VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [S1 v0.85c] [NeonGhosts]

[NeonGhosts]

With a landscape like the one in this niche market, a market full of pirate seites, subscribers or patrons don't sub just to get the game or whatever. Many patreon pages have less activity than their pirate forums siblings. Patreon and the such are patronage sites, you're giving money to artists because you enjoy their works not in exchange for goods.
I understand devs trying to give some exclusive content to attract more subs, but it would be hard to avoid leaks. Better count on it and don't take it bad because I have seen some famous devs going full retarded in that situation

Sure, and I'm not operating from some stringent anti-piracy position, just asking for some consideration. This is a fairly new thing, having my paywalled stuff posted immediately after I post it on my own platforms. So, I don't think it's out of pocket for me to ask someone to cool it with that. Moreover, I even said that sharing a portion of the content, wouldn't be a huge deal to me. People have done that before, and I don't mind. Ditto for my Dev Updates, which are free to everyone. People are free to share those, and always have been.

I'm choosing to see this as someone (who obviously is supporting me with their money, so thanks!) being a bit overly enthusiastic about sharing my work, without realizing how I might feel about it. There's no hard feelings, I'm just making my position known.

 

[Parcel]

If you want something for backers that can't be leaked? Polls. Even if you don't want anything at all about the game itself to be determined by polls, you can let backers vote for bonus sets. People can leak the sets once they are made, but backers still got something exclusive.

As someone who prefers devs make the content they're most enthusiastic about (which I can then back if I share some of that enthusiasm), I'm not a huge fan of polled content.

90+% of the time when devs do polls about what winds up in the game, I feel like the focus shifts in ways that are detrimental. Maybe one character gets focused on to the point that her content outstrips the others. Maybe every time there's an outfit vote, the skimpiest outfit gets picked.

As for extras, Neon already does a fair amount. I would never have voted for the mini-kinetic novel giving us a prequel of Alex's story, but that's what Neon wanted to make, and I'm happy we got it.

I don't have a solution to the larger issue, but polls certainly have their drawbacks, at least from my perspective.

 

[NeonGhosts]

My general feeling towards polls is that I never give an option that I won't be comfortable implementing. So, I never have too much fear about being bullied into something I didn't really want to do. Plus, sometimes I can use the options that weren't chosen for What If? posts, which can be kind of fun.



The one time a poll result kind of surprised me, was when I let people choose what Wren was going to look like. I had three options, with one being a pretty traditional, pale redhead, who I was sure would lock down the vote. Instead, everyone pretty overwhelmingly picked the version that now exists in-game. Still, even that made for a fun surprise, and a more interesting visual contrast between her and Ashe.

The bigger problem is that, since I'm running polls for both Friends Indeed and Friends in Need, I have to reckon with what happens if the vote splits. If it's an outfit poll, do I do two outfits and let the players choose in-game? Do I do one for FiN and one for FI? Do I do a run-off between the two most popular options? It's a situation that I haven't found myself in yet, because opinions have always aligned between platforms. But, it seems inevitable that it happen eventually. So, I'm not sure how often I want to spin the roulette wheel on that one.

 

[winter2carrot]

Hey, I played your game and really liked it so I decided to support you. But I'd like to ask, do you have a preference between patreon, subscriber and boosty? And do you post on all three the same things or is there a difference?

 

[NeonGhosts]

Hey, I played your game and really liked it so I decided to support you. But I'd like to ask, do you have a preference between patreon, subscriber and boosty? And do you post on all three the same things or is there a difference?

SubscribeStar would be my recommendation. Patreon is only for Friends Indeed/non-taboo content, and I made a Boosty just for my Russian fans that didn’t have a way to subscribe — but, it’s kind of a busted platform in some ways.

Thanks for the interest!

 

[Azaz13]

just for my Russian fans

heyo one of those fans with a small request - change Viola's "spasiba bratan" from latest dialogue with Guy. I'm not joking, those two words kept me laughing yesterday for 10 mins straight. Unless we don't know somethin about her past ( image of this frail princess in tracksuit cannot be scrubbed from my mind, lmao thanks Neon), theres no way in hell this girl will use such word - believe it or not, girls in Russia dont use "bro" or "bruw" (ahah) adressing men twice their age.
Otherwise, game easily one of my favest on this site, keep up good work

 

[Ragnar]

Spoiler

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[MAGO-DAG]

I made a Boosty just for my Russian fans

Spasibo brat, we invite you to drink vodka

 

[NeonGhosts]

heyo one of those fans with a small request - change Viola's "spasiba bratan" from latest dialogue with Guy. I'm not joking, those two words kept me laughing yesterday for 10 mins straight. Unless we don't know somethin about her past ( image of this frail princess in tracksuit cannot be scrubbed from my mind, lmao thanks Neon), theres no way in hell this girl will use such word - believe it or not, girls in Russia dont use "bro" or "bruw" (ahah) adressing men twice their age.
Otherwise, game easily one of my favest on this site, keep up good work

This is actually a line ripped directly from my (younger, female) Russian friend, who's referred to me in that way. :'D It's meant to be a little ironic, with Viola goofing around with someone who isn't really catching all the nuances of her words.

