Ren'Py The Headmaster [Mykock's Manor Ch.3] [Altos and Herdone]

[LLLEEE2]

I am so sorry that I am not producing this free porn game fast enough for you and some others on this forum. I’ve only managed to write 600,000 words, create 17,000 images and over 1000 videos. That's barely six lengthy novels worth. A truly pathetic 100,000 words and ~2000 images a year. You’ve rightly called me out as a “lazy greedy arsehole”, doing nothing but “milking” my poor patrons. None of whom are capable of making any kind of informed judgement for themselves. How shameful of me.

Please let me know how I can make it up to you? If I wrote 200,000 words a year, would that be enough? Would you be happy with 300,000? I am sure you wouldn't skim through all that carefully crafted content in “20-30 minutes” and come on here to complain anyway. Or would you simply prefer that I end the game in the next update, "the headmaster fucks all the girls, they all live happily ever after, the end"? I am sure everyone would love that; just as everyone loved the final season of Game of Thrones.

Of course you are absolutely right that I should make less money as well. Money, of course, is a famous de-motivator. The more money a person makes the less hard they work, everyone knows that. If only I was making pennies an hour and having to take other jobs to support myself, that’s when the content would really start flowing. Of course, all porn game developers should be paid next to nothing because that would be the best way to attract and keep talent in the industry. So, thank you so much for sharing your wise and well informed opinion; what a great service you are doing for this game and for the community in general.

I like your work and have no idea what it takes to put together, but I imagine it is time-consuming.

Waiting patiently ....

 

[oceanbobo4]

The Headmaster game ought never to end.

Why should it?

It's like Superman or Batman.

Do those stories have endings?

Individual stories in the Superman saga have endings, but there is no THE END to the story of Superman.

Some fictional worlds grow so big that no ending is desirable.

Alas, the architecture of the Headmaster's plot suggests that an ending someday will be reached. A sad day that will be!

But the characters and world have the potential for indefinite expansion.

It's like the Dallas soap opera of old. It went on for years and years, and when it finally ended, the fans were sad.

How could any true fan of this game want it to end soon? Or ever?

What's the big mystery that the "we want it to end" people want resolved?

How the original headmaster died? Is that the big mystery that people can't stand not to know?

Yeah, I'm curious about how he died too. But that's not why I'm playing the Headmaster.

I want to see what happens to Arabella . . . and all the rest of them.

I want a giant game that requires years and years. I want to anticipate this game and replay it and think about it.

So, alas, those who want the game to end will have their wish.

But may that be far, far in the future.

So.

Once this game is over, what game am I going to play?

I have a few suggestions (see my footer). But most games are quite short, nothing close to the world- building scale of this one.

Superman's story was started in 1938. I suppose it should have ended decades ago. Right? The market says: no! No ending ever to the Superman stories.

 

[DrNefarious57]

I 1000% agree with this... just like a favorite TV show (or comic book). A group of 'episodes' can be collected into a 'season', but the show can go on for season after season, ideally never reaching an end (one piece, anyone? lol)
But from a practical point of view, the game is already a very large download, and longer, better videos will only make it bigger. It might make sense (at some point) to split it into multiple parts (by chapter, maybe?) and download each one individually. I also wonder if using AI generated art/video tools would help with speeding up the renders of new scenes in the future.

 

[grey_shadow]

It's like Superman or Batman.

Do those stories have endings?

Yes, they do.

They have line-wide reboots every 15 years or so, and sometimes the outgoing continuity gets an actual ending. And then there are the many, many Elseworlds, Imaginary Stories, and other non-canon stories, which often get an ending.

And that's if you don't count the endings of individual storylines within the ongoing comics.

 

[Raijink]

View attachment 5375133

Where is this image from? Can't find in the gallery

When Headmaster fucks Sally in shower for first time(Thursday after sports event when you pass the rule that both genders can punish the girls)

 

[jvbatman]

When Headmaster fucks Sally in shower for first time(Thursday after sports event when you pass the rule that both genders can punish the girls)

Good job answering a question that was asked more than 2 weeks ago and already answered in the post after it.

