VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch.11 v0.72] [NeonGhosts]

[_DarkDesires_]

Time for Neon's Standard Check-In and Address Talking Points with Talking Points: Starring Neon!

• WTF, Dead Game: I put out a full chapter in November. I took an unpaid vacation December, halting my billing for my platforms. I returned in January and put out the Chapter 11 teaser with 150~ images, and then in February put out a mini-game for Sapphire with another 150+ images. I wanted the Chapter 1 remake to be done for March, but due to a couple factors, it just didn't happen. I'll return to this in a bit. But, I'd love for someone to point me towards all these games made by solo devs, which have a bunch of branching paths, and also update every month. Because I'm lucky to get one update a year from my favorites.
• 150 Images, This Is a Bullshit: The reason I made this Chapter 11 teaser was because I always put out some playable content for my $15 tier each month. As I was writing Chapter 1's remake during January, I couldn't really put out a demo for Chapter 1. But, I'd written some of Chapter 11 while I was on vacation, so I decided to just render that, and make it available to my high-tier patrons. Plus, that gave me a little jump on Chapter 11.
• Why Didn't You Remake Ch. 1 Ages Ago?! aRe yOu StUpiD: I've explained this about a dozen times, and half of them to the same gentleman. But, once more with feeling, I suppose. I'd always planned to remake Chapter 1, once Cassie was introduced. That was kind of the waypoint in my mind, for when the story would hit a bit of a climax, and feel like a season-ending cliffhanger. It felt like both a satisfying little break, and a tease for the future. Basically, the perfect place to park the story, and have people wait a bit. But, it was originally meant to happen sooner. Some plot developments got moved forward, ahead of it -- Lucien, Risa, Mason, etc. Then, things just snowballed, and pretty soon I had to redraw the plot map a bit.
• But Why Remake It Now: Chapter 10 is the end of Season 1. This year I'll be packaging the first ten chapters (plus Brent, Alex, and Sapphire's short stories) up, and getting it ready for Steam distribution. If anyone could tell me a better time to do it, which doesn't require a time machine and tremendous hindsight, I'd be interested. Do I wish I'd done it back when I originally planned to, after Chapter 4? Sure. Can't do anything about that now, though. The best time to plant a tree is yesterday, the second best time is today, and other such idioms.
• Where Are My Favorite Characters: Literally every love interest has appeared in the last two updates. Ashe only had a small part, but she also had almost an entire update to herself, so her inclusion felt less pressing. The nice thing is that we're kind of coming to a point where several of the main characters (Nicki, Ashe, Risa, Mason) have had full ero scenes on all their alignment paths. Pepper and Viola have had full scenes on their dark paths. This means that one of the biggest headaches for each character (multi-position, multi-cumshot sex scenes) are slowly being winnowed down, which removes a substantial burden for each character. So, plot developments should come a little faster, and girls who haven't had sex scenes yet will get them (Gabby and Brittani are next-up, and Carolina some time later this year).
• Where Are My Plot Advancements: Cassie showed up, Nicki ditched you or is your girlfriend or is gaining confidence as your assistant, Ashe is collaborating with you to secure her position at the museum, the photo mystery with Ashe has been resolved but had a new wrinkle added, Gabby's family is now reunited and her relationship to the player has been firmed up on every path, Brittani's about to collaborate with the player to make a movie which sets up her arc, Mason has his glasses (and soon a job at Barron Books), Risa's redemption plotline with Lucien is in swing, a date with Carolina is imminent, and and and.. Like, shit's happening all over the place.
• Heh, 150 Images? No Thanks: Respectfully, I don't make content for this forum. I make it for my supporters. My supporters understand why I put out the (sometimes bite-sized) content that I do, because I communicate it to them, and if they want to reach out directly, I'll explain my plans and reasons in more detail. My concern is only ever in delivering them what I promise them, for their support. That means $15 supporters get some kind of playable demo monthly, $5 supporters get a weekly update with a look at the script and art, and $2 supporters get exclusive bi-weekly art and story features. I can't even guarantee that they'll like it, though I do my best.
• I Am Not a Robot, I Am a Human Being: Life happens, and that does affect development. My day job got busier and more stressful over the past few months, which means some days I just haven't had the mental bandwidth to write or render as much as I might like to. My area of the country was also hit with: an ice storm, tornadoes, and floods, in a three month span. This meant intermittent power outages, surges, etc. I bought a UPS and a solar battery/generator, which allow me to work through small outages. But, we return to the fact that stress does have an impact on my ability to actually.. Do things. But, all that aside, if you're unhappy with my decisions, understand this -- I am not a content creation machine. I do not analyze and fine-tune my output for maximum return on investment of my time/effort. Sometimes, I miscalculate how long something will take. Sometimes, I get writer's block. Sometimes (like recently) I fuck up some renders and have to redo them. I don't have a studio, an assistant, or anything else. It's literally just me, writing, rendering, coding, doing blog posts, doing art, managing my social media, tracking expenses, filing taxes, etc. while still working a 60+ hour a week full-time job, and trying to have an actual life.

