Ren'Py Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.4468] [Kompas Productions]

[wolfpackjac3]

Look at the dev of Light of my life, Naughty Road. His updates take a long time as well. Last update was well over a year, and despite that, it's a much friendlier comment section.

Because the guy actually takes the time to treat you as a human being. It's why I donate to him. A bit of respect goes a very long way, unlike this dev, who could not give a shit, and actively lied to his customers.

That's def very true, that and it only takes a few bad thread actors to ruin it for everyone else. Definitely the case here.

 

[Sgrodolo]

I can't believe people are still arguing more money donated on Patreon HAS to mean more resources put into the game.
Like you can force someone to turn their hobby into a full time job by throwing money at them

 

[Count Morado]

I can't believe people are still arguing more money donated on Patreon HAS to mean more resources put into the game.
Like you can force someone to turn their hobby into a full time job by throwing money at them

True - though, to be clear without dismissing your comment, this is DC's full-time job and has been so for years. Currently, he has on contract a writer, a coder, several posers, plus support roles.

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[icherwin]

Number of tasks to be done, according to DarkCookie:

Apr 21: 147 - 000 = 147
Jan 22: 273 - 173 = 100
Jan 23: 551 - 441 = 110
Jan 24: 658 - 514 = 144

 

[Romirom]

Page 3725...

If people here wouldn't complain about the lack of updates, this thread would probably only be 1000 pages long.

It's getting ridiculous slowly but surely.

 

[otranu]

if you are going to argue that Dark Cookie (who does all the writing and art) is not the one taking at least 95% of the profits while tossing crumbs to the rest of the "development team"

I really think people that comments this type of stuff never had a real job.
Lets say after taxes, patreon shares, licenses he gets 55.000. He could not pay the team that currently has a full time wage with that money.

 

[ElfDrow]

True - though, to be clear without dismissing your comment, this is DC's full-time job and has been so for years. Currently, he has on contract a writer, a coder, several posers, plus support roles.

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is good that he doesn't feel pressured to work for other people (good for him. truly )

but the concept of a "patron of the arts" is not "we give you money to not produce results and live free".
is funding to see that promising talent doesn't go to waste without finishing anything.

Think Leonardo Da Vinci. his patreons included the Cesare Borgia, the Medici family and others. a lot of his works were commissions under the patronage of those people.

by definition a Patron is a customer. in this case a paying customer.
there is a big difference with Patronage vs Charity. both give money a person. but one is expected results.

lastly. why do you call all the people here "freeloaders"? are you sure people here are just unhappy about paying and not seeing results for almost a decade? you know... a lot are probably ex patreons. you know... the people that payed so this thing got started.
high and mighty attitude toward others, that you think are freeloaders is not good for your case.

 

[Count Morado]

lastly. why do you call all the people here "freeloaders"? are you sure people here are just unhappy about paying and not seeing results for almost a decade? you know... a lot are probably ex patreons. you know... the people that payed so this thing got started.
high and mighty attitude toward others, that you think are freeloaders is not good for your case.

I'll answer this here - and the rest in off-topic, since your entire post is completely off-topic:
I am not being high and mighty - I said "fellow freeloaders" including myself in the group. Please read that again. I'm a fucking freeloader and I've said that time and again on this site. I'm being honest. You should too.

See you in off-topic.

 

[Senigata]

lastly. why do you call all the people here "freeloaders"? are you sure people here are just unhappy about paying and not seeing results for almost a decade? you know... a lot are probably ex patreons. you know... the people that payed so this thing got started.

We are, by and large, freeloaders here, so he's correct to call us that. The few patrons on here don't change the vast majority of mainly lurkers who have an account to download games for free.
Thems the facts.

 

[arigatogyro]

>update: new arms
its so over

 

[dirgetka]

Do I look like I care about whatever it is supposed to be when they're still selling it as piecemeal? Anyone who defends that is the reason why modern gaming is utter dogshit and absolutely has no ground to stand on to bitch about DC here.

No need to be a bitch about it

 

[Snugglepuff]

No need to be a bitch about it

No need for you to be a bitch to him about it.

 

[GopnikDude]

Here's the thing... As an indie dev myself, i get it. DC really has no point (and as others pointed out, actually has no obligations) to release the tech update faster, even tho it's been almost 3 years going at it.

The money just keeps pouring in, their future is secured, they probably have plenty of other new projects idea they are working on. So people can bitch and moan all about it morning to evening if they want, doesn't change the fact that Summertime Saga is certainly a commercial (and arguably, marketing) success already and thus, lack any good motivation other than their reputation to release timely and sizable updates.

