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

[Techno11244]

I can understand that you want to defend Stencilbits, after all, its human nature to want to stand up for someone when you don't know the whole story.

But lets be honest.

It has been 4 years since his last actual update to the game. Never mind what he posts on Patreon.

4 years.

The last time Stencilbits was actually on the forum? 2018.

The last time Stencilbits used twitter? December 2019.

Since September 2019, we have had 43 monthly updates promising the update was almost done. 43. Forty three. That's nearly 4 years of the same old spiel.

So yeah, he hasn't learned anything.

If he came out and said "Folks, I thought I could do this game, but I can't. I'm sorry that I've lead you on this for so long, there's no excuse." most of us wouldn't have a problem. But its the 4 years of lies that is so annoying. And they are lies. So I think I'm just going to leave it there.

No, I get that, you are right to be annoyed, he's doing something wrong. I am not trying to excuse it.

I just follow the general mindset to always wish the best for people, to a fault sometimes. It doesn't mean you have to stick around. I personally try to only play games when updates stop or they are finished, I highly doubt that after 4 years I can expect he'll update the game tomorrow or any time soon, so I am not waiting around. I am playing the game. There's a lot of games I would never get to play if I gave them that much of a chance. I didn't really want to raise anyone's hopes up when I said that, because if I had hope I would be waiting, but I am not.
When I said that, I just wanted to wish the best to the man behind the screen.
I will also never relate to the frustration you guys feel even if you explain it, I can only recognize the problem and watch the chaos unfold.

Note: I initially thought it was just 1.5 years. 4 years? This is as dead as it can get.

Edit: I am also very reluctant to say someone's malicious(to a fault but without a cost to me), and not being malicious doesn't mean you should forgive him. Malicious or not, he did you guys wrong and didn't do right by it.

 

[flastus]

At least the storylines that have been released already are complete. You can play the existing game and it's pretty good. There are multiple endings. It's playable and in a "complete" condition - it's "abandoned" only because the dev promised more, but it's more finished than many games.

If he ever gets around to doing smaller updates you can kiss goodbye the possibilty of ever seeing those updates lead to an ending. Great, we'll have a scene here, a scene there. Then a bunch of scenes reworked with new VR effects. Then two new scenes, but his lobster ate his USB drive so he needs to re-render the next three scenes using a new engine. Then he'll go back and add a branch to the storyline in scene 2. By then he's written four new scenes but only rendered 3 and needs a graphics card only the crypto market has flared up and consumed all the NVidia 5090s and all he can get is a used 960. He's rewriting the first five scenes in Javascript-based webGL rendering. His dog ate his lobster so he needs a new lobster. He's suspending his patreon because he won't be able to give any new scenes until he updates his aquarium to be canine-proof. He's rendered some new scenes but there's a new version of OS/2 that he needs for his deployment pipeline and the Workplace Shell is misbehaving with his IPX driver. He's releasing an update with only typos fixed and for some reason it deletes one of the storylines. He releases an update to that update that puts back that storyline but introduces new typos. It's been 5 years since the release of 0.4 and there are now 3 new romancable girls in the story whose storylines are at the "she hates you" part of the story, but he's updating the first 3 girls' renders to include new smellovision technology that's part of Unreal 7. Steam is still being iffy about adult games so who knows.

I got the game for free form Itch so I don't feel like he's causing my harm by not releasing, and if he'd said the game was finished at 0.3 I'd've been okay with it. It's just amusing to watch him not release it month after month.

 

[Techno11244]

At least the storylines that have been released already are complete. You can play the existing game and it's pretty good. There are multiple endings. It's playable and in a "complete" condition - it's "abandoned" only because the dev promised more, but it's more finished than many games.

If he ever gets around to doing smaller updates you can kiss goodbye the possibilty of ever seeing those updates lead to an ending. Great, we'll have a scene here, a scene there. Then a bunch of scenes reworked with new VR effects. Then two new scenes, but his lobster ate his USB drive so he needs to re-render the next three scenes using a new engine. Then he'll go back and add a branch to the storyline in scene 2. By then he's written four new scenes but only rendered 3 and needs a graphics card only the crypto market has flared up and consumed all the NVidia 5090s and all he can get is a used 960. He's rewriting the first five scenes in Javascript-based webGL rendering. His dog ate his lobster so he needs a new lobster. He's suspending his patreon because he won't be able to give any new scenes until he updates his aquarium to be canine-proof. He's rendered some new scenes but there's a new version of OS/2 that he needs for his deployment pipeline and the Workplace Shell is misbehaving with his IPX driver. He's releasing an update with only typos fixed and for some reason it deletes one of the storylines. He releases an update to that update that puts back that storyline but introduces new typos. It's been 5 years since the release of 0.4 and there are now 3 new romancable girls in the story whose storylines are at the "she hates you" part of the story, but he's updating the first 3 girls' renders to include new smellovision technology that's part of Unreal 7. Steam is still being iffy about adult games so who knows.

