VN Ren'Py Stray Incubus [S2 Ch.2a] [Flynn974]

[BigDilly48]

Welp, sadly I didn't benefit nearly enough from the 4 days I was granted. Let's hope my patron count still jumps miraculously after this blow cuz things aren't looking very promising for the project right now... Wish me luck I guess...

Damn, that's really heartbreaking to hear. To see a game of this calibur to be cut short or slow down signficantly due to not enough support would be a tragedy. Based on quick research, this game is literally the most highly-rated game on this site with the lowest amount of paid members.

Don't let anyones complaints about there being too many tiers get to you if its working for you. I still think remastering the first few chapters (probably 1-4) would do wonders though in onboarding and remove the caveat of telling people to stick through it even if it means delaying the next chapter by quite a bit.

 

[Aqua888]

You must be registered to see the links

Have fun!

I am feeling both happy and sad,
Love you Flynn974

 

[Old Grumpy Wolf]

Guess I'll wait to actually get into this and watch to see what Flynn does with it. Good luck, Flynn974.

 

[MrBenny]

Welp, sadly I didn't benefit nearly enough from the 4 days I was granted. Let's hope my patron count still jumps miraculously after this blow cuz things aren't looking very promising for the project right now... Wish me luck I guess...

Man, I'm not a fan of people selfishly leaking someone's hard work, which requires consistent funds to keep it afloat. People should be patient and wait until the dev's desired time of release, and not think they are a hero for doing it. Not cool.

Years back, I used to do private sat 3m's (all channels open in full test mode for Dish, DTV, Bell) and activations (my favorite...functions like an actual full sub) back when hacking satellite was very popular (and when smart cards could be unlocked and programed).

I also hated it when my private 3m code was made public on the net, because it usually died shortly after it went public...which meant I had a lot of excited customers who were contacting me shortly after it went down.

That's when I learned to group my customers in smaller groups (ABC...), and by adding some hidden code for each of the groups release, which eventually told me what group was leaking it. Then I dropped support for that group, better to lose 10-15 customers in one group...then have all 300+ customers freaking out for their new TV fix. A lot of work and headaches, but man the money was VERY decent back then.

So I sort of understand your pain. Have you considered using Steam to display your work? There is no incest, so I'm assuming it would pass their content requirements.

 

[ProtoJoto]

This last update seemed a little disjointed at times. More than once I found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what was supposed to have happened. Maybe it's just me.

I would probably subscribe if there was an option aside from Patreon. They will never get another cent from me....

 

[Bob69]

So I sort of understand your pain. Have you considered using Steam to display your work? There is no incest, so I'm assuming it would pass their content requirements.

I think you forgot a requirement for Steam.
"Don't use Honey Select/Honey Select 2"

 

[Bill Temple]

Man, I'm not a fan of people selfishly leaking someone's hard work, which requires consistent funds to keep it afloat. People should be patient and wait until the dev's desired time of release, and not think they are a hero for doing it. Not cool.

Years back, I used to do private sat 3m's (all channels open in full test mode for Dish, DTV, Bell) and activations (my favorite...functions like an actual full sub) back when hacking satellite was very popular (and when smart cards could be unlocked and programed).

I also hated it when my private 3m code was made public on the net, because it usually died shortly after it went public...which meant I had a lot of excited customers who were contacting me shortly after it went down.

That's when I learned to group my customers in smaller groups (ABC...), and by adding some hidden code for each of the groups release, which eventually told me what group was leaking it. Then I dropped support for that group, better to lose 10-15 customers in one group...then have all 300+ customers freaking out for their new TV fix. A lot of work and headaches, but man the money was VERY decent back then.

So I sort of understand your pain. Have you considered using Steam to display your work? There is no incest, so I'm assuming it would pass their content requirements.

Yea, I wish people would just respect public release dates. But I'm pretty amused by the irony of reading on a piracy forum your story bemoaning your piracy software being leaked.

The Steam solution is a no-go because US distribution rights to Honey Select are held by Fakku, and therefore the copyrights to HS assets as well. The founder's been on here years ago politely suggesting that all HS game devs are violating his copyright. Which is also ironic because Fakku started as a host of hentai scanlations, violating the copyrights of several dozens of manga artists and publishers before going legit about 10 years ago. I think that Fakku decided not to make much fuss about it, because Patreon funding is a grey area. That's the reason that HS games always have a public release date, because otherwise it would be undeniable that the game is selling HS assets, and Steam also can't sell games using HS assets.

