Ren'Py Abandoned Vis [v2.0] [Mad King Games]

[Ghost_of_MK]

Hi mates,

I think the best way to start this is with an apology. I know I’ve disappointed my followers, but in the following lines, I’d like to share the reasons behind my decisions.

Beginnings
Back in the day, I stumbled upon F95 while searching for a game. To my surprise, I found an amazing community of people. I saw it as a place where freedom was the main focus—where people could express themselves freely, whether through their work or their words.

Moving forward, I ended up feeling disappointed by a developer who rushed the ending of a very popular game just to move on to another title. It was a game I had played and supported on Patreon—quite ironic for me now, looking back.

That experience pushed me to take on the challenge of creating my own game. One thing I’ve always been sure of in life is that I have a decent amount of creativity. From there, I started learning everything from scratch—how to create scenes, render images, make basic animations (later on), and code. This community was helpful back then when I had questions about coding, which, at the beginning, felt overwhelming.

First Release
I still remember how excited I was when I released my first game. As the months went by, the game gained more attention, and at some point, it even became popular.

There were challenges, though—some fake accounts were bombing the rating section to bring down the overall score. I reported each one, and eventually, the community tightened the rules for those leaving reviews.

How Can I Reach the Sun?
If I compare my ideas back then to the actual potential and resources I had, I’d say I was like Icarus. I looked at the sun and thought my wings, made of wax, would be enough to reach it and embrace its warmth.

The sun? It was the concept I had in mind for the game—an RPG with free roaming, where players could leave their mark on the world and make choices without any moral restrictions imposed by me.

As soon as I started spreading my wings, they began to melt. And when I finally realized it, it was too late to prevent my fall. But inevitably, the fall came.

Due to the way I implemented the sandbox elements, I saw Patreon supporters leaving, and reviews going down. Then came my second mistake—the one that impacted me the most. I tried to offer more content to the remaining Patreon supporters, hoping it would make up for the lost ones. But in the end, the extra workload didn’t justify the effort.

Then, I made things even harder for myself by deciding to split the builds—one version as a VN and another as a sandbox. During the release period, I barely slept—only two hours a night—just to test everything and make sure it was playable.

Fallen to the Ground, I Kept Looking at the Sun
At this point, I decided to take a break from Vis and focus on another game—to clear my head and maybe create a small budget that I could later use for Vis development, turning it into the RPG I had originally dreamed of.

And so Highway to Hell was born. But damn, the ride was bumpier than ever.

First, after explaining my decision and the plan for the new game, I was constantly reminded—almost every single day—that I would fail. Over and over again.

Then there was the issue with ratings. For me, reviews are a way to understand what I can improve in the game and how to compensate in future updates. I remember one review mentioning that the intro "movie" was bad and gave them motion sickness.

So, I decided to create a proper intro movie with the resources I had. I started rendering, paying for assets, and using AI voiceovers for narration, along with some animation here and there. After a lot of effort, the intro movie was finally ready and included in that month’s update.

Breaking Point
After releasing the update, I checked the comments and feedback. Then, I received a notification of a new rating.

I opened it—one star.

The reason? "I can't click next on the scenes at my own pace..." in a movie...

I remember just sitting in my chair, speechless. At that moment, I realized that if I had any dignity left, I needed to stop.

I walked away without saying a word—before or after—because I knew if I hesitated, I might end up going back on my decision and continuing.

Patreon
Things weren’t great on Patreon either. They became more restrictive than ever.

The catch with Patreon is that you have to deliver every month to keep your supporters. If you can’t, you have to compensate with extra content or releases to maintain their interest. That is… until you become a well-known developer.

No Wings, But the Sun Is Still There
After a well-deserved break, I started putting things together again and decided to develop my next project in Unity. The characters are already defined, though I might make slight adjustments to the MC. Now, I’m focusing on level design. The most challenging part for me will probably be scripting and coding, but I have faith that, one way or another, I’ll get there.
I decided to do it like this because I can develop the game at my one pace, without being under the pressure of deadline. The money I will finance it from my pocked, little by little each month.

What I can reveal is that the game will be an RPG with free-roaming mechanics, allowing players to shape the world they play in. The game itself will serve as the foundation for the story in Vis, which I hope to eventually release using this new approach.

I won’t be revealing the title or any screenshots for now—mainly due to the backlash I experienced while developing Highway to Hell. Some people will probably figure it out when it appears on Steam.

In the End…
Once again, I’m sorry for everything that happened. I made mistakes, and at this point, there was no turning back. No matter where I went, I felt like I was being followed and judged for my past.

I’ll keep this account open for those who want to stay in touch or share their thoughts.

Love you all!

Yours,
MK

 

[c3p0]

I've write it once, I don't think you mean bad Ghost_of_MK. Yet, you are in a difficult place, with two games out there and two games "abadonded" so you have little reputation to build on.

