VN Ren'Py Not Going Back [Ch.2.2] [Cicada]

[MiltonPowers]

I may one day make VN. And I would never take more than a year to deliver updates. Even if they are shorter. It keeps the community active and provide some development on the project to those who follow it.

You are not getting paid for this so you hold no accountability to anyone but I have also seen that people get very disappointed with the ridiculous amount of time between updates. I don't think this is the result of their will or that they want to support a project lasting for more than a decade but that they are "forced" to as devs are taking more and more time to barely deliver any work.

You're talking to the wrong Dev. cicadaNGB has no patreon and no subscribers and he releases it here for free. If he takes 3 years to do an update it is what it is and no-one has a single reason to complain or whine. He's doing it for his own enjoyment and sharing it with us. Anyone that bitches about development times on this thread really is entitled.

 

[ShikkokunoSharnoth]

You're talking to the wrong Dev. cicadaNGB has no patreon and no subscribers and he releases it here for free. If he takes 3 years to do an update it is what it is and no-one has a single reason to complain or whine. He's doing it for his own enjoyment and sharing it with us. Anyone that bitches about development times on this thread really is entitled.

You are kind of limited or just looking for attention? That's literally what I wrote at the start of my second paragraph. Doesn't change what I said thereafter. People don't prefer to have decades long of development. Devs are getting lazier, that's why they rarely update their games.

 

[Justaphase]

Nothing much to report since the last dev log from the end of November. At 800 and some renders, so if you want to consider chapter 2's total of 2400, that's maybe a third of the way through. But right now I've no idea quite how big ch3 might be in terms of renders.

If you want a look into scene numbers, I'm still working on the big pool party scene that I've previewed, there's a lot of smaller interactions/conversations in that which is taking quite some time to work through, as have pretty much all the party scenes (and, without wanting to spoil too much, that's going to continue in ch4 too). But there's only one such scene in ch3, so everything after this is smaller scenes, which, theoretically, will be quicker to work through. Looking at my very rough list of what happens after the party, there's 14 'scenes' there, of varying length. These scenes may not necessarily render quicker, but they will be a lot quicker to set up because there's less characters involved in each individual scene.

I'm probably behind schedule right now, if I had tried to guess where I'd be at 4 months on from the release of ch2, but these longer scenes have consistently taken me longer to work through than I expect. Perhaps I'm too optimistic with how quick I can work/how quick things can render.

On a tangential note, sometimes I do wish I could release more frequently, but I've got a very set, deliberate start and end point for every chapter and I don't really want to release half chapters or anything like that that I've seen other games do. For instance, in theory I could release an update once I'm done with the pool party, as there's a fair amount of content just up to that point. But, for story/narrative reasons, I'd much prefer to wait until the 'full' chapter is done. And, from what I've seen elsewhere, people tend to prefer longer updates, even when they take more time to make. But it's naturally frustrating that the next update is many months away still, especially when like 90% of ch3 is written, and it's just the renders I'm always waiting on, and I want to get the next parts of the story out as quick as I can.

Thank you for the update.

 

[AlexMpog]

Thanks!

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Oh, wow, somehow I missed new teasers with Tegan, damn
It's always a pleasure to see my favorite twerk-contest winner)

Nothing much to report since the last dev log from the end of November. At 800 and some renders, so if you want to consider chapter 2's total of 2400, that's maybe a third of the way through. But right now I've no idea quite how big ch3 might be in terms of renders.

If you want a look into scene numbers, I'm still working on the big pool party scene that I've previewed, there's a lot of smaller interactions/conversations in that which is taking quite some time to work through, as have pretty much all the party scenes (and, without wanting to spoil too much, that's going to continue in ch4 too). But there's only one such scene in ch3, so everything after this is smaller scenes, which, theoretically, will be quicker to work through. Looking at my very rough list of what happens after the party, there's 14 'scenes' there, of varying length. These scenes may not necessarily render quicker, but they will be a lot quicker to set up because there's less characters involved in each individual scene.

I'm probably behind schedule right now, if I had tried to guess where I'd be at 4 months on from the release of ch2, but these longer scenes have consistently taken me longer to work through than I expect. Perhaps I'm too optimistic with how quick I can work/how quick things can render.

On a tangential note, sometimes I do wish I could release more frequently, but I've got a very set, deliberate start and end point for every chapter and I don't really want to release half chapters or anything like that that I've seen other games do. For instance, in theory I could release an update once I'm done with the pool party, as there's a fair amount of content just up to that point. But, for story/narrative reasons, I'd much prefer to wait until the 'full' chapter is done. And, from what I've seen elsewhere, people tend to prefer longer updates, even when they take more time to make. But it's naturally frustrating that the next update is many months away still, especially when like 90% of ch3 is written, and it's just the renders I'm always waiting on, and I want to get the next parts of the story out as quick as I can.

