Others RogueSmut (Development Thread)

[Kinderalpha]

Let me introduce you to Roguesmut! A turn-based erotic roguelike made in Love2D, an open-source Lua game development framework. Play how you want to play, and get off while doing it. No more linear storytelling with shallow plots, no more 'under construction' routes. Adventure through a labyrinth of rooms and corridors, escaping danger, transforming your character, and writing your own story. During the game, you'll encounter many trials, puzzles, and other characters that you can interact with. Whether you want to slutify yourself, or rise above as an epic heroine. Your story begins here. This game will heavily focus on replayibility, procedural generation, and delivering depth through overlapping game systems.

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I want to use this section to talk about the design, and some of the goals I have. Let's begin with the design. In Roguesmut, you play as a female protagonist that has found herself trapped in the depths of the earth in what appears to be a sick labyrinth of traps, puzzles, and other creatures. Unsure of how you ended up in this dungeon, or how to get out, your adventure starts. You will meet many other characters like yourself who have been trapped in this dungeon for a long time, each having varying personalities and views of their circumstance. Along the way, you'll uncover truths about where you are, how you got there, and mysterious truths of the creator. The main goal of the game is to ascend to the surface alive. Along the way, you may find yourself going through various erotic experiences, intentionally letting your character fall to defeat, or endlessly exploring for hidden treasures and unique items to help you advance. The primary design goal is to allow you, the player, to play how you want to play. If you think you should be able to do something, I wanna provide the systems necessary to make that happen.​

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My goal for this project is create an adult game that feels like a home. I want to be able to pickup the game, and play it over and over. Each time, going through different scenarios, experiencing content in different ways, and exploring different fetish or lewd content. Every time I go back to the game, I wanna be eager to try a different style of play. This authenticity and replayability is what makes roguelikes so much fun for me. In addition, I don't want to bind the player to a strict set of rules, actions, or linear progression that doesn't fit their ideal style of play. If you want to mind-control a character to then perform cunnilingus on yourself because they otherwise wouldn't out of their own will - then so be it. If you think you should be able to do something, then you should be able to do it. This may sound really complicated, but under-the-hood it's not too bad. I'll be posting dev-logs explaining my approach to this.​

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At this point, you may be wondering who I am, what experience I have, and why you should care. I'm not going to try to sell this idea that I'm exempt from burn-out or exhaustion, or that I'm the best at anything. It's possible that this may die out like many other projects. However, i'm not doing this project for money, I'm just doing it for the fun and experience. Because of this, I plan on releasing the game for free. I also am going to make it open-sourced for anybody willing to contribute or help. This is also to drive more attention toward modding if I ever decide to go that route. This means you can follow my progression directly on GitHub which I'll be posting the repository shortly. Obviously this will just be the source code of the project without any of the lewd content. Hopefully this communicates my philosophy of not shrouding my game in mysterious like other people do, and I'm not trying to sell out. I just wanna make a fun game.​

Some of the core features listed below. (TBD = To be determined)​

• Limitless procedural map generation.
• Top-down 2D graphics.
• Grid based dungeon crawling.
• Heavy RPG elements.
• Turn based combat and interactions.
• Emergent gameplay through overlapping systems.
• Procedural item and scenario generation.
• Character Transformation.
• Permadeath.

Here I'm going to talk about the tech I plan on using. First and foremost, let's talk about the framework. I'm using Love2D which is a free, open-sourced C++ framework with a Lua API for 2D game development. Being a framework, this means it only handles interfacing for graphics, media, and I/O. It also conveniently provides some game related functions like your draw, and update loops. It doesn't provide any graphical user interface, debugger, expansive tool set, or IDE like you may find in Unity or Unreal. I chose this framework because of my proficiency in Lua, and my need for a 2D framework. Lua itself is a very fast language, especially with how Love2D integrates LuaJIT. This provides me the necessary speed for real-time procedural generation without much overhead. It also let's me get away with some not-so-optimal programming patterns. This means I don't have to worry about memory management, garbage collection, buffers, or any management system for performance. It handles the dirty work for me, so I focus on the game itself. This was important to me, because from the get go I wanted to create my own engine, without focusing all my time on performance. Also with Love2D being open-sourced. I can easily modify any of the source files, or the Lua Implementation in the future to fit my performance needs if it becomes a problem. Although, this is highly unlikely.​

