VN Ren'Py Abandoned Stormside [v0.23.1.4] [Atemsiel]

[Black Orchid]

Statement from Atemsil on Patreon


Yoo, so my plan to drop into discord didn't pan out, but even so here I am with an update on what's going on. Posting this one public again for what feels like fairly obvious reasons.

Ok, first thing, Itch have not got back to me as of yet. That is not good news. I'm gonna keep my eye on that, but in the meantime, I've done two things.

Firstly, took a week off. That was pretty nice. Secondly, I started taking the idea of a second project more seriously, which I know will come as a disappointment to the majority of you, since you're all ultimately here for Stormside. I think I described my reasoning in the previous post, but after my week off I decided to try just making something that didn't have crazy routes and branching choices and that kind of thing, just to see what it was like, based on the potential plotline I mentioned before (Taliya's early discarded plotline). Part just to see how it felt, part to see how quick it was. Like I said before, I had plans in mind for it, but I hadn't actually tried making them material until now.

In short, I've enjoyed it. I still enjoy the process, and it's actually kinda nuts how fast things can be scrambled together when you don't have to consider branching. It reminds me of when I first started Stormside and everything was simple, except this time I actually know what I'm doing regarding RenPy and HS2. (Also, I had a shitload of code and sound assets to copy across from Stormside.)

Now, with that said, I haven't forgotten about what will need to be done with Stormside. I'll be honest, at this point, with life as it is, I will be placing it on indefinite hiatus. I differentiate it from being abandoned because I do want to finish it at some point, but right now after this year I feel that to dive back into that I'll need to be in my old headspace, which seems quite far away at the moment. A lot of things play into that. The world, personal finance, general mental health, all that. Essentially what's happening is that by the end of the month, I should have a 0.1 ready for this other project, which will of course be released here first. I haven't made any promotional material for it for itch or whatever, so once it's released here it probably won't end up hosted anywhere else for a few weeks unless it gets leaked.

Back to Stormside though. I've been scrambling this new project 0.1 together because I feel the need to release SOMETHING this month, but unfortunately that thing isn't Stormside. I'm making my intentions clear now, and my intention is that I will transition to this new project, about which I'll probably release more details in the next few days. Once the 0.1 is released, I will switch my focus back to Stormside for the last time in what I expect to be a while to get the content for the update that never came released. Given my intention to transition to a new project, I plan to package the Stormside update as a kind of standalone send off exe, which will ask you a few questions about your previous choices at the start, and then let you play the content. I've been thinking the last two weeks about how to release it, but the reality I kept coming back to is that I just wasn't enjoying working on it, and 90% of that was making sure everything actually worked together will all the branching and shit. Also I'm fairly sure I accidentally broke save files like 2 months ago, and that finally sent me to the shadow realm. The content will be released because it is owed, but I only expect to connect it to the main game if I pick it up again in the future.

I should also bring up at this point that I have previously said that if I ever decided to abandon the game, I would release all assets, all code, everything, so that people could continue it if they want to. I'm in two minds about this at this point, because I've said a lot of things previously which I now recognise as "Haha, look how ethical I am" kinda bullshit which I said assuming it would never it would even come up. I'm fairly adamant about this one though, but I also don't consider the game abandoned, just on hiatus. If I were approached by someone with proven ability who wanted to take Stormside and continue it without my involvement, I would consider it depending on what they had planned, but at this time you can assume that for the foreseeable future, I will not personally be making new content for Stormside. I'm sorry guys.

Back to the new thing again though, I'll be completely honest. I have no idea if any of you guys will like it. That's an awful way to phrase it, but it's because whilst it's based on Taliya's old story, you have to remember that her character was a camgirl (Never officially confirmed in game, but that's what was going on with her). The new project leans into that pretty hard, and I know that's not going to work for some people. I do not expect everyone here at the moment to stick around for this new thing I'm making, simply because it isn't Stormside, and I also don't expect everyone who might be open to a new project to be on board with the subject matter I'm going for. All I can say for now is it's basically the same animation, sound and writing effort, except put into a linear game about camming. (More details in the next few days about that.)

