polycentric

Member
Donor
Mar 26, 2019
468
1,769
People who complain about ICSTOR's release schedule should seriously get some perspective, hundreds of high profile AAA games are delayed or cancelled every year, these are projects that often have hundreds of employees and entire marketing departments working to arrive at a specific release date and even then they often fail and on the occasions the game makes the release date usually at the insistence of the publisher it's often so vapid or buggy that no one wants to play it anyway.

Expecting one dev to do what entire development studios of hundreds of employees and their publishers can't do (releasing games in the expected time) is unreasonable and stupid.
Many people posting in this thread, including myself, have suggested precisely the same points and have extended the comparison that you made to other entertainment products as well. And despite the logic and easily understood parallels, there's still a group of people in this thread that insist that ICSTOR is lazy, a thief or some combination of both.

I simply don't understand what it is about this game, or this genre, that compels certain people to demand that ICSTOR do what EA and Microsoft can't. It would be interesting to see what would happen if ICSTOR used the same release cadence as Hollywood or retail gaming - I'm sure someone in this thread would suggest burning them at the stake.

Maybe we should create a fund to help people find other hobbies while waiting for VN game episodes to release...
 

Vordertur

Member
Jul 21, 2017
208
576
I'm sure there are target dates (the break notwithstanding, of course). He chooses not to share them with us, because then people will say stuff like "You promised it out in June! It's not out! You suck!"

Inherently artistic projects are harder to scope than technical projects, because you have to deal with things like artist's block in addition to technical issues like mis-estimating render times.
And that's kind of the crux of the problem.

If all of these projects were purely "labors of love," then the developers would be beholden to no one but themselves. "It's done when it's done" would be the last word and there really would be no gainsaying them.

But as is always the case when money starts changing hands, "commercialization" complicates things.

People argue this back and forth on every game that has "hiccups" in its process, and it basically boils down to this: the moment you start throwing money into the equation, then the process sort of stops being "purely artistic" and starts falling into that gray area of "commercial software development."

We can boo-hoo all we like about the evils of AAA game development and the perils of getting in bed with the likes of EA and UbiSoft and all of those others, but there's a reason why things are run the way they are. It's not really sustainable to just turn a team loose, give them an indefinite amount of money and an indefinite amount of time and hope they produce. Someone, somewhere has to crack the whip.

With no one to crack the whip on these indie developers - with no one holding the reins - it's entirely possible that nothing at all gets done. Or something does get done, but not in any "reasonable" amount of time. (Insert thousands of posts back and forth debating what constitutes "reasonable.") The point still stands that there are always hardliners who insist that even though there's now money in the equation, that shouldn't change the nature of the beast. That everyone who isn't actually working on the thing should be hands-off and should have no say in how or why things are done because of "artistic integrity" or this or that, and because "this is not a commercial product."

That may be. But again, going back to the idea that if you take X amount of people with varying amounts of motivation, give them no incentive (either negative or otherwise) to finish something and leave it entirely up to them to finish the work or not... you stand a very real chance of not getting a finished product. And while some people complain simply because they live to do nothing but complain, others just don't want to see promising projects die because of lackadaisical dev studios.
 

Skyangel007

Member
Jan 14, 2018
233
314
Many people posting in this thread, including myself, have suggested precisely the same points and have extended the comparison that you made to other entertainment products as well. And despite the logic and easily understood parallels, there's still a group of people in this thread that insist that ICSTOR is lazy, a thief or some combination of both.

I simply don't understand what it is about this game, or this genre, that compels certain people to demand that ICSTOR do what EA and Microsoft can't. It would be interesting to see what would happen if ICSTOR used the same release cadence as Hollywood or retail gaming - I'm sure someone in this thread would suggest burning them at the stake.

Maybe we should create a fund to help people find other hobbies while waiting for VN game episodes to release...
Like I said prev and what seems to be proven by the poster a few posts above. Most whiners are ignorant new members. Kinda seems that they tried out the game, saw it was on-hold and started to bitch without properly reading why its on-hold.
 
Aug 5, 2016
448
809
To throw my 2 cents into the mix, Icstor always takes about 2-3 months between updates, but the content in each one is usually gargantuan, which makes up for it. In the mean time people lose their shit because it doesn't seem like the update is going anywhere. It's easy to see why people who expect monthly updates get upset by this, but it's a sheer lack of information or pattern recognition. Every abandonment-complex in here gets antsy after a couple of months and starts spam asking if the game has been abandoned, then the update comes out and everyone forgets for a few weeks until the impatience grows again. With icstor's latest sabbatical it's gotten even worse because even know people know the game is on-hold until Icstor's May-June timeframe of returning, they don't wait until it's over to start questioning if he'll ever be back. Basically, if it's still May, and it is still May, don't expect much, wait for a patreon update, and relax.
 

Joerangers

Newbie
Feb 26, 2019
22
17
People who complain about ICSTOR's release schedule should seriously get some perspective, hundreds of high profile AAA games are delayed or cancelled every year, these are projects that often have hundreds of employees and entire marketing departments working to arrive at a specific release date and even then they often fail and on the occasions the game makes the release date usually at the insistence of the publisher it's often so vapid or buggy that no one wants to play it anyway.