I got the game for free form Itch so I don't feel like he's causing my harm by not releasing, and if he'd said the game was finished at 0.3 I'd've been okay with it. It's just amusing to watch him not release it month after month.

You didn't have to spoil me half the plot :/ I wanted to experience it all first hand and raw. That lobster was my waifu too.

 

[CalamarMaligno]

Was this the

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?

 

[Techno11244]

Was this the

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?

That's her bro

 

[markel1000]

The story so far.

From the games original launch every update after has taken longer.

Leading up to Christmas 2019 the dev was saying it was nearly ready. If you go back to then I was the first to say it would not launch before Christmas. Back then a few of Stencils cheer squad facepalmed me and disagreed.

Roll on to January 2020 and the dev saying the game was nearly ready and would be launching soon. More people joined in saying it wouldn't be ready, by now we'd started noticing a pattern in Stencils updates and could smell the bullshittery through our monitors it was that strong. Still, the cheer squad remained. By now they had begun the chant of the one and only point of defense they had "he pauses his Patron, he pauses his Patron, he pauses his Patron" .... literally their only retort was the pausing of the Patron and the dev not doing this for money. Nevermind the devs pathetic work ethic, the fact he does nothing and doesn't charge while lying to everyone means we should somehow cut him a break .... I thinketh not.

Summer 2020, it was nearly ready again ....... don't need me telling you it wasn't considering we're still waiting in the lead up to Summer 2023.

Anywhooo....

Every month has been one excuse or another followed by a bit of copy pasta about what 0.4 will contain and how Steam has been iffy with adult games lately even though they haven't been iffy with them for about 2 years now.

The one constant I can point out and the only thing I say with absolutely no humour behind it is this dev is not cut out for Steam. He wouldn't know a regular update schedule if it bent him over a barrel and butt fucked him dry. Steam users are notorious for fucking over devs that they believe has even remotely entered scam territory and no update on that platform for this kind of length would see him review bombed and reported until Steam were forced to remove it from sale just to shut us up. I've seen it happen enough times, i've been part of it and i'd be the first to warn people not to give him any money until it sees completion which I honestly don't think it ever will.

IF and that's a big if, Alice's story ever does come out, I can't see any others being finished. He just doesn't have the work ethic or the drive.

He is, without a doubt, the laziest dev i've ever seen and the only thing stopping him being named alongside Gumdrop and Icstor is the fact he pauses his Patreon but he does absolutely belong on that list with them.

The truly sad part, and i've said this before, is this should be one of the top games on the the site. The characters are great, the story is decent and the romances plots all work really well.

Most games that fail do so because the dev released a shit game that people didn't like.

This is a good game people love held back by a terrible dev.

Yeah i would just have some else render it and have him write it he obviously cant do both or want to really

 

[CalamarMaligno]

He posted his update behind the paywall, but we already know the drill:
Almost ready, final tweaks, 0.4 is the Alice Route, Steam can be iffy with adult content, drank coffee with Godot, no Patreon until Alice comes. Release is coming sooner than later.

 

[aesir150]

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Unlocked
Monthly Update: Always Has Been Edition
March is ending soon, which means it's time for the tried and true monthly update! As mentioned in my previous update, Godot Game Engine 4.0 was released as planned, after almost four years. I did some work on it and I hope it will eventually take its place among Unity and Unreal Engine as Blender has done in the 3D graphics field. But enough of that for now. With my little side quest out of the way, it's time to follow the example and finally do my own release with Offcuts 0.4. With every kind of disaster on the way, from a global pandemic to several hardware failures, it has been a long and occasionally painful journey.
Still, every journey has to end eventually and I spent most of the time this month double-checking the script and doing other final preparations. From updating Ren'Py to the latest version and re-installing the Android SDK, things look good. I'll maybe try to make a quick test release at some point to make sure my release builds still work after a few years of pause, but if something has broken, it shouldn't be that hard to fix at this point. Fingers crossed!
And as always, 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).
The rest of the post is mostly copied from my previous updates for those who are new or want to be reminded of what will be coming next. See you in the next post, thanks for your support and patience!
--
So, TL;DR:
* Next release 0.4 will have Alice's full storyline.
* 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.
* 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.

