Ren'Py Completed Milfy City [v1.0e] [ICSTOR]

[MadMonk]

So, I haven't been in this topic for awhile and come back to experience sincere disbelief at so many people literally accusing ICSTOR of being a lazy, rich fraud and all.

I mean, we're talking about ICSTOR: this person has churned out a number of games over the years, with consistently high quality. It boggles my mind, the intensely immature and whiny demands of so many commenters here as of late (many of whom seem to have low post counts, from my casual notice - perhaps I'm wrong.) But, what have you done for me lately? Why I can't I get what I demand NOW? What a load of Veruca Salt-wannabees, I tell ya.

That said ...

It seems his outfit may be taking a break soon, if I understand the gist of comments in the past week or so, which sounds pretty reasonable: again, this game dev has put out an impressive history of complete games and hey ... turns out that humans are behind it all, wouldn't you know!

If this was Epic or such, there would be other employees to take on tasks when some folks go on holiday or sick leave. That's often not an option for these small, self-publishing outfits which use Patreon, SubscribeStar or similar.

The marked lack of appreciation for effort required to create these games from scratch - and the glass-half-empty assumptions filling in their lack of knowledge - is just astounding to me. I have a tough time believing people with these displayed levels of unsympathetic impatience, superficial judgement and willful ignorance exist in large numbers, but I guess this helps explain some truly perplexing and astonishingly foot-shooting choices in some elections of the past couple of years ...

i don't think many on here accouse him of beeing a lazy or a fraud since like you said yourself he put quality work out in the past and this game is no difference, it is way above 95% of other stuff you will find on here.

I think people fear more that the game will find an abrupt end even when he comes back, getting burned out on a project and takeing a break leads often to to finding new projects that bring more joy in once work.
i don't want to say that this will happen here but i would totally understand if he comes back after his break and puts one other update out and then moves on, no one wants to work on something that pulls them down, that will only lead to a lost in quality and if i judge him right that is something he doesen't want.

But also this site is full of abdoned projects so i understand the feelings of some of the louder posters on here.

i hope he will find new strenght after his break and keeps working on this game, or works on another one.


(also sorry about my english, not a native speaker here)

 

[Dependable_223]

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He is right though he never got a vacation he do deserves abreak. Sometimes a break is all you need to get everything sorted and clear the mind. even with a fultime job you also need a full break from that or you will get health decline.

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

-I will pause my Patreon account during this time so you will NOT be charged.

-Everyone who pledged for this month will be getting the next Caroline and Celia update for free.

This here is why nobody has a right to complain in my opinion. How many times have we seen a Patreon account continue to operate while the dev has all but disappeared from the face of the Earth without so much as a hat tip?
ICSTOR is literally passing on more than $5k per month (and that's if all his pledges are the lowest tier, which they most definitely are not), that's not something that I think anyone would do if they felt that they had another choice. This break must be unavoidable.

 

[fg7dragon]

Wait, wait, does that mean we have to wait for version 0.6 until June? Or is he taking a break after posting it?

 

[Hones]

Wait, wait, does that mean we have to wait for version 0.6 until June? Or is he taking a break after posting it?

Just expect the release to drop ~June then if it drops earlier it will be a pleasant surprise for you.
There are plenty of other games here to keep you occupied till then.

 

[fg7dragon]

Just expect the release to drop in ~June then if it drops earlier it will be a pleasant surprise for you.
There are plenty of other games here to keep you occupied till then.

True enough. But you have to admit ICSTOR's work is a cut above the rest.

 

[DanyD]

RIP

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

True enough. But you have to admit ICSTOR's work is a cut above the rest.

While I understand and accept the delay I can't deny that I am disappointed. I miss Caroline. This is definitely one of the best quality games of it's kind.

 

[fg7dragon]

Frankly, it's Celia I want to see more of. She hasn't gotten much screentime since the first version, unless I'm mistaken.

 

[Trapezio]

Guys, honestly...

I wrote it on Nergal's games threads (both, many many months ago), I wrote it on Veqvil's LaS thread (many months ago)... therefore I'm quoting myself (once again):

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON I LEARNED HERE on F95 ZONE forum: whenever an author openly starts talking about his personal issues on Patreon/Discord/his blog his game is DOOMED.


This game is dead. Deal with it and move on to something else.

 

[J II D]

This here is why nobody has a right to complain in my opinion. How many times have we seen a Patreon account continue to operate while the dev has all but disappeared from the face of the Earth without so much as a hat tip?
ICSTOR is literally passing on more than $5k per month (and that's if all his pledges are the lowest tier, which they most definitely are not), that's not something that I think anyone would do if they felt that they had another choice. This break must be unavoidable.

I mean.. yes and no.
Is he better then the large amount of developers that just keep the cashflow going knowing full well that they are done.... 100% yes... And he has my respect for that decision.

But does that also mean that his loyal pledgers....people who are paying for the development of this project...have no right to be angry or disappointed..... No....

If i payed a couple hundreds buck for a project and the developer suddenly decides to take a break because he lost motivation/energy to go on with the project, they have full right to question that.
I also believe that it's large based on fear because these days we all know full to well what it means when a developer decides to "take a break"... Especially with the history of Icstor.