They can take their sweet ass time in planning, prototyping and exploring concepts for the future of Summertime Saga or whatever else they want to go to next. And let me tell you, that this kind of opportunity is fantastically rare in the world of video games in general, and he knows it.

Would i like for them to get along and finally release this damn update? Fuck yeah, i want to play this game one more time with the tech update so i can finally put an end to this whole saga (eh).

But also... DAMN, DUDE FOUND INFINITE MONEY GLITCH AND IS CASHING IT IN YEEEEEEWHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I'm half-joking but to be blunt; yes he is exploiting the shit out of it and i can't even blame him.

 

[armopbr]

>update: new arms
its so over

He's doing a resolution update for 3 years, a new arm model is a shining beacon of hope

 

[Mandragoron]

True - though, to be clear without dismissing your comment, this is DC's full-time job and has been so for years. Currently, he has on contract a writer, a coder, several posers, plus support roles.

And you have any source which says how long they work for him in a week? Or Month? Or in which condition there work agreement is?

I have also a gardener and a cleaning lady, sounds like i pay a lot of money hey? no they come very rarly for 3-4 hours thats it.
The same counts for this "jobs" Yes he has a lot of ppl working on this project with him, fine, but they dont work full hours. They get i need this week that you do this task.. ok person_01 does the tasks it takes for example 5 hours in the week he gets the agreed money for it, thats it.
DC works 1-1,5 hours a day (and very often he is "ill") i dont belive if his "full time" working hours are 5-7,5 hours a week. He would pay ppl for more hours.

 

[GopnikDude]

And you have any source which says how long they work for him in a week? Or Month? Or in which condition there work agreement is?

I have also a gardener and a cleaning lady, sounds like i pay a lot of money hey? no they come very rarly for 3-4 hours thats it.
The same counts for this "jobs" Yes he has a lot of ppl working on this project with him, fine, but they dont work full hours. They get i need this week that you do this task.. ok person_01 does the tasks it takes for example 5 hours in the week he gets the agreed money for it, thats it.
DC works 1-1,5 hours a day (and very often he is "ill") i dont belive if his "full time" working hours are 5-7,5 hours a week. He would pay ppl for more hours.

Just as anecdote; my team is made of about 8 full time devs, which consist of a dedicated audio director, Lead dev programmer, Art director, Lead QA/Gameplay designer (Me), Story/Lead director and 3 artists (2D/3D/Texturing). We hire a bunch of outside contractors in a as-needed/part time basis such as animators, voice actors and programmers (we work with UE5) which counts up to maybe about 20 people total having contributed.

We have only about 1/3 to 1/4 the raw monthly income of SS, but to be fair, i genuinely believe most of us are some extremely talented people that could easily fetch twice the salary we're currently offering. But we have other circumstances to compensate for that such as sale percentage cuts and such. That and we've been working together for like 5 years now so we're all on pretty good terms.

SS is most definitely Art heavy first and foremost, with DC probably being the sole artist doing the art and animation stuff. Then programming, story/dialogue writing, QA (Maybe?) and perhaps some studio assistant doing a little bit of everything. Ah and PR guy. These are the main roles that most likely are full time, since DC is most certainly a lead dev doing a little of everything, which is the exact same for our own lead dev. There is no way DC is slacking, i'm actually fairly sure of that.

Everything else, i doubt the work load is sufficient to be full time. That being said, small teams (like mine) tend to wear multiples hats at once, so it is entirely possible the actual work is much more diverse than what their titles implies.

TL;DR: They have enough budget to hire a full team of 20 people full time if they wanted. For which they don't need to and have zero incentive to. The only main motivation i could see for completing updates faster is that good release schedules is good for seeking out partnerships and publishers. Which again, they don't need.

They are a small team working on a big ass building. But who cares about finishing it faster, all that'll do is dry up their source of revenue.

Again, people can bitch and moan all they want. But they are in a absolute dream state for their project. Good for them.

To be clear: All of this is nothing more than conjecture, provided for reference. Please do not take any of this as fact for SS or the devs.

 

[Mookys]

I haven't been back here for months.
When the update comes out, I think I'll have to start this game all over again. I've forgotten half the story.

 

[cableswitch]

What an awesome game!

 

[Xupuzulla]

I haven't been back here for months.
When the update comes out, I think I'll have to start this game all over again. I've forgotten half the story.

Old saves arent going to work so we all have to start all over again when the tech update drops.

 

[Mookys]

Old saves arent going to work so we all have to start all over again when the tech update drops.

Thanks for the info.