For Patreon and monthly release I see it otherwise. Sure, it helps if you can, but if you can't it backfires. In this case it helps more if you stick to a bi-monthly release cycle if you can stick to it.

For the zone and the zoners, we have a lot of different breed and I agree with you that need to have a thick skin if you active around here as a dev. I still believe that beside a those who who do little more than complain and complain there is still the comunity that want to "help" it is just very hard to pick them out of the rest.

 

[Alex20232077]

Hi mates,

I think the best way to start this is with an apology. I know I’ve disappointed my followers, but in the following lines, I’d like to share the reasons behind my decisions.

Beginnings
Back in the day, I stumbled upon F95 while searching for a game. To my surprise, I found an amazing community of people. I saw it as a place where freedom was the main focus—where people could express themselves freely, whether through their work or their words.

Moving forward, I ended up feeling disappointed by a developer who rushed the ending of a very popular game just to move on to another title. It was a game I had played and supported on Patreon—quite ironic for me now, looking back.

That experience pushed me to take on the challenge of creating my own game. One thing I’ve always been sure of in life is that I have a decent amount of creativity. From there, I started learning everything from scratch—how to create scenes, render images, make basic animations (later on), and code. This community was helpful back then when I had questions about coding, which, at the beginning, felt overwhelming.

First Release
I still remember how excited I was when I released my first game. As the months went by, the game gained more attention, and at some point, it even became popular.

There were challenges, though—some fake accounts were bombing the rating section to bring down the overall score. I reported each one, and eventually, the community tightened the rules for those leaving reviews.

How Can I Reach the Sun?
If I compare my ideas back then to the actual potential and resources I had, I’d say I was like Icarus. I looked at the sun and thought my wings, made of wax, would be enough to reach it and embrace its warmth.

The sun? It was the concept I had in mind for the game—an RPG with free roaming, where players could leave their mark on the world and make choices without any moral restrictions imposed by me.

As soon as I started spreading my wings, they began to melt. And when I finally realized it, it was too late to prevent my fall. But inevitably, the fall came.

Due to the way I implemented the sandbox elements, I saw Patreon supporters leaving, and reviews going down. Then came my second mistake—the one that impacted me the most. I tried to offer more content to the remaining Patreon supporters, hoping it would make up for the lost ones. But in the end, the extra workload didn’t justify the effort.

Then, I made things even harder for myself by deciding to split the builds—one version as a VN and another as a sandbox. During the release period, I barely slept—only two hours a night—just to test everything and make sure it was playable.

Fallen to the Ground, I Kept Looking at the Sun
At this point, I decided to take a break from Vis and focus on another game—to clear my head and maybe create a small budget that I could later use for Vis development, turning it into the RPG I had originally dreamed of.

And so Highway to Hell was born. But damn, the ride was bumpier than ever.

First, after explaining my decision and the plan for the new game, I was constantly reminded—almost every single day—that I would fail. Over and over again.

Then there was the issue with ratings. For me, reviews are a way to understand what I can improve in the game and how to compensate in future updates. I remember one review mentioning that the intro "movie" was bad and gave them motion sickness.

So, I decided to create a proper intro movie with the resources I had. I started rendering, paying for assets, and using AI voiceovers for narration, along with some animation here and there. After a lot of effort, the intro movie was finally ready and included in that month’s update.

Breaking Point
After releasing the update, I checked the comments and feedback. Then, I received a notification of a new rating.

I opened it—one star.

The reason? "I can't click next on the scenes at my own pace..." in a movie...

I remember just sitting in my chair, speechless. At that moment, I realized that if I had any dignity left, I needed to stop.

I walked away without saying a word—before or after—because I knew if I hesitated, I might end up going back on my decision and continuing.

Patreon
Things weren’t great on Patreon either. They became more restrictive than ever.

The catch with Patreon is that you have to deliver every month to keep your supporters. If you can’t, you have to compensate with extra content or releases to maintain their interest. That is… until you become a well-known developer.

No Wings, But the Sun Is Still There
After a well-deserved break, I started putting things together again and decided to develop my next project in Unity. The characters are already defined, though I might make slight adjustments to the MC. Now, I’m focusing on level design. The most challenging part for me will probably be scripting and coding, but I have faith that, one way or another, I’ll get there.
I decided to do it like this because I can develop the game at my one pace, without being under the pressure of deadline. The money I will finance it from my pocked, little by little each month.

What I can reveal is that the game will be an RPG with free-roaming mechanics, allowing players to shape the world they play in. The game itself will serve as the foundation for the story in Vis, which I hope to eventually release using this new approach.

I won’t be revealing the title or any screenshots for now—mainly due to the backlash I experienced while developing Highway to Hell. Some people will probably figure it out when it appears on Steam.

