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

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

The amount of people, even regular posters who supposedly like the game and appreciate the dev, who merrily join in on misinformed bandwagons or resort to unfair hyperbole is really, really annoying. Not just this particular situation, but others as well.

My thoughts: Neon's worked on this for years, and will continue to work on it for many more years. More money through platforms like Steam is a fair ask. But beyond that, think about it from an artist's perspective, the fantasy of reaching a wider audience with your labor of love; I think this is actually more of a motivator for most artists than purely money (once they're financially stable). I imagine this applies to many, many devs of adult VNs. If any of the naysayers or whiners were working hard on their own game, 100% guarantee they would immediately eat their own words in a heartbeat. That's what's so frustrating and funny at the same time, the sheer lack of even an attempt at empathy, like these people can't fathom putting themselves into someone else's situation.

I know this game caters to perverts, most of these kinds of games do, and I'm right there with you.. but if we take a step back and think about it... having a much greater financial and critical return, for the price of making a few characters' adult status more obvious or censoring 'official' versions... seems like an obvious choice. So, being frustrated at the censorship is fair, I am too.. but it doesn't justify throwing insults at the dev's character. Seems pretty damn silly to do that, actually...

But seriously... this situation sucks. Especially as others have pointed out, some characters (within VNs in general) might not even be age baits, they're just more slender with small tits. To get away with it, you'd probably have to age their faces up to 30+ to skate the censors, which is fucking stupid.

 

[MeAndTheDevil]

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Overview
Friends in Need sees you stepping into the role of a man who made a very bad financial decision, which nearly resulted in your ruin. Years later, the reverberations of that decision echo once more through your life, suddenly enriching you beyond your wildest imaginings. When your best friend and long-time crush comes to you for help with her own financial misfortune, you realize that with nearly unlimited resources, you can be a force for good - or evil.

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Thread Updated: 2025-07-09
Release Date: 2025-07-09
Developer: NeonGhosts -

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Censored: No
Version: Chapter 1-7 - 0.73
OS: Windows, Linux, Mac
Language: English
Other Games: The Student Loan
Genre:

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Installation:

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Changelog:

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Developer Notes:

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Patch Instructions:

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About the Vanilla Version:

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DOWNLOAD
Chapter 1-7 Remake v0.73 (Subsribestar Version)
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- MEGA -

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Android (v0.72):

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Patches: Taboo

Chapter 1 Friends Indeed (Patreon Version)
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https://f95zone.to/javascript:void(0) - MEGA -

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Android (v0.25):

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- PIXELDRAINUNLOCK LINK -

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Mini-Sodes

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Patches: -
Extras: Walkthrough - Fan Sigs - Fanart & Assets - (v.0.375)* - Character Guide - Gallery Mod* - Short Stories - Walkthrough Mod* - Italian Translation*
*This unofficial port/version is not released by developer, download at your own risk.

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alright i admit you got me hooked and great work on renders and animation it would be perfect with some graphical creativity
generally satisfying

 

[NeonGhosts]

I don't know why people are floating GOG as though it's some magic bullet for my problems -- I've already said that I intend to distribute FiN there. But they still use all the payment processors that put pressure on Valve and Itchio, and they work with mainstream companies to distribute AAA titles. If GOG is put against the wall and forced to pick me or Call of Duty, I feel like I know who wins that fight. The fact they did a little stunt promotion of giving away AVN titles for free doesn't mean they're now the standard bearer for censorship-free games. It means they saw an angle to get some good press, and took advantage. But their own community standards say flat-out that they put limitations on the type of sexual material you can distribute there. As soon as Visa or Mastercard come calling, they'll do exactly what everyone else does, and decide it's not worth the fight.

SubscribeStar is one of the only platforms that actually uses alternative payment processors, and can resist this pressure to a degree. But guess what? Several times a week I have people write to me explaining they can't subscribe to me there, because their credit card doesn't work on that site, they don't take PayPal, their bank flagged the transaction as fraudulent, etc. How many customers have I lost, who just couldn't get past the payment portal? It's non-zero, that's for sure.

Which brings me back to the sanest, simplest route: release a version of the game that can clear most censors, and have everyone download a patch to restore the rest of the content. If you're incapable of dragging and dropping one folder into another, then you're not old enough to be playing FiN anyway.

And just to provide a quick little sanity check for everyone: FiN doesn't get made if I can't monetize it. As much as everyone wants to bang on in my DMs about how slow and lazy I am, I average 30 hours a week writing, rendering, doing blog posts, etc. The steps I take to protect my income and ability to distribute my work, are made to ensure the work continues to be made. And frankly, I think I've continued to stick my neck out in a way that I really do not need to, in pursuit of telling my story the way I want to tell it. If I cut any potentially onerous material entirely, I'd be able to speed up development, avoid a lot of annoying pitfalls, and keep a decent portion of my audience.

