So, here's the difference:
Where exactly did I insult him? Incompetent, well, that's my assessment of his ability to deliver updates in a timely manner without repetitive delays.
Personally, i happen to share your view -- i see it as someone who is quite earnestly trying, even if he apparently lacks the raw talent of the best people in the field. I enjoy the end results, and while i'd also appreciate faster updates, there's more than enough of other games to keep me occupied meantime, so i don't see any point in complaining about delays. It's not like such complaints would change anything, in any case.
Don't be so fucking disingenuous. That's clearly an insult. Don't pretend otherwise.Riven said:
Not like you can hold him to anything, nor does getting any consensus among pirates really matter. A consensus among patrons could probably hurry him up if they really wanted but I think only maybe 10% of them actually care. The other 90% posting shit like "take your time". There is a difference between what I think is reasonable and what I think Crush will realistically do. If I could work 2-3 days a week and keep patrons from complaining that is 100% what I would do.
Dev team size: Two? Crush and 'the lovely Victoria'
Three months per episode is how I arrived at my prediction he will be able to finish the side quests this year and that's about it. I assume the first one will be ready in the summer... June maybe. The next one in early autumn and the third one by Christmas... I don't know why the side-quests should be quicker.
Please, don't speak nonsense, especially when you pretend to speak with authority. This is Twine/Sugarcube game, and the code has next to nothing to do with HTML. It may be rendered through HTML, but it doesn't make it a "HTML game" any more than C# Unity game is a "DirectX game" because it happens to use that backend to deliver its visuals.
You are right I stand corrected and caught out. Sorry. I don't have experience of Twine/Sugarcube.
Yeah, that's true. I guess it's just a pretty convenient way to telegraph "this game runs in a web browser" and a typical set of features these come with. "Twine" wouldn't tell most of people very much.
Speaking of this...I'm working on a release of a FA inspired Twine game but definitely need some coding help, most expressly on the HTML side of things so that it looks good. Anyone here amongst the dissenters/complainers that have this skillset that want to work on it with me?
Perhaps most importantly, MoR is a sandbox so it has luxury of requiring far less writing than FA --which is very much a linear story-- to provide meaningful updates. (it can require more coding for new mechanics and features, but code takes less writing and, being hidden under the hood, developers can get away with not polishing it as much since few people will take a note of it)
As a creator, I never listen to non-paying people telling me to hurry. However, I will say that products are not improved by focus on speed. If paying subscribers say something, well, even then, not everyone really understands what they want. Good product made at my pace is probably better than inferior product made at the pace requested by an external person who is not involved. I fully acknowledge that Crush should do whatever they want with FA, as long as subscribers are fine with it.
Of course, the art is the one thing Crush isn't doing himself, so ... that should cut a month or two from the time Crush takes to do the stuff he actually does do himself, right? So a small content update every month or two would be what you would consider a reasonable expectation, then.
I've speculated on it before (maybe the posts aren't deleted), but if one trusts what Crush tells us, I think deadlines have an effect on him. I had suggested that he should stop considering time at all, no mention of deadlines, let time go and just do things. Subs seem happy with mainly-weekly posts on the Patreon, which should continue of course. Now speculation on exactly why deadlines have an effect on Crush is probably extra-curricular since I don't know his daily routine. Maybe something fixable is wrong, maybe not. Or, maybe recent changes have led to it being the best that it's going to be. Even if Crush continues to use deadlines, I don't see the point of anyone thinking about deadlines regarding Female Agent.
Neither would anyone else if he were using a per-release Patreon model. But with the monthly model, missing every one of his self-set deadlines by months will keep getting him accused of being a scamming rat.
I reckon, it would rather become destructive to his current business model. Setting deadlines is quite important psychologically for consumers of entertainment. We all know what 'hype' means. Artists, brands, corporations build it all the time, knowing that the engagement with their product increases when they do it. Doesn't matter if the eventual product is shit and/or comes long after set deadline. We are susceptible to this process as humans. As the deadline comes closer, engagements rise and pressure builds. This model works, provided dev (or any producer of entertainment) can handle the pressure of annoyed consumers.
That’s fine if so. If there’s an earnings bump clearly associated with an asserted deadline for Female Agent (and not instead with releases), I don’t see a reason in that scenario to mess with it. Also if it’s not a dispensable point of stress for Crush. Only Crush can answer that last part. If it’s all currently functioning fine as you describe, well that would be something.