I'm posting this at 4am my time, and I'm gonna go to bed right after this, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how this news is received. Thanks for being chill before guys when I eluded that this might be coming, and I hope this doesn't ruin anyone's day.

TLDR : Stormside on hold, new thing coming by the end of the August, scary times ahead for me potentially.

translation: the milking machine is beginning to run dry and i am too lazy to do anything substantial so i will resort to making ntr/cuck/whore slop

 

[Merlin-Magic]

translation: the milking machine is beginning to run dry and i am too lazy to do anything substantial so i will resort to making ntr/cuck/whore slop

Translation for your post: I am not smart enough to know that it takes two to three hours of rendering alone to make less than one minute of game play for a simple linear game using HS (IF you are really good at it). It takes more for Daz. Anything with multiple paths takes much longer. Therefore, I choose to complain about milking when I have no capability to create anything myself. I have no idea why developers get burned out, because I have never tried to learn anything myself. I also do not follow enough developers to know how much debt they get into, trying to make a game. It is much easier to complain than do actually DO something.

My statement: If you do not like what is happening here, move on to something else. I am sure you will find many things to complain about .

 

[Gh03TbL00d]

You know what pisses me off even more? The fact that he’s not gonna release the character cards or game files so someone else can do the job he isn’t willing to. No, he decided to give some bullshit “well the game isn’t technically abandoned so I don’t have to release any of the things I said I would”

Look, if he’s burnt out on the game, fine. If he doesn’t want to work on it again, that’s ok, it happens all the time with AVNs. But the fact that he’s being so scummy about it and dangling the possibility that he may come back and work on it again is such a red flag for this guy as a developer. I have no doubt he’s just refusing to release the cards and game files because he’s afraid that someone else will come along and make a better game than he could. Sure, he said he’ll “consider” giving the cards and game files if someone asks, but I’ll bet money that if they say they’re gonna make it a linear game because his idea for it is too complicated and ambitious, he’ll outright refuse.

I’ll happily take this all back if his new game is amazing, but it’d have to be Eternum levels of quality and storytelling to make up for the shit he’s been pulling. I sincerely hope he loses the rest of his paid subs until he at least releases the character cards for Stormside. I don’t know how anyone can trust him at this point. Anyway, there’s my rant

 

[Meiri]

I mean, it is enough if people put just two braincells into it and decide on their own how they want to deal with a game being on hold. As the Dev said, they will not release further Updates for Stormside for a foreseeable future.
So people can decide if they want to stay and hope for Stormside or if they quit their subscriptions. I know, abandoning it would make it more clear, but as I said - it does not take much brainpower to do this decision.

And honestly, keeping Stormside around for the off-chance that the Dev wants to work on it again is a good thing. The Dev is burned out from it, but apparently they think themselves that they will come back to the game at some point, even tho they dont know when this point will be. Abandoning on the other hand has the feeling that they will never go back to it and I guess this is difficult to do when you put so much work into it already.

And in the end, being on hold or abandoned is the same anyway - there are no Updates, but the first one leaves an opening. Not that I would put any hope that there will be further Updates.

Personally also not sure what the Dev wants to do with their new Project, I would not mind a male protagonist game involving Camgirls, especially because I personally hope that the Dev can re-use the assets from Stormside, because I really liked the girls and their looks. Not sure if I would enjoy a female protagonist game.

I wish I could think more positively about all of this, but I just can't. One of the worst things a developer can do, in my opinion, is to fail to communicate properly with their community.

This trick of not completely closing the door on Stormside and leaving it "on hold" gives people false hope that if the developer is successful, they may come back to it. Which to me is a bad practice and also:

1. There is no guarantee they won't burn out again and disappear once more.
2. Even if he is serious and does manage to complete this new game, it's going to take several years. By that time, they might as well just redo Stormside from scratch.

