Ren'Py Seeds of Chaos [v0.4.12a Non-Patreon] [Vénus Noire]

[Nym85]

There is no way in god's green earth this act is released in 2024 or 2025. The Astarte rewrite is not halfway through and then they will want to rewrite Rastedel which should take as much if not more. The team members clearly cannot contribute reliably.
And yes I think Rastedel needs a full rewrite. Seeds of Chaos Act I is sold like a full game yet right now there is no pay off in the epilogue. I don't expect us to win the battle but there should be a possible outcome where we are actually praised for it. At the end of the Rastedel battle or immediately after in an epilogue scene, you should be getting at least one porn scene, probably several porn scenes for the major routes you followed (Rowan with either/or Alexia, Andras or Jezera at the very least imo); all you now get is the statue scene.

BUT I don't think there is anything actually wrong with this. Patreon prices haven't changed as far as I'm aware (even though they should to account for inflation). They still deliver 4-5 scenes and about a dozen CGs every two months which is absolutely not great but it is not crazy for the money they are asking. Is it very poor for the size of the team and the length of time this has been going for? Absolutely. But the value for money has not significantly changed over the last few years.

And yeah, I don't get the gobbo fetish either. At least in Goblin Slayer porn a hob shows up by the end! I get why you need multiple options since this is the second main quest of the game so it needs to follow every route (Pure, Corrupt, Obedient to either Twin).

 

[Nym85]

The game writ large seems to be having consistency problems with writers in general- which I would posit has to do with how its finances are, much like Rowan in act 1, just treading water- while the cost of everything in the world goes up, up, up. I wouldn't be surprised if Arioch (lead dev) has to do more writing than he historically has needed to upkeep a decent progression unless either A) the game hits a big windfall somehow (unlikely) or the writers quit waffling (also unlikely).

I mean solo devs who make nothing deliver insane amounts of content while also working. I am sure it is much better for straight content but I can tell you I follow multiple gay projects with far better output. Most NSFW games seem to be passion projects. They ver much depend on writers' free time and free time can radically change with the most basic and common changes in your life. So a writer might be able to deliver 2-3 scenes every two months for multiple updates and then goes radio silent cause they are in a new relationship, they get a new job, they have a kid, they have a sick parent and those 40-50 hours they had available across two months suddenly become 5.
I know people here are unhappy about the pace and I know that the couple of devs who show up here try to put on a brave face but to me it seems they are just as burned out as we are. Not because they hate the game or anything but because they want a certain level of polish and the amount of work absolutely seems daunting given how expanded the scope is. The only ones who are really working regularly are their artists who I hope take the lions share of the patreon pot cause they very much deserve it.
I still think the biggest issue is project management but hey, most people don't start creating a NSFW project with a background in management; they start it with a coding or creative background. Usually their experience with project management is complaining about it

 

[Nym85]

ok why do you lying? go read this guys post.
monk_56
Active Member

And? why are we talking about total scenes? Why not about scenes released in the past X updates instead?

 

[Ellioto]

wondering what 2 scenes are called in the unren menu.

first the new xratal scene
second whatever scene has this art

 

[Foreeever]

i guess the xratal it's an alexia x cubi castle event and the rowan jezera is somewhere in the rastedel battle, tried to make an attempt to update the gallery mod but so far have a crash for it so idk, maybe tomorrow evening if i'll have time

 

[Gopnikas]

The issue here isn't scope. You can have all the scope you want, Sierra be my witness. The real issue either a lack of will to actually live up to that scope and stop the steady Patreon cash cow income, or incompetence on a level matched only by the most mismanaged Hoi4 mods (which for those unaware is saying a lot). If it's the former, the scope is actually just a nonexistent smokescreen to squeeze money out of fans and meaningless as a concept to be discussed. If it's the latter, then no amount of scope reduction would help without essentially killing the concept. I don't know which idea is sadder given that I've seen much, much smaller teams get infinitely more done in far less time for far less money than this. It's barely changed in the 5 years since I last tried it.

