VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[alain8891]

Some of us have been saying this for years. Both Bella and Nami's routes were butchered way before 5.0 Beta or the S1 final.

I would invite anyone who disagrees to play the pre-reworked version 3.0 of the Bella and MC fight in her room when MC finds out about her sister. It was so much heavier. Much more emotional and poignant.

All Ocean did with the introduction of the reworks was dilute the story. Like adding ice cubes to a glass of the finest whisky in the world.

I disagree. Not only was the writing much worse (and that is saying something, considering even the final game isn't what I'd call stellar), it was way too agressive and lacked subtlety.

 

[RNasc4444]

I disagree. Not only was the writing much worse (and that is saying something, considering even the final game isn't what I'd call stellar), it was way too agressive and lacked subtlety.

Fair. But the raw emotional weight of the narrative and characters was what I truly enjoyed about this game. It was what made it stand out to me.

Now it's just another boring, bland, dime a dozen mainstream story. Imo of course. So agree to disagree

 

[dan_roger69]

Wish I could link you a post from a user that had all previous versions and all corresponding links to them. But since I cannot find it now I can link you 2 posts I found with the 3.0 and 3.5 versions that were just before the reworks started.

https://f95zone.to/threads/summers-gone-s1-steam-dlc-oceanlab.29981/post-11421228

https://f95zone.to/threads/summers-gone-s1-steam-dlc-oceanlab.29981/post-11435834

Disclaimer: The links seem to be working but I haven't verified them.

Thanks for sharing links.

 

[AlexFXR]

I have always been suspicious of those who, from the very first lines, mention “bots” directly.
No one will come to Steam, and if so, moderators will quickly clear out reviews based on the experience of a third-party site.

When I was reading this story they were called sycophants. I decided to call them bots, I think it will be more correct.

I can go to Steam and write any review I want. My review is posted in Star Citizen and is very popular, although some people consider it negative. In that review, I just did an initial analysis and posted the results based on it, (my analysis completely came true) I do this every day at work. It has been hanging for several years and no one has removed it.

 

[O1duvai]

When I was reading this story they were called sycophants. I decided to call them bots, I think it will be more correct.

I can go to Steam and write any review I want. My review is posted in Star Citizen and is very popular, although some people consider it negative. In that review, I just did an initial analysis and posted the results based on it, (my analysis completely came true) I do this every day at work. It has been hanging for several years and no one has removed it.

Okay, okay. Keep watching it.
I suspect that those who have their own studio and receive millions for air from “fans” do not need to contact Steam support.

Actually, here are the answers.
Now we can be sure that even after the release of the third season in ten years, we will definitely see your posts and dissatisfaction here. Everyone has their own hobbies.

 

[I'm Fucking Red]

You can just ignore what Alex wrote (as with most of the stuff he posts in this thread) about Oceans patreons. I am one of them, and while I don't read every comment there what I read is as positive and/or supportive as the reviews here and on Steam. Could of course be that all the highest tier patreons are bitching something like that, but that would make as much sense as the ususal Alex-post.

Noted. Maybe fapping rotted his brain and now he can't play a visual novel without seeing a sex scene every few minutes. It's annoying to see someone spreading misinformation, but I'm glad to see that the patrons are supportive. I really want Ocean to go all out on this game, it's incredibly good.

 

[yossa999]

I have always been suspicious of those who, from the very first lines, mention “bots” directly.
No one will come to Steam, and if so, moderators will quickly clear out reviews based on the experience of a third-party site.

How funny it sounds, “deceiving your donors,” yeah. I hear some laughter, who could it be? Ah! Chris Roberts, it's you.
In the end, what the game will be like and how many reworks it will need is the author's decision. And the fact that someone decided to pay for air and did not even lose, but received something other than what they expected, is not his problem.

When you stay in this thread long enough, it's really funny to see this troll go unseen for a long time. Not because he doesn’t write anything, but because the whole thread has added him to ignore. Then a new wave of players comes into the thread, and for several days, or even weeks, this dude pops up in quotes every day, and the newbies' blood pressure gradually rises. Then it dawns on them that they continue to talk to the copy-paste and they also ignore him. Then the cycle repeats.

