They just released .32a and guess what, GABBIE IS STILL BROKEN. Same exact error message and everything. It's unbelievable they've left the same glitch in that prevents players from seeing a good chunk of the new content for what, at least 4 patches now? And I know it's not just localized to me because someone else here posted a screenshot of the same error.
Hi, we tried but on our end we can't reproduce this bug since we fixed it in the 0.3.2a. Could you send us your save? Would definitely help us to find the issue
Hi, we tried but on our end we can't reproduce this bug since we fixed it in the 0.3.2a. Could you send us your save? Would definitely help us to find the issue
Sorry, I might have expressed myself badly here. I appreciate that you have scenes of a sexual nature with the main characters. It's the "wrong type" of content.
Have you seen the Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie episode of the Simpsons? The one where Itchy and Scratch are shown on the way to the fireworks factory but instead Poochie jumps in and starts rapping? The scenario is a bit like that - you've shown a clear path on where the content is going and you have to start paying this off at some point otherwise it leads to frustration. One of the things that I see a lot of posts about in games with these types of incest relationships, is that people will post "new update, still no content with Mom/sister, won't download" (I know *technically* it's a "Landlady" game but come on). When you define that penetrative sex in the story as a goal then it creates an idea of progression. That is the big boss/finish line representation in your game. So when people see updates go by without any ability to start down that path in a clearer way, i.e. a lot more sexy but not sexual scenes, then they start resenting it. It's also a design decision that you should consider too. You seem to be building an entire world into the game that looks to be story driven and complicated. If you keep generating the feeling that the family is the "end goal" then once that is reached then nobody cares about the rest of the world, which would be a shame because you're putting a lot of effort into that.
There was a project on here a while back whose name escapes me, it wasn't a real porn game, I think it was 3D. Anyway, they did this exact same scenario where they dragged on sex with the main focus of the game too long in order to build their world outside of that one relationship. Then when they released the content with the main character, nobody seemed to care any more because their game was "finished" now. The other stuff was side content essentially but the developer didn't intend that and it took them a while to get going again.
The point is, content releases aren't just about how you work but the content that you release or that you work on is implicitly telling your players what is and isn't important. Anything that takes a long time is presumed to be important, to be the point of playing the game. I'll give you an example of how you implicitly tell the players something here that you might not have intended - in your Scenes UI, you have 8 categories of scenes. You have talking, "eyes", handjob, titjob, blowjob, sex, anal and BDSM (presumably). OK, now you've created 8 "levels" to your game no different from a platformer. You might see the story breakdown in the progress menu as the real "levels" but this is a porn game that people play for porn content so it is content and not story driven (it's not clear cut that but it's a shared thing).
So you have your 8 levels. Using Cherie's progression as an example, you have 45 talking scenes, 43 Eyes scenes, 42 Handjob scenes, 3 Titjob scenes then 0 blow, 0 sex, 0 anal, 0 BDSM. So I appreciate that you add content but you're adding content into level 1, level 2 and level 3. Which is great but it's not progressive content that leads to "higher levels" for lack of a better term. I would argue that something that might be more satisfying to your fans might be to add less early level content, more progressive content and then go back and fill in early levels later. It also means that you can continue to build your world without these three characters being the central focus of the game because once they're done then they're done.
Again, this might not have been the intention to create 8 distinct and clear milestones of content but that's what has happened due to UI design and decisions made about releases.
On the obfuscation thing - this is just general advice. In a format like this, it takes you ten times the length to implement this than it does for us to break it. That's a waste of time. I understand that you want to protect your Patron's investment. I've also had it where people have cheated at my game by putting dumb shit in the console, then told me it was broken (without telling me about the console bit) and I've spent hours tracking down a bug that doesn't exist. I also think that it's easier to build resentment and think "fuck these guys". But it's the wrong decision for your backers because they don't pay you to work on these systems, they pay you to work on the content. Content is what their money is for, don't be fooled by the meme of "we want to support development". They don't, because this isn't Shenmue 3 with a passionate fanbase, they want your content in both the story and the writing and that's what they pay for generally speaking. And that's great! People wanting your content is exactly what game development IS. So working on that rather than breakable systems is a better option.
Sorry, I might have expressed myself badly here. I appreciate that you have scenes of a sexual nature with the main characters. It's the "wrong type" of content.
Have you seen the Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie episode of the Simpsons? The one where Itchy and Scratch are shown on the way to the fireworks factory but instead Poochie jumps in and starts rapping? The scenario is a bit like that - you've shown a clear path on where the content is going and you have to start paying this off at some point otherwise it leads to frustration. One of the things that I see a lot of posts about in games with these types of incest relationships, is that people will post "new update, still no content with Mom/sister, won't download" (I know *technically* it's a "Landlady" game but come on). When you define that penetrative sex in the story as a goal then it creates an idea of progression. That is the big boss/finish line representation in your game. So when people see updates go by without any ability to start down that path in a clearer way, i.e. a lot more sexy but not sexual scenes, then they start resenting it. It's also a design decision that you should consider too. You seem to be building an entire world into the game that looks to be story driven and complicated. If you keep generating the feeling that the family is the "end goal" then once that is reached then nobody cares about the rest of the world, which would be a shame because you're putting a lot of effort into that.
There was a project on here a while back whose name escapes me, it wasn't a real porn game, I think it was 3D. Anyway, they did this exact same scenario where they dragged on sex with the main focus of the game too long in order to build their world outside of that one relationship. Then when they released the content with the main character, nobody seemed to care any more because their game was "finished" now. The other stuff was side content essentially but the developer didn't intend that and it took them a while to get going again.
