VN Ren'Py Abandoned Unraveling August [v0.3.04] [AugustEsoterica]

[Meiri]

Is the game actually abandoned or it's just F95 rules since there's been no patreon update since June?

I think he is still working on it from what I see on discord, it's just he does not post much

 

[Mcknobz33]

it saddens me to say but it's showing the signs of a soon to be abandoned game

another sign

 

[Tayorica]

i wasn't aware of the drama on the "disastrous" v0.3 release was. people has expectations, yes. but i enjoyed it. i don't mind the whole blackmail topic, but i kinda agree that August can arguably handle everything better. yes, MC goes into the meeting with Akira intending to blackmail her in return, and yes he lost his upper hand. justifiable? probably. can it turn worse? more ways than not. is the MC becoming a simp? arguably. to me, it makes me wonder what his next plan is knowing that he essentially blew his chances of blackmailing Akira yet still had fun with the whole thing and i find it hilarious, particularly the lick scene. despite all the shit thrown at her, Akira's pretty cute tbh.

And him not listening to the player base, especially paying ones is something i commonly find with devs, and is very annoying. while he can retract into his mancave, it certainly does not help the game that he keeps silent with the whole thing. he can just not deal with the comments belittling him, just focus on the constructive ones, and essentially be more active in communicating. does he need to listen? probably. does he need to implement the suggestions? not necessarily. but it helps him understand his player base and what they want to see in the game. but in the end, he has full rein on the direction of his game and what he wants it to be.

i have to admit the game was great, very promising with good renders to boot. but August still needs to get his shit together. this whole shebang should be a wake-up call for him to essentially start caring more about the game and the players. shame that it got tagged as abandoned regardless of the current status. will move it to the abandoned pile for now, will probably come back for possible future updates.

 

[camube]

i wasn't aware of the drama on the "disastrous" v0.3 release was. people has expectations, yes. but i enjoyed it. i don't mind the whole blackmail topic, but i kinda agree that August can arguably handle everything better. yes, MC goes into the meeting with Akira intending to blackmail her in return, and yes he lost his upper hand. justifiable? probably. can it turn worse? more ways than not. is the MC becoming a simp? arguably. to me, it makes me wonder what his next plan is knowing that he essentially blew his chances of blackmailing Akira yet still had fun with the whole thing and i find it hilarious, particularly the lick scene. despite all the shit thrown at her, Akira's pretty cute tbh.

And him not listening to the player base, especially paying ones is something i commonly find with devs, and is very annoying. while he can retract into his mancave, it certainly does not help the game that he keeps silent with the whole thing. he can just not deal with the comments belittling him, just focus on the constructive ones, and essentially be more active in communicating. does he need to listen? probably. does he need to implement the suggestions? not necessarily. but it helps him understand his player base and what they want to see in the game. but in the end, he has full rein on the direction of his game and what he wants it to be.

i have to admit the game was great, very promising with good renders to boot. but August still needs to get his shit together. this whole shebang should be a wake-up call for him to essentially start caring more about the game and the players. shame that it got tagged as abandoned regardless of the current status. will move it to the abandoned pile for now, will probably come back for possible future updates.

Can i ask what's the context of him not listening to paid patrons?

what did paid patrons wants that he decided not to do?

 

[Tayorica]

Can i ask what's the context of him not listening to paid patrons?

what did paid patrons wants that he decided not to do?

it's basically about the criticisms the game received due to his "disastrous" update for v0.3 and how silent August has been about the whole thing, to the point where fingers have been pointed at people relaying his discord messages here as August's mouthpiece. Tiur also voiced their concerns:

I am not. I honestly don't know what you're reading into my intentions, but I posted these as part of an explanation specifically answering someone saying they thought it was odd that August had so few subscribers. I have no investment in August anymore, since I cancelled my sub after 0.3 and my post about it in this thread, nor do I have any investment in faster updates from August. There was so much potential in 0.1 and 0.2, and August has so much writing talent, that I'd love to see the game return in a more constructive fashion... But I don't have particularly high hopes given the dev's lack of any response to 0.3's reception (his last post here was the exact same day as Patreon release of 0.3 to his then-largest tier, the same one I was on; I sent my criticism of 0.3 to him privately on Patreon first to give him a chance to digest and respond if he wanted to, but he did not, so I also posted it here upon public release).

