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

[imadumb]

Yeah, doesn't necessarily need to be the same person, but presumably is, or certainly working towards the same objective.
The Mysterious Six are my prime suspects, maybe got a couple of people inside the DeLuca family, spying.

Not sure I remember this correctly, but I think we're roughly 1/4, or 1/3 through the game.
As you say, plenty of time for more clues...

i know this don't make sense, but i'll say it anyway :V maybe the Myst 6 did something with our Prime Angel mind and she can be controled with some ilusion skill or whatever :V ( i hope not) the novel does not gave us hint enough to think about the real deal :V

 

[TimHawk]

About the poisoning...

There are many strange things happening. First of all, the MC was poisoned as a child with the intend to build up a tolerance so he can survive such attack in the future... well at least i think so, as others do too in this thread.

but to be poisoned by a specific poison doesnt help you tolerate every poison... so at the dinner, it had to be the very same poison the MC gets as a child by his mother... very very big coincidence hence the fact that there are thousands really potent poisons in the world. So no, that is no coincidence... the MCs mother must have known that the MC will get poisoned someday in the future with this specific poison. My guess? The contract was already made at that time. Like a life-dept (you owe your child to the DeLucas) or something like that. And the posion is a special poison used by DeLuca members and MCs mother prepared him for that, cause she predicted that some people in the circle of the DeLucas would try to kill him someday with it.Why? Dunno... but MCs mother was a serpent herself just like Cordia, so much is clear. So it wouldnt be a surprise if she knows which poison they would use...

who done it? Difficult to say at this point, there are really no clues at all... it could be that the person who has done it didnt even appeared in the game so far. We didnt even met all of the 4 serpents so far. Maybe it was one of them? It could be whole group of people to... doesnt have to be a single person.

I have a little bit of trust issues with Wilfred though... he is making some serious decisions himself, over the head of Cordia. She still aproves those things... but to me it appears that Wilfred is not really pleased with Cordia as the leader of the DeLucas. Maybe he is plotting something and sees the MC as a threat in the long run? Even if he likes him in a way.

OR maybe the poisoning of the MC was just a test to see if the MC is the "real deal". Could be that Wilfred knows about the preparation during MCs childhood and was testing the "waters" to see if the MC is prepared enough to even survive this poison?

And so many people around the DeLucas and outside of the DeLucas "watched" the mc since he was a child... and what happened to his parents anyways? There are countless possibilities so far... and so many unknown things regarding MCs history and destiny...

There are just not enough hints or suspicious character so far in the game to make even a wild-guess who could have done it iam afraid... could be everyone or no one, cause the persons behind this didnt make their appearence yet.

Yeah i thought a long time about that too, but really i cant drop a name so far for the poisoning... I have my trust-issues with Wilfred, but it wouldnt really fit in any way that he had done it... at least i cant think so.

Either way, the one who did the poisoning must be the same person who sabotaged the car at the very start of the game too... or maybe we arent even talking about one person, could be a whole group of people too... *shrug* nah cant really enclose this issue so far. And i guess we will not get any hints in that direction for a long long time... as i see it, the game is still in its early stages... i mean... fuck, just look at the contract list at Wilfred, we are a Soldato still in rank D... if the plan is to go all the way up, this game will get so freaking big....

*edit* well one figure comes to mind though... Cesarino from the prologue. He dislikes the MC from the start (cause Cesarino is the average prick) pretty sure he is somewhat involved, he could even have sabotaged the car. Maybe he was recruited by another group/family where he thinks he can climb the ranks faster? but in someway... its would be to obvious/easy i think.

Wow, first of all thank you, that's a lot of food for thought and you seem like a much needed fresh influence in this thread.

And yea I agree anything is possible at this point, I'd be happy if anyone could explain to me how that person got away with it, because that's where all logic breaks down for me, it can't be that hundreds or even dozens of people had access to the MC's plate so he or she should've been caught. I mean it happend in the Deluca house at the Deluca dinner table, you'd think they would interrogate the shit out of anyone who has access.

And like you said, it can't be a method of figureing out if the MC actually is Rina's son, since they have had him under observation for a very long time.

I once went batshit crazy and, just as you speculated too, thought that it was some punishment for Rina from Cordia and she was just checking if she kept up her end of the bargain. But given that the other outcome would've been death, that kinda seems like a sledgehammer approach though. I swear this one will keep me up at nights and Hope is probably gonna give us an answer in Episode 27....sigh.

 

[c3p0]

Oh wow, I assume you are a long time fan and active member in this thread and seeing you so disheartened kinda bums me out. Is there a reason why you feel that way ?