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Next, let's talk about renders. I initially wanted to commission the art for this game, but that doesn't seem very feasible. I'm going to need hundreds, maybe thousands of renders, and I'll need more and more as development goes. This is unfortunately the biggest downfall of this design, but It's something I've thought about for awhile. With themes such as transformation, armor and clothing, and varying sexual fetishes. There becomes this exponential increase of renders needed due to scene and scene variations. I'm not going to go out of control with this. I'm just going to make clever use of text and image hybrid. While some interactions may be too insignificant for an image, other interactions may have multiple images or animations. Hopefully this will be a seamless implementation that feels natural.​

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For this reason, I'm choosing to use Koikatsu Charastudio for the renders. Some may be turned away from this, others may find this exciting. It's the only suite that has a very quick workflow, low rendering times (virtually none), easy interface, consistent art style, and fits my needs. I've considered other options but it's just not realistic when it comes to time and effort. I'll be sure to post updates in the future with some previews on render quality, style, and the approach I'm taking with it. For now, I've been so wrapped up in the game development, I haven't bothered to spend much time in the program to make anything worth showing. This is my biggest hurdle so far; choosing which program I want to use to portray the adult content in my game. I'm still thinking about this every day - and weighing out other options and other methods of implementing the content I need.​

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Under the hood, I'm taking a decoupled approach to my games logic. This enabled me to create overlapping systems that are independent of each other. This allows systems and features to work in non-linear fashion, and allows me to enable all content from the start of the game. I'm going to achieve this by using an ECS (Entity Component System) architecture for my games data. I initially was going to do heavy composition based object oriented programming, but that still left me with monolithic class structures and hierarchies that I don't want to deal with. I'm not doing pure-ecs due to not being able to take advantage of the performance benefits of this architecture. So far this has been a lot of fun, and programming using data oriented design rather than object oriented design has been quite the experience. This will also allow very approachable mod support through JSON or scripts since modders won't need references to classes or objects in order to modify parts of the game.​

Q: I still don't understand how the game will play, what the point of it is, and how it will be different?!​

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I suck at summarizing.

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. This should give you an idea of what I mean by grid-based movement, turn-based combat, top-down, etc. Now if you're familiar with Lilith's Throne, CoC, TiTs, then you'll understand the type of content in the game, how transformation may work, and how lewd content is involved. I could do a better job of this by writing out multiple paragraphs describing design and features in-depth, but it's difficult for me to describe that complexity.

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on the roguelike genre for an idea on what core features will exist.​

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Q: Where can I find the source code, or contribute to your project?​

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You can find the GitHub repository here: [PRIVATE FOR NOW]. It lacks the licensed tilesets and sprites, and the adult (18+) renders. You will not be able to run the game by downloading the source so please don't post asking why. When I have a playable version, it will be compressed and distributed in an .exe. If you're looking to contribute to the project, or share your experience on a similar project you can contact me with the information found below. You can follow how often I'm committing changes, developer notes, and a wiki (in the future) here.​

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Q: How can I get in touch to make suggestions, help with development, or talk about features?​

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I want to be completely transparent in my development process. If you want to contact me, feel free to reply to this thread, direct message me on this forum, or add me on discord at: kinderalpha#6818. I'm excited to hear what you want to see in a game like this, answer any questions that may not be covered in this thread, and just talk about game development. I'm insanely passionate about this project, and could talk about it for hours on end. So no voice is not welcome, and any opinion or suggestion is openly invited.​

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Q: This sounds more like an indie game then an adult game?​