Thanks for an update, man.

As for your last paragraph - personally I prefer "full" chapters/episodes, this way usually we get a finished mini-story or quest (depending on the game) with some logical ending, while during small updates it can be an unfinished mess sometimes (from my experience at least).
So I don't mind waiting.
Take your time!

 

[Dessolos]

Oh, wow, somehow I missed new teasers with Tegan, damn
It's always a pleasure to see my favorite twerk-contest winner)

This is the only Teaser that matters to me it's almost a nose boop

Spoiler: Nose Boop ???

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[cicadaNGB]

I may one day make VN. And I would never take more than a year to deliver updates. Even if they are shorter. It keeps the community active and provide some development on the project to those who follow it.

You are not getting paid for this so you hold no accountability to anyone but I have also seen that people get very disappointed with the ridiculous amount of time between updates. I don't think this is the result of their will or that they want to support a project lasting for more than a decade but that they are "forced" to as devs are taking more and more time to barely deliver any work.

This is true. I think it's the biggest downside of AVNs at this point, a lot of them are potentially a decade long to make from start to finish, if they're being done to a high standard. There are exceptions, but for the most part a good, long VN can easily take 5+ years with how things are at the moment. But I kind of think of it like a TV show, to an extent. A long-running TV show would have seasons, and maybe have one season a year. And that's still a long wait. But that's kind of the way media is these days, with the obvious exception of live streams/youtube. Which is a big part of the popularity there, and the relative decline of traditional media. It's more about immediacy these days.

I digress, the point I wanted to make is that you're right. A year per update, so say 10 years, is a long time to wait. I don't think, in my case, it'll take that long to get to the end. Without spoiling anything about the future, chapters 2 and 3 are two of the longer chapters in the game. There's one in the middle that's going to be probably longer, likely another year long dev cycle if things stay the same. And as I've mentioned before somewhere, I've already written ch6 in the game. You can infer from that it's approximate length. So yeah while it is frustrating releasing once a year, for me, at least, I don't think this will be consistent. But I'm hopelessly optimistic sometimes, so who knows.

 

[cicadaNGB]

Oh, wow, somehow I missed new teasers with Tegan, damn
It's always a pleasure to see my favorite twerk-contest winner)


Thanks for an update, man.

As for your last paragraph - personally I prefer "full" chapters/episodes, this way usually we get a finished mini-story or quest (depending on the game) with some logical ending, while during small updates it can be an unfinished mess sometimes (from my experience at least).
So I don't mind waiting.
Take your time!

Yeah, the start and end of chapters are pretty important to me. Maybe less so early on in the game, because there's less drama/tension to leave unresolved in a cliffhanger. But each chapter is framed between two different events for a reason. Ch1 the start of college:the start of pledging. Ch2 the start of pledging:the end of pledging. Ch3 post pledging:??? and so on. And that's key to the story structure overall, so while I have briefly considered segmented updates or whatever I think it would diminish the overall experience.

 

[cicadaNGB]

You're talking to the wrong Dev. cicadaNGB has no patreon and no subscribers and he releases it here for free. If he takes 3 years to do an update it is what it is and no-one has a single reason to complain or whine. He's doing it for his own enjoyment and sharing it with us. Anyone that bitches about development times on this thread really is entitled.

By the time we get to chapter [redacted], the last thing people will have to complain about is wait times. I'm fascinated to see the reaction to a couple of things I have planned, not just in terms of story content, but structure too. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but I've got a few things planned I've seen done in other game that certainly received mixed responses. So for now if the main complaint is that the updates aren't quick enough, I'd figure I'm doing fairly okay.

 

[MiltonPowers]

By the time we get to chapter [redacted], the last thing people will have to complain about is wait times. I'm fascinated to see the reaction to a couple of things I have planned, not just in terms of story content, but structure too. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but I've got a few things planned I've seen done in other game that certainly received mixed responses. So for now if the main complaint is that the updates aren't quick enough, I'd figure I'm doing fairly okay.

You're doing perfectly fine buddy. I can bash the milking/ghosting/devious devs with the best of them, but I do get a little defensive of the good ones like yourself who are open and honest and providing something free for us in your spare time. Take your time and get it how you want it, or you'll never be happy with it (which is the most important thing).

 

[Dessolos]

I agree tho could use more nose boops , head pats and hand holding.

 

[MiltonPowers]

I agree tho could use more nose boops , head pats and hand holding.

 

[Joshy92]

What a kickarse game this is. Top notch writing and plenty of beautiful women to choose from.

 

[cicadaNGB]

You know what, while I'm here, seeing as I didn't preview anything in my little update back there, if anyone wants to reply to this with a character name over the next couple days or so, I'll put up an extra preview render involving that character (assuming they've made an appearance in ch3 so far).
So if you've got a favorite character so far, or just one you'd be curious to see a preview for in ch3, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.