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game version​	Date​	Time between updates [d]​	Time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	2018-09-09​	​	​	​
0.03​	2018-11-15​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	2019-03-18​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	2019-09-28​	194​	6.47​	4.27​
0.06.1​	2020-03-22​	176​	5.87​	4.67​
0.06.5​	2020-06-19​	89​	2.97​	4.33​
0.06.6​	2020-07-24​	35​	1.17​	3.80​
0.07.2​	2021-04-08​	258​	8.60​	4.49​
0.08.0.3​	2022-07-06​	454​	15.13​	5.82​
0.09​	2023-01-21​	199​	6.63​	5.91​
0.09.5​	2023-05-08​	107​	3.57​	5.67​
1.00.0​	2024-02-28​	296​	9.87​	6.05​
​	​	​	​	​
​	​	Min​	1.17​	​
​	​	Max​	15.13​	​
​	​	Average​	6.05​	​
​	​	Standard deviation​	4.03​	​

Edit:

• 2024-04-05: Update table to game version 1.00.0

Spoiler: Older edits

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[whichone]

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game Version​	Date​	time between updates [d]​	time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	09.09.18​	​	​	​
0.03​	15.11.18​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	18.03.19​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	28.09.19​	194​	6.47​	4.35​
0.06.1​	22.03.20​	176​	5.87​	4.05​
0.06.5​	19.06.20​	89​	2.97​	2.60​
0.06.6​	24.07.20​	35​	1.17​	1.70​
0.07.2​	08.04.21​	258​	8.60​	5.42​
0.08.0.3​	06.07.22​	454​	15.13​	8.68​

You should prob use the release dates for 0.06, 0.06.5, 0.07 & 0.08.
Using the release date of bug fixes, released after the main content, is distorting (lengthening) the figures slightly.
Not going to reduce it dramatically, but would be a more accurate reflection of the time between content releases.

 

[Hahn1900]

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game Version​	Date​	Time between updates [d]​	Time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	09.09.18​	​	​	​
0.03​	15.11.18​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	18.03.19​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	28.09.19​	194​	6.47​	4.35​
0.06.1​	22.03.20​	176​	5.87​	4.05​
0.06.5​	19.06.20​	89​	2.97​	2.60​
0.06.6​	24.07.20​	35​	1.17​	1.70​
0.07.2​	08.04.21​	258​	8.60​	5.42​
0.08.0.3​	06.07.22​	454​	15.13​	8.68​

Well considering the overall slow development and that there was no really new content update in the las 1 and a half year... and the lack of lewd-content (which doesnt bother me at all, but many others do complain about it cause they think this is a porn-page) having more than 500 patrons is still impressive...

But yeah i sure hope that updates will come faster in the future, and that the next update will have a good amount of content. With more frequent updatesHopes could have made a living out of this game for sure, not like this though. And i think Hopes should work on his "report" duties too.. to go radio-silence for several weeks is not a good thing.

 

[c3p0]

You should prob use the release dates for 0.06, 0.06.5, 0.07 & 0.08.
Using the release date of bug fixes, released after the main content, is distorting (lengthening) the figures slightly.
Not going to reduce it dramatically, but would be a more accurate reflection of the time between content releases.

Would do that, although for the 0.07 and 0.08 i don't have them, probably for the 0.06. Not 100% sure, but I used the date and version numbers from Patreon post. Some of them (eg. 0.08.0.x) surely were updated with the bugfix release. Don't know how Patreon post and their date works, so it could be the date of the 0.08 release or the date of the 0.08.0.3 release.

As you also stated, this is a general, overall statement, to show the trend. If I'm a few days/week wrong with some release date, than it is imperfect, but the the general trend won't be that different.

 

[whichone]

But yeah i sure hope that updates will come faster in the future, and that the next update will have a good amount of content. With more frequent updatesHopes could have made a living out of this game for sure, not like this though. And i think Hopes should work on his "report" duties too.. to go radio-silence for several weeks is not a good thing.

Hopes did say that he intended to try and ramp up the release schedule, I believe that's still his intention.
What you say here is perfectly valid, if Hopes was running this as a business. But, don't forget, he's doing this as a hobby, not as a commercial vehicle for revenue generation.
If he wants to turn it into a full time job (which, AFAIK, he does not), then your suggestion for better comms would be very useful in attaining & retaining support.

 

[TimHawk]

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game Version​	Date​	Time between updates [d]​	Time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	09.09.18​	​	​	​
0.03​	15.11.18​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	18.03.19​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	28.09.19​	194​	6.47​	4.35​
0.06.1​	22.03.20​	176​	5.87​	4.05​
0.06.5​	19.06.20​	89​	2.97​	2.60​
0.06.6​	24.07.20​	35​	1.17​	1.70​
0.07.2​	08.04.21​	258​	8.60​	5.42​
0.08.0.3​	06.07.22​	454​	15.13​	8.68​

Oh I understand, yea development time seems to be the number one issue in our little world and I totally get now why you sounded disheartend and without much hope. You really like a game and then the updates stretch longer and longer and at some point the solutions to all the questions in ones head seem so far out of reach that all hype and anticipation slowly sinks towards zero.

