VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch.13.3.4] [Eva Kiss]

[dolfe67]

Part of your patrons will get annoyed

Only a small part

anybody outside possibly interested in ORS will think twice if he/she should give it a try.

Indeed they'll try it without thinking

 

[Turret]

Is this game dead?

No, it´s not, just incredibly late. Thanks for your question, underscoring my point in a discussion earlier! Exactly this is the result from not releasing the Ian part. Interested persons thinking the game has gone down the river.

 

[GifMeMore1987]

Is this game dead?

Sadly yes, this game is dead. There won't be a new update ever again. All of us still posting here are either in denial or do it as a coping mechanism.

 

[Turret]

Indeed they'll try it without thinking

Pardon me, but I truly doubt that! Newcomers might, just might, test ORS, but with the current update interval, very,very few will keep sticking to the game. We were with it from the start, that is different. For someone new ORS is comatose at best.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

Hi!
I know the point you want to make, but the devs oF e.g. AWAM or DF have both highpower render PCs and still manage to have an absurdly long update intervall with a rather low number of renders. In the formers case, even going over to mini-updates did nothing for the speed, where a at best couple minutes long update takes over two months!

Yes, objectively speaking, this is the same milking that is often talked about here. When a dev with powerful hardware makes several dozen renders in six months, this is fraud and milking.

WIAB and SG are made by the same dev at the same time and he manages being quicker, than Eva has unfortunately become, with bringing out two slowburn, very high quality games.
The thing is, whatever happened in the background of ORS, be it writers block, personal problems, burnout, whatever, when it comes to development time, chapter 10 is an unmitigated barrel burst! One year waiting time for completely new material is going to hurt your fanbase, esp. if until then you were able to deliver in a more or less regular rhythem. That can happen once, still hurting your interests, but it should better not happen again.

He definitely needs more power doing two games. The WiAB remake of the new part was almost a year in development. Compared to how much DrPinkCake does in 9 months, and there are 5000 renders and a huge number of animated scenes, this is a huge difference. I agree that Eva needs to speed things up. The development of such a large part will be a normal period of 5-6 months, no more. To ensure stable 2 chapters per year. 8 months is too much. I hope that she has solved her problems with inspiration and creative block, I also know that Eva has hired an artist. And this did not go unnoticed - Lena part is in development a month faster.

I consider it a plain mistake by Eva not to release the Ian part alone. It would have been a) a sign that she wanted to keep a somewhat regular update intervall and b) a life sign of ORS in general. With the current situation (8+ months since rework, over a year since new material) this does just one thing: Part of your patrons will get annoyed and worse, anybody outside possibly interested in ORS will think twice if he/she should give it a try.

Here my opinion is on the side of Patreon subscribers. I don't want to see the stub, I want the full part. ORS is a game with two MCs, its gameplay is based on the interaction between these characters. A piecemeal release would kill the idea of this game. Of course, I'm tired of waiting, but I think the decision to release Episode 10 is the whole thing - the right one.

 

[Doppelgang]

View attachment 2169056

Chapter 10 weekly status report (19)

Hello everyone,
Chapter 10 is finally getting close to being finished. I'm almost done with the writing, all that's left are a couple of scenes and a final, big lewd scene. This one is complex and it can take place with 3 different characters, so it will be challenging to write, but once that's done the writing will be complete. Lena's part of the script has already caught up in length with Ian's, and will surpass it, so in total this update will have the most density of content to date.

Other tasks that need to be completed are editing the artwork and then revising the script, implementing a few technical things, play-testing and bug-solving. Hopefully I haven't made too many mistakes and we can complete that part quickly. I'm not giving a specific date for the release because I can't confidently predict when everything will be 100% ready, but if everything goes smoothly the Alpha could be out by the end of November/start of December. I'll give you more detailed info in the next weekly update, as the finishing steps come together.

In the meanwhile, I'll show you what some characters have been up to during this time. Who's the one you're hoping to spend some time with in Chapter 10?

View attachment 2169057

Sounds like two major lewd scenes were done in the last week, so it’s getting closer. Promising.

Gotta wonder what that final scene will be. As the game’s progressing, the last scene tends to be some sort of “grand finale”, so just another one of those scenes where you choose between Ian, Mike and Robert feels a bit too … bland. And besides, would that be considered one scene—or three?

I guess it could be something in the same genre as the after party at Ivy’s apartment, just taken a step further. As in not choosing in advance if you want to go on a date with character A, B, or C; but just one big event with large variations in the outcome. Like the model event with Billy, where also Ivy and Jeremy might be present.

Or it could be the former alternative, just with someone slightly more important for the bigger story than Robert. Like Ian, Axel or Seymour. Or something completely different. I’m mostly just guessing here.

 

[priv.ryan]

Is this game dead?

Of course, here we are gathered here for the memorial service. We were just waiting for you.

This proper cracks me up everytime lool

 

[Rickster82]

Later in 2025...