The point is, content releases aren't just about how you work but the content that you release or that you work on is implicitly telling your players what is and isn't important. Anything that takes a long time is presumed to be important, to be the point of playing the game. I'll give you an example of how you implicitly tell the players something here that you might not have intended - in your Scenes UI, you have 8 categories of scenes. You have talking, "eyes", handjob, titjob, blowjob, sex, anal and BDSM (presumably). OK, now you've created 8 "levels" to your game no different from a platformer. You might see the story breakdown in the progress menu as the real "levels" but this is a porn game that people play for porn content so it is content and not story driven (it's not clear cut that but it's a shared thing).
So you have your 8 levels. Using Cherie's progression as an example, you have 45 talking scenes, 43 Eyes scenes, 42 Handjob scenes, 3 Titjob scenes then 0 blow, 0 sex, 0 anal, 0 BDSM. So I appreciate that you add content but you're adding content into level 1, level 2 and level 3. Which is great but it's not progressive content that leads to "higher levels" for lack of a better term. I would argue that something that might be more satisfying to your fans might be to add less early level content, more progressive content and then go back and fill in early levels later. It also means that you can continue to build your world without these three characters being the central focus of the game because once they're done then they're done.
Again, this might not have been the intention to create 8 distinct and clear milestones of content but that's what has happened due to UI design and decisions made about releases.
On the obfuscation thing - this is just general advice. In a format like this, it takes you ten times the length to implement this than it does for us to break it. That's a waste of time. I understand that you want to protect your Patron's investment. I've also had it where people have cheated at my game by putting dumb shit in the console, then told me it was broken (without telling me about the console bit) and I've spent hours tracking down a bug that doesn't exist. I also think that it's easier to build resentment and think "fuck these guys". But it's the wrong decision for your backers because they don't pay you to work on these systems, they pay you to work on the content. Content is what their money is for, don't be fooled by the meme of "we want to support development". They don't, because this isn't Shenmue 3 with a passionate fanbase, they want your content in both the story and the writing and that's what they pay for generally speaking. And that's great! People wanting your content is exactly what game development IS. So working on that rather than breakable systems is a better option.
I wouldn't bother with these people anymore. Any criticism you give them towards their absurd practices regarding obfuscation, they ignore and don't respond.
I'm 100% convinced the developers don't actually have any idea about coding and that this is being put together by Copilot because of the insane amount of stupid bugs and how little progress they make with each release.
Sorry, I might have expressed myself badly here. I appreciate that you have scenes of a sexual nature with the main characters. It's the "wrong type" of content.
Have you seen the Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie episode of the Simpsons? The one where Itchy and Scratch are shown on the way to the fireworks factory but instead Poochie jumps in and starts rapping? The scenario is a bit like that - you've shown a clear path on where the content is going and you have to start paying this off at some point otherwise it leads to frustration. One of the things that I see a lot of posts about in games with these types of incest relationships, is that people will post "new update, still no content with Mom/sister, won't download" (I know *technically* it's a "Landlady" game but come on). When you define that penetrative sex in the story as a goal then it creates an idea of progression. That is the big boss/finish line representation in your game. So when people see updates go by without any ability to start down that path in a clearer way, i.e. a lot more sexy but not sexual scenes, then they start resenting it. It's also a design decision that you should consider too. You seem to be building an entire world into the game that looks to be story driven and complicated. If you keep generating the feeling that the family is the "end goal" then once that is reached then nobody cares about the rest of the world, which would be a shame because you're putting a lot of effort into that.
There was a project on here a while back whose name escapes me, it wasn't a real porn game, I think it was 3D. Anyway, they did this exact same scenario where they dragged on sex with the main focus of the game too long in order to build their world outside of that one relationship. Then when they released the content with the main character, nobody seemed to care any more because their game was "finished" now. The other stuff was side content essentially but the developer didn't intend that and it took them a while to get going again.
The point is, content releases aren't just about how you work but the content that you release or that you work on is implicitly telling your players what is and isn't important. Anything that takes a long time is presumed to be important, to be the point of playing the game. I'll give you an example of how you implicitly tell the players something here that you might not have intended - in your Scenes UI, you have 8 categories of scenes. You have talking, "eyes", handjob, titjob, blowjob, sex, anal and BDSM (presumably). OK, now you've created 8 "levels" to your game no different from a platformer. You might see the story breakdown in the progress menu as the real "levels" but this is a porn game that people play for porn content so it is content and not story driven (it's not clear cut that but it's a shared thing).
So you have your 8 levels. Using Cherie's progression as an example, you have 45 talking scenes, 43 Eyes scenes, 42 Handjob scenes, 3 Titjob scenes then 0 blow, 0 sex, 0 anal, 0 BDSM. So I appreciate that you add content but you're adding content into level 1, level 2 and level 3. Which is great but it's not progressive content that leads to "higher levels" for lack of a better term. I would argue that something that might be more satisfying to your fans might be to add less early level content, more progressive content and then go back and fill in early levels later. It also means that you can continue to build your world without these three characters being the central focus of the game because once they're done then they're done.
Again, this might not have been the intention to create 8 distinct and clear milestones of content but that's what has happened due to UI design and decisions made about releases.
On the obfuscation thing - this is just general advice. In a format like this, it takes you ten times the length to implement this than it does for us to break it. That's a waste of time. I understand that you want to protect your Patron's investment. I've also had it where people have cheated at my game by putting dumb shit in the console, then told me it was broken (without telling me about the console bit) and I've spent hours tracking down a bug that doesn't exist. I also think that it's easier to build resentment and think "fuck these guys". But it's the wrong decision for your backers because they don't pay you to work on these systems, they pay you to work on the content. Content is what their money is for, don't be fooled by the meme of "we want to support development". They don't, because this isn't Shenmue 3 with a passionate fanbase, they want your content in both the story and the writing and that's what they pay for generally speaking. And that's great! People wanting your content is exactly what game development IS. So working on that rather than breakable systems is a better option.
