Others Abandoned Esoteric Erotica [v0.149 Alpha] [EsoDev]

[Joe Steel]

This seems to be a passion project created as much to justify a ton of lore-building as to produce a playable game. More power to the dev if that's the way they want to approach it, but i am not expecting anything playable to come out of this for a very long time.

When I did play it, most of the gameplay was in talking to the landlord.

 

[EsoDev]

Don't expect an update this century.

I've posted updates almost weekly through all 4 years of having this in open, public development. The updates are near daily as far as our Discord goes. What you actually mean is that there's nothing new for the player to do, which is fair, there isn't. But the issue is that games just aren't developed like that. You don't develop a game with the ability to post playable updates of it consistently until you actually design, implement and verify everything needed to provide that. The pressure places like this put on developers is precisely the reason for the prevalence of abandoned shovel-ware in the space.

This seems to be a passion project created as much to justify a ton of lore-building as to produce a playable game. More power to the dev if that's the way they want to approach it, but i am not expecting anything playable to come out of this for a very long time.

When I did play it, most of the gameplay was in talking to the landlord.

Seems to be? I think it's pretty openly stated in the description of the game.

 

[DuniX]

You don't develop a game with the ability to post playable updates of it consistently until you actually design, implement and verify everything needed to provide that. The pressure places like this put on developers is precisely the reason for the prevalence of abandoned shovel-ware in the space.

I am sure when you release it next century it will be great.

The problem I see is your syntax for the content generation is pretty incomprehensible which will slow down the amount you can effectively produce, and you are pretty much on your own as you can't really hire another writer.
Even with procedural generation that can pad things out the content will still be overall limited.
You need at least a certain threshold of content with at least some Endings and Conclusions for it to be a game worth something.
I am not seeing you reaching that anytime soon as you said it yourself that you are not even on the starting line as you keep designing and reworking stuff.
No matter how much you design and rework those systems your project is ultimately dependent on the Content. You are not like a Simulation Game where the Systems generate the Content.

 

[EsoDev]

...

Ah, here we go again.

Let me pop some bubbles for you.

The scripting language being "pretty incomprehensible"? That's you, not me. I'm perfectly fluent in it, and I don't need anyone else to help with that aspect of the game. The syntax is also perfectly readable for anyone who has a decent understanding of programming. What you're doing here is projecting your low programming competence on other people, in particular me, the person who designed the whole thing.

We actually, realistically, just need more writers to sit down and put work time into the game. Because right now, with how small the team is and with all of us having other concerns in addition to the game, the number of weekly hours we can invest in it is limited. I don't know what to tell you, if you don't understand that we're aware of this and are doing what we can despite the limitations. (Unrealistically, if we have some people who can also do HTML for interface work and maybe someone who can do 2D graphics, that would be even better, but they're not primary concerns. We really are just strapped for writers.)

And finally, this is a simulation game; it has always been a simulation game; it should be evident that it's a simulation game based on what we're doing with it, and it being a simulation game is precisely what makes the start-up cost for the design so steep. Because shockingly, simulation games require their simulation mechanics to be in place for the content to start coming together. And it has already been the case before that we allowed people like you to badger us into deploying premature content.

To repeat something I've said in this thread many times: this game is not for you. Your opinion on the game doesn't matter. But please, at least try not to insist on spreading misinformation about it. You have no idea what we're doing, you have no idea how much we've done, and you lack the competence to speak on it even if you did.

 

[DuniX]

That's you, not me. I'm perfectly fluent in it, and I don't need anyone else to help with that aspect of the game.

Yes, "You".

What you're doing here is projecting your low programming competence on other people, in particular me, the person who designed the whole thing.

Writing code for a program is not the same as writing a novel which is not the same as writing a procedural script.
You are pretty much in uncharted territory in terms of what you need and how you structure things regardless of how fluent and talented you are, that implies a limit in the amount you can produce. That's just the nature of your project.
In fact this project would be pretty much impossible if it weren't for you and your obsession, so I am giving praise here.

If you were writing a conventional novel, you would have a reasonable expectation on the amount of content you need to complete it and how fast you are producing it. But with your project you do not know the amount of content that you need.

We actually, realistically, just need more writers to sit down and put work time into the game.

So the problem is indeed that you don't have enough writers like I said, even if you have friends to help you out they would not be as fluent as you and understand the structure and what is needed.

And finally, this is a simulation game; it has always been a simulation game; it should be evident that it's a simulation game based on what we're doing with it, and it being a simulation game is precisely what makes the start-up cost for the design so steep. Because shockingly, simulation games require their simulation mechanics to be in place for the content to start coming together.

