Unreal Engine Abandoned Together BnB [8318119] [Aurora Games]

[parakep]

You seem to misunderstand something here, you are not buying anything. You are supporting something. That has no guarantees, to expect something other than what the devs themselves decide is idiotic. But gamers are not known for being smart nor know how finance or making games works. You may not like it, but you are not owed a full game if it's out in EA, assuming the reason they "left" is legit like death, bankruptcy, or anything else that would render making the game not feasible. You only buy games when they are fully out.

The only thing that could be done is to file a lawsuit, and hope that when it comes to court they actually ran with the money. Because if they even have an ounce of evidence that they are working on the game the suit would lose and nothing more than a low-ranking news outlet would care, oh and the reviews would fume over the loss over on Steam.

When you pay for any game out in EA, you are supporting a game, in hopes that money can one day make the game enter 1.0. You are not buying a game and are guaranteed a full game, shit happens and they can go bankrupt or die. But gamers think "if I see a price tag, I own it and that comes with guarantees." The only thing I think people who pay early deserve is to get status updates, ideally monthly or bi-monthly, but that are no real set rules for it. So I agree with everyone who wants more news updates and more clear language from their updates in the news section.

But let them make the game, it's better with longer dates between updates than smaller ones. I always do not touch games for multiple jumps in updates if they do that monthly or bi-monthly cycle. It just adds nothing of value, takes at least 4 months for the games that work fast to get a decent jump, but for most, especially the 3D games scene, 1-2 years.
I never "buy" an EA game unless I either: Trust the devs to deliver, I just wanna support them, or I think the product is already good enough to buy and any further update would be more like 1.1 for me rather than 0.6.

Ultimately gamer's feelings do not matter, what you are owed and what you want do not match 99% of the time. But gamers never grow up, and throw a fit when games do not give them micro doses every month. Pateron has poisoned the minds of gamers that a monthly update schedule is ideal or even good. The update schedule should be "when it's ready".

All this time you thought Steam is some kind of charity? What part of "steam purchase" is a tough concept for you to fathom?

 

[mrdonkyman]

All this time you thought Steam is some kind of charity? What part of "steam purchase" is a tough concept for you to fathom?

what part of early access can't you fathom? You do not buy an EA game, but support it. If you do not like that idea, do not pay for it.

Edit: all EA games, be it Steam, Pateron, or some kind of crowdfunding come with warnings that your purchases may not be fully completed if X or Y happens. And not a single one of them has rules for how often they have to update a game.

 

[parakep]

what part of early access can't you fathom? You do not buy an EA game, but support it. If you do not like that idea, do not pay for it.

Edit: all EA games, be it Steam, Pateron, or some kind of crowdfunding come with warnings that your purchases may not be fully completed if X or Y happens. And not a single one of them has rules for how often they have to update a game.

Nobody cares it's EA if you pay for it you buy it, if you buy it you have expectations. If it won't deliver you feel ripped off. Are you that daft?

EDIT: That being said it's pretty retarded to buy early access.

 

[mrdonkyman]

Nobody cares it's EA if you pay for it you buy it, if you buy it you have expectations. If it won't deliver you feel ripped off.

and that's the problem, they are idiots for buying it and placing expectations that will not be met and then being angry when the devs do not meet their made-up expectations. If it was said in the update/news post that X will come at Y then be angry when it fails. But to say I expect X and if you do not deliver, you are awful, when the devs have not stated they will even remotely try to do what they want. It's pretty stupid of the EA buyer, they are the idiots here.

When I pay for an EA, if I even do so, all I expect is that they work on the game. Nothing else, absolutely nothing else. That's their job now, to work on the game I gave them money to work on, not to give me updates when I see fit. It was, and should never be part of the deal.

 

[parakep]

and that's the problem, they are idiots for buying it and placing expectations that will not be met and then being angry when the devs do not meet their made-up expectations. If it was said in the update/news post that X will come at Y then be angry when it fails. But to say I expect X and if you do not deliver, you are awful, when the devs have not stated they will even remotely try to do what they want. It's pretty stupid of the EA buyer, they are the idiots here.

