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

[wonky1977]

I just found this thread and got interested, but it seems to me that the game was abandoned.

Anyone?

The dev is actively working on the update. He regularily is in touch with his discord mods . And while it has been 10 months since the last update, the upcoming update should be large one. He has also indicated the subsequent updates will be much smaller and hopefully a more rapid release rate.

 

[lecture]

It's not too late to save this game, IMO the dev just needs to pick one route for each LI to be the canon route, and write that first. Then, come back and add the others if he still wants once the canon route is complete

 

[Elhemeer]

It's not too late to save this game, IMO the dev just needs to pick one route for each LI to be the canon route, and write that first. Then, come back and add the others if he still wants once the canon route is complete

I'm a bit confused ... So the dev should figure out his canon route for each of the seven main LI's, and only after working on those seven paths should he work on the side character stuff ... what makes you think that's not how he's doing things?

 

[Tiur]

I'm a bit confused ... So the dev should figure out his canon route for each of the seven main LI's, and only after working on those seven paths should he work on the side character stuff ... what makes you think that's not how he's doing things?

I mean, I'll say with certainty that that's not what he's doing, because I know a bit about his development process.

Also because that's not how the main girls' paths work in this game at all, and because the whole point of why he included the paths in the first place is that there isn't a canon choice for them.

I'll also say that he's never going to listen to people telling him to drop the paths or half-ass them (which is what "make one path until the main story's complete, then go back and make other paths" is). He's making the game he wants to make, and those path choices are integral to that.

It's also nowhere near as simple as "make one path, then go back and make the other paths", because those paths overlap significantly, requiring dialogue and visuals alteration for the different paths that see a given scene.

Lastly, he has also pretty heavily prioritized not breaking saves or forcing replays, and going back to insert paths later on would absolutely do both of those things.

 

[Elhemeer]

I mean, I'll say with certainty that that's not what he's doing, because I know a bit about his development process.

Also because that's not how the main girls' paths work in this game at all, and because the whole point of why he included the paths in the first place is that there isn't a canon choice for them.

I'll also say that he's never going to listen to people telling him to drop the paths or half-ass them (which is what "make one path until the main story's complete, then go back and make other paths" is). He's making the game he wants to make, and those path choices are integral to that.

It's also nowhere near as simple as "make one path, then go back and make the other paths", because those paths overlap significantly, requiring dialogue and visuals alteration for the different paths that see a given scene.

Lastly, he has also pretty heavily prioritized not breaking saves or forcing replays, and going back to insert paths later on would absolutely do both of those things.

Spoiler: PSST!!

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[Tiur]

Spoiler: PSST!!

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I thought you might be, but it was a good opportunity to stop people who keep telling the dev how to change his development technique entirely and change the game from what he wants to make and play. (Also, I'm fairly sure I've made it obvious that I'm autistic, and when I can't tell for sure if someone is being silly or ironic, I err on the side of a face-value interpretation.)

At the heart of it (and this is 100% not aimed at you): The way Atem is making the game, and how the game is structured, currently keeps him long-term interested in making the game regardless of its financial success. Changing how he is making the game and how the game is structured in order to court more financial success is a very strong contender for the "Best way to cause him to lose motivation to keep making the game" award.

 

[Elhemeer]

I thought you might be, but it was a good opportunity to stop people who keep telling the dev how to change his development technique entirely and change the game from what he wants to make and play. (Also, I'm fairly sure I've made it obvious that I'm autistic, and when I can't tell for sure if someone is being silly or ironic, I err on the side of a face-value interpretation.)

At the heart of it (and this is 100% not aimed at you): The way Atem is making the game, and how the game is structured, currently keeps him long-term interested in making the game regardless of its financial success. Changing how he is making the game and how the game is structured in order to court more financial success is a very strong contender for the "Best way to cause him to lose motivation to keep making the game" award.

 

[selestiel]

Dear Dev. there is definitely a big bug when you start game from beginning and arrive to school. After finishing messaging with dad. you should advance but mostly it just stuck with unread msg red light... I tried many times. It is still the same.
Laptop HP, Win10x64, Intel CoreI5 2.5-3.3GHz, 24gb ram x3200max, NVidia 4gb VRam, 5TB HDD+SSD's (20-40% free all drives). Please check it and fix it if possible...

