Oh, and in case anyone is curious, for the record, I have never charged Runey for any of the assets I make for him. I don't charge my friends, and besides, I feel like I owe Runey for all of the years of entertainment.
I am poor, and can't afford to support anyone financially, so I do what I can to help out some of the devs who make games I like, when they want it. Some I do tech support, some I do proofreading, some I do testing, some I donate assets, and so on. It is how I give back to the community.
I do testing on a lot of games (including my own), and before that, I have done it professionally. Sometimes bugs can happen that you don't even notice for a long time. Alphas and Betas are like that. If you don't want broken saves and you don't want to replay the new content when it goes live, then don't play alphas or betas. This is just basic common sense (something that tends to be lacking in a lot of people now days).
Also, I know the way a lot of these games are designed, and cheating certain stats, like in the example here of skipping events, might allow you to trigger the newest event, but it will not set all of the right flags along the way, so your save will be useless going forward, they were put there to test things, not to play the game. You can easily soft lock, or even brick your game. It is just not worth the risk.
While it can be nice to get things early, you need to know what you are getting into and be prepared for what you are going to have to deal with, but most people here don't pay enough attention, and only use one save for their whole game... It is a recipe for disaster that I have seen play out more times than I want to count.
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As for Runey, yes, he used to be a lot more active here, but then last year, a lot of people decided to give him a bunch of shit over his last update being slower than usual, while he was dealing with his father's death and a bunch of other crap. After months of that shit, he finally just stopped checking in here that much. I do try to pass on anything important that happens though.