I adore the concept. I've wanted this to succeed for the longest time. I made this account to keep a better eye on this. But the team, to quote a friend of mine, "lacks the stuff" to actually carry it to its conclusion.

 

[DarkDuck09]

The issue here isn't scope. You can have all the scope you want, Sierra be my witness. The real issue either a lack of will to actually live up to that scope and stop the steady Patreon cash cow income, or incompetence on a level matched only by the most mismanaged Hoi4 mods (which for those unaware is saying a lot). If it's the former, the scope is actually just a nonexistent smokescreen to squeeze money out of fans and meaningless as a concept to be discussed. If it's the latter, then no amount of scope reduction would help without essentially killing the concept. I don't know which idea is sadder given that I've seen much, much smaller teams get infinitely more done in far less time for far less money than this. It's barely changed in the 5 years since I last tried it.

I adore the concept. I've wanted this to succeed for the longest time. I made this account to keep a better eye on this. But the team, to quote a friend of mine, "lacks the stuff" to actually carry it to its conclusion.

You're correct for the current team. The Andras x Alexia content up until the moment he gives her the bikini outfit is pretty fantastic. In fact, most of the writing was fantastic for a while. This is indicative of there being a clear goal and the team being passionate.

Now the team is worn and burnt out. They even admitted as such when their writing team basically dipped from burn out and they had to hire new writers.

Basically, they missed their chance to remedy the situation by tightening the scope. Now they've made a bunch of promises (both in the writing narrative and as developers) that they are never going to be able to deliver. Tightening the scope now just wouldn't make sense, and also with the team being worn and burnt out, wouldn't come out well regardless.

So you're correct, but so is the other guy.

 

[Nym85]

The issue here isn't scope. You can have all the scope you want, Sierra be my witness. The real issue either a lack of will to actually live up to that scope and stop the steady Patreon cash cow income, or incompetence on a level matched only by the most mismanaged Hoi4 mods (which for those unaware is saying a lot). If it's the former, the scope is actually just a nonexistent smokescreen to squeeze money out of fans and meaningless as a concept to be discussed. If it's the latter, then no amount of scope reduction would help without essentially killing the concept. I don't know which idea is sadder given that I've seen much, much smaller teams get infinitely more done in far less time for far less money than this. It's barely changed in the 5 years since I last tried it.

I adore the concept. I've wanted this to succeed for the longest time. I made this account to keep a better eye on this. But the team, to quote a friend of mine, "lacks the stuff" to actually carry it to its conclusion.

I don't see this as milking. They supposedly are going to have 3 acts and are in act 1. They could move at a decent pace and still keep Patreon up for a decade.
Personally I think it is burn out and mismanagement.

 

[bobi121]

wondering what 2 scenes are called in the unren menu.

first the new xratal scene
second whatever scene has this art View attachment 3938293

Jezeera absolutely begs to be bred.

 

[Kurokazewa]

I don't see this as milking. They supposedly are going to have 3 acts and are in act 1. They could move at a decent pace and still keep Patreon up for a decade.
Personally I think it is burn out and mismanagement.

Game first released 8 years ago and still on act 1. Regardless of if the intention is milking or not I don't think they will ever even see act 2 if they don't figure things out.

 

[Nym85]

Game first released 8 years ago and still on act 1. Regardless of if the intention is milking or not I don't think they will ever even see act 2 if they don't figure things out.

Sure. But that is a failed project. I objected to "milking" as a term because it implies that the dev is exploiting the patreons. As a term it has a clear (negative) moral value.