I also don't believe for 1 second that he didn't take a couple breaks during those 4 years, like i said... I followed the development cycles of multiple games under his wing and am fan of almost all of them, and i followed those years enough that there where enough breaks in development where he didn't do any work. (This is of course 100% personal thoughts and don't have any facts for it, just my own personal observation).
But it just seems that every time around a half way mark of a game he just loses motivation and focus for his current project and loses motivation and starts thinking about new ideas (and that causes even more loss of motivation because now he wants to do that new thing).

But to end on a positive note.
Icstor will not vanish from the face of the earth, i don't believe that for 1 second.
Will this game get another update or 2... Yeah... I do think so yes.

Are we going to get all the things he promised and is this game going to be completed.......
Well, i think that's in the same category as Gumdrop releasing his game this year.... Not likely......

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

@Trapezio I don't believe that in this case. There's far too much money involved. Unless ICSTOR's personal issues involve a fatal illness or something.

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

@J II D While I understand your sentiment and kind of agree to a point, isn't the entire model behind Patreon that you are pledging to a creator and not their product? Some creators subvert that model and treat it like those pledging are in fact paying for a product, but I'm sure that Patreon's own descriptions refer back to the Renaissance and how people with excessive amounts of money would help artists with living costs and expenses just to keep their creativity flowing and not particularly to receive something back. Getting something back such as the first refusal on works etc. was obviously incentive to keep supporting the artist but that's just good relations.

 

[J II D]

@J II D While I understand your sentiment and kind of agree to a point, isn't the entire model behind Patreon that you are pledging to a creator and not their product? Some creators subvert that model and treat it like those pledging are in fact paying for a product, but I'm sure that Patreon's own descriptions refer back to the Renaissance and how people with excessive amounts of money would help artists with living costs and expenses just to keep their creativity flowing and not particularly to receive something back. Getting something back such as the first refusal on works etc. was obviously incentive to keep supporting the artist but that's just good relations.

True,
But all his rewards on his Patreon page Specifies things for this game.

Not for another project or things for himself.
It's all for his current project.. a.k.a Milfy City.
And i might be wrong, and you have my apology if i am.... But for me that means that most people are paying for this game and certain rewards that come with it.

Are there fans that pay him regardless of project.. no question about it that there are...
But i think we all can agree on the fact that people pay him for Milfy City.

If he wants to be payed as a creator, he should set up his reward/tier system that way.
But again, i might be wrong : )

 

[ꜱᴛᴀɢᴡᴏᴏᴅ]

@J II D Okay, but back to his statement. He's not taking any money while he isn't working on it, and those that have already paid will not be charged again for the next update. All your previous payments have gone into things you've already received, right?
I think he's behaving fairly. It is disappointing to have to wait for something so good when you expected it earlier but I do think he's handling this break in a way that's far more respectful than most creators on Patreon do.

 

[Daloza]

Guys, honestly...

I wrote it on Nergal's games threads (both, many many months ago), I wrote it on Veqvil's LaS thread (many months ago)... therefore I'm quoting myself (once again):

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON I LEARNED HERE on F95 ZONE forum: whenever an author openly starts talking about his personal issues on Patreon/Discord/his blog his game is DOOMED.


This game is dead. Deal with it and move on to something else.

Look, this is first one of this dev by ren - am I right? But I sure he won't old style game, he had a enough money for this. So....

 

[J II D]

@J II D Okay, but back to his statement. He's not taking any money while he isn't working on it, and those that have already paid will not be charged again for the next update. All your previous payments have gone into things you've already received, right?
I think he's behaving fairly. It is disappointing to have to wait for something so good when you expected it earlier but I do think he's handling this break in a way that's far more respectful than most creators on Patreon do.

I 100% agree with you on this one.
He handles this break better than most developers on Patreon and that he makes the game free for all those paid this month is a very kind thing to do.

My only concern is what actually is going to happen after his break : ), but i said enough on this matter already the last few days.
I think we all can agree on that we HOPE that Icstor comes back strong and finishes this game into the masterpiece it could be : )

 

[katmandomo]

The real problem is that while ICStor probably has every intention in the world of returning to the game once he is past his "burnout", my experience is that the real problem is that the passion is gone. I would say there's better than even odds that he just never returns from his sabbatical and goes on to do something else, possibly totally unrelated.

It's hard to leave all of that Patreon money behind, and I commend him for turning it off instead of just going radio silent and mooching off of the people who don't realize he's not coming back, but if you're sick and tired of your job it's best to just move on.

 

[J II D]

The real problem is that while ICStor probably has every intention in the world of returning to the game once he is past his "burnout", my experience is that the real problem is that the passion is gone. I would say there's better than even odds that he just never returns from his sabbatical and goes on to do something else, possibly totally unrelated.

It's hard to leave all of that Patreon money behind, and I commend him for turning it off instead of just going radio silent and mooching off of the people who don't realize he's not coming back, but if you're sick and tired of your job it's best to just move on.

Yeah, but it could also have a positive effect.
If you really love doing something, you always come back to it.
But i wouldn't be surprised if he uses his "break" to begin work on a new project.

But there are so many possibilities....
2 months he said, ok... Let's say 100 days to give him a little bit of wiggle room

Let's just see what happens when it's summer and he is supposed to be working on this project again

 

[pervertboy82]

Is it updated version???

Don't know..