I probably should, but I don't think they're an idiot. Just misinformed. I may not have said it out loud, but I had a lot of similar thoughts about other developers before I actually started to work on my own game. It definitely gave me a better perspective on the amount of work required to put out something I was proud of.
- Apr 26, 2020
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True but some specific individuals on this forum has made a career out of making posts like that. They make baseless assumptions and get pissy when people disagrees with them.
- Aug 24, 2020
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And that's the most important thing, you should never rush if things aren't ready.
But, and this is just my two cents, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to find a middle ground between releasing something you're proud of, but at the same time not take as long as it's taking between updates. Maybe split the chapters into two updates or something. Because even though i like this game, i could never support it knowing it takes more than six months per update.
- Apr 26, 2020
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Then people would complain about small updates, it's a loose-loose kind of scenario........
- Aug 24, 2020
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You're right on that one, people will always complain either way.
- Jan 25, 2022
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To be fair, i did say he was one of the good devs. It was more of a drunken vent on the patreon model.
Stay away from the hooch, folks.
- Oct 30, 2019
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Game aside: honestly, props to everybody here and this dev for making this probably one of the least toxic and genuinely most chill game dev threads I've seen. Even salt over update time is actually really low-key compared to most.
Jabbonk thanks for being as informative and engaged as you are.
Jabbonk thanks for being as informative and engaged as you are.
Hey, Homies!
Fair warning! Today's
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is pretty long, but I had a lot of important things to talk about.Pretty tired so I don't have a witty TL;DR, but suffice it to say I'm scaling back my ambitious chapter, and as you can see, it's already chopped off a good chunk of development. More deets in the report.
Have a great week!
Much love!
JB
Week 32 progress:
-857 renders
-27 animations
-15,187 lines coded
Hey, Homies!
Not a terribly long
You must be registered to see the links
this week but some decent progress was made.Much love!
JB
Week 33 progress:
-890 renders
-27 animations
-15,552 lines coded
- Jul 11, 2021
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Hello Im just started playing the game, so far Im in Chapter 2... I got some simple thoughts...
1.-The setting is fine, nothing too fancy but a nice enough fantasy setting nonetheless.
2.-So far I find it a little light in the choices, but the ones Im making seem meaningful so that's interesting, that said, it would be nice to help shape a little more the personality of the MC with dialog choices even if the outcomes doesn't change.
3.-A little light in the sexy time department so far, but that's fine if the story is good.
4.-The story leans a little too much on the "power fantasy" aspect, I mean the MC with barely any training is already capable of putting a seasoned veteran captain against the ropes in a sparring match and has perfect aim with the bow even though he only played with toy bows before, and of course he is super gifted in all magic affinities too...like come on. is him being a god in everything necessary to tell a compelling story? Of course Im aware this is still early in the story, but I just hope we get to see him struggle a little bit in the future.
So far Im not amazed, but Im engaged enough to keep on going without skipping any text.
1.-The setting is fine, nothing too fancy but a nice enough fantasy setting nonetheless.
2.-So far I find it a little light in the choices, but the ones Im making seem meaningful so that's interesting, that said, it would be nice to help shape a little more the personality of the MC with dialog choices even if the outcomes doesn't change.
3.-A little light in the sexy time department so far, but that's fine if the story is good.
4.-The story leans a little too much on the "power fantasy" aspect, I mean the MC with barely any training is already capable of putting a seasoned veteran captain against the ropes in a sparring match and has perfect aim with the bow even though he only played with toy bows before, and of course he is super gifted in all magic affinities too...like come on. is him being a god in everything necessary to tell a compelling story? Of course Im aware this is still early in the story, but I just hope we get to see him struggle a little bit in the future.
So far Im not amazed, but Im engaged enough to keep on going without skipping any text.
- Mar 31, 2022
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To be be fair, MC does struggle with magic. They're incredibly powerful, but unable to control or limit their power. So where less powerful mages and wizards etc would be able to use more subtle delicate spells, we can not.
I get all this. I really do.
But do porn game devs never look at all the other devs failing, failing, failing again and constantly making update plans too big for what they can achieve?
Does no porn game dev ever look at all these failing projects and think "wow man maybe I should be less ambitious for my next update"? Why does every dev constantly head for the giant updates they can't deliver in a reasonable timeframe? I must have seen "I've bitten off more than I can chew" a thousand times over from so many developers.
