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

[TeamEquipe]

Really worried now that this project is seemingly grinding to a halt.

I know some on here have accused Stoper of milking but I for one don't agree with that opinion.

Personally, I think he's just got "Project Fatigue".

This VN started 4 years ago, and what was then an exciting and challenging idea has now become a burden to him. It's grown so much that it is virtually impossible for one man to do everything. In my opinion he's become bogged down with the daily drudgery of having to work at it and this has led to him becoming jaded as his early enthusiasm has faded, as it naturally would.

If this is the case, then I know how he feels. I write erotic stories and have since 2014. Early on I was churning out several a year but now I struggle to produce one. I have around 40 stories at varying degrees of completion but find I now lack the motivation to write. I also get fed up of trying to move along a single story, so working on the principle that a change is as good as a rest, I tend to flit from one to another, trying to get back some spark of enthusiasm to at least finish one of them. Unfortunately Stoper doesn't even have that distraction.

Or maybe he does!

I remember quite a while ago, I believe it was after V0.35, when he announced he was going to take a break and do the illustrations for Paola, a story by Dante (?). The outcry concerning this was long and hard and he quickly changed his mind and said he would continue to work on JOHN.

With the lengthening time between updates, It does make me wonder if he is still doing work for others on the side?

I guess we'll never know.

So I will, like you all, look forward to seeing the latest version drop sometime in the future. And then pray that he will continue on to the end.
(I just hope I live that long to see it!)

 

[SamYaya]

4 years old and the only sex scenes we have are with Connor lol it's pretty frustrating when it comes to a game with a female protagonist there are new games of the same genre that are already having sex faster than here. But it has a good side at least Jessica has been with Heather on a few occasions that's what keeps me interested in the game still and of course the quality is one of the best but it has its bad points too.

 

[cxx]

connor and heather sex, fingering from mayor, 2x hj to that old guy, .........

 

[palmtrees89]

Really worried now that this project is seemingly grinding to a halt.

I know some on here have accused Stoper of milking but I for one don't agree with that opinion.

Personally, I think he's just got "Project Fatigue".

This VN started 4 years ago, and what was then an exciting and challenging idea has now become a burden to him. It's grown so much that it is virtually impossible for one man to do everything. In my opinion he's become bogged down with the daily drudgery of having to work at it and this has led to him becoming jaded as his early enthusiasm has faded, as it naturally would.

If this is the case, then I know how he feels. I write erotic stories and have since 2014. Early on I was churning out several a year but now I struggle to produce one. I have around 40 stories at varying degrees of completion but find I now lack the motivation to write. I also get fed up of trying to move along a single story, so working on the principle that a change is as good as a rest, I tend to flit from one to another, trying to get back some spark of enthusiasm to at least finish one of them. Unfortunately Stoper doesn't even have that distraction.

Or maybe he does!

I remember quite a while ago, I believe it was after V0.35, when he announced he was going to take a break and do the illustrations for Paola, a story by Dante (?). The outcry concerning this was long and hard and he quickly changed his mind and said he would continue to work on JOHN.

With the lengthening time between updates, It does make me wonder if he is still doing work for others on the side?

I guess we'll never know.

So I will, like you all, look forward to seeing the latest version drop sometime in the future. And then pray that he will continue on to the end.
(I just hope I live that long to see it!)

I recommend you to read through all the development blogs from the current cycle. There's not the slightest hint of stoper being fatigued or burned out. Quite the opposite actually.

It pretty much started off with him talking about progressing quickly, having already finished this and that. Then came dev blogs about him working on a beach scene, custom scenery and whatnot, while still sounding very positive and optimistic regarding the progress. I believe that same month he was telling his supporters that he would try aim for a July release (could be wrong on that one). Then came his "Dead or Alive release in August" statement and how he's working on this infamous "one last scene/event", a wording he's used many times before in previous releases. He's also mentioned how he's having alot of fun creating this scene. At the end of August came the Rocket Launch dev blog, casually telling people that he won't make it (as always), and encouraging people to support someone who might be able to make their set deadlines. That's obviously just him playing the victim card, knowing that it makes him look like the good guy as I've mentioned in a previous post.

The latest development blog is basically him acting like everything is in order and all the previous statements, deadlines and disappointments don't exist. This blog, as someone else had already mentioned, feels (or reads) like he's spitting in his supporters faces.

Towards the end of August he's apparently had about a week of animation work left, aswell as god knows how many renders for this "last scene" he's supposedly been working on for what, close to 2 months? In his latest dev blog on the other hand he's talking about how this last scene is now becoming quite big, and he hasn't even begun working on animations yet. So what, this scene is just now becoming big after ~2 months working on it? How does that make any sense?

Anyone remember stoper's statement in August when he was apparently progressing through this "last scene", thinking about adding an extra route for this scene which he wasn't sure if he'd include it, since most people probably wouldn't be interested in it? What happened in the past 4 weeks? Or in the past 8 weeks? And what's the next dev blog gonna be like? "Release in October. I'm just working on this one last scene. I'm sure y'all will like it! Wooohooo!".

