VN Ren'Py Abandoned Offcuts [v0.3.1] [stencilbits]

[lawfullame]

What is this discussion here? With the patrons the dev has he can't make a living out of it either way so the game is a hobby and not every person treats a hobby in a way that they spend hours after work on their hobby. I don't know if stencil has a family, which would also need extra attention.

To end your discussion: No one, with a normal job that pays good, will quit his job for developing if he earns below a certain threshhold and even then its not necessarily a smart thing to do because the income from patreon can break away pretty fast and fluctuates often.

Exactly, I did not want to debate here in which countries $ 2,000 is enough to make a living. The point is that stencilbits with 160 patrons si nowhere near that amount, especially when he pauses the billing cycle approximately half the time , so Offcuts is probably more of a hobby project than a significant source of income for him. And for such a project 3 completed paths and another path almost done is good progress, although the times between updates are very long.

 

[Carpe Stultus]

Exactly, I did not want to debate here in which countries $ 2,000 is enough to make a living. The point is that stencilbits with 160 patrons si nowhere near that amount, especially when he pauses the billing cycle approximately half the time , so Offcuts is probably more of a hobby project than a significant source of income for him. And for such a project 3 completed paths and another path almost done is good progress, although the times between updates are very long.

That comes on top of it all. People complain about the long time updates need but they ignore the fact that it is always a full path, which takes devs in other games even longer.

 

[Avaron1974]

Exactly, I did not want to debate here in which countries $ 2,000 is enough to make a living. The point is that stencilbits with 160 patrons si nowhere near that amount, especially when he pauses the billing cycle approximately half the time , so Offcuts is probably more of a hobby project than a significant source of income for him. And for such a project 3 completed paths and another path almost done is good progress, although the times between updates are very long.

Of course he wants money or he wouldn't be going on Steam.

The one and only reason he only has 160 patrons is because his development cycle is slow as fuck. There aren't many people that are willing to subscribe to a dev that manages 1 update a year.

 

[Motoko Kusanagi]

Of course he wants money or he wouldn't be going on Steam.

The one and only reason he only has 160 patrons is because his development cycle is slow as fuck. There aren't many people that are willing to subscribe to a dev that manages 1 update a year.

Given the latest Patreon update regarding a Steam release, looks like they also will be moving towards smaller partial updates as well. Honestly though the dev could have easily broke a few thousand patrons making thousands a month. They have the talent and story to do so but the release schedule is what screwed that up.

 

[lawfullame]

Of course he wants money or he wouldn't be going on Steam.

The one and only reason he only has 160 patrons is because his development cycle is slow as fuck. There aren't many people that are willing to subscribe to a dev that manages 1 update a year.

Well, who doesn't want money? When a hobby earns you a few dollars, it's a nice bonus.

For many people who have a job with a decent income a hobby that generates little income is a better option than trying to turn a hobby into something like part-time job with more invested effort and higher income.

 

[hrvoje89]

You Europeans are more arrogant than Americans. When any country outside of Europe has better living conditions and lifestyle it's a tax haven. The world doesn't have to adhere to what you think you know.

You do know Bermuda is part of UK, Right?

 

[Carpe Stultus]

Given the latest Patreon update regarding a Steam release, looks like they also will be moving towards smaller partial updates as well. Honestly though the dev could have easily broke a few thousand patrons making thousands a month. They have the talent and story to do so but the release schedule is what screwed that up.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. There are enough games out there that are also good, if not better, that also don't make thousands of $$$ besides being way faster due to smaller updates, while trash games make a shitload. It all depends on the taste of patrons and not on how good a dev is. Patreon is simply weird.

 

[Westinaction]

So, what are the chances nothing comes out tomorrow? 90%?

 

[Qmil679]

So, what are the chances nothing comes out tomorrow? 90%?