Spoiler

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Spasibo brat, we invite you to drink vodka

 

[Ragnar]

This is actually a line ripped directly from my (younger, female) Russian friend, who's referred to me in that way. :'D It's meant to be a little ironic, with Viola goofing around with someone who isn't really catching all the nuances of her words.



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Excuse me if you have said what next already bc I have missed.
What's the plan now? Chapter 1 remake? Vacations? Viola content ?

 

[citrone]

im only at chapter 4 but man, i have to say 2 things:
- the MC is somehow creepier as a good guy (he talks like an old lady or old gay man?? honey ) than as an asshole
- as a good guy, you are literally playing captain save a hoe with some of the most undeserving women i have ever seen in eroges

forgot to add, im still enjoying it very much.

 

[NeonGhosts]

Excuse me if you have said what next already bc I have missed.
What's the plan now? Chapter 1 remake? Vacations? Viola content ?

The rest of this month I'm just doing some polish for the public version. All pledges will be suspended on the 29th, and then I'll be taking all of December off, not doing any rendering or blog updates. I'll still be working on the Chapter 1 script, but without so much pressure. The plan is to have it finished/mostly finished by the end of December, so I can jump right into rendering in January. Hoping that the revised Chapter 1 will land around 600 images, roughly doubling what's currently in Chapter 1. If all goes to plan, Chapter 1's revised version dropping around late February or early March.

Then, Chapter 11 with Gabby, Viola, Cassie, and Ashe, setting up Brittani's audition episode in Chapter 12.

 

[Dessolos]

with some of the most undeserving women i have ever seen in eroges

I can't agree with this at all. Other than Isabella's mom. Most of them had it rough but never really did anything that is deserving of it even Nicki

 

[citrone]

I can't agree with this at all. Other than Isabella's mom. Most of them had it rough but never really did anything that is deserving of it even Nicki

undeserving of help, not deserving of what happened to them

 

[watdapakisdis]

Cassie, and Ashe, setting up Brittani's audition episode in Chapter 12.

More scenes for the blonde girls!

 

[Dessolos]

undeserving of help, not deserving of what happened to them

I still disagree

 

[Elduriel]

undeserving of help, not deserving of what happened to them

you must be fun at parties

 

[MagicMan753]

More scenes for the blonde girls!

I need the blonde harem, with ideally Viola and maybe Risa thrown in there too.

 

[citrone]

Alex absolutely mogging Nicki in front of MC. god bless her

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

Dev Update! 11/25/24

Hey, friends! Hope you're all doing well today!




I don't have a whole lot to talk about right now, to be honest. Chapter 10 will be available to $2 subscribers tomorrow, with the public version arriving on the 29th. Between the Alpha and Beta versions I added a small scene with Ashe, and over the next few days I'll be finishing up a few little pieces of hand-drawn art, to complement a few scenes with Nicki and MC/Guy. Those will be in the public/final version.

The same day that the public version drops, I'll be suspending billing, for the month of December. I'm not quite sure how SubStar's system works, but I thiiiink you'll probably get an e-mail notification to that effect? Assuming it's anything like Patreon, anyways. With that, I'll be taking a few weeks off from updating the blog here. But, I'll still be active over on the Discord. So, feel free to pop over and say hi! We're a friendly group over there, and I'm usually posting some just-for-fun art.




Though I don't intend to update the blog in December, I do plan to continue working on the refined script for Chapter 1. With any luck, I'll even be able to get a jump on Chapter 11. It's my hope that I can build up some scripts, and smooth out the dev process a bit for 2025. A lot of people think that the art end of things is what slows me down, but it's almost always the writing end of things that I get bogged down in. Especially when I make a big ol' Gordian Knot out of the story, and need to align a bunch of disparate story branches.

So.. Yeah! I'm taking a little break, but I'll still be around, and still working. I've still got a little postmortem that I intend to post this weekend, just discussing the past couple years of being an adult game dev, my feelings about Chapter 10, and my plans for the immediate future, as well as 2025. Good things lie ahead!

Until next time, take care of yourselves -- and as always, thank you for your support.