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That's probably because I'm doing a terrible job of describing my vision. I have a deep understanding of how I want the game to feel and play, but it's hard to express these ideas clearly for some reason. I don't want the game to feel like it's just a normal game with lewdness sprinkled into it. I want to heavily involve the adult themes into the core mechanics of that game. So until I can show some videos or images of gameplay and features, you're just gonna have to use your imagination haha.​

Thank you for your time. I'm creating this thread so early in development because quite frankly, it gets pretty lonely staring at code all day. I'm putting a lot of effort in this game, and if just one person shows interest and wants to play something I made, I'd be so excited. Below in the Change Log you will find the most recent development log. I will post development logs whenever I feel I've made enough progress from the last one, as I don't want to spam this thread. I am still in very early development, so I do not have any playable version as of now. This threads purpose is to create a form of communication between me, any contributors, and you the player. Ongoing discussions of game design, feature implementation, and polling can be found somewhere in here. Hopefully this is posted in the write section. Again, thanks for your time.​

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I like it!

I like how you presented your wall of text with a nice few title art. It is hard to try to summarize something you're passionate about. While I did get the vibe that this project is too large, it also sounded like you had realistic experience in terms of being familiar with the work load. I could see this taking 6 to 8 years before it exponentially picks up speed once enough foundation is had.

I'm not going to try to sell this idea that I'm exempt from burn-out or exhaustion,

Probably the first part that made me see your post in a favoriable light, it is good you are aware of this concern. Many of us here are devs, but we also experience a lot of burn out, or at least I do.

• Top-down 2D graphics.
• Grid based dungeon crawling.

Great, Perfect!
Art is definitely a challenge, and these constraints can definitely help. One thing I may suggest is schematical artwork can go a long way, and this is the best format for schematical art (basic lines and boxs, to represent things). I'm working on my own project, and something like this was a serious consideration.

I'm using Love2D which is a free, open-sourced C++ framework with a Lua API for 2D game development. Being a framework, this means it only handles interfacing for graphics, media, and I/O. It also conveniently provides some game related functions like your draw, and update loops. It doesn't provide any graphical user interface, debugger, expansive tool set, or IDE like you may find in Unity or Unreal.

It sounds like the perfect balance between the Unity Game Engine and Monogame Framework. I know Lua but hadn't heard of this frame work before (probably because I only use lua in minecraft XD)

Next, let's talk about renders. I initially wanted to commission the art for this game, but that doesn't seem very feasible. I'm going to need hundreds, maybe thousands of renders, and I'll need more and more as development goes.

Two critical things that may determine the success of your project can relate to art. Not the art itself, but its use and credits.

For the first critical aspect, I think one feature that needs to be implemented as soon as possible is a credit system. A way for different developers who contribute to the project to get their names in the credit. A list where they could put their name in and description, sub sectons, etc.

The second critical aspect, that I think will dictate the majority of the project, or at least in these early to mid-stages of development just before the game start to hone in on its final form; is abstraction, abstraction, abstraction. It would be nice to make a bunch of default images that devs can start working with. But then someone may come along with new images, either to replace previous works, or to introduce new content. Others will need to be easily start using the new art, or use different art if they choose (maybe one artist goes full hentai, while another goes full Daz3D with the art assets). Pick and choosing should be as simple as importing in libraries, at least in the best of cases.

by using an ECS (Entity Component System) architecture for my games data.

again, the critical about getting this to work, and be ready for other developers is abstraction. I use my own version of ECS that focuses on performance via dependency injection rather than component handling (can be the same thing at times). Lua, on the other hand, has limited abstraction capability. Objects are referenced tables, you can use tables to list functions references, and functions and function overloading is the only true form of abstraction in lua. While I think a lot of what you're suggesting is possible, without proper abstraction, implementing whole new systems partway after the early lower-level functions have been put in place would be nearly impossible without a total rewrite of the core system. If I were to contribute to a project like this, and I really needed abstraction for something (such as being able to hot-swap image packs) and couldn't practically do it in lua, I would probably explore how to get lua to execute external libraries or modify the framework so that it could load externall .dll, have those ready to be called and executed via lua, and pass up the final references up the chain, but then it would just be a bunch of trickery with calling the right functions in order.