Very interesting response, I am quite glad to see that it is clear that there is 8 levels of sexual content. The goal always was to progress on that ladder, but let me tell you why it may seem otherwise.
As we were progressing the original "beginning (talk)" stage of the levels, we realised that the game was not good enough for our liking and that we lost control of the many aspect of it. So at the later "teasing (eyes)" stage, we made it our mission to fix that and regain control of it to continue the good progression on the scenes ladder after.
So we have been working very hard lately to make this game playable and fun (and to regain control of it). Lot of test, of bug fixes and we are nearing the finish line.
I can now proudly say that this has been done and that we are stopping to add in game mechanics and we are focusing on the main story progression and climbing this sexual actions ladder. A little glimpse for you, 0.4.0 will be titsjob, 0.5.0 blowjob, 0.6.0 vaginal, 0.7.0 anal and 0.8.0 extreme.
As for the obfuscation, do not mind haveiseenyoubefore, unlike you, he has not been of any help and has been aggressively hating us without much goals nor gains.
I am willing to have this "taboo" conversation with you as you seem reasonable and helpful.
I agree with you that we can't win this battle against the like of you. You must understand that the target of our obfuscation efforts are not people like you or other experiences code users. The target are the people that do not have the knowledge or the will to "deep" crack but are searching for easy way of not paying for the patrons contents.
Our reaction when faced with people like you have always been fascination and not hatred. We once paid a guy that cheated our game skillfully to help us make it more robust.
Anyway, thank you for your feedback dspeed.
-FapMat
I apologize for bothering you again. First of all, thank you for the work you’ve done. However, I’m experiencing an issue with the latest version. The wheel turns slowly here, and this part is working fine. However, I still need to enter a code for the bonus scenes screen. What should I do here?
True, but I'm not sure how to unlock the bonus stuff through the browser console, so that doesn't help much for people who also want to view that content in addition to just making the game less grindy (or even just playable in some cases).
Going through a save editor overcomes that because if you use the editor to mark all the scenes in the gallery as unlocked, then it doesn't ask for the code to watch the scene in the gallery. You can just watch it.
It is also worth noting that re-watching a scene through the gallery isn't just the images/gifs/clips. It includes all the dialogue and such surrounding the scene, so it is as if you were getting the scene in-game rather than just going through the many raw files. This helps for people who also enjoy the story around the files.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the unlocking of the console functions, especially considering my frustration with the game and how hard it is to keep food stocked up. I'm just offering an alternative method for people who still want the bonus content or are unfamiliar with how to use the console functions.
They want 100 fucking dollars a month for tier 3 unlocks for stolen content and broken code.
Can someone please just post the codes if you have them. This is actually disgusting behavior.
Looks like these are old commands. Scene unlocking is not working, But character stats still work. There is an error there, not "craft" but craftmanship
As for the obfuscation, do not mind haveiseenyoubefore, unlike you, he has not been of any help and has been aggressively hating us without much goals nor gains.
Saw the team response aaaaaaaaaaaand for no reason at all I took that personally. You guys surely have some balls saying I haven't been helpful when you have avoided the topic like the plague and there hasn't been a hint of a conversation on the matter and I actually found and reported quite a few bugs in your game.
Here's me being helpful, I found yet another bug that explains why people couldn't start Mia's quest in the past. Wrong scene from a bad copy paste, as usual.
You are fucking welcome.
I have to be honest. Seeing how disconnected from reality these guys are are quite pissed me off so here we go again lads.
And I plan to actually do this with each release after they are done putting out bugfixes.
Very good PR job, I guess.
Seriously, what did you expect giving backhanded commentary to a party that literally understands your game better than you would achieve?
Now for the fun part
By the way it took me more time to quote all of you guys and write this motherfucking thesis than it took me to crack this shit.
I Could have just made it so it was unlocked for the get go but I was feeling bored and decided to make you all work a bit. It's a very hard process and it's not worth it.
Steps:
1- Go into "Cheats".
2- Click this funny edgy picture.
3- Congratulations! All the gifs these guys stole from the internet are now free and available, as they should fucking be from the get go.
To the "devs". As I said, I already know how your code works fellas. No matter how much obfuscation you go through with it takes me literally 5 minutes to do the same shit I've done before because all the work has already been done. That fucking button took most of the time because I don't work with front-end and my work was already done to begin with.
As before, just unzip on top of your files. Made a few changes like last time, wheel going slower, can't lose, all scenes are unlocked, yada yada.
To conclude, I just want to say that it's adorable to see the team finally addressing the issue with obfuscation and yet refusing to explain themselves in public.
Riddle me this lads, how do you explain a 100$ per month tag for a buggy unfinished mess of stolen porn that gets worse and worse with each iteration. Where does that money goes? Clearly not into testing, seeing that you need to release an average of 3 bugfixes per release, which is fucking hilarious.
If you can provide an answer that makes actual sense, I'll stop fucking around with your code. Hell, I'll even throw in some coding good practice lessons for free so you guys learn how to do an actual release.
PS: Good luck understanding my obfuscated code, mate. Let's see if you can crack it down and patch the game so it no longer works!
As the saying goes, "Don't bite the hand that fingers you".
Cheers lads. There's not much to enjoy but you do you, I already got my share of fun. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Saw the team response aaaaaaaaaaaand for no reason at all I took that personally. You guys surely have some balls saying I haven't been helpful when you have avoided the topic like the plague and there hasn't been a hint of a conversation on the matter and I actually found and reported quite a few bugs in your game.
Here's me being helpful, I found yet another bug that explains why people couldn't start Mia's quest in the past. Wrong scene from a bad copy paste, as usual.
