Nurikabe

Well-Known Member
Feb 10, 2021
1,329
2,879
I love this game. I would love to see updates released as soon as I finish the latest. When I get impatient, I remember a few simple things:
I have been working on releasing my own game for (going on) three years without a single release. Why?
I had to learn how to use Daz.
I had to purchase hundreds of dollars of assets and then modify them.
I had to learn how to use Blender.
I had to find the right software for animations and then learn to use it.
I had to learn how to program ren'py.
I had to write the actual story and solve the problems that go with it.
All while, working a full-time job, raising children, maintaining a marriage, going to school, and living my life.

Now, I would argue that just about anyone could release a visual novel in much less time and with much less effort. It happens every day here on F95. But the majority of those visual novels are shit. Problems with the images, the programming, and the story overwhelm these developers.

So, when I see someone else that has the same life events and the same experience level, and they are releasing an incredible game like Intertwined, I am amazed and grateful.
 

Tremonia

Justice for Finnabair!
Donor
Jun 14, 2020
2,709
8,426
Yes, we can compare the games/devs between themselves. Some are slower and it's ok, but others are using it as an excuse to work less
That's right. But how do you know which devs belongs to the second group? Sure, some devs made it obvious and lied much, so that's easy to tell. But as long as Nyx is transparent about what she's doing and working on her game I refuse to put her in the milker drawer. It's just not fair to demand devs should put aside their jobs and lives. There's only a hand full devs who could make a living with their AVN and this one here isn't one of them.
 

camube

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2022
1,335
1,211
I love this game. I would love to see updates released as soon as I finish the latest. When I get impatient, I remember a few simple things:
I have been working on releasing my own game for (going on) three years without a single release. Why?
I had to learn how to use Daz.
I had to purchase hundreds of dollars of assets and then modify them.
I had to learn how to use Blender.
I had to find the right software for animations and then learn to use it.
I had to learn how to program ren'py.
I had to write the actual story and solve the problems that go with it.
All while, working a full-time job, raising children, maintaining a marriage, going to school, and living my life.

Now, I would argue that just about anyone could release a visual novel in much less time and with much less effort. It happens every day here on F95. But the majority of those visual novels are shit. Problems with the images, the programming, and the story overwhelm these developers.

So, when I see someone else that has the same life events and the same experience level, and they are releasing an incredible game like Intertwined, I am amazed and grateful.
The other problem with AVN genre is that I would guess is not lucrative for even the top 10% creators. It's only lucrative for maybe 0.01% or so of them maybe.

Devs spend their free time making a game, and upon release, not enough people patron the lowest tier even on release month.

This leads to good games or potentially good games being abandoned. The AVN genre environment is not conducive enough for consistent start-to-end development.
 

Dragon59

Conversation Conqueror
Apr 24, 2020
6,699
10,960
The other problem with AVN genre is that I would guess is not lucrative for even the top 10% creators. It's only lucrative for maybe 0.01% or so of them maybe.

Devs spend their free time making a game, and upon release, not enough people patron the lowest tier even on release month.

This leads to good games or potentially good games being abandoned. The AVN genre environment is not conducive enough for consistent start-to-end development.
I'm hoping that the fact that I'm retired and moderately disabled will help me continue through lean times.
 

dolfe67

Forum Fanatic
Apr 25, 2020
5,001
13,892
That's right. But how do you know which devs belongs to the second group? Sure, some devs made it obvious and lied much, so that's easy to tell. But as long as Nyx is transparent about what she's doing and working on her game I refuse to put her in the milker drawer. It's just not fair to demand devs should put aside their jobs and lives. There's only a hand full devs who could make a living with their AVN and this one here isn't one of them.
How do I know which devs belongs to the second group? With their communication. I'm fine with Intertwined's pace of development, dev said it was not her full time job. Of course faster would be better but that's ok.
 
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LSC82

Engaged Member
Jul 27, 2020
2,142
4,409
How do I know which devs belongs to the second group? With their communication. I'm fine with Intertwined's pace of development, dev said it was not her full time job. Of course faster would be better but that's ok.
I wouldn't put her in the second group just yet, but i suspect she has a bit of a burnout.
This project used to get updates every 2 months, she improved her hardware and yet the pace slowed waaay down.
She just did a "reboot" and you read her development blog and she's already leaving stuff she ain't happy behind to change at a later date... that's bad planning.

