VN Ren'Py The Neverwhere Tales [v0.6.0.2] [Ceolag]

4.30 star(s) 69 Votes

Pixillin'

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Oct 8, 2024
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Exactly what I thought when reading this topic hahaha. Why they play games still in development? :LOL:

I can count on the fingers of my hand (and not a full hand for sure) games with a good story like this one that deliver an update with gaps of less than 3 months with a solo developer, and the ones that do they really don't put much effort on visuals or they have teams developing it and can share tasks. Most of the games with high quality on visuals are always gaps between 6-12 months, it also depends on the amount of content per update, the visual software used (and their experience with it) and if they have animations or not and the number of people working on it and if they do it full time or partial time plus having a main job. Can count also on the fingers of my hand AVN developers that really can make a living doing this hahaha.
If I'm really that lost on a story, it's kinda good because it means I can play it again - and skip the parts I do remember and/or wasn't interested in. I mean, I must have liked it the first time or I wouldn't have added it to the list right? And with this one the emotional impact is still there - at least the betrayal by his family and the murder of Finn. I agree that the ones that rapidly crank out updates are usually lacking in some capacity - or the updates are super short. There are some I play where, depending on the path you've taken, a new update might contain absolutely nothing for you. It's always a bit anticlimactic when you download, extract launch and there isn't a single new render for your game/path.
 

QQP_Purple

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Dec 11, 2020
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You have a magical ability to experience this game for the first time, pretty much every time. me jelly....
On the contrary. I remember just enough for everything to be spoiled. So I can't start from scratch because of the spoiler and I can't continue because the feeling is gone.

And at the end of the day you all can say what you want. Ultimately it is a matter of personal preference and taste. For some people it's not an issue, but for a lot of us it is. That's just how things go in this wide and diverse world of human experience.

Be that as it may, I will point out one thing. Tou can't ignore the fact that for a lot of us and our wallets long update times like this are a dealbreaker. Enough so that I would wager a lot of developers who can't live off their work can't precisely because enough of us are not willing to put down the money on something that's too slow.

It's no coincidence that while the only people who can consistently produce quality updates on a good schedule are those that make it their full time job to do so they also happen to be the only ones that can actually afford to go pro because they get enough money back for their work. And that games with extremely long update times tend to be hobby projects by people who will just newer earn enough to go pro. And that they have a higher than average burnout and abandonment rate as well. It's a self feeding loop fed by us, the very silent majority who quietly vote with our wallets rather than getting into arguments over things we can't effect.
 
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pitao

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May 18, 2023
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And at the end of the day you all can say what you want. Ultimately it is a matter of personal preference and taste. But you can't ignore the fact that for a lot of us and our wallets long update times like this are a dealbreaker. Enough so that I would wager a lot of developers can't live off their work precisely because enough of us are not willing to put down the money on something that's too slow.
You really have no choice, this is a niche market of indy developers so it won't give large profits for most, they are only more accessible because of sites like this but then the percentage of people that really buy them or support the development are very low, but in the other hand if wasn't sites like this most people wouldn't be aware of this games so this is still the best promotion they can get and to get the few ones that are willing to put money on it or buy them on platforms like steam.

It is a vicious cycle that what mostly it does is filter the good ones from the mediocre and even so it will never sustain all the good ones because many will burnout with the pressure of delivering in a timely fashion. Be glad to be able to access this games for free if you not willing to put money on it, even if they take long to finish or get abandoned or even milking their (never enough for most) supporters :p.
 

QQP_Purple

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You really have no choice, this is a niche market of indy developers so it won't give large profits for most, they are only more accessible because of sites like this but then the percentage of people that really buy them or support the development are very low, but in the other hand if wasn't sites like this most people wouldn't be aware of this games so this is still the best promotion they can get and to get the few ones that are willing to put money on it or buy them on platforms like steam.