And still people on this site can't even do me the kindness of not:

• posting links to Friends Indeed/Patreon, which can cause issues for me
• having links to my Patreon in the main page, causing problems for me and confusion for potential consumers
• calling me a whore when I'd like to continue being compensated for this thing I spend a lot of time and money working on

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

I don't know why people are floating GOG as though it's some magic bullet for my problems -- I've already said that I intend to distribute FiN there. But they still use all the payment processors that put pressure on Valve and Itchio, and they work with mainstream companies to distribute AAA titles. If GOG is put against the wall and forced to pick me or Call of Duty, I feel like I know who wins that fight. The fact they did a little stunt promotion of giving away AVN titles for free doesn't mean they're now the standard bearer for censorship-free games. It means they saw an angle to get some good press, and took advantage. But their own community standards say flat-out that they put limitations on the type of sexual material you can distribute there. As soon as Visa or Mastercard come calling, they'll do exactly what everyone else does, and decide it's not worth the fight.

SubscribeStar is one of the only platforms that actually uses alternative payment processors, and can resist this pressure to a degree. But guess what? Several times a week I have people write to me explaining they can't subscribe to me there, because their credit card doesn't work on that site, they don't take PayPal, their bank flagged the transaction as fraudulent, etc. How many customers have I lost, who just couldn't get past the payment portal? It's non-zero, that's for sure.

Which brings me back to the sanest, simplest route: release a version of the game that can clear most censors, and have everyone download a patch to restore the rest of the content. If you're incapable of dragging and dropping one folder into another, then you're not old enough to be playing FiN anyway.

And just to provide a quick little sanity check for everyone: FiN doesn't get made if I can't monetize it. As much as everyone wants to bang on in my DMs about how slow and lazy I am, I average 30 hours a week writing, rendering, doing blog posts, etc. The steps I take to protect my income and ability to distribute my work, are made to ensure the work continues to be made. And frankly, I think I've continued to stick my neck out in a way that I really do not need to, in pursuit of telling my story the way I want to tell it. If I cut any potentially onerous material entirely, I'd be able to speed up development, avoid a lot of annoying pitfalls, and keep a decent portion of my audience.

And still people on this site can't even do me the kindness of not:

• posting links to Friends Indeed/Patreon, which can cause issues for me
• having links to my Patreon in the main page, causing problems for me and confusion for potential consumers
• calling me a whore when I'd like to continue being compensated for this thing I spend a lot of time and money working on

man fuck Call of Duty and GTA give me Friends in Need any day of the week, that's right, that's right, I said it

 

[Simpgor]

If a gooner calls someone a whore doesnt that mean they cant live without them?

Besides I rather be a whore than some dude beating it on the side of the road solely on whatever scraps they steal

But seriously dude does this on every thread, did it before censorship and will continue for it to be a large part of their personality

 

[Eland51298]

Let's be honest, if the developer removes all NSFW content (and I think it needs to be done, given the recent scandals) to release the game on Steam, hardly anyone will buy it, because Friends in Need is above average VN, but only in the sex game genre and If dev remove a key aspect from this game, well, sales will most likely be rather poor.

So I think this is a terrible situation, and Visa and Mastercard should be going to hell for their idiotic policies and censorship imposed on sales platforms.

 

[ffive]

But beyond that, think about it from an artist's perspective, the fantasy of reaching a wider audience with your labor of love; I think this is actually more of a motivator for most artists than purely money (once they're financially stable). I imagine this applies to many, many devs of adult VNs. If any of the naysayers or whiners were working hard on their own game, 100% guarantee they would immediately eat their own words in a heartbeat.

Just a small point, but as you note yourself, while the desire to "reach a wide audience as the artist" may be common, it is not universal. Some artists are, alternatively, focused entirely on doing their own thing down to a t, and share the works with more of a "i've mainly done it for myself but if you happen to enjoy it too, good for you" mindset.

As such, it's a hyperbole to go and claim that "100% would immediately agree if they worked on their own game". Some of those people could very well be in that latter category of artists, who would rather have a few fans of the work exactly as they intended it, than wider audience but at the cost of changing things.

 

[Ragnar]

Calling porn avns art is a bit of a stretch imo. There is some kind art in every creation process but Neon said it himself, he's making FiN for the money. Also don't fool yourselves 99% of the devs are like that, at least Neon is being honest about it.
I remember when patreon wasn't a thing, there were like a dozen of dudes making western erotic games just for the lulz.

 

[Elduriel]

Calling porn avns art is a bit of a stretch imo. There is some kind art in every creation process but Neon said it himself, he's making FiN for the money. Also don't fool yourselves 99% of the devs are like that, at least Neon is being honest about it.
I remember when patreon wasn't a thing, there were like a dozen of dudes making western erotic games just for the lulz.

they chose the wrong career then, at least most did Hard to earn good money these days off of AVNs.