I have lost my faith that the new update will ever come out. Over a year without updates. The game and art in this game are awesome.. but making one update that long is not too good in my opinion. I understand that Dev wants to do everything right, but there are many Devs who can handle even more demanding games and it takes them several months. (DPC for example)

 

[Pitrik]

I have lost my faith that the new update will ever come out. Over a year without updates. The game and art in this game are awesome.. but making one update that long is not too good in my opinion. I understand that Dev wants to do everything right, but there are many Devs who can handle even more demanding games and it takes them several months. (DPC for example)

At least stencil never took money during this year from patrons ...some close their channel to the no patrons kicking them out ( your DPC for example)

 

[Westinaction]

Nothing. Color me surprised

 

[Warhawk1]

I was looking forward to playing this..I was being overoptimistic I guess.

 

[Specter2470]

Anyone have any idea when the next update will come out, if EVER?
I'm starting to despair this game has been abandoned.
If so, it's a real shame - I truly loved the game. The story was good, the girls are fucking HOT and it has incredible potential (if only the dev would work on it).

 

[Deleted member 267871]

He's always taken longer than usual, this is normal.

 

[iopq]

Anyone have any idea when the next update will come out, if EVER?
I'm starting to despair this game has been abandoned.
If so, it's a real shame - I truly loved the game. The story was good, the girls are fucking HOT and it has incredible potential (if only the dev would work on it).

The game hasn't been abandoned, he still posts monthly updates. Next should be soon.
It will come out when it's ready.

The guy is pretty transparent and keeps halting his Patreon, so I don't see the problem.


It's not his main job, so the sense of entitlement and demand that gets thrown around is perplexing.

Tackling animation and rendering by yourself with no background can be a pretty daunting task.
I'm actually interested to see how far he's come with it.

 

[Warhawk1]

The game hasn't been abandoned, he still posts monthly updates. Next should be soon.
It will come out when it's ready.

The guy is pretty transparent and keeps halting his Patreon, so I don't see the problem.


It's not his main job, so the sense of entitlement and demand that gets thrown around is perplexing.

Tackling animation and rendering by yourself with no background can be a pretty daunting task.
I'm actually interested to see how far he's come with it.

If you're so "perlexed" by stuff by see on this thread,you probably wouldn't last 5 mins in some of the other active threads.I don't believe people shouldn't complain or stop worrying about the game just because he isn't taking payments.It's a really great game and deserves to get worked on a lot more.TBH I believe he keeps dumping the guilt of not working on it by not taking payments(Yes,he had some work problems or something,but the dev reports for the last 5-6 months have been almost the same).I'd rather have him take payment and work on the game more.It's been what?like almost 2 years since the last content update,so obviously everyone wanna see something.

 

[Westinaction]

If you're so "perlexed" by stuff by see on this thread,you probably wouldn't last 5 mins in some of the other active threads.I don't believe people shouldn't complain or stop worrying about the game just because he isn't taking payments.It's a really great game and deserves to get worked on a lot more.TBH I believe he keeps dumping the guilt of not working on it by not taking payments(Yes,he had some work problems or something,but the dev reports for the last 5-6 months have been almost the same).I'd rather have him take payment and work on the game more.It's been what?like almost 2 years since the last content update,so obviously everyone wanna see something.

Exactly, there's different types of frustration. For example, people who get mad at DC on the SSaga thread are insane, because updates come out regularly every few months and he hosts near daily streams showing you whats being worked on. Meanwhile stencilbits hasn't had a real update going on two years now, and he keeps promising release dates that never materialize. If he just said "My life's too hectic for this game rn, it'll come someday, some year" fair enough. But don't keep jerking people's chains making promises you have no intention of keeping and thinking that sporadically pausing patreon payment makes up for that.

 

[Specter2470]

The game hasn't been abandoned, he still posts monthly updates. Next should be soon.
It will come out when it's ready.

The guy is pretty transparent and keeps halting his Patreon, so I don't see the problem.