The amount of times stoper's working on "this one last scene" is truly magical.

 

[fihesog318]

It helped me to learn that Stoper is WOKE. I love his work (and when he delivers more I am sure it will be 5 stars) but I don't care to hear anything good or bad about him or his work process.

 

[mentosa]

It helped me to learn that Stoper is WOKE. I love his work (and when he delivers more I am sure it will be 5 stars) but I don't care to hear anything good or bad about him or his work process.

What did you hear about his wokeness?
Is he just basic vaniall woke, like "I don't mind gays" or a nutcase level - "I believe women are payed less than men for the same job and white men are devils" ?

 

[dolfe67]

Anyone remember stoper's statement in August when he was apparently progressing through this "last scene", thinking about adding an extra route for this scene which he wasn't sure if he'd include it, since most people probably wouldn't be interested in it?

He tried but in the end he couldn't stop himself from adding a sex scene with Connor

 

[TeamEquipe]

I recommend you to read through all the development blogs from the current cycle. There's not the slightest hint of stoper being fatigued or burned out. Quite the opposite actually.

It pretty much started off with him talking about progressing quickly, having already finished this and that. Then came dev blogs about him working on a beach scene, custom scenery and whatnot, while still sounding very positive and optimistic regarding the progress. I believe that same month he was telling his supporters that he would try aim for a July release (could be wrong on that one). Then came his "Dead or Alive release in August" statement and how he's working on this infamous "one last scene/event", a wording he's used many times before in previous releases. He's also mentioned how he's having alot of fun creating this scene. At the end of August came the Rocket Launch dev blog, casually telling people that he won't make it (as always), and encouraging people to support someone who might be able to make their set deadlines. That's obviously just him playing the victim card, knowing that it makes him look like the good guy as I've mentioned in a previous post.

The latest development blog is basically him acting like everything is in order and all the previous statements, deadlines and disappointments don't exist. This blog, as someone else had already mentioned, feels (or reads) like he's spitting in his supporters faces.

Towards the end of August he's apparently had about a week of animation work left, aswell as god knows how many renders for this "last scene" he's supposedly been working on for what, close to 2 months? In his latest dev blog on the other hand he's talking about how this last scene is now becoming quite big, and he hasn't even begun working on animations yet. So what, this scene is just now becoming big after ~2 months working on it? How does that make any sense?

Anyone remember stoper's statement in August when he was apparently progressing through this "last scene", thinking about adding an extra route for this scene which he wasn't sure if he'd include it, since most people probably wouldn't be interested in it? What happened in the past 4 weeks? Or in the past 8 weeks? And what's the next dev blog gonna be like? "Release in October. I'm just working on this one last scene. I'm sure y'all will like it! Wooohooo!".

The amount of times stoper's working on "this one last scene" is truly magical.

The Blogs are perfect examples of "gas-lighting"

But let's hope you are right.

 

[sirsir_sir]

The Blogs are perfect examples of "gas-lighting"

But let's hope you are right.

I am siding with both of you, stoper is a scammer, no matter how good his 3D drawings are, no matter how much simps come to his defense.

 

[sirsir_sir]

It helped me to learn that Stoper is WOKE. I love his work (and when he delivers more I am sure it will be 5 stars) but I don't care to hear anything good or bad about him or his work process.

*breathes in* AHHHH HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[sirsir_sir]

He tests how patient his patreons are. If everything goes well, in the future he can make one update a year. Clever!

UPDATE?? you mean 1 dev blog post per year.

 

[sirsir_sir]

This game and Midnight Paradise remind me of those local restaurants that some boomer moron decides to open and splurge alot of money on the opening, buys expensive cutlery and fine chairs and tables, lavish restaurant interior for the opening, and then you slowly witness the quality of service and food remain shit year-after-year, while the tables, cloths, chairs turn to shit because he thinks "nailed it", he thinks he is successful because his 1st year clients are still going to his restaurant, mostly because there aren't more restaurants around, and humans just act mostly out of habit in these sort of markets, not giving a fuck how disgusting his restaurant looks now because "MUH LOYAL LONG-TIME CUSTOMERS".

This is the FORMAT for every new 3D game developer here, they become good at 3D art, and then launch an initially well built game, ALREADY knowing that they only need that magical "critical mass" number of patrons, and then they can treat their supporters like shit forever and ever.

The only devs that deserve respect because of these scammers are people like Nenad Asanovic (if I spelt his name right) who straight out make most of their games completely free, if not immediately, very soon after completion, and who always act like genuine passionate creative minds, not arrogant camwhore-minded dev.

STOPER, ICSTOR, LEWDLAB = the male version of camwhores.

 

[sirsir_sir]

Anybody who ever had a job, worked for a living, for any small amount of time knows:

the job only gets simpler, and faster to do, the longer you are doing it. Even a waiters knows this, anyone who worked in a factory or any normal job. It only gets easier, regardless of whether you are talking about an artist or not. A painter, a photographer, as his experience increases, the faster he can create.

