Ren'Py Abandoned The DeLuca Family [Season 1] [HopesGaming]

[JJJ84]

Hey Hopes Gaming,

in the q/a on patreon there was the following question:

'Q. When are you going to quit that dang restaurant job and make porn full time! We all want more DeLuca! (Mr. Ghost)
A. I don't know. This business is really not stable and you never know what may happen. Not at the stage where I am comfortable enough to drop everything for it. '


Why dont you add a threshold/goal on patreon where you specify the number of patreons (or the income) with which you are satisfied to go full-time?

I think the only thing that is holding the game back (financial wise), are the long pauses between the updates. The number of new patreons has stagnated for roughly a year now.
Maybe a new patreon goal whould encourage new patreons?

He replied to a similar question as yours back in January last year:

I did have a goal like that once. But it is not reliable and hard to say how many patrons you need to go full time.
But I am thinking of adding some goals tho.

 

[reh1]

Great game! Thanks very much!

 

[BL4Z3ST0RM]

Me before Luna backstory:
Aww... she's kinda cute... imma do my best to protect her and make sure she is happy

Me after Luna backstory:

P R O T E C C

 

[Dragon59]

Me before Luna backstory:
Aww... she's kinda cute... imma do my best to protect her and make sure she is happy

Me after Luna backstory:

P R O T E C C

Reminds me a little of Iron Giant. Or the Netflix Lost in Space.

 

[Kaliba]

He replied to a similar question as yours back in January last year:

Ah ok thanks for the info.

Sooo his answer is pretty old... maybe now is the time for a new goal?

I can understand his fear of going self-employed and the risky nature of patreon. But if he doesnt own the restaurant or is a high-end chef i think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

I noticed that one of the biggest factors of channel growth is the update frequency. There are a lot of rather medicore games (compared to deluca family) which update more often (say every 2-4 month) and they seem to gather a bigger and faster gathering.

I mean quality wise deluca family is almost on par with industry giants like Dr PinkCake, so the financial potential should be there...

Anyway i will stop now with my attempt to convince HopesGaming to go fulltime

 

[kameohawk]

Ah ok thanks for the info.

Sooo his answer is pretty old... maybe now is the time for a new goal?

I can understand his fear of going self-employed and the risky nature of patreon. But if he doesnt own the restaurant or is a high-end chef i think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

I noticed that one of the biggest factors of channel growth is the update frequency. There are a lot of rather medicore games (compared to deluca family) which update more often (say every 2-4 month) and they seem to gather a bigger and faster gathering.

I mean quality wise deluca family is almost on par with industry giants like Dr PinkCake, so the financial potential should be there...

Anyway i will stop now with my attempt to convince HopesGaming to go fulltime

All you can do to convince anyone is to sign up as a patreon I'm guessing. With solid numbers then there's less risk from focusing more on the game

 

[JJJ84]

I noticed that one of the biggest factors of channel growth is the update frequency. There are a lot of rather medicore games (compared to deluca family) which update more often (say every 2-4 month) and they seem to gather a bigger and faster gathering.

I mean quality wise deluca family is almost on par with industry giants like Dr PinkCake, so the financial potential should be there...

The thing is, (I'm no expert but from what I heard and seen) channel growth seems to be a lot more complex than that.

Just because it is updated frequently doesn't necessarily equate to increase in Patreon numbers (take another mafia game Oath of Loyalty for example, a good game, which if I remember correctly had pretty consistent release schedule yet had nowhere near enough Patreon support. And with OOL Part 1 done, now dev has put up a goal which would allow Part 2 to be made, but there is nowhere near enough support for it).

Also, if the game has some kinks (like incest etc etc) which people may go crazy over, the update frequency would not matter, people would still likely support the game even if the dev doesn't release for 6 months or 7 months (the whole power of the devoted kink-fandom lol).
Seen at least 1 or 2 games (which I won't name) out there which I don't think are good games at all, plus update frequency has been awful to say the least, yet amount of dough the devs get due to the game having particular kink is staggering.

Having said that, I'm not saying Hopes shouldn't update the game frequently. In fact, myself and probably every DeLuca fan would welcome it very much wholeheartedly.
It's just that I'm saying even if Hopes updates frequently, the growth of the Patreon members may not be as great as one would expect due to a lot of factors which would come into play.

