VN Ren'Py Summer Heat [v0.5.1] [Naughty Fox Games]

[slick97]

Hmmm what are you comparing it to? I've only ever really followed one game's development (because there are people who chart it out for everyone else lol) so I don't know what the normal length of development time is.

Most VNs, regardless of quality, typically take ~6 months between updates. Higher quality (story, sex scenes, and/or render quality) correlates to shorter playtime.

If a developer is focusing on more than one aspect - such as a strong story and higher quality rendering - then it can take an extra couple of months for an update. Delays could also happen due to IRL issues, such as a DMCA takedown for using copyrighted music (e.g. Drifty with Leap of Faith).

Since Summer Heat seems to be focusing on all three aspects fairly equally I'd expect either shorter playtimes or longer development cycles. It's extremely rare to come across these types of VNs, but in my opinion they're definitely worth supporting start to finish.

 

[Deleted member 5198207]

Most VNs, regardless of quality, typically take ~6 months between updates. Higher quality (story, sex scenes, and/or render quality) correlates to shorter playtime.

If a developer is focusing on more than one aspect - such as a strong story and higher quality rendering - then it can take an extra couple of months for an update. Delays could also happen due to IRL issues, such as a DMCA takedown for using copyrighted music (e.g. Drifty with Leap of Faith).

Since Summer Heat seems to be focusing on all three aspects fairly equally I'd expect either shorter playtimes or longer development cycles. It's extremely rare to come across these types of VNs, but in my opinion they're definitely worth supporting start to finish.

much agreed, 2~4 months maybe for a chapter of a game with such quality (renders, models, posing, facial expressions, writing, atmosphere) is pretty much fair imo, considering there's only two devs working on it

 

[Paynne]

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Hello!
This week we've been going over the update and adding sound effects, proofreading and making sure the variables work as intended. Most of the coding is now done and we're just waiting for the renders. We also gave some love to the phone content, including a couple of new matches and some small quality-of-life upgrades.


We've also been trying to make sure content doesn't get skipped or overlooked by accident so easily anymore. One of the ways we'll tackle this is with a to-do list during Freeplay. That way you'll know if you missed something.


This upcoming week might prove to be a challenge as we tackle the final scene of CH04. And after that, there are still several gaps in the story where we need to go back and fill in the missing renders. Overall, this puts us at about 88%.


September Special Render

The poll for September is over and Ms. Hill is the winner! As per usual, her special render will be designed at the end of the month. In case you missed out on the previous special renders, you can find the last two here:

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Have a great weekend, everyone!

Robison & Npx

 

[ninetofive]

Most VNs, regardless of quality, typically take ~6 months between updates. Higher quality (story, sex scenes, and/or render quality) correlates to shorter playtime.

If a developer is focusing on more than one aspect - such as a strong story and higher quality rendering - then it can take an extra couple of months for an update. Delays could also happen due to IRL issues, such as a DMCA takedown for using copyrighted music (e.g. Drifty with Leap of Faith).

Since Summer Heat seems to be focusing on all three aspects fairly equally I'd expect either shorter playtimes or longer development cycles. It's extremely rare to come across these types of VNs, but in my opinion they're definitely worth supporting start to finish.

I mean to be fair, while this game does have good quality renders, there is not really much story to speak of so far and there are zero animations that I can recall. We haven't even reached the evening of day one in the story yet and the game released 7 months ago. That doesn't really bode well for the future imo. Most of the top tier games around here release 0.1 with more content than this game has so far.

Don't get me wrong the game is good but it is so far very slow to deliver anything substantial.

 

[PrivilegedCholo]

I mean to be fair, while this game does have good quality renders, there is not really much story to speak of so far and there are zero animations that I can recall. We haven't even reached the evening of day one in the story yet and the game released 7 months ago. That doesn't really bode well for the future imo. Most of the top tier games around here release 0.1 with more content than this game has so far.

Don't get me wrong the game is good but it is so far very slow to deliver anything substantial.

