lollapoza
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They will definitely complete this project. It will take a long time, but finished. Otherwise, if they screw up, it will hit their reputation very hard.
Unreal Engine Completed Subverse [v1.1.1] [Studio Fow]
- Thread starter Souleater
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^ Wouldn't shock me if this is the case. Hope to see them at least be able to finish the project for the sake of the people who backed it, though.
Deleted member 324588
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I think its a little too soon to be hitting the panic button. The departures were unfortunate, but we don't really know the context behind them. But they've also said they're looking to replace the lost teammates, its just not feasible right now cuz of the upcoming holidays. So we'll have to see how things are looking in the next dev blog, which'll likely be January's since December's the update.
And to activate the always faithful, secret paid employee mode: I'm sure DC would sooner make the rest of the game himself with the core team than let a project go unfinished
And to activate the always faithful, secret paid employee mode: I'm sure DC would sooner make the rest of the game himself with the core team than let a project go unfinished
Cpt.SumTingWong
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Deleted member 324588
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It just means what they make will take a bit longer than the usual committed schedule. Til they get more staff, that's not a difficult trade.
Lil Totino Boy
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- May 16, 2018
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VValen you are the definition of the dog in a burning building saying "this is fine" Look around you man.
Tibor being "demoted", several people leaving... Hopefully it isn't another case of Darkcrow being a massive twat lol
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I remember, a couple years ago, when Final Fantasy XIII was released after years of development hell, that someone "leaked" that the dev team was around 180 artists and 20 programmers. No wonder why FFXIII was a beautiful audiovisual experience, but a game you "watched" instead of a game you "played".
Looking at this game's "dev diaries" at a whole I've noticed a trend. Everyone's an artist. New sounds/SFX, new lighting, lip syncing, new waifu models, cool explosions, but... who's ACTUALLY MAKING the game? If they've lost more than half of their staff, how many programmers do they have left? I can only identify one, HungryJJ, and he/she is new to the team.
And the sad thing is, they could just add scenes to the Pandora system (after all the sex scenes are completely separated from the "gameplay") and delay the game updates until they get someone to make them. After all, the "core" StudioFOW expertise was in making porn movies for years, right?
right?...
...unless the people who left are the "core" StudioFOW artists.
Only time will tell.
PS: The DD18 said "Please check out our new features overview video for an indepth look at what’s coming up in Subverse’s next major content patch in November!" The new DD19 says "we are setting the release date of the Fortune chapter to December 19". Those are quotes from their own website. Don't keep your hopes up, there is no more confirmation that the update will be this year than the last time.
Looking at this game's "dev diaries" at a whole I've noticed a trend. Everyone's an artist. New sounds/SFX, new lighting, lip syncing, new waifu models, cool explosions, but... who's ACTUALLY MAKING the game? If they've lost more than half of their staff, how many programmers do they have left? I can only identify one, HungryJJ, and he/she is new to the team.
And the sad thing is, they could just add scenes to the Pandora system (after all the sex scenes are completely separated from the "gameplay") and delay the game updates until they get someone to make them. After all, the "core" StudioFOW expertise was in making porn movies for years, right?
right?...
...unless the people who left are the "core" StudioFOW artists.
Only time will tell.
PS: The DD18 said "Please check out our new features overview video for an indepth look at what’s coming up in Subverse’s next major content patch in November!" The new DD19 says "we are setting the release date of the Fortune chapter to December 19". Those are quotes from their own website. Don't keep your hopes up, there is no more confirmation that the update will be this year than the last time.
Deleted member 324588
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Maybe, but ya’ll are overreacting I feel. Like they announced a drastic change in design, or signed up with EA xD
Departures are a concern, but it’s not a cliff, it’s a bump in the road. Have to wait to see how they deal with them.
Quote from their DD1:
"I can assure you we are not buying Ferraris or snorting coke from hookers’ buttholes. You’ve made your voices clear on how you want Subverse to be the leader in the adult scene, and I am completely on board with that. We’ll be using the funds for recruitment and expanding our team first and foremost, making sure that the dev team is in a position to deliver the remaining chapters and module upgrades in a timely fashion. We are 100% committed to working with you guys during Early Access so please keep the feedback coming. We’re all loving the passion and engagement from the community!"
Yeah, that aged well.
They've lost more than half their workers but "it's just a bump in the road"
Sure thing. Guys, just don't forget to
KEEP CALM, BUY MERCH AND CARRY ON
"I can assure you we are not buying Ferraris or snorting coke from hookers’ buttholes. You’ve made your voices clear on how you want Subverse to be the leader in the adult scene, and I am completely on board with that. We’ll be using the funds for recruitment and expanding our team first and foremost, making sure that the dev team is in a position to deliver the remaining chapters and module upgrades in a timely fashion. We are 100% committed to working with you guys during Early Access so please keep the feedback coming. We’re all loving the passion and engagement from the community!"
Yeah, that aged well.
They've lost more than half their workers but "it's just a bump in the road"
Sure thing. Guys, just don't forget to
KEEP CALM, BUY MERCH AND CARRY ON
Deleted member 324588
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Just gonna address a few of the not nonsensical points: HungryJJ’s been there from early on, he’s primarily been shown to be working on the ship combat. You often see longer entries from him when they’ve added new mission variety.