 

[Forsixx]

Lastly, he has also pretty heavily prioritized not breaking saves or forcing replays, and going back to insert paths later on would absolutely do both of those things.

I mean if you want to play a different path, you'll have to replay the game. It's not like the game is sandbox and you can change the LI's path during a playthrough.

In my opinion, it's one of the rare game that would benefit from a certain sandbox aspect system. I mean who wouldn't want to break Olivia in half? lol

 

[DeiMan2077]

This is true, it affected me in that I work in IT, and it fucked up a bunch of my work clients, prompting a whole bunch of overtime to fix their issues. It hasn't been an issue for me for a while now though, and instead the simple fact behind why the update isn't out yet is...

This next part is less of a response to you, and more just a general statement.

Game takes a while to make, but definitely isn't abandoned. If it ever gets abandoned, I'll message the mods myself to have them mark the thread as such, and the monetisation stuff will be shut down. I won't take money for something I'm not working on. For those who are familiar with the 0.22 update, this one is roughly 0.22 sized in terms of renders, and probably about 60% the size in terms of animations. Sometimes it be like that.

My plan to do smaller more frequent updates has obviously not gone quite as I'd hoped, but it turns out that's the nature of the game. I could release things every month, but given how the branching works that could mean for some players they load up the update, click once, and they get "Thank you for playing". I prefer to just do all the things at once, so that an update includes everything that part of the game will ever be. Simpler that way.

I'm still working pretty much every day. This is a lot of why I rarely respond to stuff anymore. It's remarkable how draining things can be, even if you enjoy them, and for the last 4 months or so pretty much all energy I have outside of irl work has needed to go into either household stuff like cooking or cleaning, or the game itself. Once this update is out, I'll probably have to redistribute my time a little for the sake of health. I'm hoping after this update that the earnings from the game will be such that I can reduce my irl work hours a little to make things easier to manage, but I dunno yet. It's been a while, and I'm typing this on a pirate site after all, so I don't really know what to expect. For now I just gotta keep working.

Update is coming. It has some of my best shit in it, imo.

Is the game planned to be released on Steam? I would really like to support you to make everything work out.

 

[Boogie]

Is the game planned to be released on Steam? I would really like to support you to make everything work out.

It can not be released on Steam because it uses the Honey Select assets. That means you do not own the art you create with the software and can not sell it.

 

[DeiMan2077]

It can not be released on Steam because it uses the Honey Select assets. That means you do not own the art you create with the software and can not sell it.

It is sad

 

[Boogie]

It is sad

Aside from the usual Patreon and SubscribeStar options you can also pay for it on Itch.

 

[Sentinel13]

It's not too late to save this game, IMO the dev just needs to pick one route for each LI to be the canon route, and write that first. Then, come back and add the others if he still wants once the canon route is complete

So you think the best way to save the game is to abandon the major hook that drew people in to begin with?

 

[Vibesy]

So you think the best way to save the game is to abandon the major hook that drew people in to begin with?

So you agree the game needs to be "saved"? It's almost 14 months since 0.22, the last major game update. The 0.23 update in early February 2024 was extremely short with only a few scenes for one LI. The dev himself recommended skipping it if you weren't interested in that route.

Atemsiel clearly has talent but he also seems to have bitten off way more than he can chew between the 3 distinct LI paths, sidegirls, the worldbuilding, the plot. Simplification may be in order if it can help advance things. Because when updates get this drawn out from a new dev for a game being monetized on numerous platforms it does start to look like milking.

 

[we51nat0r]

really like the game but it does feel like 4 decks of cards shuffled together.....could really use some streamlining.

 

[Cherubin25]

really like the game but it does feel like 4 decks of cards shuffled together.....could really use some streamlining.

Disagree. I think the appeal is that it has so many routes and combinations.

 

[wiseold6996]

Disagree. I think the appeal is that it has so many routes and combinations.

Yeah but the game will not finish at this rate

 

[Mxiio]

Yeah but the game will not finish at this rate

Sure it will? What you mean to say is at this rate it won't be completed within the timeframe that you arbitrarily set despite being wholly unaffiliated with the devs...

 

[BlasKyau]

I mean who wouldn't want to break Olivia in half? lol

I prefer the MC to have a romance with her, or better yet, avoid both the romantic relationship and the punishments.