You don't have conventional game mechanics like Combat, Management, Strategy.
Even with Actor Agents that can Act in the World, their Agency is entirely dependent on the Activities and Scenes you need to implement, otherwise they wouldn't be able to do anything. That is "Content" you need to script for and you need to reach a certain threshold amount of that before the game becomes dynamic enough to be considered a "Simulation".

You have no idea what we're doing, you have no idea how much we've done, and you lack the competence to speak on it even if you did.

Then prove me wrong when you release your game in the next century.
Your devlogs may be interesting but they aren't a game.

 

[Dr_Kek]

how is the development going? one of the rare games i'm interested in, good luck

 

[EsoDev]

how is the development going? one of the rare games i'm interested in, good luck

Apart from my absence over the last two weeks, things are just slowly and steadily progressing. Overall lots of important mechanics and systems getting nailed down to a functional state that matches our initial design goals. Recently did a small test release to test some of those new mechanics.

Overall, this really isn't the place to keep track of what we're doing.

 

[EsoDev]

Today, I was informed that the game we work daily on has been marked as Abandoned. Very interesting.

 

[Regula]

Today, I was informed that the game we work daily on has been marked as Abandoned. Very interesting.

What can you do, some things are just not meant to be...

 

[EsoDev]

What can you do, some things are just not meant to be...

I don't think you understand, I'm the head developer for this project. For all the time I've worked on this game, save for taking an occasional break for health reasons or to relax, I've posted near-daily updates on our Discord and regular weekly updates on our Itch and Patreon. But apparently, the game is Abandoned. Shacking I'm the last person to find out about it.

 

[smithsmithsmith]

I don't think you understand, I'm the head developer for this project. For all the time I've worked on this game, save for taking an occasional break for health reasons or to relax, I've posted near-daily updates on our Discord and regular weekly updates on our Itch and Patreon. But apparently, the game is Abandoned. Shacking I'm the last person to find out about it.

The tag is applied to any thread that hasn't had a new version posted for three months or more, generally it's best treated as a tag for the thread rather than the project itself. If someone posts a download link to an updated version it'll be removed.

 

[EsoDev]

The tag is applied to any thread that hasn't had a new version posted for three months or more, generally it's best treated as a tag for the thread rather than the project itself. If someone posts a download link to an updated version it'll be removed.

You know what? That's absolutely fair and more than acceptable from my point of view.
In that case I hope no one posts an updated version.

 

[Regula]

I don't think you understand, I'm the head developer for this project. For all the time I've worked on this game, save for taking an occasional break for health reasons or to relax, I've posted near-daily updates on our Discord and regular weekly updates on our Itch and Patreon. But apparently, the game is Abandoned. Shacking I'm the last person to find out about it.

No, I do understand. It's a joke, as in, "Oh well, even if you didn't know you quit the decision is final "

 

[smithsmithsmith]

You know what? That's absolutely fair and more than acceptable from my point of view.
In that case I hope no one posts an updated version.

It would be a surprise, you don't seem to show up on the usual patreon scrapers and since I'm assuming that's the only way to see updates you'll likely fly under the radar until a full release is available on whatever other platforms you plan to use. Best of luck with the project, it looks interesting from the screenshots I've seen but I tend not to play things in progress.

 

[Joe Steel]

The purose of the "abandoned" tag is to tell people browsing the thread to not expect any further game updates on F95. I think that it is an appropriate tag for this game on this site. Development taking place elsewhere does not impact the game thread here.

 

[Karl Speidel]

Looks like it turned out too esoteric XD.

 

[ViviX12]

The tag is applied to any thread that hasn't had a new version posted for three months or more, generally it's best treated as a tag for the thread rather than the project itself. If someone posts a download link to an updated version it'll be removed.

3 months in case of complete radio silence, and afaik 18 months if the updates don't end up on F95

 

[Sora666 AOTK]

I followed this game for a long time, and got pissed off and decided to stop following as every single "dev log" was walls of text of pointless lore i guess? Spends months and months doing all this random shit, but none of it is actually meaningful to the development of the game itself. I popped into their discord a few months back and downloaded the newest available version, and seen absolutely nothing new lmao.
A shame because i was looking forward to see where this game was going to go.

 

[Cheru]

Still nothing? Just usual updates with nothing to do with the filling of the game itself? Any discord lurkers out here?

 

[DuniX]

Still nothing? Just usual updates with nothing to do with the filling of the game itself? Any discord lurkers out here?

Developer is already throwing hissy fits, I don't think this project is long for this world(not that it got updates anyway).
It's another case where the developer's Ego greatly exceeds what is practically viable as a scope for a project.