It's not only that, the game became repetitive and very slow pacing wise... i'm waiting for this but i already have very little expectations of getting what "i" want.

Unfortunately this is starting to resemble those TV series that i once loved but now follow just out of stubbornness.
 
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Jericho85

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2022
1,861
6,222
Couldn't it be an argument for better awareness of time constraints? She's compromising quality to appease patreons who are unhappy with the schedule of updates?

Furthermore, as time passes and she has to deal with the consequences of every prior decision a player has made, I imagine it will become increasingly difficult to make episodes seem long rather than broad with several separate playthroughs. This game's ensemble of characters is varied, with no one point of contact between all LI. Elena and Erynn, for example, have no strong motive to interact. Making it even more challenging for her to produce a fast-paced plot is the fact that each LI must be given time in each episode, but it must be done under unique and specific circumstances. I believe the plot requires more instances in which everyone comes to the MC rather than the MC going to 1 on 1 EG: the track and field story which condensed Layla, Tori, Elena and Gabi all in 1 location.

I understand your point of view, but I believe you are oversimplifying/minimalising the events that have occurred. Ignoring the expanded scope/difficulties and merely acknowledging the increased time of each episode.

From what I've read, Nyx clearly has a strong drive to create and expand her narrative, and she appears to be a authentic developer.
But then again I'm an idiot who pirates AVN online and likes watching other people bang my girl
Kind of agree with LSC on this one judging by some things Nyx has said in prior progress updates. She's said stuff like "still debating which LIs will get content and who won't", then she's mentioned times where she's worked on a scene, didn't like it, redid the scene, still didn't like it, then ended up dropping the scene entirely.

So I get the impression she does a lot of "writing on the fly" with a smattering of ideas instead of relying on outlines, and she's run into hiccups related to that. Seems to me with a story with so many cross-relationships and paths, some outlining would make the whole thing easier to tackle without so many rewrites and scrapped scenes.

But the dev's style is the dev's style. If that's what works for her, then who am I to judge.
 
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NebulousShooter

Engaged Member
Donor
Oct 24, 2018
3,505
25,460
On the technical aspect, we just had an update that fucked saves up, next update will be more code rework so probably will need to start again and she is leaving stuff up to update at a later time so new playthrough will be required again when that will happen. I am pretty sure there were other times in the past, before I started playing, where a restart was required because of patching changes she didn't plan.
Just wait and see how many people will give up just for this very reason, no matter how good a game is, it's not worth the hassle after a while, let alone one like this that has lost so much steam to the point of plot barely moving.

On the story aspect, there were major change all through the development of this game, so much so, that now we have 3 'side' characters, one was supposed to be a background character and one was supposed to die, having the most screen time and more scenes than the main girls the game was designed to be centered around, Layla and Erynn.

To defend Nyx on having a clear plan with the game is so delusional, is laughable.
FosWowdWIAAuB8d.jpeg
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Edit: Forgot she almost lost her files because she didn't think to back up her game duffs, like lol. :HideThePain::FacePalm:
 

LSC82

Engaged Member
Jul 27, 2020
2,142
4,409
Couldn't it be an argument for better awareness of time constraints? She's compromising quality to appease patreons who are unhappy with the schedule of updates?

Furthermore, as time passes and she has to deal with the consequences of every prior decision a player has made, I imagine it will become increasingly difficult to make episodes seem long rather than broad with several separate playthroughs. This game's ensemble of characters is varied, with no one point of contact between all LI. Elena and Erynn, for example, have no strong motive to interact. Making it even more challenging for her to produce a fast-paced plot is the fact that each LI must be given time in each episode, but it must be done under unique and specific circumstances. I believe the plot requires more instances in which everyone comes to the MC rather than the MC going to 1 on 1 EG: the track and field story which condensed Layla, Tori, Elena and Gabi all in 1 location.

Being A DIK provides a solution to this difficulty by employing the party planning minigame to unify all LIs into a single area, allowing the narrative to advance with little individual pathing and circumstances per LI.

Nyx I believe has acknowledged this issue, particularly with Cara and Nikki, who Nyx appears to find it difficult to justify maintaining their contact without impeding the growth of other LIs.


I understand your point of view, but I believe you are oversimplifying/minimalising the events that have occurred. Ignoring the expanded scope/difficulties and merely acknowledging the increased time of each episode.