Chapter 10 weekly status report (30)

 

[Turret]

Here my opinion is on the side of Patreon subscribers. I don't want to see the stub, I want the full part. ORS is a game with two MCs, its gameplay is based on the interaction between these characters. A piecemeal release would kill the idea of this game. Of course, I'm tired of waiting, but I think the decision to release Episode 10 is the whole thing - the right one.

I know the reason the patrons chose their vote. It is a viable opinion, but also a navelgazing one, since it in no way helps Eva gaining further players from the audience.
There is a difference between the inside PoV and the outside PoV, especially how you create and maintain interest in your game. The patrons have a lot of info and therefor knew that the chapter will one day be done. People from the wider audience looking in and NOT having such information will think again if they really want to try out ORS. Because from a distance this game is near death. Way overdue update, a rework which was even debatted among the fanbase if it was needed, the shortsighted decision to keep wanting a full chapter by the patrons (despite the Ian part alone being quite meaty)...

There are psychological steps, borderlines, however you want to name it, what you consider long or short, high or low, thick or thin. Having the Ian part out would have meant a psychological "update date" of about 4-6 months, depending if when it would have come out. For a majority of players that is absolutely okay.
But now we have a psychlogical update date of 8 months at best and considering the Lena part is still written it could become longer. Not to think about the people who go by new material, where the still pending update is by over a devastating full year.

That is nothing but burning bridges of interest!

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

If you haven't played the Remastered edition, then you won't be able to play Chapter 10 unless you start a new game. Either way you need to play from the very beginning, why not start now? While Eva is working, it's perfect time to set up your saves.

I finally got time to properly play the Remastered release, and I gotta say, it takes quite a bit of time to get through all 9 chapters, even without deviating from my "canon" playthrough, since I lost my "persistent" file and need to read through all the dialogue without skipping; I'll probably soon be able to memorize the entire script.

I usually just Unren for those skips in such a situation. Though I assume you're probably playing through full-text to check for errors not previously caught, too.

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

I'm currently enjoying going through the backlog of Games with new updates I haven't played for the last few months. Funnily enough, the progression was halted for finding out two new devs that I like and I've been trying out the several games they already published, so it's taking a while ahahahah!

I'm not in any rush, I like thoroughly enjoying my games and engaging in the comment section.

Who are the devs? Recommended games?

 

[TheOnlyRockSolid]

Nuestra Cuerda Roja

 

[89898hh]

I miss this game Hopefully once this update comes out eva can starting getting into the habit of releasing more regular updates again.

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

I know the reason the patrons chose their vote. It is a viable opinion, but also a navelgazing one, since it in no way helps Eva gaining further players from the audience.
There is a difference between the inside PoV and the outside PoV, especially how you create and maintain interest in your game. The patrons have a lot of info and therefor knew that the chapter will one day be done. People from the wider audience looking in and NOT having such information will think again if they really want to try out ORS. Because from a distance this game is near death. Way overdue update, a rework which was even debatted among the fanbase if it was needed, the shortsighted decision to keep wanting a full chapter by the patrons (despite the Ian part alone being quite meaty)...

There are psychological steps, borderlines, however you want to name it, what you consider long or short, high or low, thick or thin. Having the Ian part out would have meant a psychological "update date" of about 4-6 months, depending if when it would have come out. For a majority of players that is absolutely okay.
But now we have a psychlogical update date of 8 months at best and considering the Lena part is still written it could become longer. Not to think about the people who go by new material, where the still pending update is by over a devastating full year.

That is nothing but burning bridges of interest!

Yes, I'm sure that long development is a bad business plan. This is all the more dangerous, given Eva's writing style. She is the typical gardener writer who creates an idea, grows a fictional world, but does not think about the plan, structure and ending. I guess she doesn't know what the endings will be. This creative style is characterized by downtime, because there are times when inspiration disappears and you have no ideas to continue. The Winds of Winter say hello.
I really hope that this downtime was a one off and we won't have to wait that long for the next updates.
Therefore, in order to keep the development speed of the game, I welcome Eve's idea to hire outsourcing workers to make things go faster. I think this is a better solution than splitting each part in half. Although it does cost money.
So far we see that Eva has a credibility - the number of her subscribers reached a peak value at the time of the release of the Remaster, but now it is slightly decreasing. To reach new frontiers, it is necessary to accelerate development while maintaining the quality of the game. And by the way, cutting the game into parts can also cause subscribers to leave - many simply hate short updates and imagine if Eve ignored the desire of 80% of the Patrons? Many could leave, and this would not be covered by the influx of new subscribers. Also a risky business plan.

 

[Mr. Muscles]

I know the reason the patrons chose their vote. It is a viable opinion, but also a navelgazing one, since it in no way helps Eva gaining further players from the audience.
There is a difference between the inside PoV and the outside PoV, especially how you create and maintain interest in your game. The patrons have a lot of info and therefor knew that the chapter will one day be done. People from the wider audience looking in and NOT having such information will think again if they really want to try out ORS. Because from a distance this game is near death. Way overdue update, a rework which was even debatted among the fanbase if it was needed, the shortsighted decision to keep wanting a full chapter by the patrons (despite the Ian part alone being quite meaty)...