When I pay for an EA, if I even do so, all I expect is that they work on the game. Nothing else, absolutely nothing else. That's their job now, to work on the game I gave them money to work on, not to give me updates when I see fit. It was, and should never be part of the deal.

Wrong. EA is a scam but telling you from the start there is a possibility you might get scammed doesn't absolve the devs of guilt. And people are right to expect they fulfill their promise. Early "access implies" there will be a "late access" or full release eventually, or else they would call it "Dev builds" or "proof of concept" or demo. If there is an license agreement saying you might get nothing even after paying money that clearly is a one-sided agreement and the law say they are not legal but good luck suing steam. Point is stop asking people to stfu and take it cause everyone has the right to whine on the internet.

 

[mrdonkyman]

Wrong. EA is a scam but telling you from the start there is a possibility you might get scammed doesn't absolve the devs of guilt. And people are right to expect they fulfill their promise. Early "access implies" there will be a "late access" or full release eventually, or else they would call it "Dev builds" or "proof of concept" or demo. If there is an license agreement saying you might get nothing even after paying money that clearly is a one-sided agreement and the law say they are not legal but good luck suing steam. Point is stop asking people to stfu and take it cause everyone has the right to whine on the internet.

nowhere in the quoted message did I talk about that, maybe go back to previous ones and it could have fit better.

But wrong yourself, marketing terms hold very little legal footing, what matters is what is being promised. In the case of any crowd-sourced game, especially ones on monthly sites like Patreon, you are not always promised a game. You are given the right to use their unfinished game and help them develop it. If they drop it, die, or do not have enough money to continue they are not required to give you a game nor pay you back.

here is steams warning for EA games

This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development.

key word here is "may or may not change further" as the only way to get money back would be via a lawsuit that somehow proved they ran and took the money while still having money.

For places like Kickstarter, you can sue them like with steam, but only if they ran with the money. If they go bankrupt you have no way to get any money, as there is no money. That is an inherent risk of using any crowd-funded product. This is also written in those types of sites, depending on the team they might have overestimated themself and run out of cash, and if they file for bankruptcy then you are shit out of luck.

And my whole point from all my posts is: Stop asking any dev, these ones are just the topic at hand. For X update schedule, let them make the games and play updates when they come. If a dev team does too few news runs, like these devs. Go ahead and complain about that. But stop acting entitled to playable builds. Since most that complain about lack of builds usually also complain when a build is more frequently put out, about lack of content in each build. It's hate if it's too long between updates, but also if there are too many updates. Gamers are always angry.

 

[Game Lord]

The entire point your responses keep lacking is, first of all, we are talking Steam here, which even if selling an Early Access game here, which we all understand clear as day, thank you Einstein, that what you are paying for may be all you ever get. The problem is, the Devs started releasing updates after the game's initial release with sporadic updates soon afterwards. Not years later. So the expectation has been set at that point that they will continue to do so going forward. It's not as if their communication and update releases were a year apart all along from the get go. Now before you repeat yourself ad hominem with the whole "expectations" business again, use some friggen common sense for once in your life here. When the Developer sets a precedent here with how they are working on the project, you don't expect them to all of a sudden do a 180 and completely flip flop how future content is being released.

Top that off with the asinine excuse so many of their supporters use that the Dev got burned early on for making deliverable dates they were not delivering on and faced harsh kickback for this, I've no problem with that. Release what you can as it is completed whenever that may be but all of a sudden we continue to receive this is the state of the project with screenshots with nary an update when they could very well be releasing it as updates.

Add to that that they continue to add to the scope of the project each time instead of fixing and releasing anything that was previously broken before and people are right to question that this studio has probably bitten off more than it could chew, and rightly so.

 

[mrdonkyman]

Edit:

The entire point your responses keep lacking is, first of all, we are talking Steam here, which even if selling an Early Access game here, which we all understand clear as day, thank you Einstein, that what you are paying for may be all you ever get.

The other person talked about legal stuff, and I responded that they were wrong and words like "Early access" hold no base in court. The fine print does, this is especially true if it warns you one or more times before purchasing something that you may not receive the thing if certain unfortunate situations happen. So the whole thing you are responding to here was about a legal argument outside of the discussion we were having before that point. Not whenever I excuse the devs for abandoning a game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The problem is, the Devs started releasing updates after the game's initial release with sporadic updates soon afterwards. Not years later.

