The bad news is that this update will have a couple less renders of Helen and Mike. Some tree renders were also sacrificed. We don't like cutting content, but sometimes it happens.
This week we have some good news and some bad news.
Let's start with the good news. This cycle we've had to learn how to work around some annoying issues. Next cycle, we'll have our new creation rig up and running to feed the rendering beast. This means both rigs will be running the same version of Daz3D, which should ideally eliminate all the consistency issues we've been experiencing and save Npx some crying. Key word "should."
The bad news is that this update will have a couple less renders of Helen and Mike. Some tree renders were also sacrificed. We don't like cutting content, but sometimes it happens.
We are still doing final touches on the last scene which we struggled with before. However, the release dates announced in our previous status update are still holding up! Here they are again for those who missed it:
Enthusiast+ tiers: Thursday, August 22nd
Player tier: Saturday, August 24th
We've also added a new entry tier to our Patreon page, the Fan tier. This has been requested a couple of times, so why not?
Other news
Many of you have probably heard about the Apple and Patreon situation this past week. It's not good
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But life goes on. We recommend using a browser or Android instead of the app store for all your future Patreon needs.
Since the last status update we posted the July special render, featuring Mia!
I'm all in for "good things take time and should not be rushed".. But I feel like the reasons the devs give for the apparent delays or 'problems encountered' seem silly and made-up...
For eg, we are 5 updates in and more than a year of development has passed... And telling something like "we finally realized that we should have the same version of Daz3D in the two rigs that we use of rendering" is plain dumb.. Sure, we might not be well-versed in the functionalities of Daz3D, Blender etc.. but even a kid knows to update software versions or use the same version when using two rigs.. the funny thing is to claim to have 'fixed this inconsistency by having the same version' as if it was a major technical problem..
I have respect for the devs for the quality of work they do.. but at the end, it makes me feel that all devs are the same using silly made-up reasons if they are behind schedule or something. Instead they can just be honest and say "Guys, we have been working for weeks straight and would.ljke to take a week off". That would be much better because we are all humans and we need rest.
Sorry but I don't think so, for that I have to upgrade my patron tier, and given that I don't even know if I'm going to keep supporting the game after the update, I'm just going to wait until someone shares it here. But don't worry, last time it was shared here minutes after the release.
Sorry but I don't think so, for that I have to upgrade my patron tier, and given that I don't even know if I'm going to keep supporting the game after the update, I'm just going to wait until someone shares it here. But don't worry, last time it was shared here minutes after the release.
The market is oversaturated, so the average slice of the pie is getting smaller.
The donations are "sticky", so the established creators like DarkCookie are earning too much while producing too little.
The production quality floor is constantly raising. People used to think that fully-rendered non-sex scenes were high production quality, but now we've grown accustomed to engaging writing, good lighting, good camera angles, PBR, non-default poses and facial expressions, hair, fabric, water and soft tissue physics simulation, animated sex scenes that aren't just mannequins pistoning in and out.
So the authors are at a crossroads:
hire a whole team to improve the production quality while maintaining a quick release schedule (but this requires either becoming a viral success or a very good marketing team that can tell what niche is underexploited (gay furries, NTR, incest etc)
make the game you want at a sustainable pace (if you earn $500 from Patreon and $3000 at work, you probably won't scale your Patreon to $2000 if you switch to working part-time for $1500)
scale down the production quality in a way that doesn't hurt your game's popularity (write a basic plot that only serves to stitch the sex scenes together and reuse assets liberally for non-sex scenes is the usual route)
The authors of Summer Heat are (wisely) not willing to risk hiring additional writers, coders, modelers and posers, and they don't want a game where you simply bang everyone like a champion stud, so we are stuck waiting for the next release.
I agree with some of your points, but I would also like to point a fair number of games & developers consistently hitting the "2-month-per-update" cycle that is honestly, probably the best compromise right now. Sure, they are not the best story-telling games or the best quality renders - but they are pretty damn good, and be honest, most folk would like their game to end sooner rather than wait 6 months or more for barely 1 hour of game time.