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

[KhamulTG81]

People seem to keep linking Oceanlab's current rate of development with how long it will continue to take to develop chapters. I don't think that's how it works.

As his popularity grows, and he gets more financial backing, he'll be able to afford to bring help on. And unlike many other devs, pretty sure he's been pretty open about his willingness to hire help.

Having help lowers the total development time for each update. If he was making enough money to get enough help, he could be pushing updates out every 2-3 months.

That's why I sub his patreon, since I like this game and my sub might actually make a difference. Unlike Being a DIK -> I love that game but don't see any point in subbing since the dude is already rich AF.

Ocean knows exactly that it would take an eternity + 1 to complete all his planned games at the current state of his development capabilities. The steam release will rise the level of support, this is basically a fact due to the quality of the product. In consequence, Ocean will invest heavily into hardware, software and so on to reduce the time between updates.

People always assume the worst until proven otherwise. Because of a substantial amount of inexperienced devs on this site who aren't cut out for the task, this behavior isn't unexpected. On top of that "scam-devs" lower the bar even further.

Ocean is passionate about his art and has an amazing work ethic to begin with. He needs a broader audience to enable his passion, plain and simple.

 

[Ragnar]

Ocean knows exactly that it would take an eternity + 1 to complete all his planned games at the current state of his development capabilities. The steam release will rise the level of support, this is basically a fact due to the quality of the product. In consequence, Ocean will invest heavily into hardware, software and so on to reduce the time between updates.

People always assume the worst until proven otherwise. Because of a substantial amount of inexperienced devs on this site who aren't cut out for the task, this behavior isn't unexpected. On top of that "scam-devs" lower the bar even further.

Ocean is passionate about his art and has an amazing work ethic to begin with. He needs a broader audience to enable his passion, plain and simple.

Too many Ifs in your post. You must learn to walk before you run. Right now with Ocean current capabilities and scope for the projects the task at hand will take decades to be completed. Maybe dropping one of the projects, hiring people or cutting corners (like the number of chapters or innecesary animations) could help to speed things up, but right now I have my doubts about the future of wiab and sg.
There is a fine line between ambition and delusion.

 

[notakernelguy]

hiring people

Also hiring people is quite a task. You would need to find not only skillfull people but also reliable, responsible and who share the same vision as you. I've seen enough VNs which started as a two-three man team but went abandoned or started over due to internal disagreements or private problems.

It actually already kind of happened in the past with Ocean when he initially gave SG to his friend. What happened next is a whole other story...

 

[KhamulTG81]

There is a fine line between ambition and delusion.

Jesus Christ... what the hell are you on? At the moment he is a on his own with limited resources. Talking about delusion... you spread negativity and your doomsday vision without thinking twice. Do you even realise how important a steam release is? I guess not!

Maybe dropping one of the projects, hiring people or cutting corners like number of chapters or animations could help to speed things up

- NOT desired by Ocean as he said so himself... it keeps him "sane"... so not gonna happen
- desired by Ocean after the support reaches a certain level
- GREAT IDEA!... this would go against one reason why a lot of people support the game in the first place! Reduce the quality to the same level of trash everyone else produces!!! /s

 

[Ragnar]

Jesus Christ... what the hell are you on? At the moment he is a on his own with limited resources. Talking about delusion... you spread negativity and your doomsday vision without thinking twice. Do you even realise how important a steam release is? I guess not!


- NOT desired by Ocean as he said so himself... it keeps him "sane"... so not gonna happen
- desired by Ocean after the support reaches a certain level
- GREAT IDEA!... this would go against one reason why a lot of people support the game in the first place! Reduce the quality to the same level of trash everyone else produces!!! /s

Take a chill pill. I'm just saying the obvious, at this pace both projects are going nowhere.
- But he can earn enough to buy a PC farm in Malaysia in the future!!
Sure, also he can remake both games from the beginning in 2025 because the quality standards are gonna be higher by that time.

 

[Tairnel]

Also hiring people is quite a task. You would need to find not only skillfull people but also reliable, responsible and who share the same vision as you. I've seen enough VNs which started as a two-three man team but went abandoned or started over due to internal disagreements or private problems.

It actually already kind of happened in the past with Ocean when he initially gave SG to his friend. What happened next is a whole other story...

What's the story about that? I only recently learned that SG chapter 1 was rendered by someone else.

 

[KhamulTG81]

I'm just saying the obvious

Nothing is "obvious"... generalizations are the death of a good discussion culture... and you generalize a lot...

 

[Vitez]

Also hiring people is quite a task. You would need to find not only skillfull people but also reliable, responsible and who share the same vision as you. I've seen enough VNs which started as a two-three man team but went abandoned or started over due to internal disagreements or private problems.

It actually already kind of happened in the past with Ocean when he initially gave SG to his friend. What happened next is a whole other story...

I mean the dude said himself that if there wasn't a tabletop section, an update would be done in February. As far as I understand he's learning/making objects and places. Why not hire/delegate someone for just that and focus on animation and renders alone. I cannot fathom how spending so much time learning and making a petrol station and sci-fi environment (That's going to be used like twice?) is of any benefit for the future of lessening the update period.
But to be fair, in comparison to other devs, they are also taking a very long time, with the same models, same env, average renders (little to no postwork) etc. And still take very long.