It is a vicious cycle that what mostly it does is filter the good ones from the mediocre and even so it will never sustain all the good ones because many will burnout with the pressure of delivering in a timely fashion. Be glad to be able to access this games for free if you not willing to put money on it, even if they take long to finish or get abandoned or even milking their (never enough for most) supporters :p.
No argument there. It's the same as in the world of modding where I've been living for decades now. You do what you want and if you are good enough and dedicated enough things will get done, the people will come and your name might just get remembered in a tiny niche of the internet for a short while. But really, that's all you can reasonably hope for if you are doing it as a hobby. And for every hobby mod that goes places there are ten or even a hundred others that started off great but floundered along the way and vanished into the mists of time. It's just the nature of the beast, just like with these games.

Bottom line is that, as with everything else in life, if you want to actually earn day job levels of money off something you are working on you have to make it your day job. Otherwise you will at most get pocket change out of it. Or you can be a hardcore grognard like my self and just refuse to even entertain the idea of donations for my mods. But that's beside the point.

Really, though I don't understand why some people here got so emotional over this discussion. Live or die, finish or get abandoned, this is just a game. The fact that I once found it compelling but was since forced to drop it is frankly not a huge deal for me at all. So I am confused as to why so many people would get angry at me for stating the fact.
 
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Wolfram99

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It's no coincidence that while the only people who can consistently produce quality updates on a good schedule are those that make it their full time job to do so they also happen to be the only ones that can actually afford to do it because they get enough money back for their work.
So far the update has been delayed ~1.5months due to IRL stuff, there have been a few weeks of ~no progress here and there.
The render rate is is lower than other games of this caliber, but still pretty good compared to others who pump out maybe 400 renders in a year, with no information on how it's going.
For Ch. 4 the average static render count per month: 284 (1.6k at 169 days)
For Ch. 5:303(2.4k at 237days)
For Ch. 6: 284(2.6k at 274 days)
Artemis Ch. 6: 272(4.7k at 518 days)
Artemis Ch. 5: 393(5k at 381 days)
Unbroken Pt 7: 431(4.2k at 292 days)
 

Pixillin'

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Oct 8, 2024
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You really have no choice, this is a niche market of indy developers so it won't give large profits for most, they are only more accessible because of sites like this but then the percentage of people that really buy them or support the development are very low, but in the other hand if wasn't sites like this most people wouldn't be aware of this games so this is still the best promotion they can get and to get the few ones that are willing to put money on it or buy them on platforms like steam.

It is a vicious cycle that what mostly it does is filter the good ones from the mediocre and even so it will never sustain all the good ones because many will burnout with the pressure of delivering in a timely fashion. Be glad to be able to access this games for free if you not willing to put money on it, even if they take long to finish or get abandoned or even milking their (never enough for most) supporters :p.
Most of the people accused of "milking" aren't - they at least keep their supporters informed about where they're at, what's going on and roughly how long it's going to take. They're just not as concerned about keeping people on a pirate site informed ... for some strange reason. Then they get accused of milking by people who aren't giving them any money. If the people giving them money feel like they're milking, they tend to cut off the milk pretty quickly.
 

QQP_Purple

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Most of the people accused of "milking" aren't - they at least keep their supporters informed about where they're at, what's going on and roughly how long it's going to take. They're just not as concerned about keeping people on a pirate site informed ... for some strange reason. Then they get accused of milking by people who aren't giving them any money. If the people giving them money feel like they're milking, they tend to cut off the milk pretty quickly.
I actually agree with that. It's very rare that a developer actually genuinely deliberately paces their projects slowly just for the purposes of milking the audience.

Most of the projects that look like they are milking their fans are actually just badly managed. The dev gets in way too deep over his head either because he has way too grand designs from the start that he can't reasonably implement within his time, budget and skill level or because he allows the game to feature creep by adding every new shiny character, mechanic and plot idea that comes to mind (or the suggestion box) until the whole thing bogs down like your average corporate project. And being a full time software engineer for decades now, I've seen quite enough of those to recognize the rot by scent.