No, they made one small update first, which took 8 whole months. Then they did one more which took an entire year and then some. Finally, the R18 update which was the last major update that is not a small bug fix took 1.5 years to get out. It was also the first one that majorly added content and not something small like cooking or hunting. So right from the first update they have always been ungodly slow to update their game. If we believe that they actually have worked on the game and the screenshots are not scams. Then it's actually a wonder they are expecting it to be done before the year ends. So if we ignore the first update which was the smallest and the fastest at 8 months, every update has taken more than a year.

When the Developer sets a precedent here with how they are working on the project, you don't expect them to all of a sudden do a 180 and completely flip flop how future content is being released.

the only thing they have "flip floped" on is how often they update their news, it started off being once every few months but then after they got a lot of complaints (no clue if this was why they stopped, but it happened after it so I can only assume it wore on them mentally) from missing the dates on update 0.3 they turned to once a year for some reason. Most of their date promises were behind Pateron, and that was mostly just videos of the R18 content with a "we want to aim for august" etc (which you can find here or on kemono) but then failed on repeat. So not sure why people were so angry over on Steam. I think there was one or two post on steam that mentioned a date, but most of them were on Pateron.
Not to mention we have no clue how often they are working on it, is it a side job where they spend 20-50% or is it 100% 40h work weeks? Do they crunch? How have they decreased or increased this time over the years.

Add to that that they continue to add to the scope of the project each time instead of fixing and releasing anything that was previously broken before and people are right to question that this studio has probably bitten off more than it could chew, and rightly so.

agree that this was stupid of them to do.

And I will make this more clear, the updates I have been talking about are playable updates, not the news ones we just got. I agree that they need to communicate more and write at least 4 updates per year. I consider it to be the bare minimum to inform your customers, ideally monthly or bi-monthly updates that cover what is being worked on, hell if it's something that can be streamed, do it on Twitch. Those that don't care will only check in to see if the project is alive while the super fans will check every news update.
Playable updates need to come when the devs think they make sense to give a sense of "enough" to do, or maybe have a beta branch since Steam allows this and put it so that small features can be added into a small copy of the game where you can test new gun handling or other things that could be added. But besides that, the only thing I think the devs need to change is how often they post news.

 

[Klauw1988]

There is much text to read in this topic, but I haven't read everything yet. But one thing I found very interesting, early accesss.

Early Access is nothing else as a collective name for pre-alpha's, alpha's, pre-beta's and beta's. (Pre) alpha's and (pre) beta's don't sell. That's why Early Access comes in to place, it's nothing else as a marketname.

Same with Indie games. Indie doesn't mean nothing else then independent. Only games without publishers are true indie games, no matter the scale, budget or how many people worked on the game.

It's funny how companies changes the definition of words for their own marketing and profit. Early Access is just a collective name for (pre) alpha's and (pre) beta's. You just buy a unfinished game, it's not even technically early access, because many early access games still lack in content and features.

Same with alpha's and beta's, those two words are also misunderstood.

Alpha's is a state of a software that's still actively in development. Content and features are missing or can be changed later on.

Beta's is a state of a software that's finished and all the content and features have been added. But it's unpolished, which contains many technically issue's, bugs and errors. I see many companies already calling a game beta, while technically it's still a alpha.

Early access comes in to place, to push people that hesitate in buying alpha's and beta's. Not only does early access need to show a disclaimer that you buy a unfinished product (which Valve did really well). But we also need to see how far the development is like Alpha or Beta state (see my text above) and or how many updates per year the game gets and above all, how active the developer is on the front page!

And this should also be actively checked by Valve employees and see if the developer also delivers what they have promised and not just go off-radar or don't deliver anything they have promised. If they do, they will be deleted from Steam store.

I also think that Valve allows to many early access games to fast on their platform. I do understand that developers need to generate a income, but this system is just easy to abuse. Which can give developers who doesn't misuse this concept a bad reputation aswell.

I mean, look at Baldur's Gate 3? Why did it become so successful after full release, why didn't thousands of players bought it before the release? I mean, you already could play most of the content like two years before 1.0 release. It completely blew up the gaming industrie, with even developers panicking and saying that Larian Studio is destroying the gaming industrie, because people believe that Baldur's Gate 3 should be the new standard in gaming.