As for why there’s more artist posts than game talk? Because it was made clear from the earlier dev diaries that the majority of the players aren’t all that interested in seeing the technical stuff. Go back to some of the gameplay only discussion diaries and read the comments.
Lastly merch didn’t just come out of nowhere, they polled the discord months ago about if they did physical merch, what kinds would they be interested in, to great positive response. I imagine if we didn’t have some giant world affecting event like the pandemic, it probably would’ve happened already.
Okay... Here's some very optimistic prognosis: it'll take SFOW another year to add the basic stuff for Huntress, Blythe and Fowchan, and another 4-6 months to make some content for Empress and Kasidora. Plus they still need to add devotion missions and costumes for each girl, maybe more pandora scenes, plus polish everything and finish the game somehow... Another 3-4 years? So 4-6 years in total to finish the rest of the game and only if all goes the same way as it were before they lost the half of the team, and if the game keeps brining them good money to pay for all that. Also remember they are against roadmaps and tend to waste time and resources on stuff like drinking game and changing UI...
Can't really blame them for being slow and making lots of mistakes, they're amateurs after all, everyone starts from something. But I just don't believe it'll end well, the project felt like a trainwreck since the very moment they decided to split the game in pieces instead of releasing the fully finished product. Obviously they didn't have the shit ready at the initial release day and now they have to work on each update from scratch in short 3-4 months gaps, which most likely means not so good working atmosphere for the team.
I dunno, that doesn't look overreacting to me. It's more like a feeling that pretty much everything goes bad with this project for pretty long time, and it's hard for me to believe it won't collapse at some point...
Deleted member 324588
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Kas won’t be getting lewd content, her VA audition specified its a SFW role. As for Celestina, she isn’t considered a waifu in gameplay terms, so it’s likely she’ll only be lewded in cinematic form.
The decision of early access to full game to early access again was a lot to think about. Initially it’d have been like a chapter by chapter thing but that would’ve meant a ton of updating per little piece. So they shifted to a full release, but that pissed off many of their backers. So they met in the middle to do early access, but in large sections of the game at a time. A fair compromise I feel.
Things like the drinking game, the gallery, and such were out of feedback to have more to do than the same two gameplay loops we know of. And that’s been also shown in ship and grid mission variety from Ela onward. Hopefully be seeing variety in the music as well in the forthcoming update.
My own estimate was the next 3 ladies next year and the endgame to wrap up the game around early 2024. A 5 year run from the initial campaign beginning, which would be quite good for a game this size. Depending on how soon they replace team members, I could see it stretched to mid-2024.
Sucks
Sucks x2
You're very optimistic, sir... What about devotion quests? It's a pretty big chunk of content they promised. I highly doubt they'll manage to finish it in 2023 while working on the rest three girls. So what do you think they're gonna do? Rush it during the first half of 2024 while also working on the endgame? Or cut out completely?
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Deleted member 324588
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As I said have to look to the next dev blog to see the state of things. If they can replenish their staff after the holidays. But given they’re already working on 0.7 and 0.8 content, they’ve got a head start on things even if they’re short on team members.Sucks
Sucks x2
You're very optimistic, sir... What about devotion quests? It's a pretty big chunk of content they promised. I highly doubt they'll manage to finish it in 2023 while working on the rest three girls. So what do you think they're gonna do? Rush it during the first half of 2024 while also working on the endgame? Or cut out completely?
As for devotion missions we do know they’ve been working on the first 3 gals. If they’re added in 0.7, they could then work on the next 3 whilst adding the final 3 ladies. And then the final 3’s missions are done while they form the endgame. Just a hypothetical, but it’s possible.
Really though I don’t think this is a big setback. That the delay is only a few weeks is commendable. There are other games I’ve seen on this site that go dark for months because 1 person left. And they’re working on much smaller games by comparison.
Although clearly, they had good intentions, the funding model they chose for this project was extremely short sighted. They have most likely been underbudgeting since the start. Game production is expensive at the best of times, indie game production, especially in the adult space has even more trouble securing consistent funding. Thats why other equally ambitious projects that have been in development as long or longer, continue to take crowdfunding or secure a publishing partner all the way up to final release. All this talk of so many staff leaving is making me paranoid that they have essentially run out of money and made the inevitable decision to downsize the team. The constant revamping/cutting and restructuring of core game elements just adds to this fear. They might not have the manpower to add much in the way of new content, so all the remaining creative energy and shoestring budget has to go towards tweaking what's already been finished. If selling merch helps them secure the funding, that they seem to need pretty desperately, then fuck it sell as much merch as necessary, there seems to be a market for it judging by steam comments. And ultimately, the more money they make the better chance there is that everyone working on the game actually gets paid (the sheer amount of staff that have left is almost certainly an indication that pay has started to become an issue).
I feel really bad for the team since a lot of this is definitely on upper management, and the work they have done so far is (despite what a lot of complaints say) a strong foundation for a pretty solid title. I hope they can pull through and ship a 1.0 that they can all be proud of, but right now it looks like a lot of shady shit is going on behind the scenes.
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