Mind you, from my assessment this game has no such issues. It's just slow.
 

Knightcvel

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Jan 13, 2019
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it's been so long that i forgot all about the story....damn can't belive there are devs that take 1 year tor elease an update...and some devs are like swiss clock and release monthly...bah...
There are some devs like Love Joint who are professional of some sorts with several others working for them. They release for the market and earn money with it. But others are just fans like us, not even indies, and they struggle with other jobs.
 

ename144

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Sep 20, 2018
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The sword works on hate and anger. Nightingale has neither towards the MC therefore, just like initially with Finn, the sword is useless to him and he relies solely on the skills he very much lacks (to back up RNasc4444 as you are all correct to play devil's advocate).

If he tries to rile up Nightingale or piss her off, I can't see it working, she far too canny, experienced and level-headed (compared to a brash Finn) to fall for any trick like that....so therefore the sword is just an ordinary sword in the hands of the MC against her, someone else who has far, far, far more experience, skills and swordsmanship than our dim protaganist.
The MC is sparring Nightingale with bare fists, so I doubt Durandel would have any effect even if he could rile her up. The MC is on his own here.

To be fair, it's not entirely clear just how skilled Nightingale is at fisticuffs relative to the MC. She seems to be more of a gunslinger, and the MC may have had some rudimentary martial arts training in the past. It's possible Nightingale is bluffing and accepted the wager not because she is confident in her victory, but simply because the cost of losing is practically nil.

Still, if I had to guess I'd say she's got a significant edge over the MC, even with the time he spent soaking up the Kaivar in Alfheimr. Guns or no, she's been in far more fights than he has and that usually trumps mere training.
 

Knightcvel

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Most of the people accused of "milking" aren't - they at least keep their supporters informed about where they're at, what's going on and roughly how long it's going to take. They're just not as concerned about keeping people on a pirate site informed ... for some strange reason. Then they get accused of milking by people who aren't giving them any money. If the people giving them money feel like they're milking, they tend to cut off the milk pretty quickly.
I supported games that after a while were abandoned without further notice. The developers simply disapeared. So there is devs who are irresponsible and that's the reason I won't start playing a game in the first release. Just after a few solid releases that I will invest time on it. This one I started only when chapter five was out and I bought it on Steam in a bundle with other Urban Fantasy games because of another game and I started playing it as a secundary interest. I think a release there increases the chances of the game having a full development cycle as it shows the dev is more commited.
 

Knightcvel

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Jan 13, 2019
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The MC is sparring Nightingale with bare fists, so I doubt Durandel would have any effect even if he could rile her up. The MC is on his own here.

To be fair, it's not entirely clear just how skilled Nightingale is at fisticuffs relative to the MC. She seems to be more of a gunslinger, and the MC may have had some rudimentary martial arts training in the past. It's possible Nightingale is bluffing and accepted the wager not because she is confident in her victory, but simply because the cost of losing is practically nil.

Still, if I had to guess I'd say she's got a significant edge over the MC, even with the time he spent soaking up the Kaivar in Alfheimr. Guns or no, she's been in far more fights than he has and that usually trumps mere training.
She remarked that she would be afraid of challenging Kaija, but she has no respect for MC skills, at least, didn't have until she saw him fighting against the demons and Finn. But MC has skills that are independent of the sword as resistance to mind control, spot magic, resistance to magic among a few others yet to be revealed.
 

Grumpy Old Aussie

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I often do. But if I only restricted my self to games that are completed I'd end up with a very small pool indeed. So I have to gamble and hope that the game I pick has a reasonable update schedule of say once every couple months instead of once a year or something pointless like that.
Just out of interest, would you prefer faster updates with lower quality visuals or slow updates with better visuals?
 
4.30 star(s) 69 Votes