So just say it as it is and move on, be honest, to me if a big company tried to pull this move I would also be angry so I think he should also be accountable.

I really hope that with this new game, the developer treats their new players and Patreon supporters better.

 

[Juerhullycin]

Translation for your post: I am not smart enough to know that it takes two to three hours of rendering alone to make less than one minute of game play for a simple linear game using HS (IF you are really good at it). It takes more for Daz. Anything with multiple paths takes much longer. Therefore, I choose to complain about milking when I have no capability to create anything myself. I have no idea why developers get burned out, because I have never tried to learn anything myself. I also do not follow enough developers to know how much debt they get into, trying to make a game. It is much easier to complain than do actually DO something.

My statement: If you do not like what is happening here, move on to something else. I am sure you will find many things to complain about .

did you try these 3 simple steps before crying about people complaining?

Before complaining, take the following steps:
#1 Learn RenPy. (It is free to download)
#2 Learn Daz. (Easy to learn, Hard to get good.
#3 Now if you think you are hot shit, learn Blender.

 

[apollo_126]

Yoo, so my plan to drop into discord didn't pan out, but even so here I am with an update on what's going on. Posting this one public again for what feels like fairly obvious reasons.

Ok, first thing, Itch have not got back to me as of yet. That is not good news. I'm gonna keep my eye on that, but in the meantime, I've done two things.

Firstly, took a week off. That was pretty nice. Secondly, I started taking the idea of a second project more seriously, which I know will come as a disappointment to the majority of you, since you're all ultimately here for Stormside. I think I described my reasoning in the previous post, but after my week off I decided to try just making something that didn't have crazy routes and branching choices and that kind of thing, just to see what it was like, based on the potential plotline I mentioned before (Taliya's early discarded plotline). Part just to see how it felt, part to see how quick it was. Like I said before, I had plans in mind for it, but I hadn't actually tried making them material until now.

In short, I've enjoyed it. I still enjoy the process, and it's actually kinda nuts how fast things can be scrambled together when you don't have to consider branching. It reminds me of when I first started Stormside and everything was simple, except this time I actually know what I'm doing regarding RenPy and HS2. (Also, I had a shitload of code and sound assets to copy across from Stormside.)

Now, with that said, I haven't forgotten about what will need to be done with Stormside. I'll be honest, at this point, with life as it is, I will be placing it on indefinate hiatus. I differentiate it from being abandoned because I do want to finish it at some point, but right now after this year I feel that to dive back into that I'll need to be in my old headspace, which seems quite far away at the moment. A lot of things play into that. The world, personal finance, general mental health, all that. Essentially what's happening is that by the end of the month, I should have a 0.1 ready for this other project, which will of course be released here first. I haven't made any promotional material for it for itch or whatever, so once it's released here it probably won't end up hosted anywhere else for a few weeks unless it gets leaked.

Back to Stormside though. I've been scrambling this new project 0.1 together because I feel the need to release SOMETHING this month, but unfortunately that thing isn't Stormside. I'm making my intentions clear now, and my intention is that I will transition to this new project, about which I'll probably release more details in the next few days. Once the 0.1 is released, I will switch my focus back to Stormside for the last time in what I expect to be a while to get the content for the update that never came released. Given my intention to transition to a new project, I plan to package the Stormside update as a kind of standalone send off exe, which will ask you a few questions about your previous choices at the start, and then let you play the content. I've been thinking the last two weeks about how to release it, but the reality I kept coming back to is that I just wasn't enjoying working on it, and 90% of that was making sure everything actually worked together will all the branching and shit. Also I'm fairly sure I accidentally broke save files like 2 months ago, and that finally sent me to the shadow realm. The content will be released because it is owed, but I only expect to connect it to the main game if I pick it up again in the future.