 

[marcodelamoret]

​

 

[shadowfang22]

well good news v. 0.17 bata will be relast on the 12th of december , main version the 19th and the public the 16th. now if this page is like the others I've been to I hope to see the patreon version on the 19th

 

[karlosos]

The headmaster has been going for six years now. I think the Dev has proved that we can rely on continual updates, even if they take time for him to do. They are always quality updates, and that makes them worth waiting for. There are also plenty of characters to focus on, so plenty of more updates and story lines are possible if the Dev so desires.

 

[shadowfang22]

it is a intresting story that's for sure

 

[idkWHYimHERE52]

How to go to the rehearsal, when I go to the gym at wednesday afternoon the only options are either football or swimming.

 

[shadowfang22]

How to go to the rehearsal, when I go to the gym at wednesday afternoon the only options are either football or swimming.

u got to go in the evning on wendsday to see the rehersal

 

[Xantoser]

Sorry for late answer.

The alternative are little strokers with 1 - 2 LIs, which I'm absolutely not interested in.

Trust me, I also don’t like shallow porn games with paper-thin writing - that’s 99% of what’s out there. But what you’re presenting is a false dilemma. There’s a huge middle ground between low-effort fap content and trying to write a dozen fully developed storylines at the same time.

And unfortunately developing games with more people doesn’t automatically make development faster or better in a linear way. Once you have a team, coordination becomes a major factor. Progress often scales less efficiently and not every of your employees works as enthusiastically on this project as the person who imagined it.

According to your logic, the fewer people work on a game, the better it is, because there’s less coordination required. So the ideal situation would be one developer per game? Someone should tell all those studios spending millions on teams that they could just hire one guy instead.
You’re right that at a certain scale adding more people stops being efficient because some tasks can’t be parallelized and coordination becomes a bottleneck (coordination overhead), but Headmaster is nowhere near that point. This project is light-years away from the scale where “too many people” becomes a real problem.

I'm playing and supporting this game, because there is a developer with a big vision, who has proven, that he is able to realize something good and complex over 6 years and I'm confident, that he will be able to bring this to an end.

But, this confidence is based on what? Some time ago I posted my calculations:
https://f95zone.to/threads/the-headmaster-mykocks-manor-ch-3-altos-and-herdone.23470/post-16612431
Do you know anything that could counter them?

I 1000% agree with this... just like a favorite TV show (or comic book). A group of 'episodes' can be collected into a 'season', but the show can go on for season after season, ideally never reaching an end (one piece, anyone? lol)

This is a completely different topic. In short: I don’t agree that unfinished on-going stories can be better than completed ones. But even if we accept your season-based perspective: in a true TV show, each season delivers closed arcs or at least mini-climaxes that give a sense of progress. Headmaster doesn’t provide that: most character arcs carry on without any closure (except Rachel's, and maybe Sally/Potts?), and single girls updates are so infrequent that there’s no comparable rhythm or narrative satisfaction. Even Chapter 1, which ends with the Headmaster gaining the right to spank the girls, doesn’t give any of the individual character arcs a mini-closure, so the fundamental problem remains.

 

[c3p0]

You’re right that at a certain scale adding more people stops being efficient because some tasks can’t be parallelized and coordination becomes a bottleneck (coordination overhead), but Headmaster is nowhere near that point. This project is light-years away from the scale where “too many people” becomes a real problem.

And you're wrong. It depends a lot of the skill sets of the people. In the AVN world a lot of the devs come without a proper background in level design, programming, character design, project management, financial planning, communication, ..., and may often only excel in one or perhaps two of all those skills.

So, for a person who does not have any idea of project management, doing this may be more hassle than its worth. And even with skilled project manager some project doesn't work out as they were intended.

