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

[Cartageno]

Siummer's Gone too. God there are a lot of these games that are just fucking heart breaking aren't there?

There are quite a few which indeed tell good stories, have characters you care for - and bad things happen to them. Personally though, even if I can see it being considered somewhat overdone, maybe even "kitschy", My Name is Luna was hitting the deepest. And that as somebody who usually despises "little children" stories. Haven't played Summer's Gone, Leap of Faith, or On Distant Shores, so I am not an expert, but Acting Lessons - while great and very emotional - doesn't hold a candle to it. Again, for me personally.

 

[Jimayo]

There are quite a few which indeed tell good stories, have characters you care for - and bad things happen to them. Personally though, even if I can see it being considered somewhat overdone, maybe even "kitschy", My Name is Luna was hitting the deepest. And that as somebody who usually despises "little children" stories. Haven't played Summer's Gone, Leap of Faith, or On Distant Shores, so I am not an expert, but Acting Lessons - while great and very emotional - doesn't hold a candle to it. Again, for me personally.

I dunno. I mean that one was horrible but as a father On Distant Shores hits real hard. Like what if you'd gone with them, what if you'd been behind the wheel, would your kids still be alive? Horrible fucking question to ask yourself if you're a parent.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Siummer's Gone too. God there are a lot of these games that are just fucking heart breaking aren't there?

To me the tragedy in SG happened way too early in the story to get too deeply emotionally invested so it's not quite at the same level at the others.

 

[vks017]

I get that everyone wants an update, but the only group that really is justified in complaining about it are Patrons. And really, how hard is it to cancel a Patreon sub?

The brain fog that some people get with COVID is the real deal. I've known a couple of people that said it took them 2 months AFTER the other symptoms disappeared before they felt their brain function was normal.

I'll just continue to play other games and be pleasantly surprised when the update to this game is finally released. Best wishes to the dev and making a full recovery.

We all well aware of how common 'health ailments' are used to delay these adult games. Way more than can be believed. So any such excuse given I take with a pinch of salt. Sure long covid exists and that might have contributed but given what happens to so many developers of this genre, im more sceptical. Especially as the last small update was a year ago and then another year before that for the prior one. At this point the dev needs to reestablish his credentials. Some here seem to a bit naive.

 

[JJJ84]

At this point the dev needs to reestablish his credentials.

Well, Hopes did say that when the upcoming update releases (v0.08), game's updates after that will be quicker yet shorter.

But I can already guess new complaints that would arise after it transitions to that approach, this time with "Updates are too short! There isn't enough content!" (already seen such complaints in couple other games' threads with devs who have short, consistent release cycles)


Personally? I prefer quicker & shorter updates, but that might not be what some people want.
But it is what it is.

Either one way or another, someone will be unhappy, and the dev can't please everyone.

 

[Jimayo]

To me the tragedy in SG happened way too early in the story to get too deeply emotionally invested so it's not quite at the same level at the others.

Yeah, but so does On Distant Shores. The bad thing happened years before the game started. It's not when it happened. It's how it affects the mc that kills me.

 

[Cartageno]

We all well aware of how common 'health ailments' are used to delay these adult games. Way more than can be believed. So any such excuse given I take with a pinch of salt. Sure long covid exists and that might have contributed but given what happens to so many developers of this genre, im more sceptical. Especially as the last small update was a year ago and then another year before that for the prior one. At this point the dev needs to reestablish his credentials. Some here seem to a bit naive.

I will agree that health issues seem to be quite prevalent in devs, more so than would be expected, and understand you point. There are some things that will mitigate this statistic (like for the more professional ones that being self employed with no guaranteed income high enough to make a careless living being really bad for your health, psychological as well as physical, that code monkey jobs are also not the ones with the best work-life balance - loads of extra work, little social contacts (which are important too, for many), sitting in a chair in artificial light ...).

Yeah, there are certainly many excuses out there. Dog ate my code. Brother-in-law had an accident. Had Covid. And if too many happen to the same person, I'll be cautious, too. However, assuming that some must be lying is something else than assuming a specific individual is.

 

[Tokenugget]

I will agree that health issues seem to be quite prevalent in devs, more so than would be expected, and understand you point. There are some things that will mitigate this statistic (like for the more professional ones that being self employed with no guaranteed income high enough to make a careless living being really bad for your health, psychological as well as physical, that code monkey jobs are also not the ones with the best work-life balance - loads of extra work, little social contacts (which are important too, for many), sitting in a chair in artificial light ...).

Yeah, there are certainly many excuses out there. Dog ate my code. Brother-in-law had an accident. Had Covid. And if too many happen to the same person, I'll be cautious, too. However, assuming that some must be lying is something else than assuming a specific individual is.

I think we all have mental issues at this point in time. Anyone who denies it isn't being real with themselves. The world isn't ... right. Therefore pain prevails. For now....

 

[Kagarus]

I will agree that health issues seem to be quite prevalent in devs, more so than would be expected, and understand you point. There are some things that will mitigate this statistic (like for the more professional ones that being self employed with no guaranteed income high enough to make a careless living being really bad for your health, psychological as well as physical, that code monkey jobs are also not the ones with the best work-life balance - loads of extra work, little social contacts (which are important too, for many), sitting in a chair in artificial light ...).