 

[BobTheDuck]

Noted. Maybe fapping rotted his brain and now he can't play a visual novel without seeing a sex scene every few minutes. It's annoying to see someone spreading misinformation, but I'm glad to see that the patrons are supportive. I really want Ocean to go all out on this game, it's incredibly good.

He gets hard trolling. It's the only thing that works for him I guess. The congnitive dissonance of attacking patrons who provide the leaks and devlogs, as well as supporting the dev so there is a even a game is astounding.

He is:
- attacking Ocean's patrons for (allegedly) doing what he does almost daily (publicly tearing Ocean a new one with bad reviews, milking claims, narrative complaints etc)
- attacking white knights or sychophants for wanting Ocean to succeed, which he claims he wants.
- claims he's a free thinker who sees through evil dev's malicious lies, but denigrates anyone who dares have an alternative opinion.

 

[Ray_D]

He gets hard trolling. It's the only thing that works for him I guess. The congnitive dissonance of attacking patrons who provide the leaks and devlogs, as well as supporting the dev so there is a even a game is astounding.

He is:
- attacking Ocean's patrons for (allegedly) doing what he does almost daily (publicly tearing Ocean a new one with bad reviews, milking claims, narrative complaints etc)
- attacking white knights or sychophants for wanting Ocean to succeed, which he claims he wants.
- claims he's a free thinker who sees through evil dev's malicious lies, but denigrates anyone who dares have an alternative opinion.

View attachment 3755570

 

[BobTheDuck]

I disagree. Not only was the writing much worse (and that is saying something, considering even the final game isn't what I'd call stellar), it was way too agressive and lacked subtlety.

I'm on the fence about it. In some cases Ocean vastly improved the plausibility of thinks, but for four characters he took some of their parts backwards.

- Bella in the rework is mostly emotionally stable and just a bitch. Pre-rework, she snapped mentally when triggered, no we have tantrums. But, having said that, Bella in Ch5 is better than any previous chapter of Bella, as far as consistency of character. It'd just be great if she didn't have resting bitchface as an emotion, but was volatile, showing that AMber doesn't know how to 'fix' her daughter.
- Nami lost great content, but I believe her story arc is now far better. I can see the build up to a romance being less forced, she's uncertain that she wants it, even if her emotions say yes. She's more afraid of consequences, and less certain of her own desires and has become more of a wildcard. I do sympathise with people who lost scenes that made Nami endearing to them, because in her case, the material was pretty much just cut.
- Mila. We all know, even if new players don't. But her model is not voluptuous. I don't even know. Some stuff in ch4.5 and 5 seems more natural, but I don't even know what her body shape is anymore.
- Boobs. Boobs have suffered. It's like Ocean has done a Wayne's World EXTREME CLOSEUP! He already had great boobs, it was not necessary to add so much digital silicon.

But, overall, if I forget where it started, and take it as a complete body of work, the story is overall, great, and the writing in the newer chapters is generally better than the reworked parts, because it doesn't have to fit what was there before. I have hope for Season 2 because Ocean has an open road ahead, hopefully no more roundabouts.

 

[SmokyQ]

I think this game has some of the best characterizations in all of AVNs. All of the characters (except for one) have a clear distinctive nature to them even the ones that don't have a lot of screentime. I'm not saying its perfect or anything but for AVNs its actually really impressive, which makes it all the more hilarious that Summer herself might have the worst characterization in all of fiction. This bitch is a completely different character scene to scene moment to moment and often line to line nothing about her character traits or motivations are even remotely consistent. A soggy cardboard box has better characterization then Summer because at least we can understand that its soggy and a box made out of cardboard, its not going to magically turn into a bicycle at the drop of a fucking hat. One moment she wants to grab a spider to fight another spider then the next moment she is overly scared of a imaginary spider on her shoulder, one line she yells that Nami is stupid just because she borrowed some gloves than literally the next line says that she is sad that they don't hang out anymore, one scene she is super mature, selfless and attentive to Nia on her birthday then another scene she could barley control herself screaming and jumping on people n shit when Nika didn't want them to mess with his console. And those are examples off the top of my head their is a lot more and don't forget she doesn't even have a lot of screentime either but somehow someway she managed to be like 12 contradictory characters in that short timespan.