In the End…
Once again, I’m sorry for everything that happened. I made mistakes, and at this point, there was no turning back. No matter where I went, I felt like I was being followed and judged for my past.

I’ll keep this account open for those who want to stay in touch or share their thoughts.

Love you all!

Yours,
MK

Welcome back, Your Majesty! I have not lost faith in you! I hope you will not disappear again.
And no need for any promises yet. No need to rush. Think carefully with a cool head about which path you will take.
But it is not for me to teach you how to make games, you are a professional.

 

[Maviarab]

Man, you could use some optimism.

Not really.

That lost a lot of trust from his players/fans; MadKing would need to do A LOT to regain that trust he lost.
And once you lose trust, it isn't so easy to regain.

This.

with two games out there and two games "abadonded" you have little reputation to build on.

Three actually C3 when you take Origins into account. All abandoned...not a good track record. End of the day, as we all know, words are very cheap.

Not that it matters to me...if I want a free roam game, I'll play a proper game from an actual studio who have the resources to do it properly...so I guess as far as I'm concerned....this is completely done for me with the developers new words and will now just unwatch the thread.

_________________________________________
At MK....it was slated to high hell because you had a solid, solid, story and VN with VIS. I've said this many times in this very thread. You started to change it....then left it for something completely different and nowhere near as good. Then you deleted your account. That's all entirely on yourself. No one else. So I only hope (as I don't wish anyone any ill) you really have learnt from these mistakes and I wish you well and success in your future endevours.

Take care.

 

[Ghost_of_MK]

Not really.

This.

Three actually C3 when you take Origins into account. All abandoned...not a good track record. End of the day, as we all know, words are very cheap.

Not that it matters to me...if I want a free roam game, I'll play a proper game from an actual studio who have the resources to do it properly...so I guess as far as I'm concerned....this is completely done for me with the developers new words and will now just unwatch the thread.

_________________________________________
At MK....it was slated to high hell because you had a solid, solid, story and VN with VIS. I've said this many times in this very thread. You started to change it....then left it for something completely different and nowhere near as good. Then you deleted your account. That's all entirely on yourself. No one else. So I only hope (as I don't wish anyone any ill) you really have learnt from these mistakes and I wish you well and success in your future endevours.

Take care.

Hey there,

It may not be a good track record indeed but somehow this is a fatalist way of seeing the situation. But I understand that on the other hand, these are words resulting on the situation that is now and from people that were involved in this game.
This type of 'branding' is one of the reason why I won't say the name of the project. I know that at the beginning I said this is who I am and that I will never hide between a rebranding but as I understood what my lack of experience overall meant for the project, which was big this is how I understood that even if I finished, somehow all the games, there would still be people saying "You know when the took a break?", "He is switching between mechanism, don't bother with the game", "MC had a small dick", "He design MC as a pussy" and so on. Once there is a mistake, I sense that in here its like going to prison and afterwards trying to get a job. The employer will always see your record and your mistakes, even if in the past, will define your present.
As an overall, my general impression is that you will see more and more games that are abandoned due to this type of approach from the community. Of course exceptions will make games that are good and stayed like that and/or games that have an army of 'bots' which will brings down competitors and/or will keep the interest in the game that they are promoting. In the end, I think that the community will be the one loosing and as well as new devs that have potential and will be discourage by this type of behavior.
Regarding the deletion of my account, I think I specified quite clearly that it was my decision because I didn't want to turn back. I never said that it was due to someone.

 

[JJJ84]

Hi mates,

I think the best way to start this is with an apology. I know I’ve disappointed my followers, but in the following lines, I’d like to share the reasons behind my decisions.

Beginnings
Back in the day, I stumbled upon F95 while searching for a game. To my surprise, I found an amazing community of people. I saw it as a place where freedom was the main focus—where people could express themselves freely, whether through their work or their words.

Moving forward, I ended up feeling disappointed by a developer who rushed the ending of a very popular game just to move on to another title. It was a game I had played and supported on Patreon—quite ironic for me now, looking back.

That experience pushed me to take on the challenge of creating my own game. One thing I’ve always been sure of in life is that I have a decent amount of creativity. From there, I started learning everything from scratch—how to create scenes, render images, make basic animations (later on), and code. This community was helpful back then when I had questions about coding, which, at the beginning, felt overwhelming.

First Release
I still remember how excited I was when I released my first game. As the months went by, the game gained more attention, and at some point, it even became popular.

There were challenges, though—some fake accounts were bombing the rating section to bring down the overall score. I reported each one, and eventually, the community tightened the rules for those leaving reviews.

How Can I Reach the Sun?
If I compare my ideas back then to the actual potential and resources I had, I’d say I was like Icarus. I looked at the sun and thought my wings, made of wax, would be enough to reach it and embrace its warmth.