Just wanna know what was going through your mind when you planned this all. Because from my perspective even as just a side job or a side hobby, making smaller, less ambitious updates would keep more people interested and would be much easier on you. 9 months is hell of a long time and people lose interest, though IDK how that affects people's patreons since porn game patrons tend to be very...tolerant. We're all just shitless pirates who don't really care either way but the people who do pay seem to be ok with paying forever.
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- May 10, 2023
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It doesn't seem like you get it. The main thrust of your argument is to assert that the dev change their schedule to a type that has killed countless indie games. The majority of the most successful games on this site update 1-4 times per year. About half of those update once or twice per year. The reason so many successful devs and dev teams focus on delivering the game in some analogue of a chapter per update is that people don't play their games very long otherwise. All the games I've seen that update at [insert arbitrary timeframe] instead of dividing their updates up into narratively satisfying divisions don't get long term player engagement. They get some mix of being asked for longer updates (no matter how long they take) or players deciding to sit out some arbitrary number of updates in between coming back to see how the story progresses until they forget about the game.
In order to keep fans interested in a game, they need to be invested in seeing what happens every update. When you're doing chapter updates, the longer time between updates gives the fans time to digest the story together in between. When you're just trying to crank out whatever you can get done ever [insert arbitrary timeframe], the majority of the discussion about your game between updates is how unsatisfying it is to play incomplete slivers of a story every update. That kind of discussion about a game in its thread makes it a back burner game for existing and new players alike, and things on the back burner are just much more likely to be forgotten.
Tl;dr: if people are following a game and excited to play every update, it doesn't matter what the update frequency is, but updating in a narratively unsatisfying way will tank interest in a game no matter how frequent the updates are
I get where you're coming from as well, but honestly, most of us are amateurs who are just trying to do our best, and sometimes (often in my case), we don't actually know wtf we're doing! I'm as transparent as possible with my supporters and love explaining in detail when I fucked something up. I've said several times, especially recently, that I definitely made a mistake by trying to do too much. That's why over the last few weeks I've been cutting entire scenes and condensing the story anywhere and everywhere that it's possible.
As for what I was thinking, I won't try to make any excuses. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. Period. I kept adding more and more to the chapter while developing it because it made sense narratively. Unfortunately, I had my head buried so far in the project that it was hard for me to get a perspective on the big picture. It wasn't until I made the new progress report format (~3 weeks ago?) that I actually had to take a full inventory of the game and was able to see just how big the project was. I corrected my course and I've been taking some big steps to change things, as mentioned above.
Also, not for nothing, but I don't have anyone to pick up my slack, so if I'm tired, sick, working overtime, or away from home, there's just nothing I can do about it. This is the curse of the Solo Dev.
Truthfully, I don't think I'm very good at this whole development thing. Writing even less so. All I can do is try my best and learn from my mistakes. In the end, as long as I put out something that I'm proud of, then I'll be happy, and hopefully, the people playing it will be as well. Hope this helped, and hope none of it came across as rude.
Much love!
- May 20, 2020
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Actually, I think the writings pretty solid for a first effort: dialogue decent, pacing is quite good, characters likeable etc. I'm enjoying it quite a bit and I'm pretty picky. Also really like how transparent you are in your communication. And I've certainly never seen you say something rude, even to players who were often less than pleasant themselves. As for development skills: managing projects is hard, but it will develop over time as you've already noticed. Just a fact of life. Keep up the good work dev.
Thank you! I guess I'm my own worst critic lol
- May 10, 2023
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I don't think there's any real need to explain yourself here. Most of the thread seems pretty supportive of your game, from what I've seen. Despite being couched in more flowery language and having a veneer of friendliness painted over it, this person's criticism boils down to the same fundamental entitlement that every complaint about game development taking too long comes from. Their comment makes it clear that they don't really appreciate the hard work and long hours development of any kind can take, nor the work and ambition required to create art. The implication that game devs should be less ambitious is laughable. I like your game and am looking forward to seeing where it goes, but even if I didn't I wouldn't try to convince you to make it in a different way than you enjoy or works for you. While your pace is your own, your process as you've described it sounds similar to a lot of the other devs whose games I follow here. I don't think you're doing anything wrong in trying to put out a thing you're proud of, and your process sounds pretty typical, so I think you're safe to ignore the unconstructive criticisms of people who just want you to go faster because they don't like to wait.
- Aug 21, 2020
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damn new progress bars are scary, why i even asked 
still, it's really nice to see full details, so thank you for your (extra) work
am i understanding correctly - chapter 4 will be basically one full day? not sure if it was mentioned here already or not
still, it's really nice to see full details, so thank you for your (extra) work
am i understanding correctly - chapter 4 will be basically one full day? not sure if it was mentioned here already or not