 

[Denz0]

Hah yeah, I understand. You won't believe how many fans so fiercely defend the developers, its happening with every VN with a update cycle of 5+ months. It's honestly really frustrating because sometimes valid questions go unanswered, because the person answering usually only says something along the lines of "Quality takes time" or "The update will come out when it's done".

I guess the main issue Ocean is facing is that he's trying to combine quality with quantity. Like someone in the WiaB thread said, artistic vision is fine, but some times you have to sacrifice something for the goal. But Ocean doesn't want to do that. For example, he lost his license for music for a couple of cinematic, so what does he do? re-edit the cinematic to work with other songs? Simply leave it as it is? No, he removes the entire cinematic from the game.

At the end of the day though, it's his game, and his vision. While it might not get abandoned, I just hope he doesn't bite the dust before they get finished (30 chapters each for SG and WiaB=60 chapters total).

You know people hate the truth, not saying this game would get abandoned but it's within the possibility. People would just go so far to say some crazy stuff just because they like the game. I've seen some games with high potential like this went down that path. Truth is sour people.

 

[drax 4998]

Is there chepter 4 update come or not ?
Is there any spoilers or teaser came after ch3.5 update.

 

[mitymity]

Is there chepter 4 update come or not ?
Is there any spoilers or teaser came after ch3.5 update.

Coming very soon, maybe even next week. Next dev log expected on Wednesday.

 

[gabrixp1]

There's absolutely no way the dev finishes the game within our lifetimes. He will get bored long before it happens.

Dev, please, just drop the cinematics for now.

 

[HissSnekHiss]

Why do people in this thread get so defensive at the mere mention of the insanely long time between updates. 9 months is absolutely ridiculous amount of time to from chapter "3.5" to chapter 4.

 

[memegamerfun]

Why do people in this thread get so defensive at the mere mention of the insanely long time between updates.

It does take an insanely long time between updates, no doubt. And while there definitely are some who will lose their shit when you say that, I think it's more about people thinking that it taking a long time between updates NOW means it will take a long time between updates FOREVER. They don't seem to understand that as your resources increase (experience, money, hardware, etc), your productivity and efficiency goes up too.

So yeah, right now it's painfully long between updates. But, I'd expect it will improve over time, especially if he grows his Patreon base (and releases on Steam etc) so he's got a solid amount of cash available for hiring help and getting better hardware etc.

 

[`Ray`]

Why do people in this thread get so defensive at the mere mention of the insanely long time between updates. 9 months is absolutely ridiculous amount of time from chapter "3.5" to chapter 4.

It's because of some past experiences.

People who don't like the Development time express their views on it, which is completely fine. But some start complaining that this project will never be finished and that Dev should put a hold on his other game, etc.

At the end of the day, It is just criticism but the people here overdo it and that results in negativity.

And I believe that most who express their views on the development time don't follow the Dev-logs, because if they do then they will stop complaining.

Another point is that 6-9 months is completely normal for big projects like BaDIK, CoBD, and SG. It takes time to produce a quality of this level.

For those who are unaware, Ocean has done some changes in his workflow whose effect we will see during the next development period.

Also, this topic has been brought up and answered SO many times that most are tired of it.

 

[Skrrt!]

For us with the Asian kick, I think I remember reading a certain maternal figure wasn't going to have content. Am I remembering correctly? It's been a while since I think I read it

If this is about Nojiko, i dont think we are going to have anything like that with her. A lot could change tho.

 

[Freki.g]

Why do people in this thread get so defensive at the mere mention of the insanely long time between updates. 9 months is absolutely ridiculous amount of time to from chapter "3.5" to chapter 4.

here is the answer ...

Spoiler: Supporters

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[D9074]

It does take an insanely long time between updates, no doubt. And while there definitely are some who will lose their shit when you say that, I think it's more about people thinking that it taking a long time between updates NOW means it will take a long time between updates FOREVER. They don't seem to understand that as your resources increase (experience, money, hardware, etc), your productivity and efficiency goes up too.

So yeah, right now it's painfully long between updates. But, I'd expect it will improve over time, especially if he grows his Patreon base (and releases on Steam etc) so he's got a solid amount of cash available for hiring help and getting better hardware etc.

exactly this, everyone acts like just because it has taken a certain amount of time for the first few that the exact same time frame will happen every time. Thinking that no progress will be made or that he doesnt get more people or software/hardware which helps speed things up.

Also someone else said something like he is making these different enviroments but will only use them once or twice so how will that make him improve.. If you make certain things that are hard to make from scratch it makes other things way more simple, and will likely make you quicker at the simple things while still doing them at a high standard. So just because you only use something once or twice it doesnt mean you dont carry them same things you learned through to the next things. thats my logic anyway but maybe im just stupid.

End of the day who tf am i to tell a dev what to do, if they want to make certain shit then i have no say in that, its their life they can do as they want. maybe they enjoy doing certain things and maybe some devs make their games for themselves, having people play and support them could just be a bonus to some. one thing that gets to me is some people that come here act so entitled like they're owed something..

 

[notakernelguy]

Chapter 3 took around 1 year to be created. Then Ocean decided to switch to half chapters to decrease this waiting.
But something didn't go as planned and the upcoming half chapter alone is going to be bigger than full Chapter 3.
Good thing it took less time to create even more content than during Chapter 3 development, progress is there and it's undeniable.
But do you think the scope of the game was changed since half chapters are as big or bigger than full chapters? More characters/story arks?

 

[CoalPhelps]

Will there be any path with Sasha or is she just a background character?