As always, thanks for reading and playing.

This is literally one of those times when "ignore the haters" is not just a phrase, but 100% based on objective reality. You're one of the most consistent devs I know, producing insanely high-quality content - whether it's the renders, story, plot branching, hot kinks etc. I believe I wrote a full length post of lavish praise earlier in this thread, if you need a reminder of the good work you put out. But please just take enough time to rest & take care of yourself! Everyone of us wants to enjoy 10 more awesome chapters and getting to see how the story plays out

ooph, that's sad, especially since we were denied anal in her scene, and also Ashe's second dark path meeting (the "date" night) worked so great with the anticipation and fear, you clearly can write this stuff well! Hopefully this game won't go the way when a dark scene/rape means it's game over or path closed and character has no more future interactions...
also please change your mind and bring Viola's dark path back, she's my fav and her scenes and dynamics with Guy were so great

While I agree that it'd be absolutely awesome to get another full blown dark route a la Brittany/Ashe - I have the impression we're still getting a chance for a semi-dark route w Viola through Maid services + her landlord situation might prove to be another point of leverage, we'll see. So there's anyway lots to look forward to

 

[RebelliousKnightMordred]

This is what I don't get about these losers who come into a piracy forum and comment shit like "huh, it's so funny all these babies here crying about their *free food* it wasn't made for you guys". Like who gives a shit? Do you know where you are? This is a piracy forum about games. When a game gets updated people are free to talk about it on the *forum*. If they feel the update is lacking they can say that, if the "dev" of the game truly doesn't care about the people on this site and made the update for his "supporters" then why even respond to the criticism and be like "well I didn't make it for you losers I made it for the people who pay me to do nothing!!!". Seems a bit conceited doesn't it? For starters most devs start their games by advertising them on this site and try to convert us into paying supporters. People are free to support whatever they want of course but doesn't it seem kind of moronic to call potential supporters irrelevant?

Also just because 2% of you throw your money into the toilet supporting a guy who's clearly falling into the feature bloat pitfall so that you can get like 2 lines of dialogue that barely moves the plot forward it doesn't mean you're any better than those who don't. If anything we're smarter than you since we get these updates for free and don't waste our money on a pitiful amount of work.$15 can get you games like Hollow Knight, MGS Revengeance, DMC but hey, if you want to spend that on getting like what? 50 lines of dialogue? 2 scenes in the same location with no action or anything just a small "we were in this room and now we're in this room" type update? That's your prerogative just remember what you're actually paying for before acting all haughty.

 

[Reckoning10]

I'm just reading these comments and I'm starting to think that people are idiots who can't read or have mistaken the threads.
Seriously everything Dev writes about was known for a long time, it's known that there will be a remaster of the first chapter, so what the fu*k are you complaining about?

and as for the “short” update, do you guys have eyes or not that you don't know that this is a fuc*ing teaser?

Edit: Seriously you get a Dev who clearly feels passionate about what he does, is active, makes a lot of content, communicates very well what he does and what he plans to do, and most importantly he talks to us in the forum for a bunch of thieving lechers who steal his game and you have the nerve to complain about non-existent problems? Seriously?

If I were the dev I would say fu*k it and from that point I would only speak on patron/subscribestar

Also it was put to a vote months ago whether to do a Chapter 1 rework focus on putting out Ch. 11.

 

[Joshy92]

I can't speak for anyone else but when I was supporting for a brief period it was for a number of reasons including the fact I like the game and NeonGhosts is transparent about development.

I spent maybe twenty bucks in total, and it was easily worth it because of how good the game is. Now I'd obviously like to support more, but shit has happened in my life this past year that has really knocked me on my arse, but hopefully in the future things will improve.

Anyway my point is people who support devs like Neon aren't losers, they are the backbone of development of our favourite games so let's not insult them.

Let's just appreciate that NeonGhosts comes and chats with us here, even though it can be a shitty place for devs at times. I mean think about it, this game has an insane amount of branching and choices plus hot babes of course, so let's at least be positive towards the great game this is.

 

[ViperGts151]

Man this thread is entertaining you have the haters, the kiss the devs arse guys then you have the people in the middle. At least this is entertaining while waiting for the next update .

 

[yossa999]

Anyway my point is people who support devs like Neon aren't losers, they are the backbone of development of our favourite games so let's not insult them.

