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

[RolandG.]

See for me the problem here is that yes Ocean brings the best quality to the table I can't stress that enough but between the last update and this upcoming one I don't think much will happen. the last update was like 70% basketball and I'm assuming ch 4 will be more focused on the fantasy game. All of that is nice dont get me wrong but it doesn't work when the game only have 1 or 2 updates a year, at this point we want to see the story unfold but having to wait a year just to see the MC play basketball or a fantasy game.. It sucks honestly and that drags the main story development. I love everything Ocean is doing with the game and all the side stuff like Bball and the fantasy stuff would be really enjoyable if the updates were more frequent so we could get the story going as well but seeing as that is not the case I'd rather do without it and have the game focus solely on character and story development.

The very high quality of the work that Ocean delivers here is of course one reason why the updates are a long time coming.
As I understand it, Ocean is also always working on his other game.

I think that is the main reason for the long wait.
In my opinion it would have been smarter to finish one game after the other, but that's up to him.

I think it's all the little stories like the gym class or the planned fantasy game that make the story as a whole so interesting.
I would not like to do without all these side stories, for me they simply belong to it, with them the story and the individual characters live and grow.

I can only hope that Ocean never loses his motivation and continues to work on his game, even if I fear that it will take years to complete.

 

[D9074]

anything can change with development though, more people could come in and support which could make a dev hire people to help or upgrade their system to do more.. thats why when you use previous update speed as a reference it doesnt really work or make sense.

he showed some numbers in his other game thread the other day which shows his speed has increased. Story wise a lot can happen or change in just one chapter, big events can happen which speed up some character development and things like that, im not worried about it.

 

[Razrback16]

As I understand it, Ocean is also always working on his other game.

I think that is the main reason for the long wait.
In my opinion it would have been smarter to finish one game after the other, but that's up to him.

Ya I have said the same in the past - this is one of the key reasons I only back to a certain level on Patreon since I know only half the work time is going into SG. My understanding is that he spends one day working on Summer's Gone, and then the next working on Where It All Began, and back and forth, etc. All we can hope is that his workflow improvements net some very noticeable speed increases in terms of releases.

And he is subcontracting some of the work (like the aforementioned sports arena that Wibble created for him) so that's good to see.

Like others have mentioned, I'm really excited about the size & scope of the game with all the characters, social apps otw, etc, it's just negatively offset by the dev time between chapters up to this point.

 

[AngelsAfterDark]

Yes, try the new College themed game from VinovellaGames. Just two updates in one month and already has mistery, missing people, sex scenes, strange cults, whatever you want. Ocean makes some good looking babes don't get me wrong but the pacing is glacial both in game and irl.

I saw this one pop up a few weeks ago, I didn't care much for it because I played the devs other game fetish locator and I wasn't a fan, it felt like a straight up porn game and that's not my kinda thing.

 

[Mortarion]

If it's going to continue to be 8 months and then a small update, then 8 months+ and a small update expecting the game to be finished in 15 years is actually a rather optimistic expectation.

Ocean has never released "small" updates.

 

[AngelsAfterDark]

The very high quality of the work that Ocean delivers here is of course one reason why the updates are a long time coming.
As I understand it, Ocean is also always working on his other game.

I think that is the main reason for the long wait.
In my opinion it would have been smarter to finish one game after the other, but that's up to him.

I think it's all the little stories like the gym class or the planned fantasy game that make the story as a whole so interesting.
I would not like to do without all these side stories, for me they simply belong to it, with them the story and the individual characters live and grow.

I can only hope that Ocean never loses his motivation and continues to work on his game, even if I fear that it will take years to complete.

I agree I wouldn't want the game to be any different than it is. when this game is set and done all those side stuff like Basketball, fantasy role playing and whatever else Ocean has in store will be great and a nice little break from the main story. But we not even sure if we'll ever get to the finishing line so with that uncertainty I'd prefer the game solely focus on the story. Once again I love the side stuff but with only 1 update a year it's just not worth it, at least not for me.

But it doesn't matter cause at the end of the day it's Oceans game and he can do whatever he wants with it.

