Ren'Py Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.5003] [Kompas Productions]

[Omnikuken]

I only noticed for the first time that DC's site has an "Unannounced Project" mentioned alongside SS.

Has the dev ever given any hints or indications what this project is, perhaps on stream?

Nope, it's been there pretty much from day 1 and nothing is known about it. Probably DC thought he'd be done with SS years ago and moved on to other stuff, but then people started to throw massive $ at him and he went "welp, might as well keep going" and didn't bother changing the Patreon thingy

Im going to be really honest not having content for a good while it kinda sucks, i think tec update which so far i only see backgrounds, they could have been made little by little into the other updates, understandable that some of the players are mobile users but this tec update is going for long time now, is delaying the game progress for about year, although they managed to drop a few animations which was good but its not considerably enough for most people that kinda want to see content progression, i know in fact this is a must need for later on when the game is complete but i would say this could have been done after roxxy update and wouldnt be that much of a pain in the ass now since after roxxy alot of art has been done, lets hope the tec update ends this year fast has possible since we gotta wait extra 6-7 months for the new content, i understand both side this tec update is must need but also is a creator of hate since the game is pretty much onhold from content for a few months now.

Aside the extreme Engrish, we got ~12 scenes in 10 months, more than many "real" updates, so whining we get nothing is pretty fail. The tech update was needed since before Erik's route when you had to pray RNGesus liked you enough to not fuck your save game every new build. They did kinda fix that along the years but the code was and still is hot garbage. You'll have to deal with it : either they do a massive overhaul now or the game fucks itself every update cause the base is wonky at best. What they did wrong is presume they'd be done within months and hype up the release last year, but that's nothing new

There's a thing called Hofstadter's Law, which is: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

I can't tell you how many times I've started a long-overdue code rewrite and had it take 10 times longer than I expected, and prevented me from giving new content to my users until it was done. It's hard to assure people that you're doing valuable work that they can't see.

Thing is : you can actually see what they're doing with SS. You can get a giantass tracker with everything listed in details when you Patron DC (10$+ might be a bit harsh though) and the Discord has the devs talking about it almost daily. Every1 in here crying without doing much doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things (aka people that support and actually get stuff in exchange)

 

[boss00718]

Hi,i already download the game on android and extract it now i dont know how to start the game i dont see any icon i saw only folder how to play that game?

 

[Omnikuken]

Hi,i already download the game on android and extract it now i dont know how to start the game i dont see any icon i saw only folder how to play that game?

All OP links download .apk files. You don't extract those, you install the .apk directly

 

[tankdick]

i think those milkposts are fucking stupid but a discussion about if the tech update was really necessary is valid. are people really going to bust better nuts because the backgrounds are 16:9 instead of 4:3 now? even if it improves the overall visual quality of the game, will the 1 year development time or whatever it's going to be at the end really be worth it at the end?

is dc wasting too much time drawing more and more detailed backgrounds? are there more economical ways to use already existing assets and focus on what's really important, you know the girls and the h-scenes? i know complaining about it won't change a thing but nothing we talk about here changes anything so please don't get pissed at me omnikuken

DC could have outsourced the background art and code improvement could be done concurrently/independently with updates to the girls. This tech update was a massive waste of time that could have been put into advancing characters.

 

[Omnikuken]

DC could have outsourced the background art and code improvement could be done concurrently/independently with updates to the girls. This tech update was a massive waste of time that could have been put into advancing characters.

Well no but no. DC's never gonna outsource art/backgrounds and what do you think the coder's been doing the last ~10 months ? Pro tip : it's not twiddling his ass

 

[itsyeboii]

The state of this thread is truly something else.

 

[twichman]

DC could have outsourced the background art and code improvement could be done concurrently/independently with updates to the girls. This tech update was a massive waste of time that could have been put into advancing characters.