 

[BobTheDuck]

I think this game has some of the best characterizations in all of AVNs. All of the characters (except for one) have a clear distinctive nature to them even the ones that don't have a lot of screentime. I'm not saying its perfect or anything but for AVNs its actually really impressive, which makes it all the more hilarious that Summer herself might have the worst characterization in all of fiction. This bitch is a completely different character scene to scene moment to moment and often line to line nothing about her character traits or motivations are even remotely consistent. A soggy cardboard box has better characterization then Summer because at least we can understand that its soggy and a box made out of cardboard, its not going to magically turn into a bicycle at the drop of a fucking hat. One moment she wants to grab a spider to fight another spider then the next moment she is overly scared of a imaginary spider on her shoulder, one line she yells that Nami is stupid just because she borrowed some gloves than literally the next line says that she is sad that they don't hang out anymore, one scene she is super mature, selfless and attentive to Nia on her birthday then another scene she could barley control herself screaming and jumping on people n shit when Nika didn't want them to mess with his console. And those are examples off the top of my head their is a lot more and don't forget she doesn't even have a lot of screentime either but somehow someway she managed to be like 12 contradictory characters in that short timespan.

Generally I'd agree, but 12-13 year olds are not known for consistency or maturity but are capable of such things at least 33% of the time. If you analyse most of SG's characters enough, you'll find inconsistencies. If you analyse real life public personalities you'll also discover inconsistencies.

I find her a completely believable character, keeping in mind the flashbacks are told from either Nika or Nia's perspective - Nia has put Summer on a pedestal far taller than Nika has, even if she doesn't have the same sort of trauma. Nika is specifically remembering moments that are out of sync, and his memory is suspect (not remembering Vic's surname is a classic example, not remembering things about the hospital etc.)

I think Ocean has done well to avoid making her an angel, because she was just a regular person, she is not meant to be superior to any of the LI's in any way, she was 'merely' the person Nika can't get over.

 

[Adhdclassic]

Didn't think much about it but Nicks house must be really huge. in one night he bought in his girls 2 teens Then Mila pops up and he lets her stay for the night. Nick also must be a good dude to let a stranger (Mila) stay in his house. Friend of his girls kids or no still a stranger or maybe he saw what I saw big Tiddies and phat ass and he thought Nojiko nice, Mila DDaaayyyyyuuumm.

 

[hmc15]

This game lost its charm. and I feel like this thread is the strongest echo chamber with most professional white knights in the entire F95zone. They will never listen, and even if they do, they will make an excuse or try to gaslight you.

I genuinely do not understand the white knightism

 

[RNasc4444]

I genuinely do not understand the white knightism

At this point I believe it's in big part due to fears of the game being abandoned. I've been here long enough to realize that even Oceans biggest fans, supporters and staunch defenders know that the game has serious flaws and weaknesses. But they choose to overlook them because they want the game to keep going.

Games get abandoned here pretty much every week. For multiple reasons. One of them is devs not being able to handle criticism. Whatever form of it. Fair or unfair, honest or not. Seeing games you enjoy getting that tag tend to make you a little overprotective of the ones that may follow suit.

I'm sure there are other reasons for it but this has to be one of the biggest.

Personally I don't believe in coddling devs or artists or whatever. I give what I perceive as fair feedback. Both good or bad. Because at the end of the day, praising a bad product will never help make it better.

 

[O1duvai]

At this point I believe it's in big part due to fears of the game being abandoned. I've been here long enough to realize that even Oceans biggest fans, supporters and staunch defenders know that the game has serious flaws and weaknesses. But they choose to overlook them because they want the game to keep going.

Games get abandoned here pretty much every week. For multiple reasons. One of them is devs not being able to handle criticism. Whatever form of it. Fair or unfair, honest or not. Seeing games you enjoy getting that tag tend to make you a little overprotective of the ones that may follow suit.

I'm sure there are other reasons for it but this has to be one of the biggest.

Personally I don't believe in coddling devs or artists or whatever. I give what I perceive as fair feedback. Both good or bad. Because at the end of the day, praising a bad product will never help make it better.

More than a third of the games posted on this forum over the past four years have been on my computer and most of them are jerk off attractions. I can also add a library of a couple of dozen similar games in steam. Based on this, I can fully judge the quality of the games, and this particular one has a couple of shortcomings for the entire cast, after the rework.