It seems especially hard for developers who do everything as a 1 man team. I guess it really takes a toll to work towards the completion of 1 update and then instantly do an 180 and start with the development of the next update from scratch again.

Is the development of this game Hope's fulltime occupation or a side project that he completes as free time allows ?

And do you follow other games too ?

 

[whichone]

Would do that, although for the 0.07 and 0.08 i don't have them, probably for the 0.06. Not 100% sure, but I used the date and version numbers from Patreon post. Some of them (eg. 0.08.0.x) surely were updated with the bugfix release. Don't know how Patreon post and their date works, so it could be the date of the 0.08 release or the date of the 0.08.0.3 release.

As you also stated, thiis is a general, overall statement, to show the trend. If I'm a few days/week wrong with some release date, than it is imperfect, but the the general trend won't be that different.

Figured you'd just used what was available, shame the dates for main releases are not available.
Don't forget, if it takes 10 months for 0.06, then a further 2.5 months for 0.06.1, we go from under a year to over a year.
Do that 2 or 3 times and we're adding 7.5 months.
It might not be a big difference in elapsed time, but it is a big difference in perception of speed.

Is the development of this game Hope's fulltime occupation or a side project that he completes as free time allows ?

It's just a hobby. He's not trying to earn money from this, per se.
Obviously financial support is welcome, but it's not his objective.

 

[c3p0]

Is the development of this game Hope's fulltime occupation or a side project that he completes as free time allows ?

It his hobby at the current time. He try to change that and is preparing a Steam release for the game, that is my understanding.

And do you follow other games too ?

Yes, with the mix of some "big time" devs as well as other smaller "underated" devs.

Being alone or have a team affect the speed of development, but is not the one and only factor. Some single dev have done biweekly update with a adequate size, although very few can hold that speed. Other single dev do 3 to 4 updates a year with also adequate size (in this case means >> 1 h gameplay for every path). And some of the devs tend to do the absolute minimum so they can max. their profit.

For hope, I think he does his best. It is a pitty that we don't have more Delucas with that, than the few updates we get.

 

[whichone]

Some single dev have done biweekly update with a adequate size, although very few can hold that speed.

I mentioned Faerin, last time this topic came up, as one of the only devs I knew of that maintained a consisten (& quick!) release schedule, with monthly releases all the way through his last game.
I forgot another dev, who I know you enjoyed one of his games - Talothral, the dev for Sorcerer. I think his update schedule was pretty frequent for that, too. It certainly is for Terminus Reach 2, his current game.

 

[c3p0]

I forgot another dev, who I know you enjoyed one of his games - Talothral, the dev for Sorcerer. I think his update schedule was pretty frequent for that, too. It certainly is for Terminus Reach 2, his current game.

Talothral is perhaps the only dev, that I know that can keep up his speed. Another one dev I know that have done weekly updates was BD (dev of WVM), yet he doesn't do that anymore.

Also it the size of update is at least as important as the frequent of updates is..

 

[Hahn1900]

Hopes did say that he intended to try and ramp up the release schedule, I believe that's still his intention.
What you say here is perfectly valid, if Hopes was running this as a business. But, don't forget, he's doing this as a hobby, not as a commercial vehicle for revenue generation.
If he wants to turn it into a full time job (which, AFAIK, he does not), then your suggestion for better comms would be very useful in attaining & retaining support.

Well, sure... but hobby or not... its not that hard to write regular DEV-reports, even if its only a hobby. In my opinion and experience, its already a huge difference for supporters if a DEV makes very regular DEV reports or not. If you ask me, i think he could have about 100 patrons more if he would make DEV-reports every two weeks for example... even if they wouldnt have that much news in it. But being active on the patreon page is really important i would say... and not that hard to keep doing.

But well, iam not complaining... just saying that Hopes could do better with just tiny bit improvement on that front.

Regarding the development time for the updates, that is a whole other thing of course... this is real hard work. Posting dev-reports every two weeks instead one in two months is not that hard i think but still pays off more than some might think.

 

[TimHawk]

It his hobby at the current time. He try to change that and is preparing a Steam release for the game, that is my understanding.

Yes, with the mix of some "big time" devs as well as other smaller "underated" devs.

Being alone or have a team affect the speed of development, but is not the one and only factor. Some single dev have done biweekly update with a adequate size, although very few can hold that speed. Other single dev do 3 to 4 updates a year with also adequate size (in this case means >> 1 h gameplay for every path). And some of the devs tend to do the absolute minimum so they can max. their profit.

For hope, I think he does his best. It is a pitty that we don't have more Delucas with that, than the few updates we get.