 

[Deleted member 4238737]

Game art is meh. But damn, they nailed the characters. The mc always looks on weed. Ima play this

 

[DivineRowland]

Waiting for MC to get an upgraded wardrobe. Tired of looking like a beach bum at times

 

[srksrk 68]

The 16:9 is really meant to be for those who play on mobile, which by now, as far as I recall, seem to be the majority of "official players" who download the game from DC's sources.

Well I would certainly like to know if that's true, mobile players being the majority. If that's so, I live in a totally different world because hell would freeze sooner than I began playing on mobile regularly.

On the other hand, PC players play mostly on 16:10 devices, so for them the migration from 4:3 towards 16:9 would mean replacing two black bars on the left an right of the screen with two black bars on top and bottom. Not what I think would be received very well...

 

[j4yj4m]

Well I would certainly like to know if that's true, mobile players being the majority. If that's so, I live in a totally different world because hell would freeze sooner than I began playing on mobile regularly.

The game is hugely popular in south east asia and many younger people I know don't even really own PCs anymore, but only use mobile devices for whatever they do. As far as I recall DC mentioned it quite some time ago, but I really don't doubt it, though I'm not 100% sure. In my opinion the F95 community here certainly isn't representative of SS playerbase as a whole.

On the other hand, PC players play mostly on 16:10 devices, so for them the migration from 4:3 towards 16:9 would mean replacing two black bars on the left an right of the screen with two black bars on top and bottom. Not what I think would be received very well...

As said, on mobile the two massive black bars are a real nuisance, while most of the PC players probably won't care that much where their bars are. I'm not even sure how many people actually play fullscreen on PC in the first place, I sure know that I don't.

 

[mightybored]

Waiting for MC to get an upgraded wardrobe. Tired of looking like a beach bum at times

That'll be in Tech Update 8, in about 15 years.

 

[MurkyTurtle]

Well I would certainly like to know if that's true, mobile players being the majority. If that's so, I live in a totally different world because hell would freeze sooner than I began playing on mobile regularly.

On the other hand, PC players play mostly on 16:10 devices, so for them the migration from 4:3 towards 16:9 would mean replacing two black bars on the left an right of the screen with two black bars on top and bottom. Not what I think would be received very well...

He's definitely mentioned before that a large portion of the player base is mobile, and with the aspect ratios of modern phones getting even wider (the Galaxy s20 clocks in at 20:9) the black bar problem has gotten even worse. Of course, this means that in two or three years he'll have to announce the move to ultra-widescreen since 16:9 will still have black bars on phones

I'm a little curious where you live if you're playing on a 16:10 PC. I haven't owned a 16:10 monitor in over a decade, and I'd assumed they'd become an endangered species since I've only seen 16:9 or ultrawide monitors in US stores and online storefronts for years. Do you work mainly on a laptop? I do recall seeing an article recently that 16:10 is making a comeback there.

 

[DivineRowland]

That'll be in Tech Update 8, in about 15 years.

I can see that already happening lmao

 

[srksrk 68]

He's definitely mentioned before that a large portion of the player base is mobile, and with the aspect ratios of modern phones getting even wider (the Galaxy s20 clocks in at 20:9) the black bar problem has gotten even worse. Of course, this means that in two or three years he'll have to announce the move to ultra-widescreen since 16:9 will still have black bars on phones

I'm a little curious where you live if you're playing on a 16:10 PC. I haven't owned a 16:10 monitor in over a decade, and I'd assumed they'd become an endangered species since I've only seen 16:9 or ultrawide monitors in US stores and online storefronts for years. Do you work mainly on a laptop? I do recall seeing an article recently that 16:10 is making a comeback there.

You're right, I just checked and I have a native 16:9 resolution. Thought otherwise, though...