 

[Erosynth]

IS female domination avoidable?

 

[bulbor]

Damn, that's really heartbreaking to hear. To see a game of this calibur to be cut short or slow down signficantly due to not enough support would be a tragedy. Based on quick research, this game is literally the most highly-rated game on this site with the lowest amount of paid members.

Don't let anyones complaints about there being too many tiers get to you if its working for you. I still think remastering the first few chapters (probably 1-4) would do wonders though in onboarding and remove the caveat of telling people to stick through it even if it means delaying the next chapter by quite a bit.

The tier system is complex and public release far off. Keep it simple. Summertime Saga has three tiers, lowest tier is $1 and they release to public within 1-2 days. Yet they have 30K paid members. So obviously simple and cheap is effective.
The point is not to criticize but to hope that the Dev can get more income.

 

[Mommysbuttslut]

The tier system is complex and public release far off. Keep it simple. Summertime Saga has three tiers, lowest tier is $1 and they release to public within 1-2 days. Yet they have 30K paid members. So obviously simple and cheap is effective.
The point is not to criticize but to hope that the Dev can get more income.

Summertime Saga has also been around for almost 8 years, going back to when there wasn't nearly as much competition. A lot of much older games have absurdly high levels of support.
Plus Flynn has only been on Patreon for I believe the last 3 updates so he's got a lot to catch up on in that regard. Still more or less agree with your point that too many release dates invites too much chaos.

 

[Moonis]

Lovely update. Plenty of sex. There was so many sex scenes in the beginning of the update that I almost got worried whether plot was forgotten, but we got plenty of that too on the latter part. Stephanies looked lovely .

I found few typos:
distroy -> destroy (three times)
orphens -> orphans
storg -> strong?
sparing -> sparring
completly -> completely

Strange to say this on pirate site, but I wouldn't have minded waiting longer before release. There's plenty of other games to play too, while waiting for these gems.

 

[ttba1878]

I really liked the update but there were a few of times where I felt it jumped forward and there probably could have benefited with a scene or two more to help set the scene. Couple of examples of this would be immediately after catching Steph it jumps straight to mid way through the sex scene or when Tamara asks the MC to wait following her scene and next thing is the MC waking up.

The story of the game is moving along great. The character development is great. I look forward to future updates.

 

[Strike-10]

Black Belt - February 23, 2024 at 13:00 - $31/mo
Brown Belt - February 28, 2024 at 13:00 - $23/mo
Blue Belt - February 28, 2024 at 13:00 - $16.00/mo
Red Belt - March 5, 2024 at 13:00 - $10.50/mo
Purple Belt - March 5, 2024 at 13:00 - $6/mo
White Belt - March 11, 2024 at 13:00 - $3.50/mo
Public - March 17, 2024 at 13:00 - $0/mo

The tier system is complex and public release far off. Keep it simple. Summertime Saga has three tiers, lowest tier is $1 and they release to public within 1-2 days. Yet they have 30K paid members. So obviously simple and cheap is effective.
The point is not to criticize but to hope that the Dev can get more income.

I’ve yet to play.
However I have hovered around the edges of this thread in interest.

IMO - Dev your support tier lvls are something of a srs clusterf.
I suppose you may have “reasons” and they might be valid dunno.

Bulbor‘s point is good one to consider. Simplifying your tiers and
to try and maintain a reasonable perspective when determining what each tier PRICE will be set at.

I see your tiers and for everything “Red Belt” and above you are charging more than Netflix, AppleTv, Disney,Hulu,HBO, or Showtime. Granted this “space” & “products” are not an apples to apples comparison to those services
As a marginally interested 3rd party … I can totally see the mindset of the person that leaked it early. I don’t agree with it … but I also don’t agree with $10.50–16.00-23.00-31.00 per month. I see those tiers and the red parts and I become annoyed by them. It’s reasonable to assume human nature … and that others might be annoyed & choose to annoy you back. (granted it’s just a guess)

1/3/5/7.5/10/15/25 tiers (or even fewer tiers) will probably serve you just as well with the benefit of not being annoying.

