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

[Freezer]

$61k per month

 

[Gato21]

Damn I remember everyone loving this game maybe 4-5 years ago, feels like most ppl here are losing hope in it except this one guy in the comments lol.

We, however, are irrelevant. We could all catch dysentery and die, but if DarkCookie is making fat stacks he is happy. The question I want to know is his money train has at all dried up. I am guessing not. Enlighten me if I am wrong.

 

[randommal3]

I was a long time fan of this game.
The first time i played it i think before Roxy's story was added and the Class was only a French class.
There was a Quest too from the Librarian to put a Hidden Cam in The School Bathroom. Never get explained what we get from it.
I really wish The Dev fleshed out the Older Characters's story First than doing some random Tech Update or adding New Characters.

 

[ahxjosu]

wait is it got bad?

 

[exazubi]

wait is it got bad?

No it is not. Only the old dilemma again: the eternal wait until the next update

 

[Janjaap1]

That one guy sits here literally 24/7 and replies to every single comment ever made with the worst take imaginable always defending this scam game. When a post is made he'll already be typing out a response in the next minute. Most likely has some kind of google alerts system in place that pings him whenever a comment is made. That guy is single handedly keeping up the illusion that the game has fans left. If you put him on ignore there isn't a single positive comment about scammertime saga to be found.

Yep that is so true .
I put him on ignore too and there are as good as zero positive sounds left in here,over the game.
Well at least I dont have to be annoyed by that idiot anymore.

 

[Count Morado]

wait is it got bad?

No

Most likely has some kind of google alerts system in place that pings him whenever a comment is made.

F95 has notifications which can include emailing the notifications to the user - which is a setting in user preferences. Also, if you elect to use the WATCH feature for any thread, it asks if you want notifications emailed. There is no need to go out of ones way.

That one guy sits here literally 24/7

Also, interestingly as much as a few of you have bashed Omnikuken in the last 16 hours or so, for all your claims that he is quick to reply - he hasn't said a word... for someone you accuse of sitting here "literally 24/7."

If you put him on ignore there isn't a single positive comment to be found.

Yep that is so true .
I put him on ignore too and there are as good as zero positive sounds left in here,over the game.

Lying to yourselves doesn't mean you two are correct. There are quite a few people here who have positive things to say - including j4yj4m, hero1, I have said positive things ... and all of us, including Omnikuken have also said criticisms about DC's performance.
It seems just plainly stating the information that is available is considered white knighting for those who have sour grapes while waiting to get their nut off in a game that is free for them to play.

F95 as well as all the other sites reviewing these games should take much more responsibility vis-a-vis signaling that there's a massive problem with this project.

That's not the mission of any of the sites you are wishing would "take much more responsibility." The only people who have any way of moving the needle might be the subscribers on Patreon. However, DC has made it very clear that even if he received $0 in contributions, he'd just continue to develop in his free time on his own.

 

[Omnikuken]

I was a long time fan of this game.
The first time i played it i think before Roxy's story was added and the Class was only a French class.
There was a Quest too from the Librarian to put a Hidden Cam in The School Bathroom. Never get explained what we get from it.
I really wish The Dev fleshed out the Older Characters's story First than doing some random Tech Update or adding New Characters.

Lol random. It was always coming up eventually, he decided to do it now instead of later. Imagine the time it would take if the game was mostly done and you had 5+ new routes and ~8 remakes added to it.

He's very far from a money problem. Four days from now, on 14-Feb, it will be exactly 2 years since he first claimed work on the Tech Update vaporware has started. In the meanwhile, his monthly income at Patreon grew to almost $78k and then slowly deflated to about $65k last month.

The past year is 100% unjustified delay. There is no working demo of the vaporware he claims he's working on. There is no delivery in sight. All he does is draw backgrounds and wallpapers from time to time. And with all that he's only losing about $1000/month from subscribers who finally figure out what's going on and only 10-15% of his total subscriber base actually renew their subscription monthly, everyone else is on auto pilot, simply throwing money in his bottomless hole with no demands.

Just in the past year he cashed in well over half a million $ for aimlessly doodling a few hours / week. If he changes literally nothing in his m.o., he stands to easily make another million $ in the next ~2 years. As far as he's concerned: If it works, don't fix it.