From what I've read, Nyx clearly has a strong drive to create and expand her narrative, and she appears to be a authentic developer.
But then again I'm an idiot who pirates AVN online and likes watching other people bang my girl
#CLM
View attachment 2772143
It's already been more than 6 months since we got new content, i would rather wait and see something polished than Nyx planning her next reboot, right after we had one...
This is the worst of both worlds, the release schedule is slow and despite this the scenes still haven't been well planned and polished.

Nyx doesn't include every character in every release, some get extra focus some sit out(to come back later) but the story has been status quo for too many of the characters for too long now.
Nyx seems to love her mysteries and teasing confrontations but not delivering answers to these mysteries, they keep carrying on, even if seemingly the answer is obvious and constantly hinted at(Erynn-John and MC with Navarro), makes me fear for asspulls just to surprise the audience.
The game has several LIs just waiting to take the "next step", but it never comes...

I'm not simplifying anything, i just feel like we've waited way too long for this next step and the mysteries need a definitive answer.

Nyx sure sounds passionate and commited in her blog, but if she fails to deliver what good is that?
 

Acsuka

Well-Known Member
Mar 25, 2023
1,357
2,329
Hope you are having a wonderful day!
I definitely don't wait or pay attention nearly as much as most of you, therefore my frustrations are considerably lower so my view will be swayed to more forgiving.

I'm going to play devils advocate here. However, I believe you are completely accurate.

As you mentioned, Cara and Nikki were definitely a horrible decision to introduce/continue using in the plot. As you point out, this indicates that a thorough planning step was not carried through or she failed to effectively utilise the plan. My argument is around the idea of longer updates being caused by detached characters as the plot progresses and choices necessitate increased branching. Nyx exhibits sphagetti-type thinking, in which her intentions and writing goals twist and twirl without a definite complete circle finish. As evidently seen with Iris and Nikki/Cara.

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In terms of programming and technology, it was clear to me when I first looked at Intertwined that she was unfamiliar with AVN development/programming. So it's not surprising that these difficulties have arisen, although frustratingly. But I don't see the sense in becoming outraged when it's obvious that a project isn't being generated by a seasoned developer. I believe she has previously stated that intertwined is a learning process for her. So I don't understand why I should be unhappy when she has been open about the fact that she is learning.

Patreon and AVNs are unambiguously a risk since they are so easily accessible. Nyx obviously grasped the importance of planning and constructing the initial segment of the game, when there was not a lot of branching and uncertainties. The inexperience with creating and projecting future deliverables has becoming increasingly more evident as the game has expanded. But my justification and reasoning for not being as upset as you guys are, is that she has been upfront about her inexperience and lack of expertise in these areas. I'm under no illusion that this is a masterpiece project that will be completed without faults and future refinments. She has clearly improved in her ability to code and produce renders and updated episode 1 to reflect that. Frustration at this is completly valid! I view this project as a learning ground that will slowly develop into a acceptable product.

I will be the first to admit I'm a fucking idiot who knows nothing and is only writing this because I am a fucking degenerate loser. This is what I probably look like typing this:
View attachment 2772286
Reading your replies and justifications has undoubtedly influenced my perspective and ideas on the project. I hadn't considered the angles from which you are plainly viewing the project. Thank you for taking the time to explain your opions to me!
To finish this off I just want to say if anyone wants to make love to my wife, let me know.
#CLM
View attachment 2772263
Don't hurt Nikki, I love her. You can get Elena for free, but Nikki stays and that's it.
 

camube

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2022
1,335
1,211
On the technical aspect, we just had an update that fucked saves up, next update will be more code rework so probably will need to start again and she is leaving stuff up to update at a later time so new playthrough will be required again when that will happen. I am pretty sure there were other times in the past, before I started playing, where a restart was required because of patching changes she didn't plan.
Just wait and see how many people will give up just for this very reason, no matter how good a game is, it's not worth the hassle after a while, let alone one like this that has lost so much steam to the point of plot barely moving.

On the story aspect, there were major change all through the development of this game, so much so, that now we have 3 'side' characters, one was supposed to be a background character and one was supposed to die, having the most screen time and more scenes than the main girls the game was designed to be centered around, Layla and Erynn.

To defend Nyx on having a clear plan with the game is so delusional, is laughable.
View attachment 2772175
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Edit: Forgot she almost lost her files because she didn't think to back up her game duffs, like lol. :HideThePain::FacePalm:
who was supposed to be the background character?
supposed to die is Nikki?
 
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