VN Ren'Py Jessica O'Neil's Hard News [v0.65] [stoperArt]

[palmtrees89]

I'm going the opposite direction. I just started supporting stoperArt on his Patreon. I'd really hate to see this game end. Looks like he's still responding to patrons, so we'll see.

And your type is all too easy to understand: doing nothing but whining and complaining about shit you think you're owed.

Needless to say that without supporters, most projects would not exist. Well, atleast not for long. But the way I see it, with projects like this one, certain developers put in alot of effort until their Patreon reaches a certain threshold and the project itself a demand&popularity on platforms like F95, turning it into a self sustaining money machine. Once that's achieved, you can clearly see the once hard working developer turning into what most people here would address as a milker or scammer.

Where in the beginning you'd see 2-3 month development cycles, it's now turned into 1 update per year. And the updates aren't getting any larger either for that matter. But yet somehow stoper's income still remains stable with you and the 500-600 others spending their money on him, and so he has literally zero pressure to put the same effort into this project as he did in the early years, long before JOHN generated a more or less stable $2000 a month.

That is basically why some critics or "whiners" as you call them can only shake their head when they see someone starting to support a project that's only seen 2 tiny updates in 2 years. But, as you said, it is your money.

I just started supporting stoperArt on his Patreon. I'd really hate to see this game end.

This part in particular is the sole reason as to why stoper never has to do more than the absolute bare minimum unless he wants to earn more than $2000 a month which, in my opinion, is a solid amount considering he's only got to work ~2 months a year for $24.000 before taxes. Solid side hustle if you ask me.

What supporters should do, atleast in my opinion, is drop their support and see what happens. If he's gonna abandon it straight away, you know he's only been in it for the money, much unlike what he's constantly telling his supporters. But if he'd continue to work or even start working more again, well, even better and a much more logical reason to start supporting him again, not; "I'm gonna give him money because I'm scared it might end if I don't". That's like holding yourself hostage to a project that's in a downhill ride for the past 2+ years.

 

[88stanford88]

this dev does not deserve to have paying supporters.
I think he will continue to delay and delay the updates...
He has no passion for this story...
no passionate artist could be that late... he likes to do nothing... evidenced by the fact that only in the short stories he is able to complete the story...
this game got off to a good start.. he was doing updates full of content until 2019-...then he lost interest and started to slow down... and will continue to slow down until he abandons the story

the next update will be in 2024 if everything goes well or maybe later. IMO

 

[DIRTY FILTHY Animal]

I'm going the opposite direction. I just started supporting stoperArt on his Patreon. I'd really hate to see this game end. Looks like he's still responding to patrons, so we'll see.

Since you’re on his Patreon, can you ask him if he is cured of the “Stoper virus” and when is the next update coming out?
Ask him for a new teaser pic of Jessica with anyone but Connor

 

[Oliver Wendell Homely]

That is basically why some critics or "whiners" as you call them can only shake their head when they see someone starting to support a project that's only seen 2 tiny updates in 2 years. But, as you said, it is your money.

What supporters should do, atleast in my opinion, is drop their support and see what happens.

Part of why I joined the Patreon was to see if I could get an inside scoop on why there's been such long delays, rather than read through allegations and complaints here. If it's clear that this thing is going nowhere, and I may need to continue my support for a couple more months just to see, then I will discontinue. But I give more to homeless people each month than I am donating to stoperArt, so it's not like I see it as some kind of major sacrifice on my part.

The money that comes in through his Patreon is an OK side hustle, I guess, depending on where he lives and what his expenses are. Having said that, in some ways developers put themselves in real binds: their subscribers don't provide enough money for them to quit their jobs and develop games full time (like DrPinkCake, for example), so they do part-time development which means fewer, smaller updates and so their support never really grows beyond a certain level. And JOHN, being a game with a female protagonist, will struggle to find a huge player base anyway because, from what I've seen, most AVN players lack our sophistication.

Also, frankly, I understand that sometimes life throws people challenges that they really struggle to cope with (deaths in the family, girlfriend/wife dumps you, etc.) and it may simply not be possible to devote any real time to game development for a time. I've no idea if any of those issues are at play here, but I want to see firsthand if this project is still going anywhere.

 

[johnsmith066]

i'll just leave it here...

 

[dolfe67]

Part of why I joined the Patreon was to see if I could get an inside scoop on why there's been such long delays, rather than read through allegations and complaints here. If it's clear that this thing is going nowhere, and I may need to continue my support for a couple more months just to see, then I will discontinue. But I give more to homeless people each month than I am donating to stoperArt, so it's not like I see it as some kind of major sacrifice on my part.