 

[Xantoser]

And you're wrong. It depends a lot of the skill sets of the people. In the AVN world a lot of the devs come without a proper background in level design, programming, character design, project management, financial planning, communication, ..., and may often only excel in one or perhaps two of all those skills.

So, for a person who does not have any idea of project management, doing this may be more hassle than its worth. And even with skilled project manager some project doesn't work out as they were intended.

It still doesn’t address the core issue. If a project is too big for one person, then pointing to low budgets or lack of experienced AVN devs doesn’t magically make it doable. In any field, the size of the project has to match the available resources, not the other way around. And if someone lacks project-management or production skills, the rational solution isn’t "do everything alone", but to bring in support for the missing competencies (yes, they could hire a PM, just like a chef running their own restaurant can hire a manager, or an artist hires a producer, a writer hires an editor).

Adding several people doesn’t create "coordination chaos". It simply makes the workload realistic. If the project can’t be scaled down or supported even in that minimal way, then the project is fundamentally misscoped, that’s all.

 

[c3p0]

It still doesn’t address the core issue. If a project is too big for one person, then pointing to low budgets or lack of experienced AVN devs doesn’t magically make it doable. In any field, the size of the project has to match the available resources, not the other way around. And if someone lacks project-management or production skills, the rational solution isn’t "do everything alone", but to bring in support for the missing competencies (yes, they could hire a PM, just like a chef running their own restaurant can hire a manager, or an artist hires a producer, a writer hires an editor).

Adding several people doesn’t create "coordination chaos". It simply makes the workload realistic. If the project can’t be scaled down or supported even in that minimal way, then the project is fundamentally misscoped, that’s all.

Yes, in the business "professional" world. Still, a company that make steel bolts wouldn't take up a project for requesting for an advertising campaign, cause they have time.
Ideally the project need to fit the skills of your work force.

For a PM, as your suggestion and as we assume they are bad at it, they should hire one. So, 10k for a PM, 7k for another worker (one PM for two hobby dev make no sense), makes 17k per month. Were shall they have that kind of money? I only see an estimated earning of 20k per month.
The resources spent on a project clearly should not be higher than the recourse earned with the same project.
And that make most of those project semi hobby ones or part-time, cause, depending on where you live, you very often have not the budget to hire anyone you wish, even if it is only yourself.
As well as, at some point, you need to found a company and that also cost money...

/E: better reading/wording and last sentence.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

Sorry for late answer.
According to your logic, the fewer people work on a game, the better it is, because there’s less coordination required. So the ideal situation would be one developer per game? Someone should tell all those studios spending millions on teams that they could just hire one guy instead.
You’re right that at a certain scale adding more people stops being efficient because some tasks can’t be parallelized and coordination becomes a bottleneck (coordination overhead), but Headmaster is nowhere near that point. This project is light-years away from the scale where “too many people” becomes a real problem.

I just used that example to show, that increasing the amount of people working at a game doesn't necessarily lead to a much higher outcome. But the main problem is not that a higher amount of people working on the game may or may not lower the production time for an update in a significant way. It's as also c3p0 has stated the low funding for lewd games. And especially in small scale businesses, where people have low funding, they run into high financial risks with hiring more people.
Therefore, if I were forced to take action as a developer at this point in time, it would be rather to find a way to increase funding so that I could take the risk of hiring more people than to actually hire more people.
A big company producing AAA games can take those risks. They have a huge financial base and even can afford to produce multiple games for many years and if one of them is not to their liking, as you stated yourself, they can afford to just put it into the trash bin without ever having earned a cent with it. But they do this, as they have a high chance, that with all the failures they produce, there is that one overachiever game, that will be able to refinance the failures of all the others. But if a small dev like Altos tries and fails, there is no plan B.

But, this confidence is based on what? Some time ago I posted my calculations:
https://f95zone.to/threads/the-headmaster-mykocks-manor-ch-3-altos-and-herdone.23470/post-16612431
Do you know anything that could counter them?