Expecting one dev to do what entire development studios of hundreds of employees and their publishers can't do (releasing games in the expected time) is unreasonable and stupid.
Sorry, I did not want to offend anyone and probably not the creator. who does a nice job. And it is quite true that I do not know anything about the use of video games. Okay, I better do not say anything. But can we understand that some fans are disappointed?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BoykaBoykov

tall tale

Member
Dec 27, 2017
184
145
Indeed Icstors each update equals 3-4x updates in Timestamps,FILF etc Even the half developed update he said already contains 600 or so renders is 2x other developers updates not to mention the animations. Give it some time before going all apeshit about it.
 
Last edited:

TaskSpacebar

Newbie
Mar 17, 2018
57
42
But can we understand that some fans are disappointed?
Are there some fans that are disappointed? Yes, though as you say, ' some ' can and will be interpreted differently by everyone. Overall, there will still members on this site (this forum included) WHO do not want to provide any polite criticism about this game or any other game(s) that are brought here. They think whining and making rude comments to fellow members as well as the dev(s) of these games will automatically think their opinions are considered a higher priority than those who provide genuine feedback and make suggestions on how to improve the game further, ie. flow and pacing, when it doesn't AT ALL and just makes it harder for said devs/creators to filter out what's genuine and what I'd refer to as 'tantrums' that don't help.

OR look at it this way, BE PATIENT and updates will come, regardless if they are bugfixes, dialogue errors, or content updates (regardless of size).
 

Deleted member 833007

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2018
1,553
3,952
True fans should have the patience to respect his personal issues...all I see is bunch of masturbating addicts..who can't seem to control the snake in their pants.... show some gratitude will ya...his past works tells a lot about his work and dedication ...He deserves the rest and break...give him some peace for the love of god.
 
Dec 15, 2017
253
324
And that's kind of the crux of the problem.

If all of these projects were purely "labors of love," then the developers would be beholden to no one but themselves. "It's done when it's done" would be the last word and there really would be no gainsaying them.

But as is always the case when money starts changing hands, "commercialization" complicates things.

People argue this back and forth on every game that has "hiccups" in its process, and it basically boils down to this: the moment you start throwing money into the equation, then the process sort of stops being "purely artistic" and starts falling into that gray area of "commercial software development."

We can boo-hoo all we like about the evils of AAA game development and the perils of getting in bed with the likes of EA and UbiSoft and all of those others, but there's a reason why things are run the way they are. It's not really sustainable to just turn a team loose, give them an indefinite amount of money and an indefinite amount of time and hope they produce. Someone, somewhere has to crack the whip.

With no one to crack the whip on these indie developers - with no one holding the reins - it's entirely possible that nothing at all gets done. Or something does get done, but not in any "reasonable" amount of time. (Insert thousands of posts back and forth debating what constitutes "reasonable.") The point still stands that there are always hardliners who insist that even though there's now money in the equation, that shouldn't change the nature of the beast. That everyone who isn't actually working on the thing should be hands-off and should have no say in how or why things are done because of "artistic integrity" or this or that, and because "this is not a commercial product."

That may be. But again, going back to the idea that if you take X amount of people with varying amounts of motivation, give them no incentive (either negative or otherwise) to finish something and leave it entirely up to them to finish the work or not... you stand a very real chance of not getting a finished product. And while some people complain simply because they live to do nothing but complain, others just don't want to see promising projects die because of lackadaisical dev studios.
Yep, everything you said is true. No matter what, when money gets involved, the nature of things change. The people and devs who fail to see that are the ones that cause more harm to the project not being finished then the ones who are vocal about it. Keep in mind, I am only talking about the supporters and not freeloaders like myself (in regards to this particular game). Pandelo is probably the best example of a dev taking responsibility for his project. He had a major personal event happen in life, and instead of charging his Patrons every month, he paused the project. So we are not getting charged every month for something that is not being worked on (fyi I am one of his Patrons). Now ICSTOR may have done this while he is on this personal break and not working on the project, but since I am not a patron of his, I don't know. If he did, kudos to him. If he did not, then that is very bad, because then he is getting paid to literally do nothing on this project. I mean if people are ok with paying a dev to do literally nothing on the project, I guess it is their money and they can do whatever they want with it. But, I would be dropping my support. Now, I am not saying it's bad for devs to take breaks, because burnout does happen and a break is often times the best way to fix that. I am just saying devs need to be mindful of their supporters, and if they realize that they need to take a longer break than originally planned, then that is where they really should consider pausing payment until they are willing to continue work on the project again. Just like Pandelo did.
 
Last edited:
May 22, 2019
78
107
When i see it on hold and read her official statement i understand her whining would make different just wait until he came back if he abandoned (i could pray not) just respect her
 
  • Like
Reactions: BoykaBoykov

NeroZee

Well-Known Member
Jun 24, 2018
1,684
5,106
He is likely going to resolve working on the game in June, but just in case he doesn't. I hope people are prepared for the news and don't flip their shit over it.
 

Pitrik

Conversation Conqueror
Donor
Oct 11, 2018
7,065
26,501
I only hope that there will be new Sara's contents... She is still my favorite girl in this game... Maybe with her blonde best friend? :sneaky:
 

Agent HK47

Active Member
Mar 3, 2018
645
1,907
I only hope that there will be new Sara's contents... She is still my favorite girl in this game... Maybe with her blonde best friend? :sneaky:
Unlike what many people seems to believe, I would say its pretty certain there will be lots more Sara content in the future. It will not be in this update however, since it is focused on Caroline & Celia. Since Linda was last update, and Caroline is this update, I would put my money that 0.7 will be centered around Sara + someone else (probably the aunt or the therapist)
 
3.80 star(s) 404 Votes