I hope chapter 4 is a big enough update. Because honestly summer heat doesn’t play out like it’s 3 chapters long.

im gonna give an unfair comparison here but Badik’s 3 chapters is a blue whale compared to 3 Chapters here albeit the renders are better in this games first 3 chapters

 

[Paynne]

I hope chapter 4 is a big enough update. Because honestly summer heat doesn’t play out like it’s 3 chapters long.

im gonna give an unfair comparison here but Badik’s 3 chapters is a blue whale compared to 3 Chapters here albeit the renders are better in this games first 3 chapters

Like you said, you can't compare Badik with SH, Robison and NPX are new devs and this is their first game, before Badik DPC worked on AL so he was already an experienced Dev when he started working on Badik

As I said, this is Robison's and NPX's first game so I can understand the slow peace between the updates, every dev work at their own pace, no need to rush anything

 

[slick97]

Like you said, you can't compare Badik with SH, Robison and NPX are new devs and this is their first game, before Badik DPC worked on AL so he was already an experienced Dev when he started working on Badik

As I said, this is Robison's and NPX's first game so I can understand the slow peace between the updates, every dev work at their own pace, no need to rush anything

To expand on this even further, DPC has nearly 13k Patreons which provides substantial funding towards full time development, extra equipment, and rapid replacement for broken rigs. Most VNs start as passion projects for first time devs until they can build up a sizable following to justify going into fulltime development, which ended up being the case for Chasing Sunsets which also started off rather slow (no animations, slightly confusing story, etc.).

I mean to be fair, while this game does have good quality renders, there is not really much story to speak of so far and there are zero animations that I can recall. We haven't even reached the evening of day one in the story yet and the game released 7 months ago. That doesn't really bode well for the future imo. Most of the top tier games around here release 0.1 with more content than this game has so far.

Don't get me wrong the game is good but it is so far very slow to deliver anything substantial.

As I mentioned above with Chasing Sunsets, most first time devs start off rather slow and with varying quality for each design aspect behind a VN. Another example of a VN which started off a bit rough was Once in a Lifetime where both the story and renders were average and the animations felt a bit stiff. Around v0.6 and v0.7 Caribdis vastly improved on all three aspects and has expanded his skills even further with Eternum.

Unfortunately, as you mention, the slow release of each chapter does inspire confidence in the early adopters as the expectations for quality increase with each passing month. The release of chapter 4 is essentially the defining moment for Npx and Robison to cement themselves among the upper echelon of VN devs, but I doubt they'll outright scrap the project if they can't secure more supporters.

 

[drisarter]

that'd be funny if they only updated during the summer time where the devs lived lmao

Despite my desire to have updates to play! as! often! as! possible!, I sort of think you should do this Northpx. It's like when cafes and bars (for example) have a day of the week in the name, I always think to myself 'this place really should open only on wednesdays' (if wednesday is the day). And then the additional thought, 'if they want to open other days of the week, they should open additional venues with those days in the name.'

Northpx I guess what I'm saying is that as agonising as the wait would be all through your winter, if you did this I would enjoy your commitment to the concept embedded in your name. And you could take it even further and 1) make sure to release only on a hot summer day, and 2) encourage people not to play the game on cold ones.

 

[allanl9020142]

Despite my desire to have updates to play! as! often! as! possible!, I sort of think you should do this Northpx. It's like when cafes and bars (for example) have a day of the week in the name, I always think to myself 'this place really should open only on wednesdays' (if wednesday is the day). And then the additional thought, 'if they want to open other days of the week, they should open additional venues with those days in the name.'

Northpx I guess what I'm saying is that as agonising as the wait would be all through your winter, if you did this I would enjoy your commitment to the concept embedded in your name. And you could take it even further and 1) make sure to release only on a hot summer day, and 2) encourage people not to play the game on cold ones.

I'm also the kind of person that wishes it was summer in the winter buts wa

 

[allanl9020142]

My answer to your question has been silently deleted.
It seems like this is one of these sponsored/protected games, so I will be dropping it.

Hold up. What? I didn't know that was a thing.

 

[drisarter]

Hmmm what are you comparing it to? I've only ever really followed one game's development (because there are people who chart it out for everyone else lol) so I don't know what the normal length of development time is.

Reckon this is you ename144 ? allanl9020142 what is the game?

I'm also the kind of person that wishes it was summer in the winter buts wa

I am similar but in reverse - I wish it was winter in the summer.

 

[allanl9020142]

Reckon this is you ename144 ? allanl9020142 what is the game?