The point of my posts were: three events all occurred at roughly the same time, shortly after 0.3's release: (1) a sharp uptick in criticism of the game's story (not just from me), (2) a sharp dropoff of subscriber numbers on Patreon (this is fact, as shown in the graph I posted), and (3) August retreating to his Discord 10 days prior to the release (oddly enough, coinciding with Patreon release), and never posting here again afterwards. I know that correlation isn't causation, but IMO this points pretty strongly to "the poor reception to 0.3" being the cause of all three.

to be honest, i'm not into the argument thingy and i am certainly not able to deduce anything concrete from the past arguments from fellow members. but one certain thing is that August has been VERY silent, even to his patrons. his highest tier currently sits at $100/month, half the minimum monthly pay a white-collar makes where i'm from. i can understand if he's listening to his paying players and not the "freeloaders" so to speak, but even criticisms from his patrons fall on deaf ears. if he didn't even listen to his patrons who pay money to support him, why would he listen to people who can play the game for free? all in all, the player base wants to be heard and August is doing a very poor job at it.

 

[Mmushy]

I really don't understand the whole "disastrous" complain.
It is a story, as most stories goes there are up and downs and different plot arcs that happen. Some may make it look like the story is heading is "bad" direction but is required to flesh out the story.
I am sure many would agree It would make a boring story if the MC can do no wrong and is always on top of every situation.
The issue is unlike a novel or a movie where you can read/watch from beginning to
the end in one go, this is an in development project. It simply stops until the next update occurs so we "linger" on the "bad" parts and do see where it leads to. People are going crazy and saying it's disastrous because the MC looks weak, got blackmailed etc. Let the dev tell his story and see how it developed instead of saying the story is now "disastrous" and no good.

 

[BlasKyau]

he essentially blew his chances of blackmailing Akira yet still had fun with the whole thing and i find it hilarious, particularly the lick scene.

Surely the lick scene is pretty good, at least from what I've read, in any case I'll never know first hand. Fortunately, if you avoid giving points to Akira, it doesn't even appear as an option, so I didn't even have to say no because the game already did it automatically.

EDIT:

Let the dev tell his story and see how it developed instead of saying the story is now "disastrous" and no good.

Ok, I'm okay with that, as long as I can make it so the MC and Akira don't have any sort of romantic relationship.

 

[Tayorica]

I really don't understand the whole "disastrous" complain.
It is a story, as most stories goes there are up and downs and different plot arcs that happen. Some may make it look like the story is heading is "bad" direction but is required to flesh out the story.
I am sure many would agree It would make a boring story if the MC can do no wrong and is always on top of every situation.
The issue is unlike a novel or a movie where you can read/watch from beginning to
the end in one go, this is an in development project. It simply stops until the next update occurs so we "linger" on the "bad" parts and do see where it leads to. People are going crazy and saying it's disastrous because the MC looks weak, got blackmailed etc. Let the dev tell his story and see how it developed instead of saying the story is now "disastrous" and no good.

imho, the update wasn't that bad, i still can tolerate it. i see it as a breath of fresh air from all the AVNs i play. people just want to feel offended by the whole failed blackmail MC is trying to pull. i agree that we're still unable to know what the MC is planning at this point of the story. i also agree with the whole "the way is paved for the MC" trope being saturated and i appreciate the power dynamics that are at play here. but the bottom line persists, August should've handled this whole thing better. he could've given a sort of clarification or dev notes or even pushed his updates faster. his radio silence is not helping his game at all, so much so that people are belittling him and his game. which is a damn shame.