It's not his main job, so the sense of entitlement and demand that gets thrown around is perplexing.

Tackling animation and rendering by yourself with no background can be a pretty daunting task.
I'm actually interested to see how far he's come with it.

If I came across as "entitled", that was not my intent. I am merely perplexed, and I would say a bit frustrated, but it's only because I like this game so much.
Thank you for your reply.
Knowing he's still working on it and that we should see an update "soon" helps a lot.

 

[Pitrik]

Monthly Update - Technobabble Edition

The end is near, and new 3D tech stuff promised for 0.4 is pretty much ready.

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RedGifs limits the length to one minute so the video had to be a pretty quick one. Tech beta release is late by a week or two, but hopefully out at some point during next week. New 3D stuff can be (in theory) used to replace all currently used static images with real 3D content.

Currently, I can either render scenes into static images, videos or export them into interactive 3D-scenes (including any animations). Each format has its pros and cons, I'll list a few here (with + and -).

Static Images:

+Easy to create

+Small in size

+Supported everywhere

+High image quality

-Hard to change later. For example, changing the outfit of a character requires modifying and rendering all images again.

-Static, even minor changes in expressions etc. require another image.

Videos:

+Easy to handle

+Mostly supported, some issues on Mobile platforms (Android, iOS)

-Larger in size, unless heavily compressed or downscaled.

-Pre-rendered, no dynamic changes (poses, facial expressions etc.) possible.

3D scenes:

+Requires more from CPU and GPU

+Interactive stuff. Different camera angles, animations, expressions etc.

-Lower image quality (realtime renderer).

-Larger in size, but most assets can be heavily reused (some 3D scenes can be smaller than static image versions).

-No support on mobile platforms

Currently, 3D scenes will automatically fall back to static images if your computer/device doesn't support them. They can also be disabled from settings. I'm also investigating a possibility to download movies and/or 3D scenes later as separately packaged files, so those not interested can skip them as they increase the download size quite a bit.

The whole 3D export and rendering system can also be used if I decide to change the game engine from Ren'Py into something else (like Godot or Unity - maybe even Unreal Engine although that's a bit overkill). Interestingly

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- that version adds some new support for stuff like this, so we'll see where it goes. It also updated the rendering system, which might conflict with my system in some places, so there may be some nasty extra surprises on the way.

Anyway, the tech stuff is now mostly done and finished. It was a pretty interesting little project and I learned a lot - especially that writing a 3D renderer inside Ren'Py with Python is not that easy (or sane). Unfortunately, it did delay 0.4 more than I would have liked to, but maybe it will prove it's worth in the future. Or maybe I'll just silently drop it, who knows?

Now I can focus on pushing 0.4 out as soon as possible, fingers crossed. More content to come, including $10 special series continuation.

Like before, I'm not going to take any Patreon payments until 0.4 is out (I'll temporarily suspend my Patreon at the end of each month until then). It takes some stress off me so I can hopefully make a solid release and finish things properly.

The rest of the post is a mostly copy and paste from my last update for those who are new or want to be reminded what will be coming next. See you in the next post, thanks for your support!

--

So, TL;DR:

* Some new tech in 0.4: interactive 3D and pre-rendered movies, at least a few of each. When I get the pipeline (and my skills) working smoothly, next releases should have more.

* Test release planned at some point before the real release, testing animations etc.

* After 0.4 I will try out a bit faster release schedule with partial updates instead of releasing large, complete routes that take ages to finish. We'll see how it goes.

* Steam release at some point after 0.4 is out. Steam has been pretty random with adult games, so who knows what can happen.

 

[Motoko Kusanagi]

Rip last estimate of October 12-18, Seems like it wont be coming out until the end of this year at this point. Almost the same copy paste monthly since July. Also....

The whole 3D export and rendering system can also be used if I decide to change the game engine from Ren'Py into something else (like Godot or Unity - maybe even Unreal Engine although that's a bit overkill).

Hell no.