I should also bring up at this point that I have previously said that if I ever decided to abandon the game, I would release all assets, all code, everything, so that people could continue it if they want to. I'm in two minds about this at this point, because I've said a lot of things previously which I now recognise as "Haha, look how ethical I am" kinda bullshit which I said assuming it would never it would even come up. I'm fairly adamant about this one though, but I also don't consider the game abandoned, just on hiatus. If I were approached by someone with proven ability who wanted to take Stormside and continue it without my involvement, I would consider it depending on what they had planned, but at this time you can assume that for the forseeable future, I will not personally be making new content for Stormside. I'm sorry guys.

Back to the new thing again though, I'll be completely honest. I have no idea if any of you guys will like it. That's an awful way to phrase it, but it's because whilst it's based on Taliya's old story, you have to remember that her character was a camgirl (Never officially confirmed in game, but that's what was going on with her). The new project leans into that pretty hard, and I know that's not going to work for some people. I do not expect everyone here at the moment to stick around for this new thing I'm making, simply because it isn't Stormside, and I also don't expect everyone who might be open to a new project to be on board with the subject matter I'm going for. All I can say for now is it's basically the same animation, sound and writing effort, except put into a linear game about camming. (More details in the next few days about that.)

I'm posting this at 4am my time, and I'm gonna go to bed right after this, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how this news is received. Thanks for being chill before guys when I eluded that this might be coming, and I hope this doesn't ruin anyone's day.

TLDR : Stormside on hold, new thing coming by the end of the August, scary times ahead for me potentially.

a follow up to his last post.

Hi , i hope u can complete the Stomside game , for my side i can wait and donate for the Project running to the end . Hope you save health . nice day !!

 

[reid1]

The biggest issue here is, beside the obvious lack of communication which takes the cake, is that the dev is planning to do exactly what he said he'd never done, a linear game. He repeated a million of times that "it was Stormside (a not linear game) or nothing for him".

Now, he's putting Stormside on indefinite hiatus (translation: abandoned, but not officially, so that delusional people can keep supporting) to make a linear game, because he's apparently fed up with Stormside. Surely, he won't get bored by how much linear and simple the new game will be and drop it as well after milking patrons long enough, am I right?

 

[Juerhullycin]

he goes from a harem game straight to whore/prostitution slop

 

[Black Orchid]

Translation for your post: I am not smart enough to know that it takes two to three hours of rendering alone to make less than one minute of game play for a simple linear game using HS (IF you are really good at it). It takes more for Daz. Anything with multiple paths takes much longer. Therefore, I choose to complain about milking when I have no capability to create anything myself. I have no idea why developers get burned out, because I have never tried to learn anything myself. I also do not follow enough developers to know how much debt they get into, trying to make a game. It is much easier to complain than do actually DO something.

My statement: If you do not like what is happening here, move on to something else. I am sure you will find many things to complain about .

you chose to write this essay to defend him after he himself hasn't bothered to update the very people who were covering his debt (if that was even ever a thing) for nearly a year. oh he also never paused the billing once or mentioned it.

 

[MorallyLucky]

he goes from a harem game straight to whore/prostitution slop

Is that what he's actually doing? I thought it would be something like Hooked where it's a male protag filming adult video with chicks. If this is yet another slut simulator though then yeah, i'll pass.

 

[Nadekai]

What was the supposed Taliya's scrapped plot?

 

[MorallyLucky]

What was the supposed Taliya's scrapped plot?

Back to the new thing again though, I'll be completely honest. I have no idea if any of you guys will like it. That's an awful way to phrase it, but it's because whilst it's based on Taliya's old story, you have to remember that her character was a camgirl (Never officially confirmed in game, but that's what was going on with her). The new project leans into that pretty hard, and I know that's not going to work for some people. I do not expect everyone here at the moment to stick around for this new thing I'm making, simply because it isn't Stormside, and I also don't expect everyone who might be open to a new project to be on board with the subject matter I'm going for. All I can say for now is it's basically the same animation, sound and writing effort, except put into a linear game about camming. (More details in the next few days about that.)

