4.30 star(s) 3 Votes

Alboe Interactive

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Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
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Sucks to hear. Wish you good luck. This VN is the most interesting thing on this site to me

Btw, will Chapter 1 Part 2 be longer than part 1 ?
Thanks. Part 2 will have more renders and text than Part 1 and should feel longer overall. Although since there will also be an erotic scene, that may slightly skew the total length.

Glad to see you have a contingency plan. Personally I don't like how payment processors can dictate what is and isn't ok on the net. I find that they have to much power. Even over what is otherwise totally legal. I started to fear them and want to push back since the debacle with porn hub. My local government wanted to legislate in a harder way since Mindgeek was a local company (has been sold) but when master card pulled their support, we stooped hearing about those legislations in the news. They might not have gone anywhere. It was not the place of master card to dictate what is and isn't ok. And payment processing over the net maybe should be legislated to be forced to allow any legal transaction. It is starting to affect the lives of the everyday Citizen. If you think that it will be limited to porn think again. I am sure that this control will spill in other aspect of life after.
The payment processors are receiving pressure from anti-porn political groups whose only concern is bringing down porn in any form. They went after the big players first like Pornhub and Only Fans, but now they are trying to make it impossible for independent creators to enter this arena. Any roads they find during their crusade are fair game to them.

The thing that really grinds my gears is if these political groups cared one iota about exploited women in the sex work and porn industry then why would they shut down a safe alternative? Adult game devs create fictional content with non-existent people. No real person is forced to sell their body or risk contracting STDs. It doesn't matter how vanilla or extreme the content is, the ethical considerations are a non-issue because there are no real people involved at all.

Like any other thing involving politics, it's not about porn or any other topic, it's about control. These political groups don't care about whatever they say they believe in. They show off their political offensive capabilities like some nations do when flexing their military prowess. What they really care about is keeping and gaining power. These proxy wars via payment processors are nothing more than a statement to their rivals. A statement that shows their reach and influence, cloaks their true motives behind a facade of goodwill, and says to those in their crosshairs "Bend or be broken."

I thought itch.io wouldn't bend, but it looks like Steam stands alone on the front lines now. Were it not for the ridiculous state laws of Washington, Steam would hands-down be the best mainstream place for adult games.
 

Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
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My Brain: Rebuild Kiersten's bathroom so it doesn't lag and render so slowly.

Me: But there aren't any more scenes set there for this next release. What good would that do now?

My Brain: I said REEEEE-BUILD-IT!

Me: Fine, it took a couple of hours but here it is. Now what are we going to do with it? We could quickly rerender the previous shower scene because we weren't satisfied with the previous shower spray effect.

My Brain: Alright, let's work on Part 3 stuff.

Me: What? No! We already spent the time-

Darth Brain: I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further.

 

Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355
This post has been edited, please read:

Well, I was waiting until this Sunday to post a follow-up progress update, because there is some good news coming. However, given the likely increase in scrutiny adult games may be facing due to recent events has forced my hand into posting today. I am taking a preemptive measure by sending a ticket to F95 staff requesting the unofficial patch be removed. If they deny this request, then I will have no choice but to disavow thread ownership. In case that happens, I have edited the OP to include a link to the new post that serves as a replacement for the Dev Notes section so I can still provide up-to-date information.

Please don't discuss recent events in this thread (go here for that). All I have to say in regards to what's happened is that it is a lot of extra work for adult game devs to ensure fictional people doing fictional things don't cross the dream void into our reality. Imagine the chaos that these fictional people with their fictional genetics, relationships, appearance, and more, could do to our reality. I, for one, am proud to be your chosen paladin on the front lines, holding back the horde of theoretical problems from the theoretically impending breach.
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Last edited:

Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355


TLDR; Ménage à Moi is getting an overhaul with the assistance of an experienced AVN writer. (Please don't ask who it is, they want to remain anonymous for now.)

On the visual side, I remade Carey:

Carey Overhaul 3.png More pics of her are in the linked post.

The ETA of the next release is whenever life stops trying to dick me over long enough for me to get this overhaul completed. Until then, I'm working on this project whenever I can.
 

Look-see

Engaged Member
Aug 19, 2018
2,945
5,372


TLDR; Ménage à Moi is getting an overhaul with the assistance of an experienced AVN writer. (Please don't ask who it is, they want to remain anonymous for now.)

On the visual side, I remade Carey:

View attachment 2883569 More pics of her are in the linked post.

The ETA of the next release is whenever life stops trying to dick me over long enough for me to get this overhaul completed. Until then, I'm working on this project whenever I can.
who is it? :LOL:

sorry i might at well get it out the way.
 

Alboe Interactive

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Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355
So about that game...
Believe me, I'm painfully aware. Sometimes in life, there can be bad days, weeks, or even whole months. Right now I'm roughing it through a bad year as best I can.

I was planning to post another status update at the end of September, but some unfortunate simultaneously occurring events have happened in my personal life within the past couple of weeks. Breaking from my usual end-of-month schedule, this status update post should be live on Sunday the 15th, barring any further unforeseen bullshit.
 

Knight_of_the_lance

Active Member
Feb 23, 2020
729
1,314
new devblog on

I must say the quality of your renders rely improved in those preview pics. I can only hope that working on ménage à moi is helping you feeling better. Because like for so many other devs this looks like a work of passion. You can be proud to stick with your project despite all that (I don't know of) happened to you this past year.
 
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Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355


TLDR;

I'm now aware that the 4k build is broken and the only real way to fix it is to rerender all the older 1080 images so everything is the same size. I need to rerender all that old stuff anyway because some characters were scaled incorrectly and the intro is being redone anyway.