 

[Oriandu]

The issue here isn't scope. You can have all the scope you want, Sierra be my witness. The real issue either a lack of will to actually live up to that scope and stop the steady Patreon cash cow income, or incompetence on a level matched only by the most mismanaged Hoi4 mods (which for those unaware is saying a lot). If it's the former, the scope is actually just a nonexistent smokescreen to squeeze money out of fans and meaningless as a concept to be discussed. If it's the latter, then no amount of scope reduction would help without essentially killing the concept. I don't know which idea is sadder given that I've seen much, much smaller teams get infinitely more done in far less time for far less money than this. It's barely changed in the 5 years since I last tried it.

I adore the concept. I've wanted this to succeed for the longest time. I made this account to keep a better eye on this. But the team, to quote a friend of mine, "lacks the stuff" to actually carry it to its conclusion.

"Scope isn't the problem!" *immediately proceeds to explain why scope is actually the problem*

 

[Fleep]

I know I complain a lot about not seeing the end of this, but let's not be too pessimistic either. The game is moving forward, even if at a slow pace, and one by one the open plot threads are getting closed. After working on the same arcs, the writing team must obviously be burned out, but they seem passionate about the project and with the finish line so close, I can see them pushing through. Hell, judging by the roadmap that was posted, the NPCs arcs and the Fae are just about to get done. With some optimism, I can see at least one of them being over by the end of the year, leaving only the Goblins (of course) and the Astarte rewrite for next year. If I were them I'd leave the "Map" section tbh. We already have plenty of events and that work could be used in other areas.

Then, the arc 2 begins with new character arcs, new plots, new everything and the team can work on something fresh again.

 

[Nym85]

I also wonder if the sex is kept a bit more under control because this is just Act I. I don't know so much about the straight sex since I am mainly following this from the gay side of things, but Rowan's gay encounters are . . . fairly tame? Heck I'd say the roughest sex he's had so far was Andras at the intro. I'd hope with Act II things get more adventurous, slightly more kink and more group sex.

 

[Ellioto]

any update to the reply mod coming soon?

 

[Gopnikas]

"Scope isn't the problem!" *immediately proceeds to explain why scope is actually the problem*

Actually it's me explaining that regardless of scope the project would still be fucked be it because of malice or incompetence but whatever gets you going.

 

[Nym85]

Actually it's me explaining that regardless of scope the project would still be fucked be it because of malice or incompetence but whatever gets you going.

I think if the scope was more narrow, there would be less burn out so despite presumed incompetence, they'd still be moving faster.

 

[geoolympics]

any update to the reply mod coming soon?

the owner of the mod hasn't been seen since August 3rd

 

[Wiliam 1234567]

wondering what 2 scenes are called in the unren menu.

first the new xratal scene
second whatever scene has this art View attachment 3938293

Does anyone know how to find this scene?

 

[Raven_Light]

We might see the end of the first arc but I highly doubt we'll ever see the end of the second. The members of the development team who occasionally post her indicated that they already have ideas for more features that add nothing of value to the gameplay in the second game. Which is absolute insanity considering they completed the lion's share of the story for the first act a couple years ago and have been playing fill in the blanks with side content ever since. It has taken them over eight years to finish what a professional development team of the same size could complete in under a year. They make $10,000ish a month, which is obviously not enough for a development team of its size to work on full time, but at the same time they're eight years in and the team is still clearly a group of disorganized amateurs. The game is too big for how little play it offers.

They should of focused on the main story, main characters & and their ships(Rowan x Alexia, Rown x Jeerza/Andras and Alexia x Jeerza/Andras), and main secondary characters (Rowan x Alexia x Greyhide/X'zaratl/Clamin/Cliohna etc.) first then focus on the side characters/side stories, then continue on the story again etc. I don't see this game making it out of Act 1 "completely" (something shortened), or half way into act two. With all the rewrites on top of that which doesn't help progression either. Great game, because the sex is implemented into the story and decisions almost feel like they almost most of the time and the plot is fairly decent, but I'm betting it will become abandoned over time.

And I have question is Rain still working on this game, or did they left? Just curious cuz I hadn't seen him/her reply on here in while.