On the poll comment, that's an assumption that you are making right. Like what is clear are the results of the poll regardless if people left or didn't left or didn't want to vote or whatever else it might have been. Now I switched to making all the polls in my Patreon so that all the outcomes are more clearer in that regard.(but I do see your point it's just what I went with were the results that I actually saw)
The results of the poll are clear, absolutely, but it wasn't a good poll and you have commented dismissively about it to people in the past. In this very thread.
There is one key thing that you are not taking into account, which is at that time. I didn't have 400k views on the game when I released it. Most of the people don't read through comments, the number might be 10% (I think that might be even lower) most just download the game and that's about it.
This is actually
precisely my point about why the old poll (as well as patron polls on the topic) isn't a good standard.
Thats not completely true about having an option to have either only images or both. There might be few games that give that option to the player but most don't. (I will implement the option for that in the future but now it's not a priority. It is easy to add that, but to add that and add alternatives to them (images instead of gifs) will take time.)
The earlier you do this, the less work it'll be in the long run. I never said it was any more than a few games that do it, just that it can be - and has been - done. I also didn't suggest adding alternatives to the gifs, just a show/not option. Obviously adding an option to replace the gifs would be more complicated, because you'd have to find/make the replacements.
Regarding "(early game still contains bugs and bad name references, issues that have been mentioned with specific examples earlier in the thread yet still exist)" - I do encourage people to let me know about any bugs that there might be and so far I think I have fixed most of them, almost all of them.
My point was, as I said, that these things have already been pointed out an remain unfixed. For example,
post 86, by Orchidbunny (not quoted or "@"d because I don't want to ping them for this) points out the incest thing
and you liked it, yet the issue is still in the live version, just not in the one specific place it was mentioned. All bad name references and incest-baiting can be easily fixed with a simple procedure involving a few uses of find and replace. Every instance of "Aricen" in dialogue outside of the name selection prompt should be the proper variable. Every instance of "playerName" in dialogue should be replaced with the proper variable. You should not have to rely on user reports of individual cases to catch simple things like this.
"I want to like this game, but the dev's approach does not appear to be constructive towards their own game. It's awfully convenient to do "what people want" when it means less work for you, and you get paid for doing it." - I honestly don't get what you mean by this. If people who support the game want something in the game I'll try to make it so. That has never meant less work. I'm not making any huge sums of money mostly I am doing this bc I love making the game. I bearly make anything off of it.
I mean when you have a poll about whether you should change something or not, and people say no, that is objectively less work than making the change. There's a difference between polling users about the order content gets worked on (not more work, but different order of work), and polling them about changing what already exists (amount of work depends on result). I never stated or implied that the amount of money involved was large.
"It's been ten months and five version releases. There is no excuse for those early game issues still existing when an afternoon's work could've stamped them out the moment they were mentioned, if that."- It's not my full job making this game, I am at uni, working part-time job, having drawing classes and then If there is some time left I make the game. I don't know what kind of issues you are referring to so I can't comment on how long it would take to fix them.
I'm fully aware of these aspects of your life, based on your Patreon posts. Restating these things after I already acknowledged that doesn't change anything about my point. It's not your full time job, yet you've released five versions while stuff from the earlier releases still haven't been fixed. I'm not your bug-finder. I didn't go in with a notepad to write down every single thing I found, but as just a single example: Inledya in the bathroom early game, before sexual interaction is unlocked. If you visit her there, you will have no options whatsoever and be forced to use the back button to go do something else instead.
"Some devs handle stuff like that as hotfixes same day."- I'm guessing they are full time that's why.
Irrelevant, even if true. The kinds of issues that still exist in the early game, even as a part-time dev (where you admitted to spending 10-12 hours a day on the game before version 0.4), should not have persisted as long as they have. It's not about how quickly it gets done, it's about it getting done
at all. You have time to post here, Patreon, and Discord, but not to spend a couple of hours over the past ten months finding and fixing issues in your own game? Sure, maybe some things would slip through and require user-reporting, but the kinds of things I've referenced really shouldn't.
For all the rest- I have no clue what you are referring to. Like what issues are you talking about. If anyone brings out a bug I'll fix it for the next version if it's not that major. (So far I know two bugs which will be fixed next which are Thalia's initial route not shown if player has chosen different routes all around for other characters and not getting the payment in the Zog Blacksmith if you are on submissive route)
Like I'd like to know the issues you are referring to, you can let me know by writing me directly in here (by starting a private conversation) or bring it out in my patreon or if you are a member in discord.
Proofreading.
Tedious early-game: Enforced repetition of meaningless generic events (grind), events only triggering at specific times and places (often forcing you to waste time for multiple in-game days), all character stories seem to be tied together (compounds with previous issue to waste even more time) presenting an illusion of choice where none actually exists.
Stats don't do much, far as I could tell.
Some events reset the time to Early Morning without changing the day.
Image consistency: Never going to be perfect with AI, but still. Alariel has a tattoo in one of the mascucline library images, which isn't present otherwise. (Images/Sister/alariellibrarystotymascfucked1copy.jpg) To say nothing of the inconsistencies with gifs. I know you've tried, but no amount of trying on that front will work short of using consistent actors/actresses for a given character. Even then, you're representing elven characters with human gifs.
To that point, if incest isn't intended (despite having a classic incest setup), you should reflect that in the file structure as well. Alariel's folder is called Sister, and many of her images also refer to her as such. I and a great many others on this site would love a true incest option, but if you were to implement it you'd probably have to restructure the early game with user-defined roles. That would be more work than rewriting it to remove incest altogether though. Reminder that step-cest is still incest according to Patreon, so you're not safe there either. A safe replacement option would be no legal or blood relation, with MC being childhood friends of the siblings (to retain their familiarity with one another), and Inledya being their mother. MC was sent to live with them for any number of reasons: More/better opportunities, dead family, etc etc.
You're happy to rush the narrative along to get to the porn (
post #116, by you, same as a dismissive reference to the poll) but then you also make them waste time between the porn. If you're going to waste people's time, give them something for it in the form of content. Otherwise you might as well have spent the time expanding the narrative instead so that players spend as much time having the option to learn more about the characters and world as they're currently wasting on nothing. Bonus: people who don't care about that stuff could still skip it to get to the porn. When you introduce something to your game, ask yourself what value it adds. If the answer is nothing except padding time it takes to reach the end, it's not a good inclusion.
I am not a member of either Patreon or Discord, nor can I be (nothing personal to you, just not something I do). As for DMs here, I generally prefer to have a public record of conversation. Keeps everyone honest in the long run. Once again, none of this is meant with any malice. Thank you for taking the time to engage. I won't be offended if you choose not to continue since I'm not keen for a change of venue. Still wishing you all the best.