As it stands the current plan is:

1. Finish and release the new version of Chapter 1 Part 2
  • Include a note explaining the presence of continuity errors
  • 4k build only includes renders
2. Finish and release the overhauled intro (unsure what to call this update yet)
  • Include a note explaining existing saves are incompatible and to start a new game
  • 4k build is fixed
3. Finish and release Chapter 1 Part 3

-

Why redo the intro instead of getting on with the story? First, the previous version has a ton of issues that can't easily be fixed by reusing the same renders. Second, because it'll just be better.

Okay... better how? For one, I won't show a major love interest and then have her disappear before getting to know her at all. For example...

duo_test 2 1080.png

I'm not doing a 1:1 remake of the intro, some scenes were heavily altered as the above example clearly shows. Only the general plot points remained intact. Besides fleshing out the characters some more, the overhauled intro fixes stuff like the antagonist's awkward dialogue.

Anyway, that's all for now.
 

Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355
new devblog on
Ha, I got ninja'd by less than a minute.

I must say the quality of your renders rely improved in those preview pics.
Thanks, I've been much happier with the renders I've been putting out. Especially now since the characters are correctly scaled lol.

I can only hope that working on ménage à moi is helping you feeling better. Because like for so many other devs this looks like a work of passion. You can be proud to stick with your project despite all that (I don't know of) happened to you this past year.
Not gonna lie, it's been a really hard year for me. I've gone through a dozen dosage changes of my medications while trying to care for my mother as she goes through chemotherapy treatments. US healthcare being what it is, I'm more or less the safety net. There are a number of examples but the most recent one was a couple of weeks ago when my father was sick and unable to care at all for my mother. So, rather than finish the renders and post the progress update at that time, I had to delay it and pull double duty until he recovered. Of course, I also got sick from him, but since I'm the last line of defense, I had to suck it up and do what needed to be done regardless.

I have seen many projects fall into the Abandoned section since I started, including very successful ones like AOA Academy (IIRC $4k per month on Patreon). I'm genuinely surprised I've lasted this long. I think my stubbornness in continuing comes from a faint part of my mind that knows I could finally be on the road to success if I could just get a complete chapter of this project out and then open a Steam page. Until I reach that point, I have to keep trucking along come hell or high water.
 

-CookieMonster666-

Devoted Member
Nov 20, 2018
11,070
16,075
Oh lovely, this is why I'm receiving so many alerts from my game's thread...

Please just report the troll and move on because commenting only feeds them.
You're likely right. Mocking them was fun, but I guess this probably is better regardless. "Icky, sticky, just like Ricky" wasn't my best poetry by a long shot, but it's fine. I'll still post more awful rhymes from time to time.
 
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Alboe Interactive

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2020
1,124
2,355
Below is a copy of this explaining the extended hiatus.

-

Knocked down...

As mentioned in a previous , I used January as a gauge for my current capabilities regarding visual novel development. The result is I did not accomplish even 10% of what was needed to get an update out. I'm left with little choice but to wait until after my mother's cancer treatments have ended before returning so I can dedicate the proper amount of time to my projects.

To ensure supporters still have access to exclusive posts and downloads, my support pages will remain available but monetization is disabled. In addition, my Discord server remains online but posting is disabled.

When I return, it'll be with an update to release in hand. Also, I haven't forgotten about I promised a while ago. The plan now is to have that giveaway coincide when the next update is out.

I appreciate everyone's continued patience during this unfortunate series of events. When I started down the path of creating visual novels, I did not expect to go on a multi-month hiatus several times nor anticipate how many times life was going to knock me down in the past few years. Regardless, I haven't given up and I'll return as soon as I'm back on my feet.

-

I would like to take a moment and thank the US healthcare system for making my mother's ongoing treatment a logistical nightmare. Her insurance company has been a great help by doing stuff like having her go to facilities several hours away from home because it's "in-network". Gee, it sure is convenient to drive past the hospital that is less than 10 minutes from home and has all of the same damn equipment which does the exact same fucking thing.

I'm so glad her and my time is being wasted on dumb shit like this instead of living our lives. My rating is zero out of ten overall, put the insurance companies to the wall. At this point, it's whatever. I'll be glad to come back to development after this shitty situation is behind me.

Final note, I'm trying to figure out a way to compensate paid supporters for having to wait so long. I don't know in what form that might be, but I'll think of something.
 

MadfireMonkey

Member
Dec 1, 2022
146
104


TLDR;

I'm now aware that the 4k build is broken and the only real way to fix it is to rerender all the older 1080 images so everything is the same size. I need to rerender all that old stuff anyway because some characters were scaled incorrectly and the intro is being redone anyway.

As it stands the current plan is:

1. Finish and release the new version of Chapter 1 Part 2
  • Include a note explaining the presence of continuity errors
  • 4k build only includes renders
2. Finish and release the overhauled intro (unsure what to call this update yet)
  • Include a note explaining existing saves are incompatible and to start a new game
  • 4k build is fixed
3. Finish and release Chapter 1 Part 3

-

Why redo the intro instead of getting on with the story? First, the previous version has a ton of issues that can't easily be fixed by reusing the same renders. Second, because it'll just be better.

Okay... better how? For one, I won't show a major love interest and then have her disappear before getting to know her at all. For example...

View attachment 3009256

I'm not doing a 1:1 remake of the intro, some scenes were heavily altered as the above example clearly shows. Only the general plot points remained intact. Besides fleshing out the characters some more, the overhauled intro fixes stuff like the antagonist's awkward dialogue.

Anyway, that's all for now.
I do not like our characters new hair the old bangs looked better she looks like a child now
 
4.30 star(s) 3 Votes