I'd been thinking of doing something a little more interactive like this for a while, so this seems as good a time as any if anyone's interested. (I'd also thought of a slightly stupider idea of pick a random number, and I'll preview whatever render corresponds to that number, but that could go wrong if it's something spoilery. But if you want to yell a random number at me up to about 800 and see what happens feel free to try that too. What're the chances it's a big spoiler? Maybe we'll find out)

 

[Joshy92]

You know what, while I'm here, seeing as I didn't preview anything in my little update back there, if anyone wants to reply to this with a character name over the next couple days or so, I'll put up an extra preview render involving that character (assuming they've made an appearance in ch3 so far).
So if you've got a favorite character so far, or just one you'd be curious to see a preview for in ch3, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.

I'd been thinking of doing something a little more interactive like this for a while, so this seems as good a time as any if anyone's interested. (I'd also thought of a slightly stupider idea of pick a random number, and I'll preview whatever render corresponds to that number, but that could go wrong if it's something spoilery. But if you want to yell a random number at me up to about 800 and see what happens feel free to try that too. What're the chances it's a big spoiler? Maybe we'll find out)

I vote Mia. and the number I choose is 47.

 

[AlexMpog]

You know what, while I'm here, seeing as I didn't preview anything in my little update back there, if anyone wants to reply to this with a character name over the next couple days or so, I'll put up an extra preview render involving that character (assuming they've made an appearance in ch3 so far).
So if you've got a favorite character so far, or just one you'd be curious to see a preview for in ch3, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.

I'd been thinking of doing something a little more interactive like this for a while, so this seems as good a time as any if anyone's interested. (I'd also thought of a slightly stupider idea of pick a random number, and I'll preview whatever render corresponds to that number, but that could go wrong if it's something spoilery. But if you want to yell a random number at me up to about 800 and see what happens feel free to try that too. What're the chances it's a big spoiler? Maybe we'll find out)

Tegan is my pick The more renders with her the merrier.
Without any numbers from me in case it will be a huge spoiler.

 

[cicadaNGB]

I vote Mia. and the number I choose is 47.

Alright, not a lot to preview for Mia because most of the ch3 renders so far would spoil something I'd rather keep hidden. But here's a slightly more cinematic one that I like quite a lot.

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And then this is render 47 of the chapter. Interestingly enough, also of Mia, but from a different conversation elsewhere in the chapter.

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[cicadaNGB]

Tegan is my pick The more renders with her the merrier.
Without any numbers from me in case it will be a huge spoiler.

More the merrier, huh? Well, in that case, I was struggling to decide which of these two to pick, then I reread your post, saw you said that and figured, fuck it, why not both?

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[Dessolos]

You know what, while I'm here, seeing as I didn't preview anything in my little update back there, if anyone wants to reply to this with a character name over the next couple days or so, I'll put up an extra preview render involving that character (assuming they've made an appearance in ch3 so far).
So if you've got a favorite character so far, or just one you'd be curious to see a preview for in ch3, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.

I'd been thinking of doing something a little more interactive like this for a while, so this seems as good a time as any if anyone's interested. (I'd also thought of a slightly stupider idea of pick a random number, and I'll preview whatever render corresponds to that number, but that could go wrong if it's something spoilery. But if you want to yell a random number at me up to about 800 and see what happens feel free to try that too. What're the chances it's a big spoiler? Maybe we'll find out)

my pick would be Imogen besides Mia she is my favorite. I'll let ya pick the number if you want to show anything as id just pick 69 but I think it's best if the dev picks something than a Random number haha.

 

[Paynne]

You know what, while I'm here, seeing as I didn't preview anything in my little update back there, if anyone wants to reply to this with a character name over the next couple days or so, I'll put up an extra preview render involving that character (assuming they've made an appearance in ch3 so far).
So if you've got a favorite character so far, or just one you'd be curious to see a preview for in ch3, feel free to reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.

I'd been thinking of doing something a little more interactive like this for a while, so this seems as good a time as any if anyone's interested. (I'd also thought of a slightly stupider idea of pick a random number, and I'll preview whatever render corresponds to that number, but that could go wrong if it's something spoilery. But if you want to yell a random number at me up to about 800 and see what happens feel free to try that too. What are the chances it's a big spoiler? Maybe we'll find out)

Since someone already voted for Mia, I'll go with the twins! And for the random number I choose 700.

 

[cicadaNGB]

my pick would be Imogen besides Mia she is my favorite. I'll let ya pick the number if you want to show anything as id just pick 69 but I think it's best if the dev picks something than a Random number haha.

An Imogen render.

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Render number 69 of the chapter (note: you may be underwhelmed, not of a female character)

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