The money that comes in through his Patreon is an OK side hustle, I guess, depending on where he lives and what his expenses are. Having said that, in some ways developers put themselves in real binds: their subscribers don't provide enough money for them to quit their jobs and develop games full time (like DrPinkCake, for example), so they do part-time development which means fewer, smaller updates and so their support never really grows beyond a certain level. And JOHN, being a game with a female protagonist, will struggle to find a huge player base anyway because, from what I've seen, most AVN players lack our sophistication.

Also, frankly, I understand that sometimes life throws people challenges that they really struggle to cope with (deaths in the family, girlfriend/wife dumps you, etc.) and it may simply not be possible to devote any real time to game development for a time. I've no idea if any of those issues are at play here, but I want to see firsthand if this project is still going anywhere.

How do you explain that for the couple first years he made updates in ~3 months and now 1 a year, with as much or even lower content per update? Except for being sick in february, he didn't give excuses for the increased dev cycle.

DPC is the exception. He makes ~$50k a month from patreon alone. He also has Steam and maybe other avenues. But with $2k a month, let's say $1.5k after taxes and patreon's cut, you can live in Europe. Sure it's not much but it's more than the minimum wage in my country.

 

[xmilteach]

thx

 

[armion82]

How do you explain that for the couple first years he made updates in ~3 months and now 1 a year, with as much or even lower content per update? Except for being sick in february, he didn't give excuses for the increased dev cycle.

DPC is the exception. He makes ~$50k a month from patreon alone. He also has Steam and maybe other avenues. But with $2k a month, let's say $1.5k after taxes and patreon's cut, you can live in Europe. Sure it's not much but it's more than the minimum wage in my country.

He made something like 3M on Steam.
Let's hope Stoper have already finished Conner scene for Day 15.

 

[afterlights]

It's not the cash cow people think it is:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[cxx]

It's not the cash cow people think it is:

You must be registered to see the links

that's nearly pocket change compared to scamstor.

 

[palmtrees89]

It's not the cash cow people think it is:

You must be registered to see the links

I'd argue that ~$24.000 per year while only delivering a single update is quite the cash cow considering how little time of that year is actually spend working on this project. This graph clearly shows how he's started delivering less content the more support he's received. Slowly but surely. Like I said, it's a solid side hustle.

Between August+January 2020/21, everything went to shit. Which is quite ironic as that was also the update that made his Patreon numbers skyrocket. After that came a 6 month devcycle, then 7 months, and the most recent one with over 9 months. The current cycle is already 7 months deep, and there's no sign of a release coming anytime soon. I'm fairly certain he'll break his previous record once more.

That said, the graph doesn't look all that great in recent months, and will surely continue to drop further with each passing month without a release. Makes me wonder what stoper's gonna do after the next release? He's already pushed the limit of his supporters patience, that much the graph can tell. But ay, he said many times that he'd continue doing what he's doing, right? We'll see..

 

[Obranyi]

I'd argue that ~$24.000 per year while only delivering a single update is quite the cash cow considering how little time of that year is actually spend working on this project. This graph clearly shows how he's started delivering less content the more support he's received. Slowly but surely. Like I said, it's a solid side hustle.

Between August+January 2020/21, everything went to shit. Which is quite ironic as that was also the update that made his Patreon numbers skyrocket. After that came a 6 month devcycle, then 7 months, and the most recent one with over 9 months. The current cycle is already 7 months deep, and there's no sign of a release coming anytime soon. I'm fairly certain he'll break his previous record once more.

That said, the graph doesn't look all that great in recent months, and will surely continue to drop further with each passing month without a release. Makes me wonder what stoper's gonna do after the next release? He's already pushed the limit of his supporters patience, that much the graph can tell. But ay, he said many times that he'd continue doing what he's doing, right? We'll see..

Where he pushed the limit of supporters patience if this zombies continue support him and even more new zombies come, what is the logic to support? Once per year content with nice renders and shit sex with boyfriend, WOW, that I call a content worth to support every month, so stupid.

 

[palmtrees89]

Where he pushed the limit of supporters patience if this zombies continue support him and even more new zombies come, what is the logic to support? Once per year content with nice renders and shit sex with boyfriend, WOW, that I call a content worth to support every month, so stupid.

Well, look at the graph. Sure, there's hundreds of supporters who will continue spending their money for years probably, no matter what. Same with guys like ICSTOR or Gumdrop. That's why I said what I said in one of my previous posts from earlier today. Fact is though, he is currently at a point where his support is back to 2020 levels. That's why I'm questioning what is going to happen after this release IF the numbers continue to drop.

And I'm afraid many people don't see the main issue when they talk about the content. It's not so much that you get an update with characters you're not a fan of, it is more the massive gap in time between updates which makes it seem like the game only revolves around those characters. If stoper were to release an update every couple months like he used to, you'd probably see all the content you want.