 

[forthewins]

Ocean has never released "small" updates.

I played the game in one go up until the last update, and was excited about it. Then I waited for months for that update and was disappointed by how little it moved the plot moved forward. So you can call it whatever you want, but to me it felt like a small update.

And considering that's now the only update that's been released in the past year and a half, that's kind of crazy.

 

[TonyMo]

I played the game in one go up until the last update, and was excited about it. Then I waited for months for that update and was disappointed by how little it moved the plot moved forward. So you can call it whatever you want, but to me it felt like a small update.

And considering that's now the only update that's been released in the past year and a half, that's kind of crazy.

Wasn't that rework of Chapter One ?

 

[Fortuna ღ]

I played the game in one go up until the last update, and was excited about it. Then I waited for months for that update and was disappointed by how little it moved the plot moved forward. So you can call it whatever you want, but to me it felt like a small update.

And considering that's now the only update that's been released in the past year and a half, that's kind of crazy.

The updates objectively aren't small. It doesn't matter whether or not you look at the render count, animations, or actual story being brought forth. None of them were small in quantity. The fact that it took you little time to complete it does not make it short. Also, while on the topic, what does a normal update look like for you? Summer's Gone right now is larger than a fair amount of games on this site, despite still being in its introductory stages. Ocean's doing a great job with what he has. I don't think many of you understand just how crazy it is that Ocean's bringing out updates to a game of this quality in just 6-8 months. Do you know just how hard it is to develop an AVN? Much less something on the level of Summer's Gone. Please keep in mind that he does most of this work himself the next time you're frustrated about development times

 

[Dr. Average]

I have every faith in Ocean. The quality of the presentation that he delivers as a singular person is uncanny as Lady Fortuna mentioned. That level could only be described by a person who is driven by such a high level of admiration, passion and talent. I see many people talk about how he's going to end up dropping these projects, but me personally playing his VNs...it's filled with love. He's only getting stronger in my eyes.

 

[LostGhost]

Y'all keep forgetting he's working on 2 games + with quality he's making it sure drags the update time and it's not like people are going to stop playing because the update is taking time

The very high quality of the work that Ocean delivers here is of course one reason why the updates are a long time coming.
As I understand it, Ocean is also always working on his other game.

I think that is the main reason for the long wait.
In my opinion it would have been smarter to finish one game after the other, but that's up to him.

I think it's all the little stories like the gym class or the planned fantasy game that make the story as a whole so interesting.
I would not like to do without all these side stories, for me they simply belong to it, with them the story and the individual characters live and grow.

I can only hope that Ocean never loses his motivation and continues to work on his game, even if I fear that it will take years to complete.

You know it will take same amount of delay for one game

 

[Zane Truesdale]

The very high quality of the work that Ocean delivers here is of course one reason why the updates are a long time coming.
As I understand it, Ocean is also always working on his other game.

I think that is the main reason for the long wait.
In my opinion it would have been smarter to finish one game after the other, but that's up to him.

I think it's all the little stories like the gym class or the planned fantasy game that make the story as a whole so interesting.
I would not like to do without all these side stories, for me they simply belong to it, with them the story and the individual characters live and grow.

I can only hope that Ocean never loses his motivation and continues to work on his game, even if I fear that it will take years to complete.

I couldn't say better.

 

[jranderson3224]

See for me the problem here is that yes Ocean brings the best quality to the table I can't stress that enough but between the last update and this upcoming one I don't think much will happen. the last update was like 70% basketball and I'm assuming ch 4 will be more focused on the fantasy game. All of that is nice dont get me wrong but it doesn't work when the game only have 1 or 2 updates a year, at this point we want to see the story unfold but having to wait a year just to see the MC play basketball or a fantasy game.. It sucks honestly and that drags the main story development. I love everything Ocean is doing with the game and all the side stuff like Bball and the fantasy stuff would be really enjoyable if the updates were more frequent so we could get the story going as well but seeing as that is not the case I'd rather do without it and have the game focus solely on character and story development.