You are fucking welcome.
I agree with you that we can't win this battle against the like of you. You must understand that the target of our obfuscation efforts are not people like you or other experiences code users. The target are the people that do not have the knowledge or the will to "deep" crack but are searching for easy way of not paying for the patrons contents.
I understand this. It's worth pointing out however that Destroyer, another real porn HTML game that makes good money, has always used unencrypted cheat code in the HTML file and doesn't seem to suffer any effects from it. I understand why you think it's a good idea, but my disagreement has always been that it's just not worth the effort because your backers want you to produce content rather than code. I think if you look at comparable projects in the crowd funded real porn HTML space, then they all seem to have similar ideas.
I understand this. It's worth pointing out however that Destroyer, another real porn HTML game that makes good money, has always used unencrypted cheat code in the HTML file and doesn't seem to suffer any effects from it. I understand why you think it's a good idea, but my disagreement has always been that it's just not worth the effort because your backers want you to produce content rather than code. I think if you look at comparable projects in the crowd funded real porn HTML space, then they all seem to have similar ideas.
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I understand this. It's worth pointing out however that Destroyer, another real porn HTML game that makes good money, has always used unencrypted cheat code in the HTML file and doesn't seem to suffer any effects from it. I understand why you think it's a good idea, but my disagreement has always been that it's just not worth the effort because your backers want you to produce content rather than code. I think if you look at comparable projects in the crowd funded real porn HTML space, then they all seem to have similar ideas.
Yeah, you are probably right, we are mostly done with with it and we switch our focus on pure content since the game foundation is now set and the grind more manageable and fun.
So now people will be getting content instead of code.
Saw the team response aaaaaaaaaaaand for no reason at all I took that personally. You guys surely have some balls saying I haven't been helpful when you have avoided the topic like the plague and there hasn't been a hint of a conversation on the matter and I actually found and reported quite a few bugs in your game.
Here's me being helpful, I found yet another bug that explains why people couldn't start Mia's quest in the past. Wrong scene from a bad copy paste, as usual.
You are fucking welcome. View attachment 4478215
I have to be honest. Seeing how disconnected from reality these guys are are quite pissed me off so here we go again lads.
And I plan to actually do this with each release after they are done putting out bugfixes.
Very good PR job, I guess.
Seriously, what did you expect giving backhanded commentary to a party that literally understands your game better than you would achieve?
Now for the fun part
By the way it took me more time to quote all of you guys and write this motherfucking thesis than it took me to crack this shit.
I Could have just made it so it was unlocked for the get go but I was feeling bored and decided to make you all work a bit. It's a very hard process and it's not worth it.
Steps:
1- Go into "Cheats".
2- Click this funny edgy picture. View attachment 4477947
3- Congratulations! All the gifs these guys stole from the internet are now free and available, as they should fucking be from the get go. View attachment 4477960
To the "devs". As I said, I already know how your code works fellas. No matter how much obfuscation you go through with it takes me literally 5 minutes to do the same shit I've done before because all the work has already been done. That fucking button took most of the time because I don't work with front-end and my work was already done to begin with.
As before, just unzip on top of your files. Made a few changes like last time, wheel going slower, can't lose, all scenes are unlocked, yada yada.
To conclude, I just want to say that it's adorable to see the team finally addressing the issue with obfuscation and yet refusing to explain themselves in public.
Riddle me this lads, how do you explain a 100$ per month tag for a buggy unfinished mess of stolen porn that gets worse and worse with each iteration. Where does that money goes? Clearly not into testing, seeing that you need to release an average of 3 bugfixes per release, which is fucking hilarious.
If you can provide an answer that makes actual sense, I'll stop fucking around with your code. Hell, I'll even throw in some coding good practice lessons for free so you guys learn how to do an actual release.
PS: Good luck understanding my obfuscated code, mate. Let's see if you can crack it down and patch the game so it no longer works! View attachment 4478339
As the saying goes, "Don't bite the hand that fingers you".
Cheers lads. There's not much to enjoy but you do you, I already got my share of fun. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I should start with a disclaimer: it has been several months since I had a look at The Fapocalypse and I haven't tried the latest version yet. I should probably try playing it again first, but reading all these comments about code obfuscation and excessive grind forcing the players to pay for cheats raised so many red flags that I could not resist the urge to dive head first into this discussion...
As for the obfuscation, do not mind haveiseenyoubefore, unlike you, he has not been of any help and has been aggressively hating us without much goals nor gains.
I am willing to have this "taboo" conversation with you as you seem reasonable and helpful.
I agree with you that we can't win this battle against the like of you. You must understand that the target of our obfuscation efforts are not people like you or other experiences code users. The target are the people that do not have the knowledge or the will to "deep" crack but are searching for easy way of not paying for the patrons contents.
From what I read, I think that you put yourself into a corner by alienating the community instead of working with it. This may be related to your business model for this game, which seems to be different from other HTML/Twine or Ren'Py games.
But first, a bit of context...
I play many of those games and I also contribute to many of them, be it by donating via Patreon/Subscribestar/etc. or by doing some proofreading (example 1, example 2) or by helping the authors of these games with useful bits of Javascript code, Sugarcube widgets, HTML and CSS, or just troubleshooting their code. I never counted how many bugs I have helped fixing in various Twine or Ren'Py games, but that's probably a lot. For the typos, a lot more (several thousands - I'm not joking). And I am far from being the only one: many players are happy to report typos to improve the games they like, and the players who are experienced developers can also help troubleshooting, sharing some coding tips or bits of code, etc. Especially for Twine or Ren'Py games for which the source code is easily accessible, there is a whole community of developers who are sharing their code openly so that they can help each other and improve their games.