Put the anonimous on ignore. Continue to discuss why Nicki is the best girl.
You know the drill bro

 

[Joshy92]

Put the anonimous on ignore. Continue to discuss why Nicki is the best girl.
You know the drill bro

Nicki is indeed best girl, but Pepper is catching up bro. And Cassie is going to be fire, I just know it.

 

[yossa999]

Nicki is indeed best girl, but Pepper is catching up bro. And Cassie is going to be fire, I just know it.

I can't argue with that.
Cassie surprised me a lot, from what Guy told about her to Ashe or Nicki I imagined her quite different, I mean her pesonality. But she's very nice and funny character so far.

 

[Joshy92]

I can't argue with that.
Cassie surprised me a lot, from what Guy about her to Ashe or Nicki I imagined her quite different, I mean her pesonality. But she's very nice and funny character so far.

I wouldn't know, I haven't played the teaser yet. I really want to, but I’m resisting for now lol.

 

[yossa999]

I wouldn't know, I haven't played the teaser yet. I really want to, but I’m resisting for now lol.

Well, I'm not as patient as you or Vidal to save up until there will be at least 5K new renders
I see a new update - I download a new update. Besides, I don't really care about spoilers, if I like the game, I can easily play it from the beginning, enjoying the repeating playthrough. But I won't spoil it to you then

 

[UnknowGuys]

In the hush between each breath,
Where noise fades and stillness rests,
Peace arrives on silent wings,
Soft as dusk and gentle things.

The world may roar, the storm may rise,
But calm is found behind closed eyes.
In quiet hearts and skies so wide,
We meet ourselves, with none to hide.

So pause a while, let troubles cease
In every moment, there lives peace.

 

[Tuatha Dé]

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[LinkBox88]

Man. This thing is so stuck in the mud it's ridiculous.

This update was banter in a room followed by a walk to a car. That's it. That's the whole thing. Hopefully we can get through the WHOLE car ride in the next one...

Why even bother releasing this much content? Is it because you have to show your work every few months even if it amounts to almost nothing?

 

[Echoesinthedarkness]

Man. This thing is so stuck in the mud it's ridiculous.

This update was banter in a room followed by a walk to a car. That's it. That's the whole thing. Hopefully we can get through the WHOLE car ride in the next one...

Why even bother releasing this much content? Is it because you have to show your work every few months even if it amounts to almost nothing?

I doubt its Neon who leaked this update to the public, so if you are serious in your frustration over size of update, you should probably demand explanation from f95 user who brought it here

 

[prpa]

We are going round in circles it seems.

 

[GreenOwl]

Man. This thing is so stuck in the mud it's ridiculous.

This update was banter in a room followed by a walk to a car. That's it. That's the whole thing. Hopefully we can get through the WHOLE car ride in the next one...

Why even bother releasing this much content? Is it because you have to show your work every few months even if it amounts to almost nothing?

its an early preview made for the higher paying subs not an update. this was already mentioned by like 20 people.

i will leave this here

You must be registered to see the links

because it seems like some people in this thread need it

 

[NeegNog]

please no more 'teasers' , the full update or nothing

 

[ffive]

please no more 'teasers' , the full update or nothing

No one is twisting your arm to play it. You want full updates, wait until there's one. Meantime people who don't mind teasers can, too, play what they like.

 

[LinkBox88]

its an early preview made for the higher paying subs not an update. this was already mentioned by like 20 people.

i will leave this here

You must be registered to see the links

because it seems like some people in this thread need it

Your arbitrary definition of what constitutes an update vs. a preview is just semantics that don't matter. It's just a distraction from the spirit/focus of my complaint which is that this is a shitty 'release', whatever you label it as! Your explanation for why this release sucks doesn't really justify the fact that it does.

Whereas you see a bunch of people that can't read if a complaint gets repeated, I see the possibility that there might be validity to the complaint if a bunch of people are repeating it.

 

[yossa999]

Man, I almost pity the devs who are open and transparent with the zoners.

You release small updates and a bunch of pissed dudes runs into your game's thread, they are uncapable to read the change log and figure out how big the update is or save a few updates and download when there is enough content to their taste has accumulated. Therefore they complain and stamp their feet.

You do a poll about the size of updates, they choose big updates. You know very well that they will not be able to conclude: more content - more time to develop it - more time between updates. They will expect big updates to come out almost at the same frequency as before. But you're just a weak human being, so you convince yourself that the players understand this.. Half a year passes, and the number of renders exceeds several thousand. You're in the flow, you feel like you're making great progress, and you enjoy developing your game. And you decide to go to the forum, break the news, maybe share a few spoilers, and generally chat with the fans.

And here we are: "Is this game abandoned?", "nothing in six months, the dev is milker", "I will die before the new update comes out", "he will rework the rework", "GTA VI", "See you in 202x." They are pissed and continue to stamp their feet as before.

Anyway, Nicki is still the best girl.