All the songs about the characters being too soft compared to their old versions, about “role reversal”, criticism of actions in the spirit of “it doesn't happen, it's not logical” or “this act is very stupid” are not adequate criticism of the game itself. Holy saints, protoganist turned from a redneck schoolboy into an ordinary person This is a matter of taste. And I would like to hope that the Ocean doesn’t care about this (that this is not its only source of income).

Games are abandoned for various reasons, for example, if the author has nothing to eat, but specifically in this case, I don’t see any relevance. Except for taxes and censorship in Germany.

 

[yossa999]

I genuinely do not understand the white knightism

Let me help you understand, dude.

There is AVN Summer's Gone. Like any media product, be it a movie, book or song, some people like it and others don't. For those who like the game, it is completely natural to stay and chat in the thread dedicated to the game they like, share positive impressions, discuss their favorite moments and praise the author for a good job.

Those who don't like the game are divided into several groups. Some, in my opinion the most adequate people, will simply shrug their shoulders and pass by, into the threads of those games that they like and are interested in. And they will forget about the existence of this game and its developer. Some of them will write a post or two about what they didn’t like in a respectful manner, some may leave a negative review. And they will move on, to the thread of a game where they like everything.

The less adequate ones will stay longer and begin to seek the attention of those who like the game. To get what they want, they start writing offensive posts and insulting people, calling it "criticism." Eventually someone will answer them, insults will be exchanged, and they will leave the thread happy with themselves. And to justify their own assholeness, they will accuse their opponents of white knightism, fanboism and other -isms. Because, of course, the thought that their opinion and their very person are irrelevant and insignificant to others will probably never cross their minds. No, they receive harsh response, of course, not because they started it, but because their opponents are pathetic white knights. But the good thing is that after their ego is fed enough, they will lose interest and leave.

And there are the most persistent ones who literally live by this thread and fight against the white knighthood. For me, they are something like arachnids from the movie "Starship Troopers", an absolutely alien life form, I can’t imagine what’s going on in their heads. But for them, anyone who says that they like the game and agrees with the author’s vision is a white knight, a dev's dickrider and a natural enemy, like any earthling to an arachnid.

I personally here to chat in this thread with people I like to communicate with, to discuss the game, to read news and gossip, to watch fanarts, and sometimes, when I'm in the mood, to giggle at the attempts of the groups above to insult me or tell me that the game I like, it's actually crap and I just don't get it. If this is white knightism, then so be it.

 

[AlexFXR]

The less adequate ones will stay longer and begin to seek the attention of those who like the game. To get what they want, they start writing offensive posts and insulting people, calling it "criticism."

When you crowd attack one person and begin to bully and insult him because he has an opinion that does not coincide with yours, is this normal? What category did you come up with for yourself?

 

[O1duvai]

And there are the most persistent ones who literally live by this thread and fight against the white knighthood. For me, they are something like arachnids from the movie "Starship Troopers", an absolutely alien life form, I can’t imagine what’s going on in their heads. But for them, anyone who says that they like the game and agrees with the author’s vision is a white knight, a dev's dickrider and a natural enemy, like any earthling to an arachnid.

 

[bobbo69]

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Hello,

Season 1 has been released on Epic and GOG on the 5th of June.
I sadly have no way to check how it's going with GOG, as I can't access my partner's account anymore. (Apparently, it's not activated.)

And they keep telling me it's due to temporary maintenance... that's lasted 8 days, while all the other devs I asked who use GOG have no issues and have never seen this error message before.

Sadly, GOG's Partner Support hasn't answered my last E-Mail in which I asked if they are sure that this is what's happening... So, I will wait a little longer, and if nothing happens, I will contact someone else at GOG.

Of course, I don't expect anything game-changing from either GOG or Epic. But as we say in Germany, "Kleinvieh macht auch Mist." (Means something along the lines of small things add up.)

But it's a real feeling of accomplishment now.
There's one more thing, though. I'm now in contact with the German rating agency USK. If I had gotten the official rating, I could've sold SG in Germany. It does cost a minimum of 1300€ (in my case 1800€), but I think it's worth it.
It would've been amazing if I could've released it in Germany last month, but, well, you learn things.
This means I will now get back to the German translation, and I hope to have it out in Germany by the end of the month.