Most of the games that I play have a very simple business model: patrons get the new releases of the game one week in advance, and occasionally they can vote to influence the story or to prioritize what should come next in the game. They may also get other perks depending on the game and the tier they selected, such as: a few extra scenes or additional art, some cheat codes allowing them to reach some scenes faster, or the privilege of having their name mentioned in the game. But besides helping the authors of the games they like, the main benefit for patrons is to be able to play the new releases earlier (same game, just a few days earlier) and sometimes they also have a chance to influence the evolution of the game.
Some games such as "Grandma's House" by MoonBox or "My Dorm" by Tropecita Games have a precise release schedule. For Grandma's House, a new version of the game is released twice per month. The top tiers get the new version immediately (and they can have their name in the credits). The next tier gets the game 3 days later. Then the next one gets the game 6 days after the initial release, then the lower tier 9 days after the initial release, before the game is made public. They all get exactly the same game, just a bit earlier. My Dorm has a very similar tier structure with different timings because the releases are a bit less frequent. Note that MoonBox and Tropecita Games have several hundred subscribers each, so the fact that the game will be free for everybody a few days later does not seem to discourage them from supporting the game. Sometimes these early releases are leaked, but it does not matter much for a game that is updated so frequently: the best way to play all future releases early is to become a supporter instead of waiting for occasional leaks that may not be available before the public release.
Some authors even insist that the game is free and patrons should only pay if they really want to support them. Example with Feebs, the author of "Gateway":
Another example is Lotrum, the author of "Just One More Chance" who repeatedly stated that those who cannot afford to support the game can still get the same perks (e.g., cheat codes) if they ask nicely.
Another issue is the source material... Most Twine games featuring real porn scenes are "borrowing" images and video clips that can be found online, but they rarely compensate the models and the studios for that copyrighted material. But most games try to credit the models and sometimes also link to their internet presence so that the players who like them can follow them and maybe subscribe to their content. For example, at the start of the game "Sluttown USA", you can see a page titled "The lovely ladies of Sluttown" from which you can find direct links to the Twitter/X accounts of most models featured in the game. Other games such as "Gateway" or "College Daze" have a credits page that is populated as you encounter new characters in the game. In all these cases, they try to make it easy for the players to find the models that they enjoyed in the game, as a way to give something back. As mentioned by Feebs in the quote above, the players can then support these models on OnlyFans or other sites.
Considering that context, how does The Fapocalypse compare?
The other games are really free. They make it clear that the game is free and that everybody will get it for free sooner or later. Those who chose to support the game are paying for the privilege to play the game a bit earlier or to influence its future development; they are not paying for being allowed to play the game as intended, nor to view its contents (often copied from other sites). Some of the games that I support on Patreon and Subscribestar have cheat codes as a perk, but I almost never used them except when I wanted to restart a game with different choices, because these games are perfectly playable and are so much fun without cheat codes.
With The Fapocalypse, it is different. I do not know if it was intentional or not, but my current perception is that the real game is the paid version: this is the one that everybody should play (and pay for), while the free version is not intended to be as enjoyable as the paid version with cheat codes.
It's almost as if the authors of The Fapocalypse could not decide between making a really free game or making a commercial game for which the free version is just a demo or preview. The result is weird and does not feel really free.
This is a pity for the players, and this also exposes the developers of the game to a greater legal risk. Any copyright owner of some images or video clips used in the game could successfully argue that this is a commercial game because the paid version is the one that is intended to be played. Even worse: the last time I played The Fapocalypse, I remember seeing a large warning message about this being an adult game, followed by some detailed credits to those who contributed to the game, but no credits given to any of the models featured in the game nor to the studios from which the media was "borrowed". This means that the authors are aware of the law, or at least some parts of it, but do not acknowledge the fact that most of the content in the game (probably more than 99% in number of bytes) was taken from others without permission. This could expose the authors to greater damages in case one of the copyright owners would decide to sue. (Note: the intro and the biased credits are what I remember from playing some 0.2.x alpha version a few months ago. The latest version of the game is a bit too large for me to download right now, so please accept my apologies and ignore the last part of this paragraph if the game is now giving proper credit and linking to the featured models.)
Lastly, there is also the issue of alienating the community...
Many Twine/SugarCube games are helped by players or by other developers here or in their Discord channels or in other places. The openness of the code and the ability to easily hack some variables or edit some saved games makes it easy to troubleshoot some issues or to test some obscure parts of the game. Many authors of Twine/SugarCube games can learn from others by looking at their code, and then share the results that can then inspire others to improve their games.
When some parts of the code are obfuscated or when the code tries to prevent the players from accessing or modifying some variables, this breaks the gift culture on which Twine and SugarCube are based. This is perceived as an attempt at taking from others without giving anything back.
Instead of building a community of players and developers who are happy to help improving the game for free by donating some of their time to report bugs or typos, it looks like the attempts at locking down the game have only resulted in building a community of players who feel betrayed and who are now seeking revenge instead of helping the game. This toxic behavior is fueled by the repeated attempts at making the code less and less open.
To conclude, here are some suggestions:
Add some prominent notices (not only in the intro, but also in a place that is accessible at any time during the game) explaining that most of the porn content was copied from other sources and that the game itself is free. Give credit to the models. Mention their full names, and if possible add some links to their internet presence (Twitter/X, Instagram, OnlyFans, etc.)
Rethink your business model for this game. The paid version could give early access, but not much more. The free version without cheat codes should be the most enjoyable and the most well-balanced, from start to finish. Nobody, even those who support the game, should feel the need to use the cheat codes.
There should never be multiple levels of cheat codes. They should be the same for everybody. Having different levels of cheat codes means that they are desirable and some of them are better than others, which means that the game is probably not well balanced in the first place. The different levels of cheat codes should be removed as patron/subscriber perks.