I really like the idea, but as the system is developed, it will become harder and harder for new coders to jump on board, because they may need to learn more about the workings of the code before they know what is safe to change, while abstraction may make it easy to focus on just the parts they want to change. But my lua experience is limited so perhaps I am missing something.

But a great post, glad to see the occasional gem get posted.

 

[Kinderalpha]

I could see this taking 6 to 8 years before it exponentially picks up speed once enough foundation is had.

You had me rolling in laughter at this. Sometimes I feel the same way, but comparing the scope of my project to other roguelikes that use existing libraries like libtcod, I don't see it taking any longer than a year for final release. I'll have a playable version in a few months.

Great, Perfect!
Art is definitely a challenge, and these constraints can definitely help. One thing I may suggest is schematical artwork can go a long way, and this is the best format for schematical art (basic lines and boxs, to represent things). I'm working on my own project, and something like this was a serious consideration.

I'm not familiar with what schematical artwork is exactly. It sounds like something similar to templates? In that case, the foundation is being laid for that. I'm using tilesets which could easily be swapped out or modified. I can't publically release me current tileset as it's licensed, but in the future I'll commission this out. Any other artwork wont be touchable and will be part of the game itself.

Two critical things that may determine the success of your project can relate to art. Not the art itself, but its use and credits.

For the first critical aspect, I think one feature that needs to be implemented as soon as possible is a credit system. A way for different developers who contribute to the project to get their names in the credit. A list where they could put their name in and description, sub sectons, etc.

I definitely intend on giving credit anywhere it's due. However, I don't expect much contribution In terms of art. Especially in early development as people will have no idea what's necessary, needs improved, or what fits. These are all post production concerns that I'll hash out later. For now, I'll be purchasing, commissioning, or drawing the art myself.

The second critical aspect, that I think will dictate the majority of the project, or at least in these early to mid-stages of development just before the game start to hone in on its final form; is abstraction, abstraction, abstraction. It would be nice to make a bunch of default images that devs can start working with. But then someone may come along with new images, either to replace previous works, or to introduce new content. Others will need to be easily start using the new art, or use different art if they choose (maybe one artist goes full hentai, while another goes full Daz3D with the art assets). Pick and choosing should be as simple as importing in libraries, at least in the best of cases.

I don't really wanna elaborate on this too much because nothing is set in stone and this is really up for discussion. Ultimately this relies on how I approach modding. I could do it in a number of ways. I could create an API for modders to yse, and artwork or gameplay modifications can be imported that way. Or I can open the source to modders to re-release the game with their own flavor. I am probably going to opt for mod support through an API. This will allow the user to pick and choose which modifications they want in their game, and allows me to sandbox the modifications to the game to prevent malicious use and to make it more user friendly.

again, the critical about getting this to work, and be ready for other developers is abstraction. I use my own version of ECS that focuses on performance via dependency injection rather than component handling (can be the same thing at times). Lua, on the other hand, has limited abstraction capability. Objects are referenced tables, you can use tables to list functions references, and functions and function overloading is the only true form of abstraction in lua. While I think a lot of what you're suggesting is possible, without proper abstraction, implementing whole new systems partway after the early lower-level functions have been put in place would be nearly impossible without a total rewrite of the core system. If I were to contribute to a project like this, and I really needed abstraction for something (such as being able to hot-swap image packs) and couldn't practically do it in lua, I would probably explore how to get lua to execute external libraries or modify the framework so that it could load externall .dll, have those ready to be called and executed via lua, and pass up the final references up the chain, but then it would just be a bunch of trickery with calling the right functions in order.