Surely the lick scene is pretty good, at least from what I've read, in any case I'll never know first hand. Fortunately, if you avoid giving points to Akira, it doesn't even appear as an option, so I didn't even have to say no because the game already did it automatically.

the scene itself is adorable. kinky, yes but it's cute. i usually try to give points to LIs as much as possible, no matter how badly they treat the MC (in hopes that the LIs cave in and fall for the MC ). sure the thing around Akira isn't everyone's cup of tea, but i'd still give her a chance. i certainly hope that MC can turn the tables back (prolly just wishful thinking on my part), but it's still too soon to know what August has in store for Akira and MC, even tho the story is currently stuck since August is being a wuss. i'm not invalidating anyone's opinions. you guys have been very vocal about it and your opinions are very valid, and frankly, i can understand the different povs. but still, all this debacle could've been avoided if August had been as vocal as his players.

 

[camube]

oh man this game's writing is so good that even 11 months later, the characters are still memorable for me. Can't believe it's been 11 months since i last play the game.

i think he's still developing the game but if this is abandoned, oh well, it is what it is. Out of the new games i've played, i wouldn't have expected Unraveling August to be the one that gets development problem (or even abandonment).

I thought something like Realm Invaders or The Last Challenge would have development problem or be abandoned first before this one. The dialogue is pretty sharp and the outline of the plot is pretty focused too.

oh man, another disappointment in the AVN land

 

[BlasKyau]

imho, the update wasn't that bad, i still can tolerate it. i see it as a breath of fresh air from all the AVNs i play. people just want to feel offended by the whole failed blackmail MC is trying to pull. i agree that we're still unable to know what the MC is planning at this point of the story. i also agree with the whole "the way is paved for the MC" trope being saturated and i appreciate the power dynamics that are at play here. but the bottom line persists, August should've handled this whole thing better. he could've given a sort of clarification or dev notes or even pushed his updates faster. his radio silence is not helping his game at all, so much so that people are belittling him and his game. which is a damn shame.

I just don't like blackmail. I dislike it when the MC does it, and I hate it when the MC receives it. And my position on it is always the same, if it's the MC who is effectively blackmailing a girl, the options are: I quit the game if the blackmail has anything to do with having sex with that girl and I can't stop the blackmail. If the blackmail has nothing to do with sex and I can't stop it, I might continue to see how it goes, but I generally quit the game that update or the next. The only option I really like is not doing the blackmail.

If it's a LI doing the blackmail, what happens is that I hate that LI until the end of time and nothing she does will change my mind.

the scene itself is adorable. kinky, yes but it's cute. i usually try to give points to LIs as much as possible, no matter how badly they treat the MC (in hopes that the LIs cave in and fall for the MC ). sure the thing around Akira isn't everyone's cup of tea, but i'd still give her a chance. i certainly hope that MC can turn the tables back (prolly just wishful thinking on my part), but it's still too soon to know what August has in store for Akira and MC, even tho the story is currently stuck since August is being a wuss. i'm not invalidating anyone's opinions. you guys have been very vocal about it and your opinions are very valid, and frankly, i can understand the different povs. but still, all this debacle could've been avoided if August had been as vocal as his players.

As I said, I'll never know firsthand what the scene is like. I don't plan on giving her a chance, I've never done it in a game where someone blackmails the MC (and if I've been forced to, I've quit the game), and I'm not going to do it in this one.

 

[Alandir]

Personally I find the whole controversy ridiculous and it screams of insecurity because people are mad that their self insert mc faces some obstacles along the way.
He was barely blackmailed to begin with. He gets a job and an apartment for free out of the deal. And it's clearly a setup for the mc to work his way up and get involved in conspiracies.
It's also very clearly setup for the mc to turn the tables power wise on Akira as every interaction with her afterwards proves. It's always the mc pushing her limits and boundaries. Not the other way around.