F95 as well as all the other sites reviewing these games should take much more responsibility vis-a-vis signaling that there's a massive problem with this project. Otherwise, the game itself is dead because with every passing month, what has to be done to get the project back on track becomes crushingly more expensive vs. the alternative of changing nothing and just enjoying whatever still drips in, for however long that lasts (and the history of these projects is littered with cases where it takes a very long while for the drip to stop). Patreons should demand to see a working demo before paying a single $ more. If this far along it's not possible to show a satisfying demo, this project is in effect dead.

Reality doesn't work like that

That one guy sits here literally 24/7 and replies to every single comment ever made with the worst take imaginable always defending this scam game. When a post is made he'll already be typing out a response in the next minute. Most likely has some kind of google alerts system in place that pings him whenever a comment is made. That guy is single handedly keeping up the illusion that the game has fans left. If you put him on ignore there isn't a single positive comment about scammertime saga to be found.

Hi

No
F95 has notifications which can include emailing the notifications to the user - which is a setting in user preferences. Also, if you elect to use the WATCH feature for any thread, it asks if you want notifications emailed. There is no need to go out of ones way.

Also, interestingly as much as a few of you have bashed Omnikuken in the last 16 hours or so, for all your claims that he is quick to reply - he hasn't said a word... for someone you accuse of sitting here "literally 24/7."


Lying to yourselves doesn't mean you two are correct. There are quite a few people here who have positive things to say - including j4yj4m, hero1, I have said positive things ... and all of us, including Omnikuken have also said criticisms about DC's performance.
It seems just plainly stating the information that is available is considered white knighting for those who have sour grapes while waiting to get their nut off in a game that is free for them to play.

That's not the mission of any of the sites you are wishing would "take much more responsibility." The only people who have any way of moving the needle might be the subscribers on Patreon. However, DC has made it very clear that even if he received $0 in contributions, he'd just continue to develop in his free time on his own.

Guess I can't sleep now, cause those weirdos are so far up their own delusion I need to be here all day .....

 

[ahxjosu]

why he change secn

 

[darkgunner079]

Personally I'm looking forward to the "Pre Tech Update Part 10" in 2035

 

[TheVegnar]

Personally I'm looking forward to the "Pre Tech Update Part 10" in 2035

2035 is too soon. try 2077 :]

 

[MurkyTurtle]

Well, SS is objectively a good game. If you look at the complaints - even here where it's mostly negative - you'll only see few people who actually complain about the game itself. Most complain that it's either too slow or that DC releases "the wrong content" while they'd like to see something else instead. After all, SS as it is now, offers more content than most finished games do.

That means it's really not that easy to say, whether some/most people who are giving money are actually getting something (they want) for their money or not.

I'd hesitate to use terms like "objectively" when referring to whether a game is good or not. SS has quite a lot of high-quality artwork and animation, but the story can get pretty mediocre in places, the game leads you around by the nose through each quest, and the individual mini-game elements range from boring to outright terrible. Like "shit someone threw together in an afternoon and slapped up on early Newgrounds" terrible.

Four or five years ago SS was easily a top-tier game and might still be the best game in the 2D art space, but we've had a lot of really good adult games the last few years that have exposed its weaknesses.

 

[APoc1]

Can't really make a comment about the early game first ver. I played was 17.5 but it is a good game. Yes it has flaws but frankly what game doesn't have them. Unless the flaws out weigh the over all exp. of playing it I generally don't get worked up about them. It has good Art, story is okay , character interactions can be quite funny at times not to hard to play and gennerally keeps my interest for long periods of time. I can't really ask a lot more from a game it helps me pass the time , better than watching the stupid TV...

 

[j4yj4m]

I'd hesitate to use terms like "objectively" when referring to whether a game is good or not. SS has quite a lot of high-quality artwork and animation, but the story can get pretty mediocre in places, the game leads you around by the nose through each quest, and the individual mini-game elements range from boring to outright terrible. Like "shit someone threw together in an afternoon and slapped up on early Newgrounds" terrible.

Four or five years ago SS was easily a top-tier game and might still be the best game in the 2D art space, but we've had a lot of really good adult games the last few years that have exposed its weaknesses.

Well, I didn't say it was the best, perfect or even great, but if the story "can" be medicore "in places", the game obviously isn't medicore or even bad overall, right? I think my statement is pretty fair, given that it's based on actual criticisms of the game. Sure, the parts of the main story and some of the old stories (which are going to be reworked) aren't always great, but that's indeed the case for almost every game over here and even the really good ones in 2D SS' peer group have some points/mechanisms to be criticized.

