latecomer will milk it until it goes down to under $100 a month.

Since nobody has seen a single line of dialog or a single image from the supposedly already created new content, nor has the merge been completed, which we have all seen can be done in an afternoon by a non-coder, my best estimate of the chance Bluecat has done anything for 16 months, and is working at all on on Ecchi Sensei now is:

2%

What about you all? Anyone out their with more faith than me? Are there any estimates as high as 10%? 20%? 50% or more?

Let's hear everyone's best estimate.

I was going to give it 2% but then I thought about it more

I'd give it 0%. I think Bluecat did a few renders well over a year ago that he gave to high tier patrons, but nothing else. Not a smidge. No story, no dialogues, no code

Otherwise there should be three or four ready made updates already, at least. Seeing as bluecat wasn't doing anything on the merge, it was latecomer and the other coder, the fact that one update isn't ready to be released (Which was a months worth of work on average) means he's had over a year to work on updates and has nothing to show for it

 

[graz150]

Alright, guys. For those of us that are regulars around here, I would like to hear everyone's best estimate.

From 1 to 100%, in your mind, what is the likelihood that there is any significant new content at all; that Bluecat has actualy done anything at all to work on Ecchi Sensei over the last 16 months?

Is there any chance at all, in your opinion, that Bluecat has actually produced any new content as he claims, and is actually working on it, but just waiting for a translater (or whatever the delay reason of the month), or is everything from Bluecat and repeated by Skummy is just a smokescreen so Bluecat and Latecomer can collect as much Patron cash as long as possible?

I'll start:
Even if their Patreon drops to $100 a month, it is still free money. Bluecat and Latecomer will milk it until it goes down to under $100 a month.

Since nobody has seen a single line of dialog or a single image from the supposedly already created new content, nor has the merge been completed, which we have all seen can be done in an afternoon by a non-coder, my best estimate of the chance Bluecat has done anything for 16 months, and is working at all on on Ecchi Sensei now is:

2%

What about you all? Anyone out their with more faith than me? Are there any estimates as high as 10%? 20%? 50% or more?

Let's hear everyone's best estimate.

I'm going to be that guy and say... 95%!
Sure, nothing worth 16 months of work, but at least 2-3 days worth of content and maybe some sketches for the next couple of days. Content could also be done but without proper story to link everything together.

Though, this could be the last signficant thing produced for this game.
In these 16 months, nothing was learned by BC, whether technical or relational.
That thing about him not seeing why he should post more technical updates after all this time, say it all.
If presented with the same issue later on (6th month merge?), it would result in the same debacle, if not bigger.
So I wouldn't risk a cent on this game's future, or BC future as a dev.

I hope BC realize that being confronted with all this while still under patreon welfare is a real blessing, because if it was after establishing some kind of company in another country, consequences for such a fuckup would have been disastreous and not laughing matters.
Not everyone has the opportunity to survive a crisis and learn from their mistakes, let alone do so while burning other people's money.