Remove any obfuscation and any code that tries to prevent the players from modifying any SugarCube variables. Make your code really open, so that other developers are happy to look at it, maybe borrow from it, and maybe improve it.
Encourage hacking instead of discouraging it. In the long run, this may build a community of players who are happy to help you improve the game.
During development, refrain from using the cheat codes yourself. While testing some new features, start from one of several saved games that you created without cheats, so that you have a better feel for the balance that most players will experience. From time to time, restart the game from the beginning as a normal player, to ensure that any changes in the balance are still resulting in a game that is enjoyable.
Sorry for this long rant, but I hope that you will consider at least some of my suggestions.
I should start with a disclaimer: it has been several months since I had a look at The Fapocalypse and I haven't tried the latest version yet. I should probably try playing it again first, but reading all these comments about code obfuscation and excessive grind forcing the players to pay for cheats raised so many red flags that I could not resist the urge to dive head first into this discussion...
From what I read, I think that you put yourself into a corner by alienating the community instead of working with it. This may be related to your business model for this game, which seems to be different from other HTML/Twine or Ren'Py games.
But first, a bit of context...
I play many of those games and I also contribute to many of them, be it by donating via Patreon/Subscribestar/etc. or by doing some proofreading (example 1, example 2) or by helping the authors of these games with useful bits of Javascript code, Sugarcube widgets, HTML and CSS, or just troubleshooting their code. I never counted how many bugs I have helped fixing in various Twine or Ren'Py games, but that's probably a lot. For the typos, a lot more (several thousands - I'm not joking). And I am far from being the only one: many players are happy to report typos to improve the games they like, and the players who are experienced developers can also help troubleshooting, sharing some coding tips or bits of code, etc. Especially for Twine or Ren'Py games for which the source code is easily accessible, there is a whole community of developers who are sharing their code openly so that they can help each other and improve their games.
Most of the games that I play have a very simple business model: patrons get the new releases of the game one week in advance, and occasionally they can vote to influence the story or to prioritize what should come next in the game. They may also get other perks depending on the game and the tier they selected, such as: a few extra scenes or additional art, some cheat codes allowing them to reach some scenes faster, or the privilege of having their name mentioned in the game. But besides helping the authors of the games they like, the main benefit for patrons is to be able to play the new releases earlier (same game, just a few days earlier) and sometimes they also have a chance to influence the evolution of the game.
For some games such as "Grandma's House" by MoonBox, there is a precise release schedule: a new version of the game is released twice per month. The top tiers ("Nana's True Love" or "Redhead Lover") get the new version immediately (and they can have their name in the credits). The next tier gets the game 3 days later. Then the next one gets the game 6 days after the initial release, then the lower tier 9 days after the initial release, before the game is made public. They all get exactly the same game, just a bit earlier. Note that MoonBox has several hundred subscribers, so the fact that the game will be free for everybody a few days later does not seem to discourage them from supporting the game. Sometimes these early releases are leaked, but it does not matter much for a game that is updated so frequently: the best way to play all future releases early is to become a supporter instead of waiting for occasional leaks that may not be available before the public release.
Some authors even insist that the game is free and patrons should only pay if they really want to support them. Example with Feebs, the author of "Gateway":
Another example is Lotrum, the author of "Just One More Chance" who repeatedly stated that those who cannot afford to support the game can still get the same perks (e.g., cheat codes) if they ask nicely.
Another issue is the source material... Most Twine games featuring real porn scenes are "borrowing" images and video clips that can be found online, but they rarely compensate the models and the studios for that copyrighted material. But most games try to credit the models and sometimes also link to their internet presence so that the players who like them can follow them and maybe subscribe to their content. For example, at the start of the game "Sluttown USA", you can see a page titled "The lovely ladies of Sluttown" from which you can find direct links to the Twitter/X accounts of most models featured in the game. Other games such as "Gateway" or "College Daze" have a credits page that is populated as you encounter new characters in the game. In all these cases, they try to make it easy for the players to find the models that they enjoyed in the game, as a way to give something back. As mentioned by Feebs in the quote above, the players can then support these models on OnlyFans or on several other sites.
Considering that context, how does The Fapocalypse compare?
The other games are really free. They make it clear that the game is free and that everybody will get it for free sooner or later. Those who chose to support the game are paying for the privilege to play the game a bit earlier or to influence its future development; they are not paying for being allowed to play the game as intended, nor to view its contents (often copied from other sites). Some of the games that I support on Patreon and Subscribestar have cheat codes as a perk, but I almost never used them except when I wanted to restart a game with different choices, because these games are perfectly playable and are so much fun without cheat codes.
With The Fapocalypse, it is different. I do not know if it was intentional or not, but my current perception is that the real game is the paid version: this is the one that everybody should play (and pay for), while the free version is not intended to be as enjoyable as the paid version with cheat codes.
It's almost as if the authors of The Fapocalypse could not decide between making a really free game or making a commercial game for which the free version is just a demo or preview. The result is weird and does not feel really free.
This is a pity for the players, and this also exposes the developers of the game to a greater legal risk. Any copyright owner of some images or video clips used in the game could successfully argue that this is a commercial game because the paid version is the one that is intended to be played. Even worse: the last time I played The Fapocalypse, I remember seeing a large warning message about this being an adult game, followed by some detailed credits to those who contributed to the game, but no credits given to any of the models featured in the game nor to the studios from which the media was "borrowed". This means that the authors are aware of the law, or at least some parts of it, but do not acknowledge the fact that most of the content in the game (probably more than 99% in number of bytes) was taken from others without permission. This could expose the authors to greater damages in case one of the copyright owners would decide to sue. (Note: the intro and the biased credits are what I remember from playing some 0.2.x alpha version a few months ago. The latest version of the game is a bit too large for me to download right now, so please accept my apologies and ignore the last part of this paragraph if the game is now giving proper credit and linking to the featured models.)