I don't want to dive too deep into the character discussion here, but I'm certainly not a big fan of content involving Connor, Parker or the Mayor for that matter. I'm here because the quality of art is great, and 2+ years ago the premise was there. A bunch of characters I'd want to see content with, but there's simply not much to look forward to now that everything has turned into snail-speed. Other games have similar problems, stoper certainly isn't the only one.

But if I only came here to express my discontent about the characters or what's happening inside the game in general, well, why would I even come here anymore? My key issues lie with the development time, not because I dislike the game itself.

 

[leg28]

Need abandoned status here

i would prefer some new tag for this. maybe "no content but milking in progress"?

 

[Oliver Wendell Homely]

How do you explain that for the couple first years he made updates in ~3 months and now 1 a year, with as much or even lower content per update? Except for being sick in february, he didn't give excuses for the increased dev cycle.

DPC is the exception. He makes ~$50k a month from patreon alone. He also has Steam and maybe other avenues. But with $2k a month, let's say $1.5k after taxes and patreon's cut, you can live in Europe. Sure it's not much but it's more than the minimum wage in my country.

How do I explain it? How would I know? As I said, I'm trying to see if I can glean any insights by being on the Patreon for a time. At any rate, a lot of developers start of strong and then run out of steam. Have you never had a hobby you lost interest in? The sad thing is that his hobby/side hustle/whatever it is is something that a lot of perverts here want to fap to and so if he's lost interest then it affects us.

$1.5k after taxes etc. you can live in Europe, maybe, depending on where. Rural Portugal or Czechia, easy, but Paris or Amsterdam? No way. At any rate, I appreciate the "concern" by Obranyi and others, but it's really not a big deal for me. And if I may express a little concern of my own, why are you guys still hanging out here on the thread and spending time and emotional energy on this if it pisses you off so much? Go find another game or something!

 

[dolfe67]

At any rate, a lot of developers start of strong and then run out of steam. Have you never had a hobby you lost interest in? The sad thing is that his hobby/side hustle/whatever it is is something that a lot of perverts here want to fap to and so if he's lost interest then it affects us.

Sure but I don't get paid for my hobby, on the contrary I have to pay. And a few months of his amount of support is enough to build a top tier rendering PC and DAZ assets, so no excuse of "it's an expensive hobby".

He even bought a new PC to render faster, but it's only the rendering which is faster, still has to work for the posing and the writing.

$1.5k after taxes etc. you can live in Europe, maybe, depending on where. Rural Portugal or Czechia, easy, but Paris or Amsterdam?

Yes in big cities it's not enough. But when you do online work, you don't need to live there, be smart and live in a cheap town. Then you can move when you have enough support if you want.

 

[GingerSweetGirl]

Regardless of how you feel about Stoper, I think we can all agree that a lot of the problems with this game are related to his (lack of) transparancy. Some of us are fed up, and some of us still have patience, but I think we can all agree that his communication has been really lacking. It's one thing to go radio-silent on F95, this can be a pretty harsh forum, and the majority of posters never have and never will pay for the product. But what really hurts is his lack of transparency with his patrons. The excuses have become tired and predictable. I said, a year ago (god, it may have been longer), that Stoper needed to issue a mea culpa, lay all your cards on the table, admit the mistakes, and communicate a realistic plan for the future. At the time he was still active here, and he utterly refused to acknowledge any problems. Now, here we are, with a development pattern that has only gotten worse and a complete communication breakdown. Maybe we'll get an update this year, but I think we need to begin asking ourselves if we'll even get that. Regardless if this is a hobby or a business for Stoper, he owes it to his patrons to be far more candid. At one time he was very well respected, partially because of his transparency. If he could get back to that, I think it would improve this thread, and his reputation as a dev.

 

[lkjhgfdfghjkl]

i would prefer some new tag for this. maybe "no content but milking in progress"?

Findom tag

 

[GokutheG]

How do you explain that for the couple first years he made updates in ~3 months and now 1 a year, with as much or even lower content per update? Except for being sick in february, he didn't give excuses for the increased dev cycle.

DPC is the exception. He makes ~$50k a month from patreon alone. He also has Steam and maybe other avenues. But with $2k a month, let's say $1.5k after taxes and patreon's cut, you can live in Europe. Sure it's not much but it's more than the minimum wage in my country.

After playing the game and checking out the walk-through I'd say a main factor to the development slowing down is due to increasing difficulties in keeping the branching paths each relationship can go down under control and this is especially difficult if it's a developer's first game.

 

[PietruccioTheHilander]

After playing the game and checking out the walk-through I'd say a main factor to the development slowing down is due to increasing difficulties in keeping the branching paths each relationship can go down under control and this is especially difficult if it's a developer's first game.

let's say it's one of the causes