I actually don't mind the time it may take, as long as there are constant signs of progress and the quality of the (visual) story telling keeps to be as strong as it is. But I must say, that I don't see the game mainly in a game-development tradition but rather in a story-telling tradition. And in this realm, a TV-Show like the Simpsons exists with almost the same graphics since more than 35 years.

Regarding AI:
Probably, it will help create games in the future and it already does to some amount, but this doesn't mean, that Altos won't use it himself. It's definitely more cost-efficient and thus less risky to try it than hiring more people in a small-scale business.

 

[Xantoser]

c3p0 Let's agree we won't agree.
In short you are thinking: "If I don't have money for make AAA game then I will do it myself". Am I correct?

Yes, in the business "professional" world. Still, as a company that may make steel bolts wouldn't take up a project for requesting for an advertising campaign, cause they have time.
Ideally the project need to fit the skills of your work force.

A steel-bolt company wouldn’t take on an ad campaign, but they also wouldn’t pretend they can deliver one just because they’re short-staffed. They’d adjust the project to their actual capabilities.

For a PM, so you suggesting, as we assume they are bad at it, they should hire one. So, 10k for a PM, 7k for another worker, makes 17k per month. Were shall they have that kind of money? I only see an estimated earning of 20k per month.

Nobody is talking about hiring a full-time PM or writer for 10k a month. small indie projects use part-time support or only a few hours of consulting. The costs you’re quoting apply to corporate full-time roles, not to how indie teams actually operate. It's completely different league

And that make most of those project semi hobby ones or part-time, cause, depending on where you live, you very often have not the budget to hire anyone you wish, even if it is only yourself.

Yes. And hobby-sized resources should lead to hobby-sized scope.
The problem is that many AVN devs attempt studio scale projects with hobby-scale budgets, and then justify doing everything alone with "teams are too expensive"

I just used that example to show, that increasing the amount of people working at a game doesn't necessarily lead to a much higher outcome. But the main problem is not that a higher amount of people working on the game may or may not lower the production time for an update in a significant way. It's as also c3p0 has stated the low funding for lewd games. And especially in small scale businesses, where people have low funding, they run into high financial risks with hiring more people.
Therefore, if I were forced to take action as a developer at this point in time, it would be rather to find a way to increase funding so that I could take the risk of hiring more people than to actually hire more people.

Yes, it’s true that increasing the number of people don’t automatically reduce production time if resources are poorly allocated. But doing nothing certainly won’t speed things up either. I understand that someone might not want to take risks, which is why development is best approached in small steps rather than putting everything on one card. When players see consistent progress, they are more willing to support, which in turn allows the developer to gradually bring in additional help. I would even consider returning to support if update cycles returned to around six months thinking: "Damn, dude clearly focused on growing the team and funding, so maybe it will work out and I will see chapter 4 one day with big orgy". Unfortunately it’s the opposite in this case: I started supporting in 2020, the Patreon count grew significantly, yet the update pace slowed (then I quit). Yes, I know, quality matters, but additional resources should be balanced between improving quality and shortening production time.

I think no one here is going to convince anyone else, so this will be my last post on this topic (at least for a while ). I still believe Altos is doing a great job, unlike 95% of porn game writers he tries to maintain realism and build tension, which is excellent. That’s quite rare. I just think he’s a bit lost when it comes to looking at the project as a whole.

Regarding AI:
Probably, it will help create games in the future and it already does to some amount, but this doesn't mean, that Altos won't use it himself. It's definitely more cost-efficient and thus less risky to try it than hiring more people in a small-scale business.

Well, we'll see what what future bring. I'm curious myself.

 

[Perniciousducks]

I think no one here is going to convince anyone else, so this will be my last post on this topic

Thank fucking Christ.

(at least for a while )

God fucking dammit.