 

[Ragnar]

they chose the wrong career then, at least most did Hard to earn good money these days off of AVNs.

I'm not gonna say names but there are devs making pretty good money every month. But that's the thing, money is the precursor that caused an explosion in the western market. Now instead of a dozen of devs tinkering with html or rpgm maker we have hundreds trying to make it.
Is this sustainable in the long term? For many it may not be, but a few are making a lot of money.

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

SubscribeStar is one of the only platforms that actually uses alternative payment processors, and can resist this pressure to a degree. But guess what? Several times a week I have people write to me explaining they can't subscribe to me there, because their credit card doesn't work on that site, they don't take PayPal, their bank flagged the transaction as fraudulent, etc. How many customers have I lost, who just couldn't get past the payment portal? It's non-zero, that's for sure.

Not sure how true that is, they use credit cards as main format of payment and they blacklist, shadow ban, and ban developers like Patreon, you just don't hear about it much as there aren't that many on SS and most of those devs got banned from Patreon for content now allowed on most platforms anyway.

Let's not forgot, some developers are removing incest from games on SS now to as it has that clause in their TOS about it.

 

[Elduriel]

I'm not gonna say names but there are devs making pretty good money every month. But that's the thing, money is the precursor that caused an explosion in the western market. Now instead of a dozen of devs tinkering with html or rpgm maker we have hundreds trying to make it.
Is this sustainable in the long term? For many it may not be, but a few are making a lot of money.

yeah I know, but like with mostly everything, they are the minority. Just like OF top earners. Some here make great money. Some get by. The majority will never see a profit.

 

[jadepaladin]

To break out these days you have to have lightning in a bottle or provide a service that's lacking. I'm kinda curious on the financials behind the Oppaiman storefront. It seems too small to attract payment processor attention atm but basically all storefronts are ticking time bombs unless something changes.

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

To break out these days you have to have lightning in a bottle or provide a service that's lacking. I'm kinda curious on the financials behind the Oppaiman storefront. It seems too small to attract payment processor attention atm but basically all storefronts are ticking time bombs unless something changes.

Oppaiman you have to have a Patreon account, they use Patreon as the payment, and you subscribe to the developrs Patreon when you make a purchase. So, they are pretty much safe since it's all tied to Patreon.

Developers are leaving there now too; there is a controversy brewing over Oppaiman now. You can read some statements from a least one very angry develoepr here.

 

[ffive]

Also don't fool yourselves 99% of the devs are like that, at least Neon is being honest about it.
I remember when patreon wasn't a thing, there were like a dozen of dudes making western erotic games just for the lulz.

To be fair, before Patreon was a thing (so 10+ years ago) there was also far less tools and content to make VNs with, and the whole process would be much slower and convoluted. There was also less places where you'd post your creation for people to find or advertise you're even making such thing. Quite a few people than that dozen of dudes probably started working on a game, ran into a wall and/or burnt out and gave up without anyone ever knowing.

 

[jadepaladin]

Oppaiman you have to have a Patreon account, they use Patreon as the payment, and you subscribe to the developrs Patreon when you make a purchase. So, they are pretty much safe since it's all tied to Patreon.

Developers are leaving there now too; there is a controversy brewing over Oppaiman now. You can read some statements from a least one very angry develoepr here.

Thanks for this. I hadn't made an account there yet and was interested in the behind the scenes of it.

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

Thanks for this. I hadn't made an account there yet and was interested in the behind the scenes of it.

You don't really make an account, you just login with your Patreon account. When you buy a game, you subscribe to the dev's Patreon (sometimes the prices are cheaper than going directly to dev's Patreon), so you need to make sure to unsubsribe before the 30 days is up. The only difference is you get to keep the game in your library forever like Itch.io/Steam vs Patreon post that gets locked again after 30 days.

Sometimes some developers will let you continue to get the updates for the new version as well without paying again, but need to wait for the price to drop to whatever it was you paid for it in most cases.

 

[Ragnar]

To be fair, before Patreon was a thing (so 10+ years ago) there was also far less tools and content to make VNs with, and the whole process would be much slower and convoluted. There was also less places where you'd post your creation for people to find or advertise you're even making such thing. Quite a few people than that dozen of dudes probably started working on a game, ran into a wall and/or burnt out and gave up without anyone ever knowing.

The Lessons of Passion team and some others were already making business back then. Patreon just make it easier for solo devs. Now you don't need your own web and all that, just an account in patreon, substar and the such.

 

[Lightaces]

But seriously dude does this on every thread, did it before censorship and will continue for it to be a large part of their personality

Personality substitute. Just saying.

 

[NebulousShooter]

1st of all I don't even know what the discussion is about anymore
2nd I was actually going out of my way to link to devs Patreons when posting status updates, I was thinking its the least I can do to get it some free publicity, never considered that could have negative effect...