 

[JigglyPal]

Based on the conversations he and I have had about devs ghosting or vanishing to avoid admitting to abandonment, I am 100% confident that that's not what this is. If it was, he would have told me.

I am normally reluctant to post DMs, but there has been so much baseless speculation here that I'm going to do so. This should establish that I'm not talking out of my ass, and refute at least some of the assumptions.

View attachment 4770694

View attachment 4770697
(I did message him before posting in this thread again, and have heard nothing since October 2024.)

The context of both of these were us chatting about a game or dev who abandoned or ghosted a game/community.

Reposting Tiur's posted conversations with Atemsiel, since Atem said they'd probably release the files in case of abandonment and does not seem to be doing that.

Hopefully this won't directly ping and bother Tiur, but sorry if it does.

 

[Krytax123]

I should also bring up at this point that I have previously said that if I ever decided to abandon the game, I would release all assets, all code, everything, so that people could continue it if they want to. I'm in two minds about this at this point, because I've said a lot of things previously which I now recognise as "Haha, look how ethical I am" kinda bullshit which I said assuming it would never it would even come up. I'm fairly adamant about this one though, but I also don't consider the game abandoned, just on hiatus. If I were approached by someone with proven ability who wanted to take Stormside and continue it without my involvement, I would consider it depending on what they had planned, but at this time you can assume that for the forseeable future, I will not personally be making new content for Stormside. I'm sorry guys.

Man this seems to conclude the devs whole mindset lol, talking lots of well meaning shit as long as it costs him nothing but when it counts he's the first to make the most morally questionable choices possible for his own gains. Like wtf, how can you be so unapologetic spineless. That is some serious "I will be a good guy as long as i get rich due to it" energy.

I just subbed once in the past and therefore am not really a victim of his shady buisness practices but i would be so utterly furious as a long term sub, you cant imagine it lol

He didnt even properly apologized for deceiving people out of their money for close to a year and comes off as the most self-entitled "whoe is me" crybaby around. He will take the support gladly but you better dont have any expectations, he may takes your money for a year just to use it for something opposite to your interest.

I dont even care about the camgirl thing, i will play it if its good (but 100% not sub ever again, i will pirate the shit forever out of his avns lol) but im aware (like the dev himself too) how many harem fans hate this stuff which makes the decision even more ... interesting .. considering that these are probably at least partially the guys who supported him.

He really has talent but at this point thats worth nothing anymore

 

[Demoness_Kiss]

He really has talent but at this point thats worth nothing anymore

View attachment 5176121

NTR-people also enjoy "financial NTR(being cucked out of their paychecks)"

That's why NTR as a genre is so well paid.

(why i say this is about NTR? Someone recently said that the Taliya-thing-whatever is NTR, i decided to trust them XD)

 

[romo-ice]

Yoo, so my plan to drop into discord didn't pan out, but even so here I am with an update on what's going on. Posting this one public again for what feels like fairly obvious reasons.

Ok, first thing, Itch have not got back to me as of yet. That is not good news. I'm gonna keep my eye on that, but in the meantime, I've done two things.

Firstly, took a week off. That was pretty nice. Secondly, I started taking the idea of a second project more seriously, which I know will come as a disappointment to the majority of you, since you're all ultimately here for Stormside. I think I described my reasoning in the previous post, but after my week off I decided to try just making something that didn't have crazy routes and branching choices and that kind of thing, just to see what it was like, based on the potential plotline I mentioned before (Taliya's early discarded plotline). Part just to see how it felt, part to see how quick it was. Like I said before, I had plans in mind for it, but I hadn't actually tried making them material until now.

In short, I've enjoyed it. I still enjoy the process, and it's actually kinda nuts how fast things can be scrambled together when you don't have to consider branching. It reminds me of when I first started Stormside and everything was simple, except this time I actually know what I'm doing regarding RenPy and HS2. (Also, I had a shitload of code and sound assets to copy across from Stormside.)