I really agree with this comment, I know the new update is going to have a decent amount of normal timeline stuff. But I've found in most games D&D sessions in games never really advance the main story at all and are often just convenient ways for the Devs to show off the characters in sexy outfits since it's not "real" to the MC. And while I do appreciate the excuse for lewds etc, it really does drag the overall story down when the pace of the dev is 2 updates a year. Most people did not like the d&d session in BaDIK and I fear it will be the same for Summer's Gone. It's just jarring and nearly always seems like 2 completely different games when playing through it.

I dunno. Do I hate it? No I just wish the D&D session had been saved for when we are further into the main story. We're still in the introductory phase of everything and it seems premature. I hope I'm wrong on this.

 

[Fortuna ღ]

I really agree with this comment, I know the new update is going to have a decent amount of normal timeline stuff. But I've found in most games D&D sessions in games never really advance the main story at all and are often just convenient ways for the Devs to show off the characters in sexy outfits since it's not "real" to the MC. And while I do appreciate the excuse for lewds etc, it really does drag the overall story down when the pace of the dev is 2 updates a year. Most people did not like the d&d session in BaDIK and I fear it will be the same for Summer's Gone. It's just jarring and nearly always seems like 2 completely different games when playing through it.

I dunno. Do I hate it? No I just wish the D&D session had been saved for when we are further into the main story. We're still in the introductory phase of everything and it seems premature. I hope I'm wrong on this.

The only thing I will say to this is that not only are Being a DIK and Summer's Gone two vastly different games but they're made by two vastly different developers. Don't assume that because the tabletop session went one way in a completely different game, it'd automatically go that exact same way in another. Oceans is also a better writer and storyteller. I don't doubt that this tabletop session would be of some significance to the characters of the story. Character growth to be precise. Do not forget about our new friend Sonya. This tabletop session is actually an opportunity for a lot if executed correctly(and I have no doubt that Oceans can do just that).

Now there is a lot more I'd like to say, but unfortunately, I have to get going. I'll further expand on this when I return from work.

 

[Uriel ☁]

The only thing I will say to this is that not only are Being a DIK and Summer's Gone two vastly different games but they're made by two vastly different developers.

I think the main point people are missing is that Being a DIK has 1573% more support (just did some quick math) just from Patreon, didn't count Steam so it's even more.

The fact that when in need of a comparison for this game people instantly jump to one of the most supported one is a testament to its quality. It's like comparing a startup to Microsoft support-wise.

I'm not saying if the game got thrice the support it would be delivered three times faster, it doesn't work like that, but just in the latest dev log few pages back (if the mods didn't remove it for being off-topic lol) Ocean said he found the right animation tool but he cannot afford it. None of the games people just compared it to would have that problem, because they simply have that much more support.

Yet apparently people have the same expectations from the 5th AVN dev and the 200th (source: graphtreon). It's madness.

 

[Ragnar]

I think the main point people are missing is that Being a DIK has 1573% more support (just did some quick math) just from Patreon, didn't count Steam so it's even more.

The fact that when in need of a comparison for this game people instantly jump to one of the most supported one is a testament to its quality. It's like comparing a startup to Microsoft support-wise.

I'm not saying if the game got thrice the support it would be delivered three times faster, it doesn't work like that, but just in the latest dev log few pages back (if the mods didn't remove it for being off-topic lol) Ocean said he found the right animation tool but he cannot afford it. None of the games people just compared it to would have that problem, because they simply have that much more support.

Yet apparently people have the same expectations from the 5th AVN dev and the 200th (source: graphtreon). It's madness.

Maybe if he had finished WIAB before SG more people would trust his ability to finish a project and would support him.
Maybe if Summer's Gone were updated more regularly it would have more support.
Maybe if Ocean wasn't remaking his first game before completion he would have more support.
Maybe if he worked on a single project one single Patreon account he would have more support.
Maybe if the focus were put on new updates an not on miscellanea updates would be faster.
Maybe if both projects were not absurdly ambitious, 30 Chapters is just crazy at this pace, updates would be faster.
If DPC has more support is because he has show what he's capable of. First he finished his first project and then he started a more ambitious one.