Why wasn't Baldur's Gate 3 so massively populair before 1.0? While it still gave the same content. Ah wait, because people might see that early access is being abused. That's why they are now even hesitating to support developers who does not abuse the system.

 

[mrdonkyman]

Early access comes in to place, to push people that hesitate in buying alpha's and beta's. Not only does early access need to show a disclaimer that you buy a unfinished product (which Valve did really well). But we also need to see how far the development is like Alpha or Beta state (see my text above) and or how many updates per year the game gets and above all, how active the developer is on the front page!

in theory, this would be great but in practice a nightmare or an impossibility even. With how many games gets added to be EA it would need 100s if not 1000s of people whole jobs are to check this. Unless it could be automated, would never really be a viable thing sadly. But if it could, I agree it would be a good idea.

Early Access is nothing else as a collective name for pre-alpha's, alpha's, pre-beta's and beta's. (Pre) alpha's and (pre) beta's don't sell. That's why Early Access comes in to place, it's nothing else as a marketname.

this is why I wrote earlier that marketing terms hold no legal ground, only the fine print does. If a term is super easy to misunderstand or not that easy to understand the intent behind the owner's thoughts. Then it could be used in a legal setting, but so long people have a pretty good grasp of the true meaning behind a word or the lawyers can convince the judge, it becomes easy to fall on the side of a win for the devs. And due to the meaning of the word "early access" it's easy to know that the meaning behind it is "you get early access to our games alpha/beta build to help us make the game better before it's fully out" that is the pitch early access has. But it has less of the negatives the alpha and beta people view harshly. But due to the same reasons people dislike those words, now EA is starting to have a bad rep too. Soon a new buzzword needs to be made.

I mean, look at Baldur's Gate 3? Why did it become so successful after full release, why didn't thousands of players bought it before the release? I mean, you already could play most of the content like two years before 1.0 release. It completely blew up the gaming industrie, with even developers panicking and saying that Larian Studio is destroying the gaming industrie, because people believe that Baldur's Gate 3 should be the new standard in gaming.

ehh, at best the EA had 20% of the content the full game had. And even then, some of the stuff in EA was scrapped and changed when the full game came out (I mean the final EA build that you could play days/hours before the full game came out)

Why wasn't Baldur's Gate 3 so massively populair before 1.0? While it still gave the same content. Ah wait, because people might see that early access is being abused. That's why they are now even hesitating to support developers who does not abuse the system.

people who were not really fans of Larian most likely thought like that, but those who have played their past games or past Baldur's gates mostly did not get it or played it due to not wanting to spoil themself. There were a bunch of post on reddit about how they can't wait for the full game and they were tempted to buy the EA but did not want to spoil the game, even if it was just the tutorial section.

 

[Game Lord]

Edit:
No, they made one small update first, which took 8 whole months. Then they did one more which took an entire year and then some. Finally, the R18 update which was the last major update that is not a small bug fix took 1.5 years to get out. It was also the first one that majorly added content and not something small like cooking or hunting. So right from the first update they have always been ungodly slow to update their game. If we believe that they actually have worked on the game and the screenshots are not scams. Then it's actually a wonder they are expecting it to be done before the year ends. So if we ignore the first update which was the smallest and the fastest at 8 months, every update has taken more than a year.

Wrong. You think you know what you are talking about here but you really don't.

They put out FOUR updates within the first month of the game's release.

This can be verified on SteamDB for the game.

This is what I was referring to when I previously stated they were putting out updates from Day 1.

You appear to have this preconception these lengthy paragraphs you respond with are nothing but facts but they're not.

 

[mrdonkyman]

Wrong. You think you know what you are talking about here but you really don't.

They put out FOUR updates within the first month of the game's release.

This can be verified on SteamDB for the game.

This is what I was referring to when I previously stated they were putting out updates from Day 1.

You appear to have this preconception these lengthy paragraphs you respond with are nothing but facts but they're not.

you count small bug fixes updates? I view those as patches.