This fucking bullshit about these devs trying to sell the lie that this somehow becames harder with time, it doesn't. They have ALREADY pushed throught the toughest part: to get the ball rolling, picking the 3D elements they need, the backgrounds, the rooms, the buildings, the art style, etc etc.

This is spineless scamming going on in these games, period.

 

[jamdan]

The issues this game, and a lot of others have, is that they aren't linear/kinetic. It doesn't get easier or simpler to do as it goes, it becomes more complex. Because it has branches and routing that need to be figured out.

And Stoper has said that he doesn't plan things in advance. And in a branching game like this, not planning is going to slow things down. A lot.

 

[jonrage39]

Anybody who ever had a job, worked for a living, for any small amount of time knows:

the job only gets simpler, and faster to do, the longer you are doing it. Even a waiters knows this, anyone who worked in a factory or any normal job. It only gets easier, regardless of whether you are talking about an artist or not. A painter, a photographer, as his experience increases, the faster he can create.

This fucking bullshit about these devs trying to sell the lie that this somehow becames harder with time, it doesn't. They have ALREADY pushed throught the toughest part: to get the ball rolling, picking the 3D elements they need, the backgrounds, the rooms, the buildings, the art style, etc etc.

This is spineless scamming going on in these games, period.

I think the reason they say that is because devs often have lofty plans, so as the game goes, more branches occur, and that makes creating not necessarily more difficult, but more complicated.

It becomes trickier to develop an update that delivers content to each branch. They choose not to focus on just one branch but multiple ones per update because they want to avoid the complaints of "no new content" they'd get from players on a less popular branches.

That's why the kinetic novel games tend to be the ones that finish, whereas the visual novel games tend to start strong until they eventually devolve into these painfully long times between updates that eventually bloat to abandonment.

I don't think it's a matter of milking most times, just a dev doing this as a hobby who falls victim to the false expectations they've set for themselves. They started strong, an update every month, until they had two branches to follow, then it's every other month. Four branches, four months, etc.

None of the top games release regularly anymore, all of the games of similar quality to this have horribly long delays. Its an issue with most games now, even the devs who are big enough to make games full time, it's just worse for those who still do it on the side. JOHN, AWAM, False Hero and Midnight Paradise are just a couple games that I follow that are plagued by delays. Are they all scams or is it just the nature of these games?

All that to say; the trick is to just not give them money and lower your expectations. If you expect each update to be the last one, then you will be pleasantly surprised when a new one comes. I don't patronize any dev regularly. If I like the game enough I'll throw them some money for one month when they release an update, but cancel after that. Getting angry over these games and their mismanagement is a waste of time and energy better spent elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 2001147]

Anyone who ever tried Daz3d knows that the level of imagery that Stoper delivers takes a LOT of time not only to pose but also to render. Then coding in RenPy for several branches of the story adds a significant amount to the workload.
I’d think twice before calling him names at the risk of passing for an ignorant fool of the processes of adult VN creation, especially one I’m getting for free here.

 

[Ass Fan]

Anyone who ever tried Daz3d knows that the level of imagery that Stoper delivers takes a LOT of time not only to pose but also to render. Then coding in RenPy for several branches of the story adds a significant amount to the workload.
I’d think twice before calling him names at the risk of passing for an ignorant fool of the processes of adult VN creation, especially one I’m getting for free here.

I fully agree with you on that.

 

[AlfredBundy4]

I've actually defended this dev while raling against the pure scams that are a few others
*cough L&P cough*

Why? Because this dev is usually pretty up front about their work schedule in that they admit they don't have one. The others just BS their subs when it's clear they have no set work schedule or plan going forward for the story. In those respects I have defended this dev.

However, I don't agree with giving anrelease schedule that you have zero plans to meet time and time again. As I have defended him for, release it when it is done and let people decide to keep paying you or not. Constant false release dates is on par with what those other BS artists do with their "I work 12 hours a day on a state of the art PC you all paid for" but release a 5 min update every 6 months.


If I'm being fair it's fair to say that a BS release date is wrong to do. Finish it and release it, maybe an release date literally when it's 99% done and not sooner.

 

[dolfe67]

Anyone who ever tried Daz3d knows that the level of imagery that Stoper delivers takes a LOT of time not only to pose but also to render. Then coding in RenPy for several branches of the story adds a significant amount to the workload.
I’d think twice before calling him names at the risk of passing for an ignorant fool of the processes of adult VN creation, especially one I’m getting for free here.

And you're the expert? Sure it can take a lot of time but not all these months, according to the size of previous udpate. Unless he spends 2h or more to create and render an image, scrap it because he doesn't like it and start again, and with several images. He has no plan and it seems he scraps scenes multiple times during the development. He should plan better imo

 

[Jozef Minge]

I know that Stoper can produce an update for two months! But he should not have a personal life. 4 months for an update is perfect for me. 7-8 months are too long. But I can understand him - every day render by render, over and over again, routine kills.
I prefer rare updates in front of abandon game. The glass is a half full for me.