The character who stole it helped you for Free later... So probably it does no matter..
Damn, poor Dokan I wish him the best of luck, hope he gets better in any way
I may be a little late to the party, but I just finished reading the public Patreon statement. What a bummer! However, burning out was quite predictable: Trying to cater to too many unique fetishes, programming/writing, voice acting and working with unreliable actresses—that would take a toll on everyone. Nonetheless, dokancreations I wish you all the best!
That is so sad to hear. Burnout is horrible and balencing many different fetishes can get... Complicated (See: Domina). As for the unreliable VAs, I can only imagine how frustrating that must be. The VA was the thing that set Succubus Crest apart even from the other great succubus games on here. I really hope he gets back into the swing of things, even if he needs to take a month off to regroup. Just so long as he remains in contact with his supporters, I think the fanbase will show some understanding.
If a game thrives or fails, starts when choosing the engine. From a technical perspective, RPGM isn't the best choice. As an anecdote, devs like Redikal and TwistedScarlett regretted picking that engine due to technical difficulties later. In terms of inclusivity, RPGM was created with Windows in mind and not for Mac- or Linux-based systems, unlike Renpy. Yes, some people prefer to play their h-games on these OSes. When selecting RPGM you artificially limit yourself, which—from an economic perspective—is stupid if you're new to the scene and desperately need funding. Moreover, letting the unique fetishes run wild was Dokan's second-biggest problem. They should've picked and limited themselves to a handful of fetishes, where there's a demand for and that fit the game. Quality over Quantity! Most people like their Vanilla stuff and aren't necessarily into NTR, Femdom, or hairjobs. Try to cater to too many unique fetishes, and you'll be in development hell. Regarding the voice-acting. Never implement VA from the start because stuff will eventually change during development. Finish the game first; afterward, you can still decide whether you want to implement it or not. Furthermore, voice-acting is nice to have but isn't a necessity. Most voice actresses are unreliable. There's a considerable demand for ASMRtists, and they'll primarily work for whoever pays more. It doesn't shock me that Dokan's VAs started ghosting him shortly after. They got paid, someone probably made a better offer, and they decided it wasn't worth their time working with Dokan. My two cents. Sorry for the essay, LoveHurts.
Actually that whas a favour for me one of the earlier patrons. He put it always on the the question list but it never got far.
RPGM engine, despite its flaws, has one huge bonus — it doesn't require a lot of arts. Good portion of game (e g maps, towns, characters' actions) can be shown through built in gameplay mechanics. And dev can concentrate on doing scenes. That is especially important for drawn art. Now a lot of ren py games are made with computer rendered art exactly because of that. You need to do backgrounds, char sprites with variations, unimportant scenes etc. For example even for the beginning of this game Dokan would have to draw scenes for witch prologue, events at home, tavern, forest etc. RPGM lets you get rid of unnecessary pictures. That's why it's so popular.
Valid argument. Overall, it's a delicate balancing act, and, in my opinion, the flaws outweigh the bonuses. You can tell that Dokan had a lot of passion for their game, but ambitions set too high and failed.
It actually requires a shit ton of art along with other assets though fan communities can be rather helpful with that.
Custom drawn art does have it's own unique look but on the budget apps like Koikatu! can crank things out much faster for less money, hell even free minus labor if pirated
A big plus for drawn art though is reduced file size as you can separate the characters from the backgrounds unlike slide show games.Background are somewhat overrated, take any game that uses Koikatu as they all have practically the same house with the same bathroom
The joys of an over saturated market...That and it requires less training then bigger engines, less expensive as many devs do want to be legit in the dream of making it big someday, and with a decent fan community art assets are easier to come by with many aspiring artists just wanting their name added to the credits.