 

[Fapparition]

It only took 'abandoned' tag to force 'silent majority' to speak up against 'vocal minority'

 

[BlasKyau]

He was barely blackmailed to begin with. He gets a job and an apartment for free out of the deal. And it's clearly a setup for the mc to work his way up and get involved in conspiracies.

And all of this could be done without the need for blackmail on either side.

It's also very clearly setup for the mc to turn the tables power wise on Akira as every interaction with her afterwards proves. It's always the mc pushing her limits and boundaries. Not the other way around.

The fact that the MC can turn the tables on Akira is something that I'm not interested in at all. In fact, I prefer the relationship with her to be as minimal as possible, no friendship, no romance, no sex. I don't plan on giving Akira any points, so I hope that sooner or later that will be reflected in how the MC and her interact (and not just by eliminating the sex and romance scenes).

 

[Alandir]

How often have you and others made this exact same post now? It feels like there's a 'I don't want anything to do with Akira' post on every page after 0.3. We get it!

 

[Tayorica]

I just don't like blackmail. I dislike it when the MC does it, and I hate it when the MC receives it. And my position on it is always the same, if it's the MC who is effectively blackmailing a girl, the options are: I quit the game if the blackmail has anything to do with having sex with that girl and I can't stop the blackmail. If the blackmail has nothing to do with sex and I can't stop it, I might continue to see how it goes, but I generally quit the game that update or the next. The only option I really like is not doing the blackmail.

If it's a LI doing the blackmail, what happens is that I hate that LI until the end of time and nothing she does will change my mind.

As I said, I'll never know firsthand what the scene is like. I don't plan on giving her a chance, I've never done it in a game where someone blackmails the MC (and if I've been forced to, I've quit the game), and I'm not going to do it in this one.

with all due respect, i understand that blackmail isn't for everyone, and like i said, your arguments are valid. i'm not trying to coax you into giving Akira a chance. you can do whatever you want with your playthrough. however, just because a promising game implements a topic you're against, doesn't mean that it automatically needs to be belittled or be shat upon, story and character-wise. not a fan? then just quit playing, quoting Marie Kondo: "Does this spark joy? If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it". you virtually lose nothing.

sure you can go ahead and shit on August and his game for the controversy, but it doesn't change the fact that he has full rein on what he wants the game to be. we have essentially little to no effect in changing his mind here (and if we do, he apparently wouldn't even listen anyway). we can protest all we like but if he wants the story to include blackmail, what else can we do? the plot is already there. backtracking and reversing the blackmail will make it worse. and like i said, while i don't like how August has been very silent about the whole shebang, it's still too early to deduce MC's plans.

Personally I find the whole controversy ridiculous and it screams of insecurity because people are mad that their self insert mc faces some obstacles along the way.
He was barely blackmailed to begin with. He gets a job and an apartment for free out of the deal. And it's clearly a setup for the mc to work his way up and get involved in conspiracies.
It's also very clearly setup for the mc to turn the tables power wise on Akira as every interaction with her afterwards proves. It's always the mc pushing her limits and boundaries. Not the other way around.

i agree with Alandir. even though we are still speculating and everything is STC, this is very likely what August is planning. can it be done without blackmail? sure. does blackmail make the game more interesting? arguably. blackmail along with a few others are genres that i generally tolerate --leaning into the fav territory-- so i'm pretty interested in the story. if i can date LIs and get their scenes through blackmail, then i'd do it as long as it's not unhinged, even though it makes me look like a degenerate.

we all have our kinks. while some people hate blackmail, watersports, or even other "vanilla" genres, some are into them, i understand and i don't judge. you can go stick your peepee in a jar of peanut butter and i'll just look at you funny and get on with what i'm doing. there's always something for someone. if you don't like the premise, then stop playing and look somewhere else for whatever floats your boat, or just come back when the game is in a better condition. with approximately 19k threads on this platform alone, surely you can find a game that scratches your itch. just because you're against a theme, doesn't mean that you need to hold a grudge and be sore about it. i am not asking Akira haters to give her a chance, nor invalidating your concerns, i can fully understand your points. i'm also not defending August, but it's unfair for him and his game to be judged this badly when this game is essentially still bare-bones. you together with a bunch of others i'm lazy to name have been VERY VERY VERY vocal about your disdain and annoyance towards Akira and the game as a whole, to the point that it's getting mundane and frankly, irritating as fuck.