Now, with that said, I haven't forgotten about what will need to be done with Stormside. I'll be honest, at this point, with life as it is, I will be placing it on indefinate hiatus. I differentiate it from being abandoned because I do want to finish it at some point, but right now after this year I feel that to dive back into that I'll need to be in my old headspace, which seems quite far away at the moment. A lot of things play into that. The world, personal finance, general mental health, all that. Essentially what's happening is that by the end of the month, I should have a 0.1 ready for this other project, which will of course be released here first. I haven't made any promotional material for it for itch or whatever, so once it's released here it probably won't end up hosted anywhere else for a few weeks unless it gets leaked.

Back to Stormside though. I've been scrambling this new project 0.1 together because I feel the need to release SOMETHING this month, but unfortunately that thing isn't Stormside. I'm making my intentions clear now, and my intention is that I will transition to this new project, about which I'll probably release more details in the next few days. Once the 0.1 is released, I will switch my focus back to Stormside for the last time in what I expect to be a while to get the content for the update that never came released. Given my intention to transition to a new project, I plan to package the Stormside update as a kind of standalone send off exe, which will ask you a few questions about your previous choices at the start, and then let you play the content. I've been thinking the last two weeks about how to release it, but the reality I kept coming back to is that I just wasn't enjoying working on it, and 90% of that was making sure everything actually worked together will all the branching and shit. Also I'm fairly sure I accidentally broke save files like 2 months ago, and that finally sent me to the shadow realm. The content will be released because it is owed, but I only expect to connect it to the main game if I pick it up again in the future.

I should also bring up at this point that I have previously said that if I ever decided to abandon the game, I would release all assets, all code, everything, so that people could continue it if they want to. I'm in two minds about this at this point, because I've said a lot of things previously which I now recognise as "Haha, look how ethical I am" kinda bullshit which I said assuming it would never it would even come up. I'm fairly adamant about this one though, but I also don't consider the game abandoned, just on hiatus. If I were approached by someone with proven ability who wanted to take Stormside and continue it without my involvement, I would consider it depending on what they had planned, but at this time you can assume that for the forseeable future, I will not personally be making new content for Stormside. I'm sorry guys.

Back to the new thing again though, I'll be completely honest. I have no idea if any of you guys will like it. That's an awful way to phrase it, but it's because whilst it's based on Taliya's old story, you have to remember that her character was a camgirl (Never officially confirmed in game, but that's what was going on with her). The new project leans into that pretty hard, and I know that's not going to work for some people. I do not expect everyone here at the moment to stick around for this new thing I'm making, simply because it isn't Stormside, and I also don't expect everyone who might be open to a new project to be on board with the subject matter I'm going for. All I can say for now is it's basically the same animation, sound and writing effort, except put into a linear game about camming. (More details in the next few days about that.)

I'm posting this at 4am my time, and I'm gonna go to bed right after this, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how this news is received. Thanks for being chill before guys when I eluded that this might be coming, and I hope this doesn't ruin anyone's day.

TLDR : Stormside on hold, new thing coming by the end of the August, scary times ahead for me potentially.

a follow up to his last post.

"Indefinite hiatus" is just a bullshit excuse to not release the HS2 assets. There's been numerous posts for how Atem could make the game more manageable going forward, I bet there were just as many posted to the discord, but it's clear he just doesn't want to deal with it. Simply disappointing.

 

[mok135]

Fan continuations of such high quality projects NEVER work out. I don't get why you guys are expecting that if he releases the assets someone will actually build something competent using them lol. I would rather the developer comes back and continues the game eventually rather than destroy that chance by someone's slop.

 

[mok135]

I am glad though that Atemsiel is coming back with another project. I had been pretty sure that he gave up on nfsw game development, so this move is a good thing in my eyes. There aren't that many nfsw developers out there that are capable of developing games on this level.

 

[Nadekai]

So is it over for this game then?

 

[MorallyLucky]

So is it over for this game then?

It doesn't get more over than the dev literally saying it so... yes?