In other words he lied and hasn't done any of the stuff he claimed he was doing (proofreading, bug fixes, prepping for releases) for the past 3 years.

 

[granny gumjobs]

With my little side quest out of the way, it's time to follow the example and finally do my own release with Offcuts 0.4. (Been saying for the last year that the build is completed and is ready to press the release build button. Still can't find that button.)

Still, every journey has to end eventually and I spent most of the time this month double-checking the script and doing other final preparations. (Doesn't seem like this one will end.)

I'll maybe try to make a quick test release at some point to make sure my release builds still work after a few years of pause, but if something has broken, it shouldn't be that hard to fix at this point. (I'll MAYBE try. It shouldn't be hard to fix? Dude, you have been bug testing and editing for 4 years. You couldn't fix a straw if it was bent.)

 

[CalamarMaligno]

It's been 85 years and now Stencilbits MAYBE will take a looksee at the game to see if it can be published!? There's not enough people in the galaxy to reach the amount of facepalming this new post by Stencilbits requires.

 

[JosephGratz1122]

This man has proofread more times than days I've lived

 

[Evil13]

This man has proofread more times than days I've lived

I'm starting to think that's his kink.

"Oh you naughty writer! You've misused that comma! You're such a dirty writer. Dirty dirty dirty! Oh yes, so dirty!"

 

[markel1000]

In other words he lied and hasn't done any of the stuff he claimed he was doing (proofreading, bug fixes, prepping for releases) for the past 3 years.

Side quest he forgot hes making a game not playing one

 

[JosephGratz1122]

Also it seems he hasn't made a production build in like 3 years, which is no surprise to me, but contradictory to his own posts.

 

[Evil13]

Also it seems he hasn't made a production build in like 3 years, which is no surprise to me, but contradictory to his own posts.

We talked about this on the previous page. Its closer to 4 years.

 

[Motoko Kusanagi]

"double checking the scripts" My guy's been staring at notepad for 4 years.

As always if they dont put a date in the last post (being the 30th of March at the time) that means there is no update to look forward to in April. Impressive being able to excuse yourself out of a whole month every time.

 

[granny gumjobs]

"double checking the scripts" My guy's been staring at notepad for 4 years.

As always if they dont put a date in the last post (being the 30th of March at the time) that means there is no update to look forward to in April. Impressive being able to excuse yourself out of a whole month every time.

We can compare Stencil writing his script to Spongebob writing his essay.

 

[JosephGratz1122]

8-10 days till the next patreon post, can't wait!

 

[CalamarMaligno]

8-10 days till the next patreon post, can't wait!

Spoilers:
-Alice Route will be complete.
-Almost done, some proofreading left.
-Android version might come in later because issues.
-Not sure if Steam will get a release since they're flip flopping thwir stance on adult games.
-after this update, updates will be shorter and more often.
-My stepbrother kissed my girlfriend, killed my dog and poisoned my dad with some oriental venom. Now I must bring him to justice with the help of a hoodlum and a magician.

 

[granny gumjobs]

8-10 days till the next patreon post, can't wait!

Here you go.

Monthly Update: Always Has Been A Big Fat Lie Edition

March/April/May/June/July/August/September/October/November/December/January/February is ending soon, which means it's time for the tried and true monthly update! As mentioned in my previous update, Godot Game Engine 4.0 was released as planned, after almost four years. I did some work on it and I hope it will eventually take its place among Unity and Unreal Engine as Blender has done in the 3D graphics field. But enough of that for now. With my little side quest out of the way, it's time to follow the example and finally do my own release with Offcuts 0.4. With every kind of disaster on the way, from a global pandemic to several hardware failures, it has been a long and occasionally painful journey.
Still, every journey has to end eventually and I spent most of the time this month double-checking the script and doing other final preparations. From updating Ren'Py to the latest version and re-installing the Android SDK, things look good. I'll maybe try to make a quick test release at some point to make sure my release builds still work after a few years of pause, but if something has broken, it shouldn't be that hard to fix at this point. Fingers crossed!
And as always, 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).
The rest of the post is mostly copied from my previous updates for those who are new or want to be reminded of what will be coming next. See you in the next post, thanks for your support and patience!
--
So, TL;DR:
* Next release 0.4 will have Alice's full storyline.
* 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.
* 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.


This joke has been brought to you by Big Pink. The only gum made with the breath-freshening power of ham, Big Pink is a bargain buy at less than $1, however you get what you pay for as it's mostly bones.