I’ve not done the deep dive into the metrics regarding your patrons.
Also I don’t know how you promote/sell your product/service.
I know anecdotally that HH/Runey rarely if ever gets leaked.
Maybe model your tiers / income streams / release schedule on others that are highly successful in this space. They Definitely have a condensed period between top donor/lowest donor release dates. Yours are almost a Month apart… that also increases the chances people are going to leak.

You have to look at things from all the angles & also what you HAVE to consider that I wouldn’t know to consider.

However if you simplify the tiers, shorten the difference in time & look to what others are doing in this “space” you should be able to duplicate the results. Especially if your product/service is good &/or you create something that is special.

Not only the above but if you tiers are cheap & simple and then you create an amazing product/service & engage with your players. It’s highly likely a $1 per month bottom tier sub … would reward you by stepping UP a tier or two… being a hero & a supporter.
My take on your tiers is that they are set up like that to squeeze your Patrons.

These are just my worthless opinions … on a cursory/fly by of this thread.

The Good News is this …It seems like you are engaged, people like your product (with some * (early chapters vs latest chapters) but it seems like you are communicating with your community & you are “learning & in process” of improving the early chapters. (Being responsive to feedback)

Idk if you do twitter/discord/itch to further improve your
“community“, distribution, & facilitating the generation of a your supporter base.

Best of Luck with your endeavors & eventually I’ll explore your product.
I guarantee that I’ll never support if the lowest tier is $3.50 per month.
Maybe if you do the one time “purchase” “donate“ via itch I might support you once for $5 … but at that point it would be after I’ve already played and was appreciative & happy with the experience of a quality product.

*side note* I’ve not looked at your patreon so if that info regarding your supporter tiers is incorrect just ignore those parts of my posting.

 

[LordGonti]

A note on tiering.

I think the issue here is there's no tempter tier for people who hang around sites like this.

Yes you need an elite tier, charge what you like. This tier needs to be secure and you need to emphasise that elite tiers not leaking is about quality control, trying to get the best public version and they are essentially trusted testers. Once that is secure, the next most important tier is the tempter tier.

People here know when un an update comes out and there is immediate demand. People who don't sub but are itching to play. You need to offer a tier where shortly after Elite tier testing finishes, someone from here can check Patreon, pay 5-6 bucks and skip the wait.

If that tier is a month after release, you're missing out cos it'll get pirated. If your next tier is $20 you're missing out because the value isn't there.

 

[Luder23]

I'm finally at a place financially I'm able to give some support through subbing to creators and I can't think of anyone better to help out. Granted not sure how long I can but will do so for a while at least

 

[illogicallity]

It's a crime that this dev has under 200 patrons.

 

[doujin1]

A note on tiering.

I think the issue here is there's no tempter tier for people who hang around sites like this.

Yes you need an elite tier, charge what you like. This tier needs to be secure and you need to emphasise that elite tiers not leaking is about quality control, trying to get the best public version and they are essentially trusted testers. Once that is secure, the next most important tier is the tempter tier.

People here know when un an update comes out and there is immediate demand. People who don't sub but are itching to play. You need to offer a tier where shortly after Elite tier testing finishes, someone from here can check Patreon, pay 5-6 bucks and skip the wait.

If that tier is a month after release, you're missing out cos it'll get pirated. If your next tier is $20 you're missing out because the value isn't there.

I agree with you. I usually support many developers when they release the new update on tempter tier also.
and for amount that seem to be tempter tier in other game is very lower tier that almost a month after release so it lost some interest also.

 

[lzmc]

Please give the author some support, otherwise SL may stop at CH.12

 

[Fazed]

Though the game is on Itch as well, perhaps setting up a subscribe star page to give more options to people is a good idea. It seems even recently patreon is giving less and less incentive for people to give support there. I know of at least one big game that was forced to move and one other that got put on suspension for literally no reason at all. Everyone pretty much had to refund at the warning from the respective devs cuz patreon was gonna hold the money otherwise.

Flynn974

I enjoyed the update btw but some of the animations and transitions were a bit rough this time around. If you are using a new method I hope you work out the kinks. Sorry to see it got leaked this early.

 

[truthpolice]

I entered this game without expectations and for timepass after seeing the screenshots (been a while since I played HS games and nothing else to play). But man I was blown away. Keep the good work dev and I will support you as much as I can.