 

[TheRedwarrior]

abandoned? well, too bad, this game could be a good replacement for eternum which people brainlessly hype about...

 

[BlasKyau]

How often have you and others made this exact same post now? It feels like there's a 'I don't want anything to do with Akira' post on every page after 0.3. We get it!

I don't keep count, but many times. Probably too many. But most likely they won't be the last.

with all due respect, i understand that blackmail isn't for everyone, and like i said, your arguments are valid. i'm not trying to coax you into giving Akira a chance. you can do whatever you want with your playthrough. however, just because a promising game implements a topic you're against, doesn't mean that it automatically needs to be belittled or be shat upon, story and character-wise. not a fan? then just quit playing, quoting Marie Kondo: "Does this spark joy? If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it". you virtually lose nothing.

Complaining about blackmail doesn't mean I dislike the game, it just changes my goals for playing the game. Goals that are being met for now, and I hope will be more clearly developed in the long run. That said, I will continue to complain about blackmail because I still don't like it.

sure you can go ahead and shit on August and his game for the controversy, but it doesn't change the fact that he has full rein on what he wants the game to be. we have essentially little to no effect in changing his mind here (and if we do, he apparently wouldn't even listen anyway). we can protest all we like but if he wants the story to include blackmail, what else can we do? the plot is already there. backtracking and reversing the blackmail will make it worse. and like i said, while i don't like how August has been very silent about the whole shebang, it's still too early to deduce MC's plans.

Actually, if the MC had ended up doing the blackmailing, I would probably have quit the game and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

[AlliedWar]

So many F*gs in this thread! Stop bitching about the blackmail. Mc are lucky that someone gave a shit and gave him a job! Otherwise he could go live in a dumbster

 

[Tayorica]

lmao at this point i hope mods just open up another thread focusing on the complaints on this game, it's getting infuriating. point is, point taken. we get your complaints and your opinions. as i said, people have been VERY vocal about them to the point that i find it annoying to deal with. but hell, August isn't even listening to the complaints and i'm not even sure if he will at some point. we're just filling the forum with all this tirade about the same things over and over and over again. we get it, people don't like blackmail. y'all proved your point but still at the end of the day y'all can't do shit about it. if you want the game to be all fine and dandy and up to your standards and with your favorite content in it, you'd better go make your own game. get over it, stop bitching about the game. you find it lacking? complain once, live on. don't need to repeat the same thing every so often, you won't die from it.

 

[Ka1tzer]

What baffles me is this:

People constantly shit on the game, but hang around. Effectively kill the game (or the devs passion for making it), then act defensively instead of just leaving, ignoring the thread and game and finding something they actually like. It's a very torturous cycle that continuously hurt the game. Maybe that's what they want? To bury it? Seems malicious to me.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's fair - just move on and find something that is. It's that simple.

And I'll not defend the dev, cause I agree that the lack of communication was a definite problem. Maybe he's just not someone that has what it takes to interact with the audience directly - which is fine, several people are like that. In that case, recruiting someone to act as a form of community manager would've been very beneficial.

Now the game has gotten the abandoned tag. Is it really? Idk, but I hope not. But if it is, know that the unreasonable people constantly overreacting and shitting on the game bear the majority of the blame for it. They'll act defensively and pathetically react with angry emojis, but it is what it is.

It's just regrettable because this was so much fun, with so much potential. "This is why we can't have nice things".