Hahaha, how did they justify that? "we dont want people stealing ARE GAYME!!" or what?
Nothing that intelligent; they just said '
well, since we're still going back and adding stuff, they aren't "done."'
So basically they're saying that they'll release simultaneously for a year when nothing new is being added to the game anymore, i.e. when it's entirely finished.
Their excuse for hiding their source code, however, was what you said. Specifically was people (namely, me) compiling the up-to-date game code and sharing online more frequently than "backer builds" were being pushed out.
Ironically, by setting up a build bot that rebuilt the game after every commit, they could have easily trounced what I was doing by providing a cutting edge version of the game to backers at all times instead of days or weeks apart.
Anyway, after the fact (after they removed the sources), they called this "piracy" – either on the Discord or the forum, or maybe both, I forget where now – despite them never directly telling me that they considered it to be stealing, and without asking me to stop building their publicly available source code (which had no license terms or restrictions attached at the time) and sharing it.
Rather than reaching out and asking me to stop, or anything sensible like that, they just pulled the sources offline and blamed me for being smart enough to write build scripts. I believe Gedan said something on their discord like "
some people had enough noggin to figure out how to compile the game, and were automatically building/uploading on every commit". I remember specifically the word 'noggin' was used. Anyway, this assessment was not
quite true, since:
- I was (manually) checking their git repo for updates once or twice a day, checking out the sources if it had updated, and invoking the build scripts I'd written by hand.
- I was (manually) fixing all of their fucking broken-ass code to build. This is because they would push code that didn't even compile and that they really should have caught prior to pushing it.
- I was (manually) submitting bug reports to them to inform them of the above problems, in the form of "x causes the game to fail to build; you can fix that by patching it like I do in y." Oftentimes they'd ignore my pull requests and Gedan would write worse code that accomplished the same task to avoid crediting me.
- I was (manually) fixing file names and paths that they'd add that were either typo'ed, or had mismatching cases in the files versus what they were referred to elsewhere in the codebase - this is necessary because I run a Linux system. Linux machines use case sensitive filenames, such that 'FutaFurry.png' is not equivalent to 'futafurry.png', nor are either equivalent to 'FutaFurry.PNG'. Their build system only worked for them in this case because they used case insensitive filesystems on windows, which plays fast and loose with filenames.
- I was (manually) maintaining an extensive list of patches and files that needed fixing to make it build on a Linux machine, which would frequently change. My "filename fixing script" as of the last time I changed it was 190 lines long.
- I was (manually) generating and signing the mobile app variants, which had do be done through Wine since there was no native Linux version of the mobile app building tools.
- I was (manually) uploading all four or five versions to Dropbox and later Mega, manually copy-pasting each public link into a post I typed up manually each time on an imageboard.
- I was (manually) filling in captchas on said imageboard to post said links.
…And since
You must be registered to see the links
, Gedan and Fen could have known this, had they actually bothered to check. I am of the opinion that they found it easier to lie.
Additionally I know at least one person used my build scripts to make a mod of TiTS at some point, which I can't imagine they took kindly to.
By the way, their source repository had no license, either; I suggested one on their old github issue tracker (from before it was purged and later replaced with the current one) which was ignored. So, on account of having no license text, or
anything else telling me I wasn't allowed to build and share the code, I just assumed it was sort of like how Ardour (a digital audio workstation project) releases source code for free, but charges for built versions - you're free to build and share your own, if you want, but if you support them monetarily you can get a convenient official installer and other nice things.
On account of all the work I did setting this crap up, I think I probably know more about how TiTS is structured and built than anyone else outside of their core "dev team" - and possibly more than any of them except for Gedan. But rather than accept or welcome my help, they treated me as a villain, and practiced collective punishment by retracting source code rather than actually asking me to stop sharing my builds first.
By "they," I mean specifically fen & gedan; I've never had any meaningful direct conversation with Savin, Jacques00, etc. and can't speak with any authority on their views or roles in this incident; I don't like Savin's attitude necessarily, but he's not directly accused me of any falsehoods so far.
Oh, one more thing. I seem to remember that when I asked on their discord where the source had gone, Gedan accused me making incompatible android builds that interfered with the official ones - when in fact I had made a point of never overwriting or messing with any files written by their app, and of using a different app ID and even app name/icon so that mine could coexist with it. I told them they must have been thinking of someone else, but Gedan seemed convinced that it was me, even though she could have downloaded one of my android builds and tried it at any time to verify that it was not the case.
Anyway, sorry if I sound bitter or tired, because I am. It's why I stopped doing builds for a year; I just couldn't be bothered anymore, and even the idea of doing it as some sort of "revenge" just felt incredibly petty and ineffectual.
Also it blows my mind in a way that Shekka still doesn't have preggo content and neither does literally anyone on Zheng Shi. Did they just forget it was possible? They literally talk about breeding a character in the walls and talk about how fucking the Rodenians in the ears is how they get pregnant and then nothing
IDK, I think shekka didn't want kids or something (was atypical of the race).
I really don't know, though, I haven't actually played the game since the last public source code dropped (in March or April of 2020) so I'm a bit rusty. And impregnation's not one of my kinks, either, so it was never really something I focused on.