 

[KhamulTG81]

Most people did not like the d&d session in BaDIK and I fear it will be the same for Summer's Gone. It's just jarring and nearly always seems like 2 completely different games when playing through it.

For me, personally, the story within BaDIK feels uninspired compared to the faszination I feel while staying in the world of Summers Gone. This may or may not be the fault of the boring fraternity setting overall in BaDIK, but for my part I'm realy excited for the d&d session in this game. You assume the worst, which is always a receipe for frustration. This is unimaginable for me with this game... it's not even beeing optimistic... I have complete confidence in Ocean's ability to craft a compelling substory. Im sure the d&d session is created to drive the plot foreward instead of stalling it.

 

[Fred689]

I learned about VN's 3 months ago after playing AL...
At this moment I think I have about +20 VN on my HD waiting on their next episodes , the long periods of waiting takes out some of the immersion for me. I mean I still remember fragments of the games (after waiting multiple months) but once the actual episodes drops then I really have to delve in my memory to know what happened before

I can understand that developers need lots of time for writing, rendering and all those other things but if we are talking about 6-12 months between the episodes then hell that's long. So I can understand people start thinking that they are milking their patreons.

Me I'm only supporting 2 games from which I can actually follow the progress of the updates so I'm kinda reassured that the specific developer keeps working on their novels and bring those out in respectable delays.

This specific game has me hooked up but I'm in doubt it will ever finish, like so many others think why doing 2 games if 1 game takes already that much time to create? I think if he could focus on one instead of 2 games progress would go smoother and I think more patreons would come in.
My view on this is; if I see actual progress in any games (I'm interested in), in form of new episodes coming out every 3-5 months, then I would surely consider in becoming faster a patreon.

Don't get me wrong this isn't whining or complaining about the developer's speed, it's just my 2 cents.
I for sure wouldn't be able to do this, I really have to utmost respect for those creators.
I love this game and I will monitor it closely but at some point, if we're speaking of 8 months delay per episode, I can loose intrest which is a shame.

 

[Fred689]

Maybe if he had finished WIAB before SG more people would trust his ability to finish a project and would support him.
Maybe if Summer's Gone were updated more regularly it would have more support.
Maybe if Ocean wasn't remaking his first game before completion he would have more support.
Maybe if he worked on a single project one single Patreon account he would have more support.
Maybe if the focus were put on new updates an not on miscellanea updates would be faster.
Maybe if both projects were not absurdly ambitious, 30 Chapters is just crazy at this pace, updates would be faster.
If DPC has more support is because he has show what he's capable of. First he finished his first project and then he started a more ambitious one.

Damn, I should have read your post first instead of making mine.. You took the words right out of my mouth
That all sums it up what I was trying to say

 

[ehct2332]

For me, personally, the story within BaDIK feels uninspired compared to the faszination I feel while staying in the world of Summers Gone.

The only thing that I wish had been written differently in Summer's Gone is the constant irritation that seems to follow the MC everywhere, which is evident in a lot of his thoughts and dialogue with others. He comes across as so easily triggered by so many scenarios, to the extent that Mila even refers to him as "our school shooter" jokingly early in the game. Keep in mind that Mila doesn't even know him properly yet. I think that his lingering annoyance and sensitivity could have been written in a more nuanced way, for sure. Example: He soldiers on in classes every week, and engages in group banter even, but those closest to him can see that there are dead giveaways that there's a lot of latent pain behind the MC's empty stares or rehearsed smiles. Instead, what we get is a guy whose body language screams depression to most of his peers, regardless of how little they know him. Adding more subtleties would have made the MC's character perfect, but this is just an opinion.

Having said that, it's pretty much my only issue with the game. I love Summer's Gone. I love Where It All Began, too. Life's hard enough. When you throw any traumatic event(s) into the mix, it can obviously be overwhelming. I guess I'm sold on the idea of a love interest having your back, so to speak; there's probably nothing more attractive for me in life than that, and the developer does this brilliantly in both games.