Others Abandoned Secret Horse Files 3 [v0.36] [Levy]

4.10 star(s) 9 Votes

masMalkar

Member
May 26, 2017
165
241
Meh, waited for Bannerlord, and shit's still in EA so fuck me I can wait for weird equine ahegao simulator 2077
 

The Corsair76

Newbie
Jul 15, 2018
77
90
At this point, with all the shit going on in the world, I'm just hoping something didn't happen to the developer.
 

salty145

Newbie
Jan 12, 2019
33
45
Is Levy active anywhere online besides patreon? They haven't responded to their patreon subscribers in about a month.

NVM, they're posting regularly on their discord.
 
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salty145

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Jan 12, 2019
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Progress Update 6
Time for a spooky progress update. What's spooky is how long this shit is taking.
So I've had to do even more revamping of core systems. The most recent thing is the inflation system and breathing systems. They already underwent a big set of changes, but I realized things just weren't going to function without more work put into them.
"So when the hell will this be done?"
There's a couple big systems to wrap up work on, then some final cleanup passes. I suck at estimating, but I'm pretty confident that this'll end up being a mid-November update. Take that as you will >.<'
There are three big reasons this is taking forever:
  • Shiny things distract me.
  • If some code needs to be majorly revamped to work well, and rewriting that code will lay the groundwork for future features, then I've just been revamping it. This is a relapse into poor work habits for me. I'll need to recenter after this update is done and make some serious changes to how I cope with challenges like this.
  • Honestly, it's just a lot of work and it's hard to predict how long each step will take >.<'
The important thing I want to stress is that the game works, the new features work, and it's just taking a lot of time. Indie games that hit big delays like this always make me super nervous, because sometimes it's a sign that the project is collapsing. So no, not collapsing, just super slow. If you're concerned about throwing money at a project that isn't making visual progress, please feel comfortable pausing donations until you see proof that work is being done. It's what I would do as a patron. I'm honestly blown away that so many of you are this patient.
I'll try to keep up with making progress updates. I'm not great at maintaining an internet presence in general, but some of my friends are forcing me to stream my work on the game once a week. on Thursdays at . Voice chat is a complete spaghetti-fest but I do answer any questions from chat.
okay back to hiding and working on the update <3
Putting myself into the shoes of his patrons, this is pretty hard to read.

Judging by the comments in his last update, a lot of his patrons are frustrated and looking for an explanation for the delays and radio-silence. This update, posted on the 11th hour again, seems to suggest the cause of these delays are bad work ethic. No screen-caps, proof of work or anything. When your friends have to force you to do a stream in order to prove you're working, somethings off.

I'm not gonna attack this dude; I'm sure this is hard work. But when 450 people are paying you roughly $4000 a month, you need to be transparent and avoid making promises you can't keep. Maybe pitch 25 buck over to one of his friends to help him make one or two posts on what he's doing so patrons can feel engaged and don't feel used.
 
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NullOneHere

Newbie
Jan 6, 2019
17
24
The streams actually slow his work to be fair, but they help him keep in touch with his patrons so it is worth it just for that. I'm not going to say much more then that since I don't feel it is my place to do so, but I haven't been disappointed yet, even if it takes him longer than he expected.

So don't worry about it.
 

salty145

Newbie
Jan 12, 2019
33
45
The streams actually slow his work to be fair, but they help him keep in touch with his patrons so it is worth it just for that. I'm not going to say much more then that since I don't feel it is my place to do so, but I haven't been disappointed yet, even if it takes him longer than he expected.

So don't worry about it.
Realistically, the streams are a few hours once a week though, right? And they're working on the game during that time.

I just thought it strange how they kept giving patrons the impression that they were close to releasing the new update. It's a bit of a red flag in my eyes when considering patrons are charged on the 1st of each month and each update seemed to be promising something will be released just after the renewal date.
August 31: They gave patrons the download links in anticipation of an early September release, saying they're optimistic they'll "finish it up by tomorrow, or it takes a few more days than that."​
September 30: They said they'd have it out by midnight in their update.​
October 31: they give an update saying it'll be out some time in November.​

That three month span represents roughly $12,000. That's what I was trying to get at about taking transparency and frequent updates seriously.
 
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KL-001-A

Member
Dec 16, 2019
395
744
"Help him keep in touch with his patrons"

The guy just ghosted his Patreon account for a full month, and slowing his work should not be an option when he's two full months late.
 
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NullOneHere

Newbie
Jan 6, 2019
17
24
Realistically, the streams are a few hours once a week though, right? And they're working on the game during that time.

I just thought it strange how they kept giving patrons the impression that they were close to releasing the new update. It's a bit of a red flag in my eyes when considering patrons are charged on the 1st of each month and each update seemed to be promising something will be released just after the renewal date.
August 31: They gave patrons the download links in anticipation of an early September release, saying they're optimistic they'll "finish it up by tomorrow, or it takes a few more days than that."​
September 30: They said they'd have it out by midnight in their update.​
October 31: they give an update saying it'll be out some time in November.​

That three month span represents roughly $12,000. That's what I was trying to get at about taking transparency and frequent updates seriously.
You do have a point there, Levy is having trouble getting this update out indeed, mostly because he keeps finding systems he has to update/rebuild to make the new stuff work right. But he himself acknowledges that this is a problem and that he doesn't want to delay the update.

Which is why I don't get the transparency complaint though, he usually does update regularly, and always lets us know when an update has gone pear-shaped on him. Which is exactly what happened, he thought he could get the update out, but found something he had to fix and it snowballed from there.

The bottom line is, he is going to get this update out, just not when he expected or wanted to.

So again, don't worry about it.
 

salty145

Newbie
Jan 12, 2019
33
45
You do have a point there, Levy is having trouble getting this update out indeed, mostly because he keeps finding systems he has to update/rebuild to make the new stuff work right. But he himself acknowledges that this is a problem and that he doesn't want to delay the update.

Which is why I don't get the transparency complaint though, he usually does update regularly, and always lets us know when an update has gone pear-shaped on him. Which is exactly what happened, he thought he could get the update out, but found something he had to fix and it snowballed from there.

The bottom line is, he is going to get this update out, just not when he expected or wanted to.

So again, don't worry about it.
I'm not worried about an MLP porn game. I'm just observing this.

He lost +30 subscribers this month and roughly $400 in monthly funding. I enjoy this game and his work, so I obviously didn't want to see this happen, but it was without a doubt avoidable.
 
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4.10 star(s) 9 Votes