Lastly, there is also the issue of alienating the community...
Many Twine/SugarCube games are helped by players or by other developers here or in their Discord channels or in other places. The openness of the code and the ability to easily hack some variables or edit some saved games makes it easy to troubleshoot some issues or to test some obscure parts of the game. Many authors of Twine/SugarCube games can learn from others by looking at their code, and then share the results that can then inspire others to improve their games.
When some parts of the code are obfuscated or when the code tries to prevent the players from accessing or modifying some variables, this breaks the gift culture on which Twine and SugarCube are based. This is perceived as an attempt at taking from others without giving anything back.
Instead of building a community of players and developers who are happy to help improving the game for free by donating some of their time to report bugs or typos, it looks like the attempts at locking down the game have only resulting in building a community of players who feel betrayed and who are now seeking revenge instead of helping the game. This toxic behavior is fueled by the repeated attempts at making the code less and less open.
To conclude, here are some suggestions:
Add some prominent notices (not only in the intro, but also in a place that is accessible at any time during the game) explaining that most of the porn content was copied from other sources and that the game itself is free. Give credit to the models. Mention their full names, and if possible add some links to their internet presence (Twitter/X, Instagram, OnlyFans, etc.)
Rethink your business model for this game. The paid version could give early access, but not much more. The free version without cheat codes should be the most enjoyable and the most well-balanced, from start to finish. Nobody, even those who support the game, should feel the need to use the cheat codes.
There should never be multiple levels of cheat codes. They should be the same for everybody. Having different levels of cheat codes means that they are desirable and some of them are better than others, which means that the game is probably not well balanced in the first place. The different levels of cheat codes should be removed as patron/subscriber perks.
Remove any obfuscation and any code that tries to prevent the players from modifying any SugarCube variables. Make your code really open, so that other developers are happy to look at it, maybe borrow from it, and maybe improve it.
Encourage hacking instead of discouraging it. In the long run, this may build a community of players who are happy to help you improve the game.
During development, refrain from using the cheat codes yourself. While testing some new features, start from one of several saved games that you created without cheats, so that you have a better feel for the balance that most players will experience. From time to time, restart the game from the beginning as a normal player, to ensure that any changes in the balance are still resulting in a game that is enjoyable.
Sorry for this long rant, but I hope that you will consider at least some of my suggestions.
I consider this a very constructive feedback and will absolutely consider some of your suggestions.
For exemple, crediting the actress properly will be something that I will try to incorporate for sure.
As for testing without cheat, we have started doing that alot in the last two updates, we each spent countless hour playing the game without any cheat to balance the game and the grind and make sure that it is enjoyable and quite full without the cheats.
If you did not play the game for a while, you probably played when it was in it messiest state which forced us to rework it. But now, the grind is very manageable.
For the cheats tiers. Since the grind is more manageable, it is now way more an "option" to take a shortcut rater than the intended way to play.
Our logic behind the cheat tiers is the following.
-The first one is for the ressources that do not help you reach contents but rather help you nullify the survival grind.
-The second one is purely for the gallery unlock, which is for people that do not want to play but want the content.
-The third one is to give "God like" power to the user that wants to play but wants to nullify all grind and make themselves overly powerful. So they would want to have a feeling of deserving the scene and not just watching porn but without the grind.
So they have very different purposes.
For the obfuscation, you have made a strong well explained case and I will think about it.
In the meanwhile, you can see it as "The grind" for the coders.
People that manage to defeat the code and access the paid content seem to be very happy with themselves after and it's way more rewarding for them to watch the content after.
It's a game inside a game! But yeah, enough tomfoolery.
Always a pleasure to deal with reasonable and smart people.
Thank you for the time you took to write this feedback.
I consider this a very constructive feedback and will absolutely consider some of your suggestions.
For exemple, crediting the actress properly will be something that I will try to incorporate for sure.
As for testing without cheat, we have started doing that alot in the last two updates, we each spent countless hour playing the game without any cheat to balance the game and the grind and make sure that it is enjoyable and quite full without the cheats.
If you did not play the game for a while, you probably played when it was in it messiest state which forced us to rework it. But now, the grind is very manageable.
For the cheats tiers. Since the grind is more manageable, it is now way more an "option" to take a shortcut rater than the intended way to play.
Our logic behind the cheat tiers is the following.
-The first one is for the ressources that do not help you reach contents but rather help you nullify the survival grind.
-The second one is purely for the gallery unlock, which is for people that do not want to play but want the content.
-The third one is to give "God like" power to the user that wants to play but wants to nullify all grind and make themselves overly powerful. So they would want to have a feeling of deserving the scene and not just watching porn but without the grind.
So they have very different purposes.
For the obfuscation, you have made a strong well explained case and I will think about it.
In the meanwhile, you can see it as "The grind" for the coders.
People that manage to defeat the code and access the paid content seem to be very happy with themselves after and it's way more rewarding for them to watch the content after.
It's a game inside a game! But yeah, enough tomfoolery.
Always a pleasure to deal with reasonable and smart people.
Thank you for the time you took to write this feedback.
- $19.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 1
- $49.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 2
- $99.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 3
Why aren't you talking more about your RIDICULOUS prices for having ACTUAL scenes in the game?
Let's be real here you're INTENTIONALLY going so slow with base game scenes coz you want to push people to spend MORE money on subscriptions.
Plus $99.50 and you're not even get that much more scenes.
DUDE ELDEN RING+DLC IS NOT EVEN THIS EXPENSIVE.
I'll did the mistake of getting on the Tier 1 coz I didn't know it was just for a FEWS more scenes. What a scam. Never again I'm gonna give you more money. You deserve nothing apart from the hate you're getting.