I'd indeed say, that SS wasn't a good game back in the days, when it started to become popular. The art was mostly rushed when it comes to the releases up to 0.13 or so and the stories and quests were actually "objectively" bad at times (looking at Jenny's old story, for example), etc.

Can't really make a comment about the early game first ver. I played was 17.5 but it is a good game. Yes it has flaws but frankly what game doesn't have them. Unless the flaws out weigh the over all exp. of playing it I generally don't get worked up about them. It has good Art, story is okay , character interactions can be quite funny at times not to hard to play and gennerally keeps my interest for long periods of time. I can't really ask a lot more from a game it helps me pass the time , better than watching the stupid TV...

The game certainly improved a lot since.
18.0 actually removed the biggest mess, which was Jenny's old story and her connection to Somrak. There are still elements like Debbie's bad art, the mix of old and new art for some other characters or Mia's way too short story, which are obvious problems.

The game is improving update by update and I'm personally looking forward to the point, where all of the old pre 0.16.0 assets will finally be gone for good.

 

[McSlut]

one big appeal of STS back then was the transparency of DC's work and the frequent updates. i came to STS after playing witch trainer and princess trainer and while i still think those games had better art, the thing with akabur games is that he works slow and back then you had no idea when something new would release. in the early days of STS you knew that DC would stream everyday and every 2-3 months there would be an update. obviously things change, the tracker is completly pointless, DC still streams most of the time when he's not sick but he's been doodling on the same backgrounds for weeks and he uses half of the stream time to joke around with his team, it doesn't really feel like he's still focused on the job.

thinking about it those akabur games also have better writing which is funny because STS has a dedicated writer and akabur does everything himself, as time goes on i more and more appreciate this guy because at least he finishes his games. STS will never be finished, i'm sorry but you know it's true. i can't even imagine the headache that implementing the dating system for all the characters will be and how many years it will take.

what summertime saga still has going for it is the chill atmosphere of a summer vacation, at least back then it was kinda cool and reminded me of a lot of old newgrounds porn games but honestly there have been lots of games especially japanese ones who are doing the whole "summer vacation" vibe much better. the main story with it's sex trafficking themes and the serious tone ruined a lot of that for me, so did the meme characters (rumps, fatther keeves, gordon ramsay and so on

edit: also back then the game showed a lot of promise with it's sandbox elements like the telescope, the strip poker, the various jobs you could take and so on. i was really hoping DC would expand on those features but the strip poker thing will probably be outright abandoned

 

[j4yj4m]

the main story with it's sex trafficking themes and the serious tone ruined a lot of that for me

But that tone has been there for years, many people just chose to ignore it. MC's dad was killed by the mob and they've been pressuring Debbie to pay, visiting MC's house, etc.

...so did the meme characters (rumps, fatther keeves, gordon ramsay and so on

Which is fair, but luckily it seems like DC has got enough of them himself by now. Those characters seem overrepresented, because they were released within consecutive updates, but they are are less prominent, once you look at the game as a whole. It's an issue, but I'd say it's not as big of a thing overall as some may say.

i was really hoping DC would expand on those features but the strip poker thing will probably be outright abandoned

I'm honestly quite happy that the strip poker idea beyond Erik's story may be gone for good.
It'll be a ton of work to create all of the NSFW assets in a decent quality and ultimately you'd probably still get a medicore poker game (without the option to determin opponent's skills, etc.) within the actual game, which most players, who don't like to play poker, would play/cheat once to see the content and that's it.

If someone really wants to play strip poker, it's probably better if he just gets a strip poker game instead.

 

[McSlut]

ut that tone has been there for years, many people just chose to ignore it. MC's dad was killed by the mob and they've been pressuring Debbie to pay, visiting MC's house, etc.

yeah but i always thought that the actual story would be far less depressing and serious. i always believed that the main story would end with the reveal that MC's dad was still alive while the premise would be serious that there would be this huge tonal shift with MC destroying a sex trafficking ring and standing over some guy with a pistol in hand like in a bad b-movie.

also the big bad looks like putin and then you have sex with all the sex trafficked women you just saved. i have no idea what the writers were smoking but it's so bad tonally.

