Ren'Py Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.5605] [Kompas Productions]

[mattius77]

Still with complaining about DC and time.

 

[gam2000]

Still with complaining about DC and time.

...and on and on it goes...

 

[Deleted member 378959]

Hello everyone!

This is my first time writing in this forum, although I have been here for over a year. I am here to express my frustration and disappointment with the developer's inability to deliver a game, despite earning a substantial amount of money per month.

In August 2016, the developers received their first $1 Patreon. As of this year, 2023, they have around 25,000 subscribers, giving the developers $60,000 per month! It has taken them seven years to create a "point and click" game. During these seven years, they have accumulated around 5 million dollars, and the game is still not finished! There are no deadlines, regular updates, or schedules. It appears as though they are taking advantage of their Patreons.

I understand that some may see my review as greedy, envious, or even jealous. That is not the case. There are examples of great games that are popular today and started with a budget less than 5 million dollars.

For example, Stardew Valley had a solo developer who worked on the game for about seven years with a budget of 0. His only budget was his time. But if we consider paying him during this period, the budget would be around 500k dollars, approximately 1/10 of Samertime Saga's budget!

Another example is Minecraft, which started in 2009 with 0 budget by a guy who had a day job. It is more popular than Stardew Valley and has billions in gross profits. Even if we consider a monthly salary for this guy, his budget would still be only 1/10 of Samertime Saga's budget!

This article may not change anything, but I wanted to express my thoughts on this game and its developers. If you are a Patreon, please consider following some better projects that show promise and are in need of your support.

Take care, and happy gaming!

P.s
Data sources for DarkCookie devs

View attachment 2465997

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Data sources for Stardew Valley & Minecraft:

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I actually had a post similar to this but it was too overboard so I decided to scrap it half way through.

From update 13.0 to current 20.16

Time taken is in months, trendline included.


If anyone thinks it's off you're welcome to make a graph yourself and let me know where it's wrong. This was half-assed. Done in 10mins or so then scrapped.

And you're right, so many other devs, especially on this website deserve funding. Some of them really push themselves and work when they're sick but receive less than 1/4 of the SS donations.

On that note 2 games I recommend donating to over SS are "Aurelia" and "What a Legend!"



edit: *The game has also increased in quality which we have to give credit for but the trend is still up from when we started getting animations*

 

[Deleted member 378959]

The difference is, that DC is usually streaming his work 7 to 8 hours a week, with each stream ending up being watched somewhere between 3000 and 6000 times. So we are talking about 50.000+ views each month. It's indeed hard to judge how many of his patrons are actually giving money because of that - unlike most other streamers, he doesn't really offer stream goodies for money or such.

For those who are regulars, that's like 30+ hours of entertainment each month. It's hard to argue that nobody is getting anything in this case.

In that scenario I totally agree. Giving a couple $ to just watch an NSFW artist on your lunch break or something isn't crazy at all. Like you said, it's hard know how many patrons are like that though: reasonable, fully aware, fully thinking it through...etc

I guess we'll never know

 

[McSlut]

will be interesting to see if DC changes plans and releases more pre tech updates because let's be real here, the tech update is not coming out this year and i'm not sure how long you can pacify his patreons with a couple wallpapers every 6 months

 

[KillerBee487]

I actually had a post similar to this but it was too overboard so I decided to scrap it half way through.

And you're right, so many other devs, especially on this website deserve funding. Some of them really push themselves and work when they're sick but receive less than 1/4 of the SS donations.

On that note 2 games I recommend donating to over SS are "Aurelia" and "What a Legend!"



edit: *The game has also increased in quality which we have to give credit for but the trend is still up from when we started getting animations*

And 395 games, DrPinkCake and Chyos (if you like RPGM games).

As I've said before, I like DC, but from what I've seen and even liking STS, it would be a big mistake to gamble my money on their team. The game is free, and I'd rather waste my time 2 years than waste 200 bucks on wallpapers AND waste my time.

There are more serious and hardworking developers out there, and their work should be more recognized than it currently is.
The way I see it, STS in a hobby that became too serious. It's a very good game, but it's a first project and I think that as such, it should have finished a long time ago to start another one in a much more professional way, with a team and with a good planning behind it.

The other DEVs have been very serious with their work (offering the game for free as well) and have also been very transparent (like Pistachio and Chestnut from What a Legend), so they have much less pressure than the StS team. It's a pity that their games don't get love from patreon (except DPC), but I'm convinced that they are a good example to follow in most cases for future developers.

