Oh my goodness this thread has exploded while I've been near death.
Wow where to start. I guess first off would be that people making porn games are not always men, lol. I'm trying to do stuff and while I had a small laptop at my disposal for so long I've done a thing or two on a small scale but I'm not here to promote any games or projects I'm working on before I die.
I didn't think Abelius was going to post here again, but I mean the dramatization of events was interesting and honestly I don't know who is right or who is wrong or what the circumstances are or were... but at this point I don't believe it matters.
Facts are that people did like 0.8 myself included, but it is done and gone. Enjoy what it was, but it is not going to make a comeback.
I have also provided art that I drew and critique to the team; some on their body but mostly on game design methods for how people can "know" how to play a game by looking at it instead of be confused. This is sort of some User Experience / User Interface type stuff that really not everybody is aware of, and unless you're looking for it in a video game you're going to miss it because it just "makes sense". It's noticeable in more modern 3D games where "oh that ledge has some sort of white paint on it... I can grab on it!" happens almost all the time (they love white and yellow paint for this). But there are more subtle things like lighting and color shades, and I provided examples of that probably much earlier back.
Also I provided samples that showed how to look at a piece of art holistically in the environment it's in. I know that we keep posting "here is a picture of this dude" but we never get them in the environments they're supposed to be in... this will ultimately lead to color hue mismatch and lighting problems much further down the road, and by then it will be harder to turn the boat because every character is going to stand out for some completely different reason not because of their artistic value, but because of their pallet and lighting. But maybe it will be better now.
In regard to asses, well I have a nice ass because I like too many burgers lol. People can have asses of whatever they want, and while I 100% agree with Phantas about how you SHOULD approach something artistically, you also have to realize that artwork is in the eye of the beholder.
Because something doesn't ANATOMICALLY line up doesn't make it "bad art". I can draw two stick figures fucking and you could go to down about how my two circles for tits aren't in the right place... it doesn't make my art "bad" per se, it just makes it something that some people may find unappealing because of that.
I'm not a tremendous fan of the new style vs the 0.8 style, and I really dislike the sex scenes with the snake dicks... but I'm hoping that over all the game may still be enjoyable at some point. The new style is their style (or maybe Oughta's style), and they like it, and they are making the game. That's pretty much all you need to know; like it or hate it. I have not donated any money to it, but I have participated with them on their Discord channel to some degree. While I would love to return to Discord again, it may still be some time before I'm capable of keeping up with a good real time conversation and not screwing it up badly.
In regard to the concept of "accepting feedback", I did not feel as though my feedback, either here or on Discord, was necessarily listened to. While I did feel it was valued BECAUSE they did respond to me, I did not exactly any type of change that I'm aware of. And ultimately that's fine; it's their project and I am an onlooker, they don't have to take my feedback at all. I feel like the feedback they did listen to once was something that was non-critical, and I believe it had to do with how dialog was presented to the user. There was some value that made it print to screen or not automatically skip, etc, and that's fine and dandy but it definitely wasn't impactful to the direction or artistic style presented, which I think is very much a "no fly zone" so to speak. And that's fine.
I will also say this, in all my dealings with MightyAItroll, he was never rude to me or even condescending, and took a great deal of time to explain his views and concepts, even in PMs with me, which while he definitely did not have to do I did find kind and generous of him. That he can come here and talk to people, and despite the amount of hatred he gets, he still tries to present an even-keel to people is very kind and tempered. I am pleased that he hasn't flown off the handle and just left, or demanded some sort of take down of his game. Coming from that aspect of being able to put up with so many people's shit, and so many people who obviously don't like the new direction and project, is commendable!
So I guess I will helpfully re-iterate some of the things I saw previously:
1: The art pipeline is great, but there is no holistic view of these things in their environments it feels, this will cause problems
2: 8-directional 2D movement w/clothing is too much... this needs to be chopped down greatly, and unless there is valuable gameplay for it it's not worth it (what I saw of the demo was very much a Sierra-esque adventure game... 8 directional movement is tremendous overkill!)
3: Project management seems to be an issue. There are lots of "systems" but nothing that's being output. My fear here is that people don't understand an SDLC and don't understand how to iterate on something. You don't hold a release forever, you get something out because it's "good enough" and get feedback
4: Association with LoK 0.8: The team should have stopped the original Patreon when 0.8 was abandoned. They should have started a totally new one under the premise of totally new expectations and not even referenced the old game, this has caused a lot of unnecessary social problems for the teams' marketing.
5: Feedback: I'm not actually sure if feedback is being readily listened to. While this is fine, I wouldn't also tell people that feedback is going to affect change necessarily either. If you pretend their opinion matters if it really doesn't, it's going to hurt more feelings than if you just tell them you are following your own plans and they can hop aboard if they like it or get off if they don't.
I liked The Last of Us 2 quite a bit. It was very sad but it had a great plot and really made you be the monster. It wasn't a light game with a happy story, but it was really awesome for being something totally unique.
I do not remember an ounce of story from 0.8. I remember the flash-game-like walking around and the space ship that was super cool and the village. The awkward sex scenes were just meh, but I do dig furry games and there are not many of them, especially adventure type games with a female lead, so that was very much my thing. As a girl I like to play girls. Playing sex games and being a guy fucking all the girls isn't something that necessarily appeals to me, and that tends to be what a huge majority of them are (for obvious reasons lol, but that's not for this thread)
Have fun.