I'm honestly quite happy that the strip poker idea beyond Erik's story may be gone for good.

i liked it because just like with the telescope those open world aspects is what seperated STS from other ren'py visual novels for me. now there are basically 0 open world interactions, you are even encouraged to play through every girl's story and don't deviate or the game might break. if the game got rid of the map nothing much would change.

 

[srksrk 68]

yeah but i always thought that the actual story would be far less depressing and serious. i always believed that the main story would end with the reveal that MC's dad was still alive while the premise would be serious that there would be this huge tonal shift with MC destroying a sex trafficking ring and standing over some guy with a pistol in hand like in a bad b-movie.

also the big bad looks like putin and then you have sex with all the sex trafficked women you just saved. i have no idea what the writers were smoking but it's so bad tonally.



i liked it because just like with the telescope those open world aspects is what seperated STS from other ren'py visual novels for me. now there are basically 0 open world interactions, you are even encouraged to play through every girl's story and don't deviate or the game might break. if the game got rid of the map nothing much would change.

Well I am sorry you feel this way. Honestly, the one thing that always kept me liking this game is the story. It just makes the difference between Summertime Saga and the majority of Meet-and-Fuck games here.

 

[j4yj4m]

yeah but i always thought that the actual story would be far less depressing and serious. i always believed that the main story would end with the reveal that MC's dad was still alive...

At least to me that would have been a lot worse. Imagine coming back finding out that your son is fucking your wife, daughter and "love affair"/colleagues

... while the premise would be serious that there would be this huge tonal shift with MC destroying a sex trafficking ring and standing over some guy with a pistol in hand like in a bad b-movie.

That's certainly true but to me some of that feels inevitable. After all, it's much more safisfactory to beat the bad guys if they are really "the bad guys" and if there's at least something on line. I do think that the main story, with all its faults, did manage to be captivating enough so people actually wanted to finish it, once they started it.

also the big bad looks like putin and then you have sex with all the sex trafficked women you just saved. i have no idea what the writers were smoking but it's so bad tonally.

I think the mob girls pre-tech update managed to relativize that point quite a bit, once you see that especially Svetlana and Katya are actually rather independent personalities.

i liked it because just like with the telescope those open world aspects is what seperated STS from other ren'py visual novels for me.

I'm sure the telescope will be back once there's actual content for it. I mean, there are only so many neighbours MC can spy on and neither Mia nor Erik have won any polls in recent times. I'd agree though, that it would be nice to add a few more spy scenes to let's say the treehouse and major Rumps house or so. Maybe we'll also get something once Judith gets her update and "moves" into the house next door.

now there are basically 0 open world interactions, you are even encouraged to play through every girl's story and don't deviate or the game might break. if the game got rid of the map nothing much would change.

Well, the gams is far, far, faar from being a kinetic novel and it's totally up to the player to determin which story he choses to play and which not. The main issue right now is, to me, that the dating system and prom are missing and that as such there's no real ending to the game.

 

[APoc1]

The game certainly improved a lot since.
18.0 actually removed the biggest mess, which was Jenny's old story and her connection to Somrak. There are still elements like Debbie's bad art, the mix of old and new art for some other characters or Mia's way too short story, which are obvious problems.

The game is improving update by update and I'm personally looking forward to the point, where all of the old pre 0.16.0 assets will finally be gone for good.

For some reason I don't recall Somrak / Jenny connection, It's possible that even though I have 0.17.5 that the first version I actually played was 0.18.0, I have both files on my HDD and it looks like the creation dates are very close for those files.(meaning I Dl'd 17.5 and sat on it for a while then 18.0 came and that was the one I actually played) Kind of makes me curious now .

I also see the Art inconsistencies but knowing they are getting replaced makes it so I can look past them. I for sure want more Mia , her story line is truncated to be sure. The story certainly isn't what I would call a masterpiece but it is better than 3/4 of the games available in the Patreon / amateur game Dev world.
I actually got a lot of laughs with all the side characters Rump , Kim and Keeves , yeah the story could have found other ways to fill and move the plot line along. I am still a fan despite the length of time this tech update is taking , but for me not having been on the ground floor the overall Dev time is not as big a deal as you guys that have been here since the beginning. I can totally understand the frustration after having to wait for 7 years and still not be close to seeing the end of the routs for all the girls.
Two cents and all that....