 

[1231488663]

If the reason the development has come almost to a halt for 2 years now because the tech update has them remake every scene, go back to fix everything, pose every scene manually again, even create new programs just to automatically pose scenes. Why didn't they just split the game into two parts? Imagine how much easier work would be if they just left the game alone and added new scenes to a sequel/part 2 without having to worry about it breaking something or having to remake already existing scenes.
Seems like sunk cost fallacy at play. It's going to take them longer to put out the tech update than if they right now just abandoned Summertime Saga and put the new scenes in Summertime Saga 2.
How many years will it take for Darkcookie to realize that they wasted all their time on old scenes that everyone already saw and will just skip past when they play the new updates?

 

[j4yj4m]

And 395 games, DrPinkCake and Chyos (if you like RPGM games).

As I've said before, I like DC, but from what I've seen and even liking STS, it would be a big mistake to gamble my money on their team. The game is free, and I'd rather waste my time 2 years than waste 200 bucks on wallpapers AND waste my time.

There are more serious and hardworking developers out there, and their work should be more recognized than it currently is.
The way I see it, STS in a hobby that became too serious. It's a very good game, but it's a first project and I think that as such, it should have finished a long time ago to start another one in a much more professional way, with a team and with a good planning behind it.

The other DEVs have been very serious with their work (offering the game for free as well) and have also been very transparent (like Pistachio and Chestnut from What a Legend), so they have much less pressure than the StS team. It's a pity that their games don't get love from patreon (except DPC), but I'm convinced that they are a good example to follow in most cases for future developers.

I totally get people recommending Pistachio and Chestnut, but DPC? You literally have to pay $10 to play the game anywhere close to the release, the cheapest tear gives you nothing but the feed and "his thanks" (not even the game...) and he actually tried to prevent people from leaking premium content in the past. These are objectively 3 huge reasons to not support him in the first place - like at all. He really shouldn't be on any "commendable devs" list.

When it comes to Pistachio and Chestnut, it's simply true that they suffer from the very long release schedule. People complain that DC is releasing few updates, while What a Legend! has been pretty slow (basically just as slow) from the start. Back in the beginning I still recall them wanting to keep a 3 months schedule, but that never happened in the first place.
If you only relase 1-2 big updates a year, it's hard to grow your game substancially - unless you already have a huge following.

 

[maul467]

March, 24 2023 will be officially the 2 year anniversary of the last real content update (0.20.8) since they started their tech update. The fact that DC hasn’t gotten the Blackgate Bane treatment by his patrons is wild. I guarantee if every patron dropped their tier to $1 we would see actual content in less then 3 months

 

[srksrk 68]

I guarantee if every patron dropped their tier to $1 we would see actual content in less then 3 months

Sure. It's written here, so it must be true.

 

[TwoHeavens]

yup. it's so common with porn games, yet people still keep paying.

intelligent people taking advantage of and manipulating idiots is what makes the world go round baby

 

[Poggersq]

intelligent people taking advantage of and manipulating idiots is what makes the world go round baby

^

 

[gam2000]

March, 24 2023 will be officially the 2 year anniversary of the last real content update (0.20.8) since they started their tech update. The fact that DC hasn’t gotten the Blackgate Bane treatment by his patrons is wild. I guarantee if every patron dropped their tier to $1 we would see actual content in less then 3 months

So, what's your point? Why do care so much?

 

[James Cook 1232]

guess the game is dead by the looks of it

 

[Omnikuken]

guess the game is dead by the looks of it

Guess you're not looking hard enough or the wrong game

 

[kjj308]

If the reason the development has come almost to a halt for 2 years now because the tech update has them remake every scene, go back to fix everything, pose every scene manually again, even create new programs just to automatically pose scenes. Why didn't they just split the game into two parts? Imagine how much easier work would be if they just left the game alone and added new scenes to a sequel/part 2 without having to worry about it breaking something or having to remake already existing scenes.
Seems like sunk cost fallacy at play. It's going to take them longer to put out the tech update than if they right now just abandoned Summertime Saga and put the new scenes in Summertime Saga 2.
How many years will it take for Darkcookie to realize that they wasted all their time on old scenes that everyone already saw and will just skip past when they play the new updates?

I agree, I would say maybe make the content from the last 1-2 updates in the correct format, then move forward with more content and forget the old stuff... The "news" page has shown the same status forever, lol. I just want some Rhonda content.

 

[StreamSteam]

 

[Omnikuken]

Milf Jenny ? Younger Debbie ? Some ungodly AI mashup ?

 

[Oberoth]

Milf Jenny ? Younger Debbie ? Some ungodly AI mashup ?

I'm in the same mood, I need a context! it's so glorious i need to know!!!

 

[Dynamite20]

View attachment 2473283

Is this AI ?