Hi everyone,
I'm Beerbrew, one of the dudes who maintain this game. I've been giving some thought of whether it's appropriate to post here, to at least give explanation to some of the things being talked about here in the past couple of months or years and have been left at that.
First off, it's me and Sharkie. Ramen no Oujisama is something we do on the side. We're both busy IRL, just like you. I do the programming/scripting/artwork/animations/<insert repetitive work here>. Sharkie does the stories.
I will try to recount for you why the project went into the direction the way it did.
When The Main Story Lines Were About To Be Concluded
There was a time when all the 10 main story lines were about to be concluded. I was pretty busy during this time, and it was I think during this time when I decided to prepare for another make over for Ramen no Oujisama's character sprites (and eventually but not yet decided on at that time - the special animated scenes). I asked our artist, Ukyu, to create new character sprites for us. But if we were working with an artist already, why was I so busy with "art" then? Simple. I'm a vector artist. The work I get from artists is usually just line work, I don't ask them to be finished. This is because I prepare and finish artwork myself in vector, and all in separated body parts, in preparation for animation. There entails a lot of repetitive organizational work involved into this too. Because of this, and the way the animations need to be prepared, I can only do so much artwork in a month. The character artworks were so difficult to do with all the different parts and clothing, and new techniques brought over from a recent game we were trying out later on, Runicca.
A Secret Route, But Not A Surprise Anymore
While this was happening, I believe the Secret Route was being prepped up. I know Sharkie was pretty busy during this time and the recent pandemic definitely didn't help. I was given the Secret Route in single chapter intervals. I knew these weren't going to be normal length chapters like in the other routes, it was going to be "more special" - definitely longer on average per chapter. What I also did not know was that Sharkie was suffering from something akin to depression. I did not press him because that would be a pretty much asshole thing for me to do given I knew he was pretty busy already IRL. I only knew about this later on. So I continued with what I usually do - adapt to conditions presented to me. If this is the rate that the Secret Route will be given to me, I'll do something else around what we have, and I think it was this time when the new V3 character sprites were being made to prepare for the updated V3 main story routes. I also wanted this Secret Route to be a surprise, but given the pace, we thought it'd be better to put it out as soon as it was possible, but unfortunately, that was mistaken as "milking" the game.
Runicca Game Idea And New V3 Character Sprite Techniques Implemented In Ramen No Oujisama
Sometime around here, I was toying around with a new game idea - Runicca. One of the purposes of these games, to me, is to explore some new features, and put them in Ramen no Oujisama. Same thing with the other small game we had, Summer in Springtime. Time and effort was put into Runicca for me to see if people liked it or not. With all that done, the new V3 character sprites in Ramen have features that are found in that game, and I think it I was done with one V3 sprite that I decided to incorporate those feature in, adding greatly to the complexity and time needed to finish.
Eventually I got around to finishing the V3 character sprites. And then there was the matter of converting existing storylines to be compatible with this. Some wanted the old version available, so we gave the option of being able to play the game in the current V3 sprites, or the V2 sprites. The conversion job was no easy feat, I lost a lot of sleep on this trying to put them out as fast as I could and so I did.
On The V3 Special Scene Sets with Genderbender Secret Code Support
Fast forward to today, Ramen no Oujisama had its V3 character sprites and main story routes updated, now it's time to update all the special scenes to match the V3 sprites. But not only that, we decided to make each of the main story special scenes to be available in each genderbender secret code option (M/F/F2). What does this mean to me? My hands are so full, my attention is mainly with these artworks these days. What I have to show for it now can be seen in Sango, Tomone, and Mie's V3 routes.
Why do it? I do it because I'm very aware that the artwork was all over the place on V1/V2 because of the length of time between when I first touched Sango's route, and when I finally got to Mana's route - my art has changed alot, and this is what I'm addressing with V3. I wanted to be sure, so I asked help from aour Japanese anime artist, Ukyu, to help with the main V3 character sprites' linework because I asked her to do the same for the poster artworks of the different Ramen girls, and I liked them. If that isn't anime enough for you...
And why do it with the genderbender secret code in mind? Because some of you guys were asking me about it much earlier on, specifically a GxG version of the game. I have an idea of its possibility, but I couldn't give an answer so prematurely knowing the uncertainties, but as the development of the game went on, the possibility was becoming clearer and clearer. The V3 special scene update is a major job overhaul involving around 140-170 special animated scenes and is far from easy to do.
On Omake Scenarios
Because I was not sure I could do more, the Omake Scenarios only got started again recently, this time, continuing off <SPOILER>, but with a harem start. The omake scenario is done chapter by chapter, because quite frankly, I'm hitting my limits. So each omake assumes 1x special scene, and this is on top of the 3x special scenes sets I'm busy with every month. This is a secret Omake Scenario unlockable somewhere in the main story of the game. That's all I'm going to say because of spoiler reasons.
On "Milking" The Game
Short answer is no, we weren't "milking" Ramen. I do understand why some of you would view it as such though, and the situation as explained above, and me not communicating the Secret Route's updates properly led to this belief. I cannot tell you what you want to believe in, but please consider this: If I wanted financial stability, it won't be me "putting even more time/money/effort" on updating and "milking" Ramen. It'd be moving on from Ramen. If I wanted to "milk" Ramen, putting so much effort into these updates doesn't make any sense as that's just a waste of time then.
I can't promise anything - to be on the safe side - but I'm set on finishing the new V3 special scene sets (and obviously the omake scenario). It will take me some time to do, and just like Summer in Springtime, I'll eventually get it done at the pace I'm able to. This is a hobby to me and Sharkie, after all. For me, I'll continue to do what I can do - the animated special scenes. There were other reasons like coding fixes that took up a lot of time, but that's just cherry on top.
V3 Special Scene Set and Omake No. 6 Updates
Just to give you an idea how I'm managing with the V3 special scene sets and Omake No.6 updates. It takes me about 4 weeks to prepare and animate the V3 special scene sets. During this time, I sneak in a special scene that will be used in Omake no.6, but will leave it unfinished. After releasing an update to the game after this 4 weeks, it takes me around 1-2 weeks to put together the Omake scenario and finish up the animated special scene. After releasing another game update after this 1-2 weeks, I will go back to doing the next V3 special scene set.
I really hope this clears up any misunderstandings and resentments this past year or so. My sincere apologies if it was not explained before why the Secret Route suddenly was updated chapter-by-chapter instead of the usual four-chapter sets. Perhaps in hindsight, it would've been best if I told you guys ahead of time. Moving forward, I'm not expecting four-chapter sets, only what Sharkie gives me. But otherwise, I'll try and get this cleared up so I can let you know in advance, otherwise, I'll assume single chapter updates.
TL;DR of this is:
- Ramen is something we do on the side
- Sharkie does the storylines; stressed IRL; had depression, didn't know until later
- I do literally everything else; adapt to the situation; I can only do so much in a month; also stressed IRL
- Secret Route was supposed to be secret, but decided to release it in its form slowly because that's what I was getting
- New planned work into updating Ramen no Oujisama artworks and routes was looming. Main works done, but it's now huge and alot of that still remains to be done.
- Slow release of Secret Route became basis for "milking" belief
- Slow release of Secret Route gave me time to do a large number of updates to the game and test out Runicca game concept
- Currently busy with major V3 update to special scenes, adding specific scenes suitable to each genderbender secret code's options (M/F/F2)
- Alternate between the above v3 special scene updates and Omake No.6 harem story line (1 chapter at a time).
Thanks for reading,
Sincerely
-BB