This is where I kinda disagree. Abstractions in Lua follow suite with anywhere else. I think it relies more on your data architecture than your language. Since I'm using data oriented design rather than OOP, the amount of abstractions I need to provide contributers is very minimal. In the context of someone willing to contribute, they would either need to have a general understanding of my codebase or will need to communicate with me on what they're trying to accomplish. At that point, I can provide the relevant documentation for whatever feature they're trying to improve or create. With my current setup, if you wanted to create a module for the game which allows the player to jump vertically. You wouldn't need any information of the games code outside of the game loop, player components, and my ECS implementation.

For modding, similar steps apply. I haven't quite came to a consensus on how I wanna approach modding so really I don't wanna get to deep in this discussion.

I really like the idea, but as the system is developed, it will become harder and harder for new coders to jump on board, because they may need to learn more about the workings of the code before they know what is safe to change, while abstraction may make it easy to focus on just the parts they want to change. But my lua experience is limited so perhaps I am missing something.

This again falls back to my approach of using DOD rather than class structures. I don't have these monolithic class hierarchies that you need to know the entire composition of in order to modify. It's strictly data and system driven. If somebody wants to hop on board at any time, they could easily pick a system which they think could be improved upon, and do just that. Every systems logic is decoupled from the rest, and only the data is consistent throughout the game. This means modification in the scope of a single system won't break another part of the game.

I'm not to focused on making room for contributers right now because the game is still very early in development. Once I have a playable version where users can play and determine what they believe needs optimized or refined, I'll begin documentation on how to contribute, what does what, and so forth. Around this time, I'll have a better explanation of the design patterns and data architecture I'm using which will more clearly answer some of the concerns you shared. Thanks for your input though, it means the world to me.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

It's been a while since I built around DOD, but you mentioned providing an API. I often avoid this because it can be like learning a new language/framework, but in this case, with Lua and your DOD approach, I do think it sounds like a good idea! But as you say TBD as things take time to implement and experiment with what code you want.

It will just be about man hours until things are ready for people to hop on. Since you are doing a rouge-like, this recent video may be of interest.

 

[desttiny]

wow, i searched entire forum and this is the only thread that even mentions love2d. this will have to change!

i am also working on love2d project developing class based panel system with features like nested rendering, nested positioning, panel parenting(child panels render inside parents recursively), proper text-input panel with text selection and utf8 support, scroll panel, easing, etc. i know there is a bunch of other panel systems for love2d but they all always either lacking something or unnecessarily complicated for even basic use. the end goal is to make a proper engine for 2d based games, like renpy. but much more advanced.

i will def keep an eye on your project, so far no luck with running it. it seems it is missing some libs at the moment

 

[Saki_Sliz]

i searched entire forum and this is the only thread that even mentions love2d.

Seriously? strange I talk about it all the time on different forms

working on love2d project developing class based panel system

Are you implementing this in a game engine (renpy, unity)?

the end goal is to make a proper engine for 2d based games, like renpy. but much more advanced.

Or something more custom?

While live2D is technically '2D' when it is implemented in unity, it is actually a 3D mesh under the hood. At least in terms of using a vertex-based mesh. It is why you can basically do the same thing live2D does but with blender (or other 3D digital content creation tool) with a bit of technical know-how. But if you already know the low level graphics api (open gl, vulkan, etc) then you may already know that 2D game engines aren't really 2D, all the commands are 3D, we just use it in a 2D way. So it's not really a problem, though I don't know what graphic engine the renpy engine utilizes so I can't say much in regards to futher details of possible implementation. I just can't get myself to tolorate python other than running .cpp scrips.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Saki_Sliz you may be confusing

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with

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wow, i searched entire forum and this is the only thread that even mentions love2d. this will have to change!

i am also working on love2d project developing class based panel system with features like nested rendering, nested positioning, panel parenting(child panels render inside parents recursively), proper text-input panel with text selection and utf8 support, scroll panel, easing, etc. i know there is a bunch of other panel systems for love2d but they all always either lacking something or unnecessarily complicated for even basic use. the end goal is to make a proper engine for 2d based games, like renpy. but much more advanced.

i will def keep an eye on your project, so far no luck with running it. it seems it is missing some libs at the moment

Yes, I think the libs and the images are ignored in the GitHub repository because once I have adult images, I can't have them on GitHub without breaking their TOS. So for anyone wanting to build or contribute through GitHub will need to message me on discord.