Season 2 - Chapter 1

I'm implementing new strategies to smoothen development. I made a gigantic mindmap of everything that needs to be done.
I also included every single scene for Chapter 1.
Chapter 1 has 28 scenes.

Just for comparison, Season 1 - Chapter 5 had 16 scenes.
Of course, some scenes are small, and some are quite big. But overall, this will be the biggest update I've ever done.

Previews
Today, I have a few Noji focused previews... I just felt her today. I wanted to show some really great Zara renders buuuut... I don't want to show too many previews at once.
Zara's next time. (If she brings home an A)
View attachment 3730020 View attachment 3730021 View attachment 3730018

And a bonus preview:
When you're on edge 24/7, and he touches your hand.
View attachment 3730019
I know some would like a render count or a percentage, but I'm sorry, I'll keep it to myself for a while.
I will only say that S2 - Chapter 1 is planned to be released this year.

Taxes, taxes, and even more taxes.
There's a lot of tax talk coming now. If you don't care about it, you can click away. The Dev log will end here for you.
Thanks for your support and time to read until this point.

I think it's important to be somewhat transparent about what's happening behind the scenes, especially regarding the support you guys give me and the planned upgrades.

In the last log, I mentioned that I'd be waiting with the workstation until I know how much pre-tax I'd have to pay...
Less than a week ago, I got an email from my tax office with this information. In the mail were 17 PDFs, all of which had a "Checked" in front of them.
So, my tax offices reviewed them, and they were fine.

When I opened the PDF, it told me how much income and business tax I have to pay every three and two months.
And when I saw the number, I was like... Well, I guess I'll be developing the games from prison soon.
It turns out that there was a typo in it that inflated one of the numbers to something in the late five digits. That was a good scare.
Income tax and business tax are paid separately.

Anyways, what they want from me is still way too much. They're using my 2023 numbers + growth to calculate my pre-tax.
And... There's something I had in 2023 that I don't have anymore... So, due to an unfortunate event, support is down by ~35% compared to 2023.
The amount they want now, if broken down to a monthly base, is 80% of my pre-tax income.
Which is obviously insane. I'm deliberately not adding Steam/Epic/GOG, as I have no numbers of which to go to.
It will still take until July when I see the first payment from Steam. Almost all of it will also go to taxes.
Why?
Because my tax office declares my VAT/UST every month, the government has my 2023 numbers.
Usually, I would have to pay the 2023 taxes in 2025. But because they already saw a rough estimation of my numbers, I have to pay three different bills.
1. The taxes for 2022. Those were calculated in.
2. They raised my pre-tax for 2023 by A LOT, and I have to pay it all at once.
3. The insane 2024 pre-tax on top of the upper two.

That's where all the Steam money is going.
It would've been okay if it had been spaced over a year or so, but not all at once. This ruins my upgrade plans.
And while we asked for the 2024 pre-tax to be lowered with proof that something happened that justifies it, it doesn't mean the government will accept it. They could just say no.

Maybe the Steam or Epic Summer sale will bring in a little extra, which I can dedicate to the workstation fund. Then there's also still WIAB's Steam release in Q4.

I also have to contact Late Kids, Youth 83, The Intangible, and some other artists for Season 2, which is going to cost me a lot again... But it takes priority over the workstation.

So, I will be honest and say I most likely won't be able to get a new workstation this year. It's just not in the cards. The Summer sale or WiAB's Steam release could always surprise us, but I can't rely on it.
I'd say we're just set back by a year in terms of PC upgrades. It's kinda meh, considering that I can set up more renders than it can render overnight, but it's still a good boy.

And yes, I'm thinking about leaving Germany. I actually have a call scheduled for tomorrow with a tax office in a different country. If I can use said "law," I will seriously consider moving in 2025. Unfortunately, thanks to my apartment lease, I'm still stuck in Germany until mid-2025.

It's not great, and I hate that more or less every penny I earn goes somewhere into the expenses, but I'm so incredibly motivated.
Workwise, it's still going to be a great year.

Take care, and thanks a lot for the support!

• Ocean

And here, I thought our government was corrupt