Let me open Steam and Pateron to check the dates instead of going off memory alone.
The first playble build they had was on Pateron in 2020 maybe even before that, as they have deleted posts on Patreon before and I was not here before the 02 update. (not many played it tho as they have never had many subs on Patreon) Not sure when the build was up for grabs in Patreon but a year to a few months later they put out the game on Steam with patches shortly following and then the 02 update.
Around this time this site added the game for us to download. Then in Feb of 2022, they put out the R18 update/03. I will admit that my memory betrayed me and it was not 18 months but 10 for 03, but it was not like I was saying any exact dates for 03 but instead "about 1.5y" for 03. But still, a long time for what were just some sex scenes, story, and updates to some features they added in the 02 update.
That means from the build you could play from Pateron around 2020, to 2021 was about a year for update 01 to 02. Then 10 months for 03.

And the updates 01 and 02 gave were small too, cooking, driving, and some interactions with the characters. Meanwhile, 03, fixed bugs, and changed, and updated the already made content like making driving less cancer, (still awful) like I said before, sex, story, and more interactions. It went from patch levels of work that took a bit, to actually getting an "update" and it took 10 months to do. If anything they became faster as they added so much in 10 months versus the small updates they did early.

I have been going off memory when it came to the dates since I have been here when this thread had maybe 10 pages or less. But they have had 3 "major" updates. First was the base game, it gave us a good but buggy base. Then came fixing some bugs and adding small and minor things, but it was a lot of them. So the game had something to do, like cooking. Then 03 came and actually worked on the main gameplay. The first build you could get outside of Steam, then after the initial playtest it was moved over to Steam and no more updates were on Pateron but instead Steam.

They put out FOUR updates within the first month of the game's release.

This is what I was referring to when I previously stated they were putting out updates from Day 1.

And as I said earlier in this post, they were patches, not updates. Patches never have and never should be the same weight as a full-blown build. And even the first update (02) was small, not even having half the content 03 had. You can't look at the version number, you have to look at the quality and amount of each update. They moved away from "quick" small updates and moved to longer bigger updates with 03 and forward. But unlike most Pateron projects they decided not to milk small updates for eternity.

 

[Game Lord]

I understand your reasoning here but to me, a patch is an update because it showed the developer was working on and releasing something that the players could tangibly see in their version of the game they can play on their end of things.

That's why I wish people defending these devs would just stop doing so. From the beginning, they were releasing updates, patches, whatever you may want to call them upon its release and then stopped doing so afterwards. So it appeared they planned to do so all along one could surmise as most other Early Access game developers do with constant updates, patches, bug fixes but then completely went away from that practice/mentality.

What irks me the most, in all honesty, are those fan bois that treat these news development progress updates as if they were tangible updates for the game. It's bad enough they are only released once a year at this point but the ones swearing by them that the game isn't dead act as if they've made an update where the players holding the game can see as much themselves. It's a fucking joke. They're so desperate for this game, that just a news flash by the devs are seen as sacred scripture by them. The game's dev team has missed so many stated promised dates, the few they have provided, like anything they state really holds any weight at this point.

 

[grah0140]

Just saw the news update on Steam. Shit I thought they completely abandoned this.

It could just be a bad translation but if I'm reading the bit at the end right they are targeting a Q3 release date for the new update?

 

[FirminoisGod]

Just saw the news update on Steam. Shit I thought they completely abandoned this.

It could just be a bad translation but if I'm reading the bit at the end right they are targeting a Q3 release date for the new update?

I think it's on the Chinese/Taiwan calender, so I believe Q3 is a hopefully fall release for the Western world. Correct me if I'm wrong tho

 

[brasileirinho]

I think it's on the Chinese/Taiwan calender, so I believe Q3 is a hopefully fall release for the Western world. Correct me if I'm wrong tho

I'm going to correct you. If it's southern hemisphere in the Western world, then it's spring.