 

[Bob69]

He's definitely mentioned before that a large portion of the player base is mobile, and with the aspect ratios of modern phones getting even wider (the Galaxy s20 clocks in at 20:9) the black bar problem has gotten even worse. Of course, this means that in two or three years he'll have to announce the move to ultra-widescreen since 16:9 will still have black bars on phones

I'm a little curious where you live if you're playing on a 16:10 PC. I haven't owned a 16:10 monitor in over a decade, and I'd assumed they'd become an endangered species since I've only seen 16:9 or ultrawide monitors in US stores and online storefronts for years. Do you work mainly on a laptop? I do recall seeing an article recently that 16:10 is making a comeback there.

16:9 --> 20:9 is way easier then 4:3 -> 16:9. Because you just have to cut left and right. And when there is only background its not a problem, like when you have to cut of the top and bottom, I would guess.

 

[MurkyTurtle]

16:9 --> 20:9 is way easier then 4:3 -> 16:9. Because you just have to cut left and right. And when there is only background its not a problem, like when you have to cut of the top and bottom, I would guess.

I was being facetious, I don't actually expect he'll do any more background conversions since he's doubtless used up all of his patrons' goodwill by taking over a year on this one. It does beg the question: why wasn't he drawing backgrounds in widescreen and chopping off the left and right sides to make them 4:3, like what they did for TV shows in the era before HDTV? DC was discussing a widescreen conversion for years (I vaguely remember him throwing out the idea on polls or streams in ~2018), so I'm surprised he didn't try to future-proof his work earlier. I know it's water under the bridge now, but I'm curious if he ever addressed it on stream at some point.

 

[Omnikuken]

I was being facetious, I don't actually expect he'll do any more background conversions since he's doubtless used up all of his patrons' goodwill by taking over a year on this one. It does beg the question: why wasn't he drawing backgrounds in widescreen and chopping off the left and right sides to make them 4:3, like what they did for TV shows in the era before HDTV? DC was discussing a widescreen conversion for years (I vaguely remember him throwing out the idea on polls or streams in ~2018), so I'm surprised he didn't try to future-proof his work earlier. I know it's water under the bridge now, but I'm curious if he ever addressed it on stream at some point.

2 points :

#1 - It's been ~10 months, not "over a year"
#2 - DC draws in 4K and scales it down to fit the game. Would be fun to see the milkers switch out their moaning that the game is now 10GB per build cause DC kept the 4K pics

 

[DarkDaemonX]

#2 - DC draws in 4K and scales it down to fit the game. Would be fun to see the milkers switch out their moaning that the game is now 10GB per build cause DC kept the 4K pics

I don't really care about the download size of a game, as long as it's worth the download time and space.

 

[j4yj4m]

why wasn't he drawing backgrounds in widescreen and chopping off the left and right sides to make them 4:3, like what they did for TV shows in the era before HDTV? DC was discussing a widescreen conversion for years (I vaguely remember him throwing out the idea on polls or streams in ~2018), so I'm surprised he didn't try to future-proof his work earlier. I know it's water under the bridge now, but I'm curious if he ever addressed it on stream at some point.

I think he actually started drawing wider backgrounds back in 2020, but the answer why he didn't do it before is probably rather simple. Given that you have to balance a background so it works in 4:3 and 16:9 it's quite a bit more work (I still recall DC tinkering with the cemetery background, so it would look good in both versions) and he probably didn't think an update would actually happen, before he convinced himself that he wanted to do it. If you don't think that you'll ever use 16:9, there isn't a need to make an extra effort to create 16:9 assets.
I don't think DC himself was ever really happpy with 4:3, but up to some point I'd say his plan was to finish SS as it is and to do the next project properly. That very much changed in those last years and now SS is supposed to be "as good as it can be".

But as mentioned before, the problem with this tech update actually isn't the art. If he had stuck to his original plan to only add 5 to 8 scenes and to redo the backgrounds, I'm sure he would have finished the necessary art by the end of July/August last year. I guess I'll never understand why they didn't just hire the people they hired now right in the beginning.

I'm not giving DC any money so I don't really care what they do as long as they are working, but these two last years have certainly cost them a lot of good will and money.