- $19.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 1
- $49.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 2
- $99.50 for Bonus Scenes Tier 3
Why aren't you talking more about your RIDICULOUS prices for having ACTUAL scenes in the game?
Let's be real here you're INTENTIONALLY going so slow with base game scenes coz you want to push people to spend MORE money on subscriptions.
Plus $99.50 and you're not even get that much more scenes.
DUDE ELDEN RING+DLC IS NOT EVEN THIS EXPENSIVE.
I'll did the mistake of getting on the Tier 1 coz I didn't know it was just for a FEWS more scenes. What a scam. Never again I'm gonna give you more money. You deserve nothing apart from the hate you're getting.
First, I want to thank you for the tier 1 subscription.
If you take a good look at the name of the scenes you just mentionned, you may find the word "Bonus".
These scenes were made for people supporting the project as a little Gift, they are not part of the ACTUAL game scenes or whatever that means. They are not part of the story nor the normal gameplay and grind.
And most importantly, they are absolutly not necessary to the gameplay or to progress in it.
Acting like the game cost 100$ is bad faith. For 10$, you can get the ressources cheat that will allow you to nullify most of the grind of the game if you want to see contents.
So, there is no "Let's be real here" my dear fella, you can play the game for free.
As for testing without cheat, we have started doing that alot in the last two updates, we each spent countless hour playing the game without any cheat to balance the game and the grind and make sure that it is enjoyable and quite full without the cheats.
For the cheats tiers. Since the grind is more manageable, it is now way more an "option" to take a shortcut rater than the intended way to play.
Acting like the game cost 100$ is bad faith. For 10$, you can get the ressources cheat that will allow you to nullify most of the grind of the game if you want to see contents.
So, there is no "Let's be real here" my dear fella, you can play the game for free.
Acting as if pushing people to pay 20 bucks a month for a buggy mess in order to avoid the grind is not bad faith or scum practices is truly amazing. And yes, you can go through that amazing grinding experience for free. Surely there's not a majority people complaining about it, right?
For the obfuscation, you have made a strong well explained case and I will think about it.
In the meanwhile, you can see it as "The grind" for the coders.
People that manage to defeat the code and access the paid content seem to be very happy with themselves after and it's way more rewarding for them to watch the content after.
It's a game inside a game! But yeah, enough tomfoolery.
Are you on drugs? Are you seriously this dense? Because if you think painting the picture as "lol them little kids having fun eating sand" avoiding any discussion around your shitty practices regarding monetization is yielding a better outcome than being honest and open about it you might want to take some courses on business direction too.
Here's my honest opinion:
Your game is quite literally shit. It's boring, has little content, the minigames are plainly stupid which I would bet a hand and a foot its code it's stolen either from another game or from a github project seeing how,oddly enough, the areas that are more "complex" in regards to coding are THE ONLY ONES that are not plagued by bugs.
The writing is simplistic, repetitive and I saw you reuse a fuckton of passages on the code. Your coding is so poor you didn't even care to declare a fucking variable to manage relations between MC and NPCs and instead your hardcoded them, making the "landlady" become the "mother" at random for fuck's sake.
I gave the game a try and quickly discarded it. The only reason I came back to it was that I saw your scum tactics and, combined with your attitude, it fucking pissed me off.
I'm not happy about breaking your shit code.
I'm not happy about having to play this garbage 10 minutes after I'm done redoing changes to verify I unlocked everything. (Which, by the way, what I do involves WAY more testing that you fucks do. And it's so rich seeing you write this:
As for testing without cheat, we have started doing that alot in the last two updates, we each spent countless hour playing the game without any cheat to balance the game and the grind and make sure that it is enjoyable and quite full without the cheats.
Because we BOTH know you guys don't test shit, relying instead on people reporting specifics so you can dive in and try to fix it, much less go through the grind you guys have put on and now don't know how to change.)
What makes me happy is thinking my doing will impact your income.
If you end up closing shop because of it that will make me even happier. The "work" you've done so far doesn't merit a single penny of what you are getting and we both fucking now it.
I'm not going to even entertain the childish implications from this comment, I'll just say this. I took a look at the accounts that left 5 stars on this sad excuse you call a game because some of said reviews looked a bit suspicious. As if someone fed ChatGPT a summary of the plot and asked it to write, I don't know, 30 different positive reviews with a little bit of criticism.
Wouldn't you know, almost all of the 20 or so accounts I looked into have been offline since the very same day they left their 5 stars review and they follow this pattern:
They post 2 messages on other forum.
They post a single message here.
Finally, they leave a 5 star rating to your "game".
Quite a few of them were even created on the same day they left the review.
I'm no ornithologist but if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck and shits like a duck, it's probably a duck the same way these look like you try to offset the rating of your game by writing a bunch of fake reviews(Instead of doing the sensible thing which would have been listening to criticism and working to do better).
I decided to waste yet another 15 minutes compiling those findings and I'll be sending it up to the mods to evaluate because I'm pretty sure posting fake reviews on your own games is not allowed.
I wonder what the actual score will be if/when they take those down.
And don't get confused. I love helping people who struggles with code. I enjoy giving feedback or helping those who do need help with their games or are stuck. But you, dear lads, decided to purposefully worsen the experience for the end user in order to promote an extremely aggressive monetization, for which you all lack the skills to back up.
Guess a 2 week MERN bootcamp and ChatGPT can't turn you into a developer, huh.
Congratulations again mate.
You are a masterful PR manager.
Keep doing what you are doing, it's clearly working in your favor.
As a last thought, feel free to keep disregarding criticism and don't strive for improvement. I mean, you already alienated the community against you, I don't really think a 180º would even achieve anything.