 

[johnelros]

You must be registered to see the links

Heya Delucas!

As many of you have noticed, I've been quiet not just here but also on the forums and discord. Nothing is wrong and everything is going fine. I just decided to cut off from everything and 'reset' my mind. Either I worked on the game or I spent time on forums and discord talking about the game. Felt it was a bit too much and didn't want to feel burned out. So, I took a bit time off and just focused on game making and real life stuff.

Early next month I will gather all I made and then see how it all look and probably give an eta. As I've mentioned in the last dev. post, this is the last update before the end of season 1 and therefore this is not the planned 'quick' update. Those will happen still, but not on an important update like this. After this update, and with some small fix updates (hopefully no fixes needed, heh) it will be sent to steam release!

Either steam will be a failure or a success. Nonetheless, I am excited to see what the DeLuca future will be!

-HG

 

[whichone]

View attachment 1362782
View attachment 1362786

You must be registered to see the links

Heya Delucas!

As many of you have noticed, I've been quiet not just here but also on the forums and discord. Nothing is wrong and everything is going fine. I just decided to cut off from everything and 'reset' my mind. Either I worked on the game or I spent time on forums and discord talking about the game. Felt it was a bit too much and didn't want to feel burned out. So, I took a bit time off and just focused on game making and real life stuff.

Early next month I will gather all I made and then see how it all look and probably give an eta. As I've mentioned in the last dev. post, this is the last update before the end of season 1 and therefore this is not the planned 'quick' update. Those will happen still, but not on an important update like this. After this update, and with some small fix updates (hopefully no fixes needed, heh) it will be sent to steam release!

Either steam will be a failure or a success. Nonetheless, I am excited to see what the DeLuca future will be!

-HG

Thanks mate, much appreciated. As always!

Anyway i will stop now with my attempt to convince HopesGaming to go fulltime

Out of interest, are you a patron?
If not, then you can definitely help your cause by becoming one!

 

[JJJ84]

View attachment 1362782
View attachment 1362786

You must be registered to see the links

Heya Delucas!

As many of you have noticed, I've been quiet not just here but also on the forums and discord. Nothing is wrong and everything is going fine. I just decided to cut off from everything and 'reset' my mind. Either I worked on the game or I spent time on forums and discord talking about the game. Felt it was a bit too much and didn't want to feel burned out. So, I took a bit time off and just focused on game making and real life stuff.

Early next month I will gather all I made and then see how it all look and probably give an eta. As I've mentioned in the last dev. post, this is the last update before the end of season 1 and therefore this is not the planned 'quick' update. Those will happen still, but not on an important update like this. After this update, and with some small fix updates (hopefully no fixes needed, heh) it will be sent to steam release!

Either steam will be a failure or a success. Nonetheless, I am excited to see what the DeLuca future will be!

-HG

Thanks for posting the Patreon update again! Much appreciated!

As for you HopesGaming , good to hear you took some time off. Worst possible thing that can happen for a dev is to be burnt out.
Cool, I thought of asking you whether "faster yet smaller" updates will still be coming and it seems your Patreon post here answers that question.

Congrats on finally getting DeLuca finally enter the steam release stage! Wish you best of luck for that, and really looking forward to DeLuca's future as well.

 

[Joey the mangaka]

Anyone said Cordia? I think hopes made good used of cordia Dom and not the crap femdom of 95% of devs made mc slave . I think cordia it's a beast in the bed .

 

[justsum]

Speaking of Cordia, man, I'm getting the feeling when Cordia tells the story of the original 4 Serpents (to MC and quite possibly the girls), it's gonna give us a whirlwind of emotions.

View attachment 1360113

Probably gonna make us laugh, make us cry, and perhaps may even make us feel bittersweet about these original Serpents' tale which led them to their current fate.

We still have some way to go until we'll reach this part, but I can't wait for Cordia's LI route.



But also, if we can get loving embrace from the Blizzard Queen which makes the below scene just an appetizer, well, I'm totally

That picture just gave me an idea, What if the MC's father is the guy that is burnt out in that picture?