It being a hobby for him sure doesn't help with development times but it also makes it pretty impressive what he has accomplished so far.

Its kinda funny you say that, I posted in the BaD thread today and as you probably know updates take longer and longer, we've kinda gone from 3 months to 6 months to now 8 months but thats not the only thing you have to consider. It always has to be development time vs content delivered and so far, DPC always gave me 10h-15h, sometimes 20h hours of play and then I don't mind. Like with the time I have to actually play games, thats like a week for me and I always thoroughly enjoy going through all the paths and see the differences.

Would I like it to go faster ? Sure, but that's kinda where we're at at the moment and when I play other games I get like 2h per 3 months and those kinda anoy me, because you just got into the game again and then its over and you have the "end of episode" screen. Now having said all that DPC sure has the support and ressources to run multiple rendering pc's and a seperate one just for animations. And a lot if not most of the other developers just dont have the same ressources.

Maybe in the far future some developers get together rent a server farm that runs DAZ and Blender and stuff and the development times actually go down for a change, but thats prob in the far future.

 

[Ayhsel]

Up to the 0.06.x updates the release time was OK. Not fast, but we had a average of 3-4 updates per year. After that we only have 1 or 2 updates per year and more like 1 updates per year. I don't blame hope for it, he always was upfront on this with us.

But for a game to have success it would need a faster and more constant update cycle. Also for that few updates per year, they are to small. Again nothing against hope, only stating my opinion why the game isn't such a success instead of all the goods it has.

So, going for a major release, I have this numbers:

Game Version​	Date​	Time between updates [d]​	Time between updates [M]​	Average time between updates [M]​
0.02​	09.09.18​	​	​	​
0.03​	15.11.18​	67​	2.23​	2.23​
0.04​	18.03.19​	123​	4.10​	3.17​
0.05​	28.09.19​	194​	6.47​	4.35​
0.06.1​	22.03.20​	176​	5.87​	4.05​
0.06.5​	19.06.20​	89​	2.97​	2.60​
0.06.6​	24.07.20​	35​	1.17​	1.70​
0.07.2​	08.04.21​	258​	8.60​	5.42​
0.08.0.3​	06.07.22​	454​	15.13​	8.68​

That is very detailed information...

Only an evil mastermind would keep track of things like that!

 

[whichone]

You, or hope for that matter, will never be able to please everyone.

As the old expression goes: "All of the people, some of the time. Some of the people, all of the time. Not all of the people, all of the time."

 

[Hahn1900]

I have not got the first clue what Hopes' RL schedule is like, so I cannot possibly offer anything on how difficult it is, for him.
Equally, I don't think you can say "it's not hard", without knowing how busy he is outside of the game.
Other things can & do take priority.
Take a busy schedule with work, throw in some personal commitments & you're already talking about not having much free time available.
Probably worn out, too. The last thing on your mind is going online to post an update that says you've not had time to do anything.

Yeah that can be true... its maybe an issue to overcome that hurdle to make a posting which shows that not much work on the game is done... but regardless, even bad news are still news, and many supporters appreciate an honest and active DEV, i sure do... even if he needs a lot of time for development. Overall, i dont think it can make any harm and to be radio silent is much worse. But well, yeah... to say its "easy" to post a weekly DEV-report was maybe a bit too far.

 

[whichone]

Yeah that can be true... its maybe an issue to overcome that hurdle to make a posting which shows that not much work on the game is done... but regardless, even bad news are still news, and many supporters appreciate an honest and active DEV, i sure do... even if he needs a lot of time for development. Overall, i dont think it can make any harm and to be radio silent is much worse. But well, yeah... to say its "easy" to post a weekly DEV-report was maybe a bit too far.

I do not disagree with you. I totally agree (& I'm sure Hopes would) that comms is a crucial part of a business' success.
But, context matters.
As I said, if he was trying to run a business, then absolutely.
If he's just doing it as a hobby & has other things taking up his time, so has nothing to report, then no need to & possibly no desire to.

If you came home after a long day at work, then had to deal with some personal stuff for a couple of hours, would you really be thinking "Oh, I must go online and post an update to tell everyone I've not done anything with my hobby"?
Honestly, it would be the last thing on my mind.

Personally, I'd prefer that the author use that time towards creating something, than use it to tell people they've not had time to create something.

 

[Jimayo]

Well if thats so, why does Gracie whispered that Luna is adopted?

Because that's what siblings do, being an ass to your bro/sis is fucking normal? It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't have to mean anything more than I hate you right now so you don't really belong in this family.

 

[HornyyPussy]

Talothral is perhaps the only dev, that I know that can keep up his speed. Another one dev I know that have done weekly updates was BD (dev of WVM), yet he doesn't do that anymore.

MoonBox (Grandma's House) as well, 2 updates per month