I am similar but in reverse - I wish it was winter in the summer.

Being A DIK. I'm sure if you know about ename then you probably already know lol. Also how you "mention" someone in a post? I never figured that out.
Also, I guess I got distracted and never finished that last bit. I meant to say "wishes it was summer in the winter but wants it to be winter when it's summer so it all works for me"

 

[kurosx]

Also how you "mention" someone in a post? I never figured that out.

Just type an @ in front of the username, without a blank.

 

[allanl9020142]

Just type an @ in front of the username, without a blank.

Oh duh. I'm dumb.

 

[drisarter]

Being A DIK. I'm sure if you know about ename then you probably already know lol. Also how you "mention" someone in a post? I never figured that out.
Also, I guess I got distracted and never finished that last bit. I meant to say "wishes it was summer in the winter but wants it to be winter when it's summer so it all works for me"

You mention people by typing @ and then the username. A list of usernames will appear but sometimes it takes a few letters before they pop up in my experience.

Re it being ename144 or not I actually wasn't certain. I figured it likely was, but I've seen one or two other people tracking development before I think, so didn't want to assume. And as it happens I don't check the Being A DIK thread very often even though I play + very much like the game (there are just way way way too many posts to scroll through and I find it too hard to follow, especially given the long development cycle), so I'm not sure I'd have remembered if ename144 did charts for being a dik or not (even though I've probably seen them in the thread before). That said, I am an avid follower of his charts for a number of other games. Too much ename144 gushing lately but I just find it 1) very impressive he goes to all the trouble, 2) informative, 3) sort of funny, and 4) rather entertaining to read.

 

[ename144]

You mention people by typing @ and then the username. A list of usernames will appear but sometimes it takes a few letters before they pop up in my experience.

Re it being ename144 or not I actually wasn't certain. I figured it likely was, but I've seen one or two other people tracking development before I think, so didn't want to assume. And as it happens I don't check the Being A DIK thread very often even though I play + very much like the game (there are just way way way too many posts to scroll through and I find it too hard to follow, especially given the long development cycle), so I'm not sure I'd have remembered if ename144 did charts for being a dik or not (even though I've probably seen them in the thread before). That said, I am an avid follower of his charts for a number of other games. Too much ename144 gushing lately but I just find it 1) very impressive he goes to all the trouble, 2) informative, 3) sort of funny, and 4) rather entertaining to read.

Thanks for the kind words. BaDIK was the first game I started tracking, back when DPC gave fairly regular numbers in his updates. I miss those days.

Regarding the development for Summer Heat, I'm a fan but I haven't been following the development closely. So I don't have any charts of the dev cycle for you, nor could I estimate when it might be done.

As for comparisons to other games' dev cycles, I think that can generate more noise than signal. Development time ultimately boils down to how much content is in the update, how much time the devs can spend on it, and how powerful their rendering setup is. But there's a lot of potential variation in those categories. High profile games by experienced devs (like BaDIK) have far more resources to throw at the problem than a new game like SH, so right away you need to rate development on a curve. Even then, a given update can be more or less ambitious, and even the individual renders or (especially) animations can vary considerably in complexity. SH has had relatively short playtimes per update so far, but it's also had fairly high quality renders. The devs are relatively new at this, too, so they may still be ironing out the best way to handle their development cycle.

Basically, comparing development between games is very much apples to oranges, and even comparing updates within a game can be apples to apple juice. So far I think Summer Heat has been worth the time it's taken to create the first three chapters, so I'm willing to wait for Chapter 4 and judge it on its own merits. Hopefully it won't take too much longer to finish.

 

[drisarter]

Thanks for the kind words. BaDIK was the first game I started tracking, back when DPC gave fairly regular numbers in his updates. I miss those days.

Regarding the development for Summer Heat, I'm a fan but I haven't been following the development closely. So I don't have any charts of the dev cycle for you, nor could I estimate when it might be done.