It's cool that you found my post, haha. I plan on posting some video updates on the technical development and design of the game soon. What you described sounds interesting, and I thought of doing it too. The problem is I generally don't like visual novels so I didn't want to expand on it in a different language. That would be cool if people had a second option though, outside of RenPy, especially considering how powerful Lua is.

That's so cool man.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

@Saki_Sliz you may be confusing

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with

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XD yeah I think I did

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I've only recently learned about love2D, I'm on the fence for the time being about it.

 

[desttiny]

Yes, I think the libs and the images are ignored in the GitHub repository because once I have adult images, I can't have them on GitHub without breaking their TOS. So for anyone wanting to build or contribute through GitHub will need to message me on discord.

It's cool that you found my post, haha. I plan on posting some video updates on the technical development and design of the game soon. What you described sounds interesting, and I thought of doing it too. The problem is I generally don't like visual novels so I didn't want to expand on it in a different language. That would be cool if people had a second option though, outside of RenPy, especially considering how powerful Lua is.

That's so cool man.

I cant stand python. Except for custom blender plugins, because I must. I am not a fan of visual novels either. I am more interested in making a sandbox-like game but it requires VN features. Love2D is perfect, we just need a proper framework and I am sure everyone will be much happier with LUA as it is much friendlier language for this purpose(visual novels, sandbox VN games etc.)

Added you on discord for the libs

 

[Kinderalpha]

So I recorded some videos going over where I'm at in development, and design. I talk about what I've done, my approach to design, and some other things I think are kinda cool and wanted to share. I preferred this over typing out a wall of text, and I liked setting up the slide to reflect on accomplishments I've made so far. Probably will do more of these in the future just for fun. This is for anybody that's curious of what I've been up to.

Inside look at the technical development made.


Inside look at the progress of design, and discussion of such.


Again, here is my

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where you can also see

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made, a

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, and

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!

 

[felef]

I don't see it taking any longer than a year for final release.

Unless you already released a successful game this is not going to happen, you need to prepare how much time it will take make a an actually good game. People fall into to this trap so often, making demos and proof of concepts is nothing like a polished final product. The mentioned 6-8 years is realistic for a hobby side project, less if you do it full time of course.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Unless you already released a successful game this is not going to happen, you need to prepare how much time it will take make a an actually good game. People fall into to this trap so often, making demos and proof of concepts is nothing like a polished final product. The mentioned 6-8 years is realistic for a hobby side project, less if you do it full time of course.

Okay! If you wanna provide me some constructive criticism on why you think this will take six to eight years, I'd love to discuss it further. Otherwise, I respectfully disagree with everything in your post.

In the near future I'll make a better effort to clear the ambiguity surrounding my design and scope, because all the feedback so far has been, "This is going to take six to eight years, and I have no confidence in you as a developer" which is quite an issue. Im two months in, only slightly behind, and have quite a lot done so far.

 

[felef]

Okay! If you wanna provide me some constructive criticism

It's not a criticism it's an advice, I am not saying you are slow or doing anything wrong I am saying good work takes time and I always see devs severely underestimate the time it takes to make their first game.

 

[akuta]

Unless you already released a successful game this is not going to happen, you need to prepare how much time it will take make a an actually good game. People fall into to this trap so often, making demos and proof of concepts is nothing like a polished final product. The mentioned 6-8 years is realistic for a hobby side project, less if you do it full time of course.