Well... but are they more prevalent than would be expected? Considering what you mentioned as mitigating factors and others like that this is result-measured creative work instead of work-measured (we care whether we get big enough updates frequent enough, not whether the dev forced themselves to work for 8 hours (while only accomplishing maybe 30 minutes worth of normal progress)) and that for non-professional ones dev time might be one of the first things to go as the main job is prioritized - do we see significantly more illness-induced delays/lost results than we would expect of such a population? We have that narrative, "we all know" and stuff, but is that really the case?
Not asking you specifically of course, just got me thinking

Regarding the need to reestablish his credentials thing... well, that's something each individual needs to decide by themselves - do I trust the dev enough to invest? Which obviously differs between individuals and whether it's money or just time checking this thread from time to time.
The only one who could authoritatively say that the Hope needs to reestablish his credentials in general... is Hope, if he is unhappy with the Patreon or the activity in the thread or discord.

Anyway, just a couple more cycles of this discussion and we should be surprised by the update

 

[Jimayo]

I think we all have mental issues at this point in time. Anyone who denies it isn't being real with themselves. The world isn't ... right. Therefore pain prevails. For now....

Depressive realism.

 

[Füßelieber]

First game ever that makes my cry. Amazing!

 

[H2R]

Well, Hopes did say that when the upcoming update releases (v0.08), game's updates after that will be quicker yet shorter.

But I can already guess new complaints that would arise after it transitions to that approach, this time with "Updates are too short! There isn't enough content!" (already seen such complaints in couple other games' threads with devs who have short, consistent release cycles)


Personally? I prefer quicker & shorter updates, but that might not be what some people want.
But it is what it is.

Either one way or another, someone will be unhappy, and the dev can't please everyone.

I will be happy with consistency as long as we know that at x amount of time there will be an update that will please most people and the content will add up but again I hope that this game can be completed before I get old lol

 

[Dalurker]

I prefer shorter but frequent updates myself. If monthly updates would be way too short, maybe bimonthly or every 3 months could work, with whatever is completed at that time. We'd get 4 to 6 updates a year and they'd eventually add up.
It works for people that prefer to download each and every update, it works for people that wait a year between releases and it keeps the game in the public's eyes more often, which leads to more potential patrons and more money, and everyone wins that way.

 

[Cabin Fever]

We all well aware of how common 'health ailments' are used to delay these adult games. Way more than can be believed. So any such excuse given I take with a pinch of salt. Sure long covid exists and that might have contributed but given what happens to so many developers of this genre, im more sceptical. Especially as the last small update was a year ago and then another year before that for the prior one. At this point the dev needs to reestablish his credentials. Some here seem to a bit naive.

This dev has been very forthright about only developing this game in his spare time and his priority has always been his real life job. Maybe I completely forgot about it but I don't think Hopes ever used long COVID as an excuse for the long release interval. And the last update, while from a story perspective wasn't huge, was a complete overhaul under the skin. Seems more than a bit naive to call it a small update just because the changes were not on the immediately visible side of the game.

 

[Ozzfest]

Well, Hopes did say that when the upcoming update releases (v0.08), game's updates after that will be quicker yet shorter.

Hmm, that's strange. I saw something similar back on Mar 4, 2021.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Well, Hopes did say that when the upcoming update releases (v0.08), game's updates after that will be quicker yet shorter.

But I can already guess new complaints that would arise after it transitions to that approach, this time with "Updates are too short! There isn't enough content!" (already seen such complaints in couple other games' threads with devs who have short, consistent release cycles)


Personally? I prefer quicker & shorter updates, but that might not be what some people want.
But it is what it is.

Either one way or another, someone will be unhappy, and the dev can't please everyone.

To be fair, it's not the first time Hopes has promised that so I'm not holding my breath just yet.

Having said that, I don't mind one way (long cycles with more content) or another (short cycles with less content) as long as it's done right instead of rushed. It's not like this is the only source of entertainment. And there's also this little thing called real life that helps keep me occupied while waiting for the next release, whenever it finally comes.

 

[HopesGaming]

Yup, covid wasn't, fortunately, a major issue for me. Very small setback.
Has, and always been, just real life stuff taking priority. I've been open about it since day one to both you guys and the patrons.
Some may like it and others do not. That I can't control. Only that I am as transparent as possible.

About the past promises. 100% on me. I suck at planning and predicting how it be.
But at this moment there isn't anything special needed for the next update after this, so shorter and less content is what I also want.

The coder gave me very good news today. Seems like we are very very close.

 

[BRaider2020]

big updates need more time and more content then short updates, as long as they are released within a year or so I am willing to wait. Much more then that, normally means some kind problem appeared in the middle (I hope its not the case here). But with a long time between updates it is normal to expect the new content is more then just a few scenes (well... if they are good scenes then I can forgive the short number of scenes lol).

I like this game story lol waiting patiently for the next release

 

[HopesGaming]

Once the coder is done, will it be released, or will it then first go through 17 stages of beta testing before release? Just out of curiosity whether "very close" means very close for the next step in this upcoming 7 month schedule to get it release ready, or if it means very close to the actual release.

And I don't mean this in a negative way whatsoever, I am just genuinely curious if the release is going to be within lets say a month or end of 2022.

I'm planning to upload and release after the coder is done. Unless, he suggests letting the beta testers give it a go first.

 

[Meushi]

I'm planning to upload and release after the coder is done. Unless, he suggests letting the beta testers give it a go first.

You absolutely should do beta testing. From personal experience most coders suck at testing. Which is also why even professional games often release with significant bugs.