As for comparisons to other games' dev cycles, I think that can generate more noise than signal. Development time ultimately boils down to how much content is in the update, how much time the devs can spend on it, and how powerful their rendering setup is. But there's a lot of potential variation in those categories. High profile games by experienced devs (like BaDIK) have far more resources to throw at the problem than a new game like SH, so right away you need to rate development on a curve. Even then, a given update can be more or less ambitious, and even the individual renders or (especially) animations can vary considerably in complexity. SH has had relatively short playtimes per update so far, but it's also had fairly high quality renders. The devs are relatively new at this, too, so they may still be ironing out the best way to handle their development cycle.

Basically, comparing development between games is very much apples to oranges, and even comparing updates within a game can be apples to apple juice. So far I think Summer Heat has been worth the time it's taken to create the first three chapters, so I'm willing to wait for Chapter 4 and judge it on its own merits. Hopefully it won't take too much longer to finish.

I agree. Although I'd obviously like longer updates I actually think the developers / development of Summer Heat has moved at a pretty good pace given the quality of the renders and the fact that it's their first game. And I wasn't trying to compare the two (not sure if you're reading my post as if I was or responding to general / previous comments about development time of Summer Heat vs others), just saying I find the development time of Being a DIK to be quite slow (even though obviously Dr Pinkcake gives you A LOT when the update does come) and that, combined with the volume of posts in that thread, make it too much effort to follow regularly (for me).

BTW (I know, more gushing coming) another thing I enjoy about your posts is that you have a way with words / thoughts that I appreciate, often think are funny (and think might be in the same neighbourhood as mine - although as evidenced here my writing is way, way, way too verbose). This thought popped into my head because of the apples to apple juice angle. Good stuff!

Finishing with an on topic thought, I hope Chapter 4 won't take too much longer to finish either, but I'll be very excited to play it when it is. And I think the devs are doing a great job regardless.

 

[allanl9020142]

You mention people by typing @ and then the username. A list of usernames will appear but sometimes it takes a few letters before they pop up in my experience.

Re it being ename144 or not I actually wasn't certain. I figured it likely was, but I've seen one or two other people tracking development before I think, so didn't want to assume. And as it happens I don't check the Being A DIK thread very often even though I play + very much like the game (there are just way way way too many posts to scroll through and I find it too hard to follow, especially given the long development cycle), so I'm not sure I'd have remembered if ename144 did charts for being a dik or not (even though I've probably seen them in the thread before). That said, I am an avid follower of his charts for a number of other games. Too much ename144 gushing lately but I just find it 1) very impressive he goes to all the trouble, 2) informative, 3) sort of funny, and 4) rather entertaining to read.

Haha yea, there's a lot of posts on there. I just knew that DPC would have updates every Friday from Patreon and would go on here because someone would post it. I mostly stumbled onto the people doing charts while browsing through the posts around that time then I just started following them.

 

[allanl9020142]

Thanks for the kind words. BaDIK was the first game I started tracking, back when DPC gave fairly regular numbers in his updates. I miss those days.

Regarding the development for Summer Heat, I'm a fan but I haven't been following the development closely. So I don't have any charts of the dev cycle for you, nor could I estimate when it might be done.

As for comparisons to other games' dev cycles, I think that can generate more noise than signal. Development time ultimately boils down to how much content is in the update, how much time the devs can spend on it, and how powerful their rendering setup is. But there's a lot of potential variation in those categories. High profile games by experienced devs (like BaDIK) have far more resources to throw at the problem than a new game like SH, so right away you need to rate development on a curve. Even then, a given update can be more or less ambitious, and even the individual renders or (especially) animations can vary considerably in complexity. SH has had relatively short playtimes per update so far, but it's also had fairly high quality renders. The devs are relatively new at this, too, so they may still be ironing out the best way to handle their development cycle.

Basically, comparing development between games is very much apples to oranges, and even comparing updates within a game can be apples to apple juice. So far I think Summer Heat has been worth the time it's taken to create the first three chapters, so I'm willing to wait for Chapter 4 and judge it on its own merits. Hopefully it won't take too much longer to finish.

It's funny because I actually learned about Summer Heat from someone on the BADIK thread lol. As for tracking development, the devs do give weekly updates but from what I've seen they don't really give out a lot of numbers to play around with. Usually just "Overall progress is at X%". There doesn't seem to be much to see so far but I just have a good feeling about this game. Like they just need to get the ball rolling and then they'll really be picking up some steam.

 

[Deleted member 5198207]