zepovik1

New Member
Dec 21, 2017
14
48
At this point it would be faster for them to rebuild the game from scratch (on a better engine, like Unity). Seriously what could take them so long?
 

Glorious Cat

Active Member
Jul 25, 2017
716
2,263
At this point it would be faster for them to rebuild the game from scratch (on a better engine, like Unity). Seriously what could take them so long?
This will sound like i'm defending them.
They're already rebuilding from scratch since they need to redo everything hence the x years in "production" (don't remember when the TU started and too lazy to check).
And for this type of game I don't think Unity (-$0.20) is better.
 

CUNTBLAZER420

Member
Jan 24, 2020
237
595
This will sound like i'm defending them.
They're already rebuilding from scratch since they need to redo everything hence the x years in "production" (don't remember when the TU started and too lazy to check).
And for this type of game I don't think Unity (-$0.20) is better.
Pure speculation of course, but I would guess they've had to scrap and redo everything from zero at least a couple of times. Probably getting hung up restructuring the game to allow for easier implementation of the dating system in the future. Not really sure how that all would have worked spliced onto the old game.
 

MurkyTurtle

Member
Jul 28, 2017
396
1,480
Pure speculation of course, but I would guess they've had to scrap and redo everything from zero at least a couple of times. Probably getting hung up restructuring the game to allow for easier implementation of the dating system in the future. Not really sure how that all would have worked spliced onto the old game.
It probably wouldn't have, and I share your speculation on multiple restarts. I suspect the primary reason they haven't changed engines to something more friendly is because they'd be sacrificing easy Android support in the process. Since they've said in the past that a significant portion of their audience is mobile users and that removing the black bars on the phone screen was a major impetus for switching to widescreen, they're stuck trying to modify Ren'Py into something it was never designed for.

It's particularly concerning that they haven't closed a single coding task in nearly four months, even after splitting things up to reflect the current state of development. The tracker on :
1711755201905.png

vs. the tracker today:
1711755283442.png

Username7, you maybe got a tracker update? Last month's progress report had coding doing some asinine stuff like reworking the Ren'Py dissolve effects, so I have a sinking feeling that DC has him off on side-quests in addition to being the de facto project manager for the posing crew.
 

MonkeyBusiness

New Member
Feb 13, 2020
2
4
How long until this game gets the abandoned tag? It's been a while since I checked in this thread and holy crap no updates still?

This tech update is taking so long that they have to be changing every single thing or making another game entirely. Are there no iterations? No new releases with some new things to showcase those changes?

And where is this game even going? The MC fucked most of all the available female characters, defeated the Big Bad Guys™... so what would be the end game? It's got a nice artstyle and animations, the story is decent and the MC could be a little more developed but it's a good game. If one of the original goes as it was mentioned in this thread is the aforementioned "Get date for prom", then it's a little underwhelming after all this crap he got into, no? Hope they atleast finish the game tho.
 

MurkyTurtle

Member
Jul 28, 2017
396
1,480
bro... what the fuckity fuck are you talking about? i am genuinely curious...
Ren'Py was designed as an engine for visual novels, i.e. linear stories with occasional branching paths. Using it for a sandbox game like Summertime Saga has already taxed the engine to its limits, and the existing build has so many ugly hacks in it (like the pregnancy system) that the current devs have said it some cases it only works by accident. The Tech Update is trying to not only re-engineer the current systems to work properly, but also to prepare it for future new ones like the dating system. A more fully-featured engine like Unity could handle things, but like I said Unity builds don't play as cleanly with Android cross-compatability as Ren'Py does.

Given that the current coder seems to be spinning his wheels for longer and longer periods of time, it doesn't bode well for the project finishing anytime soon.
 

boblicticious

Member
Jun 16, 2017
294
587
Ren'Py was designed as an engine for visual novels, i.e. linear stories with occasional branching paths. Using it for a sandbox game like Summertime Saga has already taxed the engine to its limits, and the existing build has so many ugly hacks in it (like the pregnancy system) that the current devs have said it some cases it only works by accident. The Tech Update is trying to not only re-engineer the current systems to work properly, but also to prepare it for future new ones like the dating system. A more fully-featured engine like Unity could handle things, but like I said Unity builds don't play as cleanly with Android cross-compatability as Ren'Py does.

Given that the current coder seems to be spinning his wheels for longer and longer periods of time, it doesn't bode well for the project finishing anytime soon.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Ren'Py is actually fairly well-suited for this game. The dev isn't trying to render anything 3D or even trying to use complicated shaders, all the art is pre-drawn. The sandbox concept works great in Ren'Py if you are using a map that you point and click to travel or clickable parts of interiors to move throughout (which STS does).

With their current assets and gameplay concept, the only thing switching to Unity would accomplish for them is having to write their own infrastructure from scratch. The problem with the coder appears to be that it's just 1 person working sporadically because this game is not their day job. Ren'Py isn't the bottleneck here, and Unity isn't going to provide any advantages over Ren'Py for this style of game.
 

Davai099

Newbie
Mar 3, 2021
80
212
There is clearly no full commitment, given the tasks' progress inside the tracker. I'd take this as a grain of salt but, DO NOT expect this so-called "Tech" update to be released sometime soon, let alone next year. DarkCookie is a terrible project manager.

If I were you, I'd save the money for a better determined development team. There are plenty.

This can't be justified anymore, so I withdrew Patreon subscription. They could've switched to Unity engine during these years.
 
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