I know there's the Ninety-ninety rule but what specifically would take a few years to get done?

 

[Kinderalpha]

It's not a criticism it's an advice, I am not saying you are slow or doing anything wrong I am saying good work takes time and I always see devs severely underestimate the time it takes to make their first game.

You might be under the impression that I'm learning all of the tools and the language I'm using, while also making a game ontop of that. In reality, I have experience in the language and framework of my choice. So not much time is spent learning how to program, as it is implementing and iterating over features and design.

Either case, I understand why you have the concerns you do. I'm sure many people who have glossed over this thread share similar opinions. Hopefully in the next few months I can improve the confidence people have in me and my aptitude to follow through with this!

 

[felef]

I know there's the Ninety-ninety rule but what specifically would take a few years to get done?

Since Lilith's Throne, CoC, TiTs were mentioned in the post, take a look at them. They all seem fairly simple, sure tits and coc has tons of writing but they also have a team for that and a good budget as well, coc has been around since forever and tits was built on that. Lilith's Throne has been in development for over 3 years with a single dev working on it full time with contributors for code, art, content. These are already successful games with constant delays and very little new content added. As development progresses on, everything just gets harder. Even though these games have poor code which is not an issue for a good programmer there will be plenty of things to slow you down. Polishing UI to make it functional takes ridiculous amount of time, even just making your game fun and not boring takes time. If you try to force creative work it will suffer in quality. One could say that his game will be simple enough it wont take much time but then it wont be successful, good games take time there are no shortcuts.

 

[akuta]

felef, thank you for the reply. I'm going to take a look at them.

 

[Stompai]

Since Lilith's Throne, CoC, TiTs were mentioned in the post, take a look at them. They all seem fairly simple, sure tits and coc has tons of writing but they also have a team for that and a good budget as well, coc has been around since forever and tits was built on that. Lilith's Throne has been in development for over 3 years with a single dev working on it full time with contributors for code, art, content. These are already successful games with constant delays and very little new content added. As development progresses on, everything just gets harder. Even though these games have poor code which is not an issue for a good programmer there will be plenty of things to slow you down. Polishing UI to make it functional takes ridiculous amount of time, even just making your game fun and not boring takes time. If you try to force creative work it will suffer in quality. One could say that his game will be simple enough it wont take much time but then it wont be successful, good games take time there are no shortcuts.

True, Lilith's throne has been in development since late 2016, but not full time right from the start. Devs can't reach enough financial stability to work full time on a project in a couple months, start with part-time then you reach the point where you can quit your actual job.
Lilith's throne also had the issue of his patreon page being deleted.

And let's also be honest, few will want to admit doing this, but when you reach THAT financial stability point, some might willingly or not, make sure this stability last as long as possible by dragging development for as long as possible. And that's perfectly normal for system like patreon where stability is always in danger.

All that said, it's true that development time is long but not to such an extent of 8-10 years

 

[Kinderalpha]

Oh hey, here's an update on the past two weeks. I'll highlight what I've done below, if you're not interested in the video and my commentary. Was busy the past two weeks, so minimal progress was made. I laid the grounds for a lot of systems that can now be expanded much more easily. Starting to look like an actual game now, haha. Still no lewdness, or non-placeholder art yet. I'm working on expanding my drawing skills everyday. Hopefully that will pay off in the end. Only was able to work for a couple hours on it tonight, but this is all the progress I made during that time. I feel pretty good about that.

> Base AI system done. Handles pathfinding, collision, and attacking.
> Base Turn system done. Dynamic priority queue for varying time units amongst actors. Each action having it's own cost and modifier associated.
> Scrolling combat effect, and the base for other visual effects in the game.
> Basic GUI to be used for features in the future, like the character, inventory, etc.
> Chat log for events, dialogue, and etc.

If anyone has any questions, or want's to talk or get involved in the project with their ideas, experience, or just for fun. Let me know! I love talking about what I'm doing and always looking to make some friends. Thanks guys!