*flies away*

 

[mrdonkyman]

a patch is an update because it showed the developer was working on and releasing something that the players could tangibly see in their version of the game they can play on their end of things.

yeah, but you can only do so many patches. Patches fix small stuff, either how something feels (like gun play) or bugs like glitching through the floor. Once most of them are done you have nothing more to fix. And wasting time on them on an EA game that will put as many if not more bugs into the next update anyway, it's just burning money for no other reason than to make the consumer happy that they get the illusion of an update.
It's better to put all resources into making the game and then patch any bugs for 1.0 or 1.1. And the small upgrades like gun play can wait for a major update instead of doing a ton of micro updates for the game. Each update we get on Steam wastes time not working on the game, as they need to pack the game, go to Steam, and do the upload build thing, and anything else I am not aware of that comes before we get our hands on it. It's at least half a day's work just getting a new build out just so we can get a small bit of content that most won't even download, is it really worth that?

 

[Game Lord]

I get that and I would normally agree with it but again, look at the latest development progress update from them, now the game has a friggen train in it with NPC's that are going to have AI that reacts to our player's interaction with them. They are all over the effin place with their development of this game. They already had a few characters we could change clothes for in it's present release with a shop that had a bathing suit portion of it closed off but appeared ready to be part of a future update that the players would have been fine with but no, Aurora Games goes off the rails and instead implements a new train system.

Baby steps Aurora Games, stop trying to tackle everything at once. As someone who works on computer software projects for a living, I would say they lack a Project Manager that can keep them focused on one task at a time instead of jumping all over the place as seems to be the case here.

 

[JON786]

You must be registered to see the links

Hello everyone,

During this time, besides continuing to work on the storyline for the main characters, we have also added brand new elements to the game. Here, we would like to share our current progress with all of you.

Open World
Previously, in order to debug and improve performance, we restructured the main systems in the game. Then, we spent a lot of time in the process of upgrading to the new engine. Although it was challenging, most of the features have now been successfully migrated.

This also allows us to return to our original intention and start conceptualizing and creating the open world of Together BnB.
In order to allow everyone to fully enjoy the open world of Together BnB, we have added and are currently developing various systems.

Dating and Travel System
Now you can invite the girls to specific locations for a trip, have fun together, take photos, and listen to their stories, making the relationship between the two more intimate.

AI Traffic System
We have also added various AI vehicles in the game, which have different behaviors and reactions, making your journey with the girls full of surprises and joy! If the girls ask you, you can even decide who drives and see who has better driving skills!

Photography & dating route System
When taking photos at scenic spots, you can also engage in character strategies, unlocking different photo poses. If everything goes well, the interactions between the two of you at the scenic spots will surely leave sweet memories!

Train System
We have not only expanded the size of the game map, but also added a complete train system to the game. You can take the train to explore around and encounter various automatically generated NPCs on the train. Each of them will have different personalities and professions. Whether they are fat, thin, old, young, or even someone else's girlfriend, you can pursue them. If there is a specific profession you would like to encounter, please let us know! Each of the four train carriages will have different NPCs. As you pass each platform, someone may board the train. However, due to their different personalities, it will depend on your skills to successfully pursue them within the given time! The interaction between the two after a successful pursuit will also take place on the train, experiencing a different atmosphere!

Interaction
We have made significant modifications to the interaction between the player and NPCs this time. Not only have we added more interactions, but the number of animations for each interaction is more than twice as many as before. There are also various new features, so please look forward to it!

Main Storyline and Side Quests
As the story progresses, we have also added new scenes and elements.

DLC&New Characters
In the next update, we will simultaneously release a DLC that includes branching main storylines, new plots, and new characters.
We have spent a long time writing scripts, creating characters, producing scenes, and rehearsing actions with motion capture actors. We have also faced the challenge of dealing with a massive amount of code. It is all thanks to the continuous support from our players that we have been able to come this far. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you!

Next, we will continue to develop and refine the mentioned content. We will not be careless, and we will not give up. Please give us some more time, and we are planning to release the updates in the third season.

Finally, we wish everyone all the best and a happy Chinese Lunar New Year.

 

[Game Lord]

View attachment 3354313

You must be registered to see the links

Hello everyone,

Next, we will continue to develop and refine the mentioned content. We will not be careless, and we will not give up. Please give us some more time, and we are planning to release the updates in the third season century.

We hope your great, great, great, great grandchildren appreciate the effort we put into each of these game development progress updates even if just an AI bot was responsible for them all along.

Now enjoy some dried dragon dung this Year of the Dragon.

FIFY

Fixed it for everyone actually.