There are psychological steps, borderlines, however you want to name it, what you consider long or short, high or low, thick or thin. Having the Ian part out would have meant a psychological "update date" of about 4-6 months, depending if when it would have come out. For a majority of players that is absolutely okay.
But now we have a psychlogical update date of 8 months at best and considering the Lena part is still written it could become longer. Not to think about the people who go by new material, where the still pending update is by over a devastating full year.

That is nothing but burning bridges of interest!

It's her Patreon, tho. I don't see how this matters to any of us. Her patrons chose what they chose.

 

[Gicoo]

Chapter 10 is probably good... and a few days afterwards its waiting for another 9-18 months for chapter 11.

Baffling decade of gaming we are in, playing 5% of a game every few months until it is done after a couple of years.


I considered making around fifty saves just before the Axel/Seymour drama in chapter 9 to unlock most of chapter 10. The idea is to have some sort of base save file in which Ian and Lena are decent and helpful to everyone to get a good amount of relationship and stat points. And then every save file deviates from that save file by being in a relationship with one specific character (or several). But it's questionable if they should enter the specific character routes. Should Lena always model for Seymour, Stan and Axel to get the most amount of scenes, character, stats and money points? Or should she ignore them on every save but the ones that focus on those characters? Is helping Wade the default choice that happens on every save (safe for the ones dealing with Cindy) or should that relationship just be neglected? Should Ian be silent at his job on almost every file or should he always write his honest reviews?

Even when the countless variables get trimmed, it's too much. Unrenpy/unlocking all the scenes through hacking may legit be the only way at this point to get most scenes at a reasonable time.

 

[Turret]

And by the way, cutting the game into parts can also cause subscribers to leave - many simply hate short updates and imagine if Eve ignored the desire of 80% of the Patrons? Many could leave, and this would not be covered by the influx of new subscribers. Also a risky business plan.

Yes, but the Patreons and some of the wider audience knew that the Ian part was rather meaty and big by itself. I truly doubt that update would have been as short as many of the patrons feared. We can trust Eva to be correct when she says that the Ian part was big.
Other devs are not easy to believe. L&P for instance lies when he opens his mouth, gumdrop has an addled mind. Then there are devs like Eva who you can trust to tell you the truth and are on good intervalls. Mutt and Jeff oscilate between 3-5 months per update, which are meaty. Ollane updates once a month like clockwork, as does Slowburn, their updates by necessity not as large, but still ok for the intervall time..

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

Yes, but the Patreons and some of the wider audience knew that the Ian part was rather meaty and big by itself. I truly doubt that update would have been as short as many of the patrons feared. We can trust Eva to be correct when she says that the Ian part was big.
Other devs are not easy to believe. L&P for instance lies when he opens his mouth, gumdrop has an addled mind. Then there are devs like Eva who you can trust to tell you the truth and are on good intervalls. Mutt and Jeff oscilate between 3-5 months per update, which are meaty. Ollane updates once a month like clockwork, as does Slowburn, their updates by necessity not as large, but still ok for the intervall time..

It would be something like Episode 5 size... but again, we don't know how it would affect gameplay and if it would kill the game atmosphere. And I'm a person more interested in the history of Lena than Ian. Now let's take another moment. Eva releases Ian chapter. Episode 10 Ian Alpha, them Episode 10 Ian Beta, and then, al last...Episode 10 Ian Final. Post-release polishing, and this is for each mini-episode separately. 3 more weeks of work.

L&P, who's that by the way?

 

[The_Searcher]

I miss this game Hopefully once this update comes out eva can starting getting into the habit of releasing more regular updates again.

With the complexity of the paths and decisions, plus the two main characters, I hardly doubt that after chapter 10 the progress on the game will go faster... I think it will just the opposite, because it will become more and more complex

So, still we have no aproximation date for the release of Ch 10? I take a rest of the thread a few weeks, or months, ago and seems we are in the same situation as before.

 

[Turret]

It would be something like Episode 5 size... but again, we don't know how it would affect gameplay and if it would kill the game atmosphere. And I'm a person more interested in the history of Lena than Ian. Now let's take another moment. Eva releases Ian chapter. Episode 10 Ian Alpha, them Episode 10 Ian Beta, and then, al last...Episode 10 Ian Final. Post-release polishing, and this is for each mini-episode separately. 3 more weeks of work.

L&P, who's that by the way?

L&P is the maker of AWAM. Great potential, but the dev was overcome by his greed and is a liar extraordinaire. At current speed the end chapter would come in somewhere in the 2050s, I kid you not! You can see how "realistic" it is that AWAM ever gets completed. But you have to give honour where it is due, L&P is like the Ratcatcher from Hameln, he is great at reeling in the stupid! Just take a look at the AWAM main thread, a veritable parallel universe.