 

[whichone]

That picture just gave me an idea, What if the MC's father is the guy that is burnt out in that picture?

lol Yeah, that's the general assumption.
He used to be with Cordia, but left her for MC's mother.

 

[baenim]

Help Im getting corrupt save files.

 

[jish55]

I'm excited to hear he's close to releasing this onto steam, cause this game deserves the recognition.

 

[SuperLYC]

what if steam feedback is not very good…
steam users may be more interested in adult games like AI Shoujo and Honey Select
Can't imagine their reaction to a visual novel with few adult contents
anyway best wish to Hope and Deluca Family

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

what if steam feedback is not very good…
steam users may be more interested in adult games like AI Shoujo and Honey Select
Can't imagine their reaction to a visual novel with few adult contents
anyway best wish to Hope and Deluca Family

The game is very well regarded here, in a community full of thirsty perverts, for reasons that don't have much to do with its sexual content or scarcity thereof. What makes this game excellent for many people, me included, is the plot and the characters. In a marketplace like steam, that's not as thirsty, I'm certain it will do well, as long as it gets discovered (which is another hurdle altogether).

 

[Kaliba]

The thing is, (I'm no expert but from what I heard and seen) channel growth seems to be a lot more complex than that.

Just because it is updated frequently doesn't necessarily equate to increase in Patreon numbers (take another mafia game Oath of Loyalty for example, a good game, which if I remember correctly had pretty consistent release schedule yet had nowhere near enough Patreon support. And with OOL Part 1 done, now dev has put up a goal which would allow Part 2 to be made, but there is nowhere near enough support for it).

Also, if the game has some kinks (like incest etc etc) which people may go crazy over, the update frequency would not matter, people would still likely support the game even if the dev doesn't release for 6 months or 7 months (the whole power of the devoted kink-fandom lol).
Seen at least 1 or 2 games (which I won't name) out there which I don't think are good games at all, plus update frequency has been awful to say the least, yet amount of dough the devs get due to the game having particular kink is staggering.

Having said that, I'm not saying Hopes shouldn't update the game frequently. In fact, myself and probably every DeLuca fan would welcome it very much wholeheartedly.
It's just that I'm saying even if Hopes updates frequently, the growth of the Patreon members may not be as great as one would expect due to a lot of factors which would come into play.

That sounds reasonable.


Maybe another big factor are the amount/quality of sex scenes?
Don't get me wrong, i really like the in-game character development pace and it would have been weird if the sex scenes happen to fast.

But with more frequent updates you would of course implicitly achieve the character development stage earlier where sex scenes/ more naughtier scenes are more reasonable.


Another potential problem will be steam. While i think the inital feedback will be positiv. Steam users are way more prone to review bomb (in-develompent, erotic) games if the updates take to long...

Well maybe the incoming steam earnings encourages hopesgaming to go full time.
This dude was born to be a storyteller and not to work in a restaurant

 

[Cartageno]

what if steam feedback is not very good…
steam users may be more interested in adult games like AI Shoujo and Honey Select
Can't imagine their reaction to a visual novel with few adult contents

Another potential problem will be steam. While i think the inital feedback will be positiv. Steam users are way more prone to review bomb (in-develompent, erotic) games if the updates take to long...

Well maybe the incoming steam earnings encourages hopesgaming to go full time.
This dude was born to be a storyteller and not to work in a restaurant

I don't see it quite that negative. Steam has a gazillion of games, if not more, so people are looking for their niche. I don't think too many not interested generally in the first place will stumble across this game. And if - maybe they get hooked? I did the Steam travel starting with HuniePop and then discovering VNs there, which led me here in the end.

 

[Kaliba]

I don't see it quite that negative. Steam has a gazillion of games, if not more, so people are looking for their niche. I don't think too many not interested generally in the first place will stumble across this game. And if - maybe they get hooked? I did the Steam travel starting with HuniePop and then discovering VNs there, which led me here in the end.

I have to disagree.
People who are into the genre or specifically the game, are more likely to be demanding/'emotional invested' and to actively follow the development, and per se be more demanding.

The 'i work half-time on the game' will not work with the steam base. Even with the 'in-development' tag, steamers (is that a word? lol) will feel more like they bought a game and not that they support a guy on his hobby side project.