The sun? It was the concept I had in mind for the game—an RPG with free roaming, where players could leave their mark on the world and make choices without any moral restrictions imposed by me.

As soon as I started spreading my wings, they began to melt. And when I finally realized it, it was too late to prevent my fall. But inevitably, the fall came.

Due to the way I implemented the sandbox elements, I saw Patreon supporters leaving, and reviews going down. Then came my second mistake—the one that impacted me the most. I tried to offer more content to the remaining Patreon supporters, hoping it would make up for the lost ones. But in the end, the extra workload didn’t justify the effort.

Then, I made things even harder for myself by deciding to split the builds—one version as a VN and another as a sandbox. During the release period, I barely slept—only two hours a night—just to test everything and make sure it was playable.

Fallen to the Ground, I Kept Looking at the Sun
At this point, I decided to take a break from Vis and focus on another game—to clear my head and maybe create a small budget that I could later use for Vis development, turning it into the RPG I had originally dreamed of.

And so Highway to Hell was born. But damn, the ride was bumpier than ever.

First, after explaining my decision and the plan for the new game, I was constantly reminded—almost every single day—that I would fail. Over and over again.

Then there was the issue with ratings. For me, reviews are a way to understand what I can improve in the game and how to compensate in future updates. I remember one review mentioning that the intro "movie" was bad and gave them motion sickness.

So, I decided to create a proper intro movie with the resources I had. I started rendering, paying for assets, and using AI voiceovers for narration, along with some animation here and there. After a lot of effort, the intro movie was finally ready and included in that month’s update.

Breaking Point
After releasing the update, I checked the comments and feedback. Then, I received a notification of a new rating.

I opened it—one star.

The reason? "I can't click next on the scenes at my own pace..." in a movie...

I remember just sitting in my chair, speechless. At that moment, I realized that if I had any dignity left, I needed to stop.

I walked away without saying a word—before or after—because I knew if I hesitated, I might end up going back on my decision and continuing.

Patreon
Things weren’t great on Patreon either. They became more restrictive than ever.

The catch with Patreon is that you have to deliver every month to keep your supporters. If you can’t, you have to compensate with extra content or releases to maintain their interest. That is… until you become a well-known developer.

No Wings, But the Sun Is Still There
After a well-deserved break, I started putting things together again and decided to develop my next project in Unity. The characters are already defined, though I might make slight adjustments to the MC. Now, I’m focusing on level design. The most challenging part for me will probably be scripting and coding, but I have faith that, one way or another, I’ll get there.
I decided to do it like this because I can develop the game at my one pace, without being under the pressure of deadline. The money I will finance it from my pocked, little by little each month.

What I can reveal is that the game will be an RPG with free-roaming mechanics, allowing players to shape the world they play in. The game itself will serve as the foundation for the story in Vis, which I hope to eventually release using this new approach.

I won’t be revealing the title or any screenshots for now—mainly due to the backlash I experienced while developing Highway to Hell. Some people will probably figure it out when it appears on Steam.

In the End…
Once again, I’m sorry for everything that happened. I made mistakes, and at this point, there was no turning back. No matter where I went, I felt like I was being followed and judged for my past.

I’ll keep this account open for those who want to stay in touch or share their thoughts.

Love you all!

Yours,
MK

Hey there,

It may not be a good track record indeed but somehow this is a fatalist way of seeing the situation. But I understand that on the other hand, these are words resulting on the situation that is now and from people that were involved in this game.
This type of 'branding' is one of the reason why I won't say the name of the project. I know that at the beginning I said this is who I am and that I will never hide between a rebranding but as I understood what my lack of experience overall meant for the project, which was big this is how I understood that even if I finished, somehow all the games, there would still be people saying "You know when the took a break?", "He is switching between mechanism, don't bother with the game", "MC had a small dick", "He design MC as a pussy" and so on. Once there is a mistake, I sense that in here its like going to prison and afterwards trying to get a job. The employer will always see your record and your mistakes, even if in the past, will define your present.
As an overall, my general impression is that you will see more and more games that are abandoned due to this type of approach from the community. Of course exceptions will make games that are good and stayed like that and/or games that have an army of 'bots' which will brings down competitors and/or will keep the interest in the game that they are promoting. In the end, I think that the community will be the one loosing and as well as new devs that have potential and will be discourage by this type of behavior.
Regarding the deletion of my account, I think I specified quite clearly that it was my decision because I didn't want to turn back. I never said that it was due to someone.

I think after reading this, I can only give you my following thoughts; and I'm gonna be real about this, so it's gonna be a bitter pill to swallow (please bear in mind this is not an attack on you in any way);

1)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having ambition with something bigger as your goal of sandbox gameplay.
Having said that, the way you went about it....... really wasn't well planned or well thought out.

You've spent so much time from game's beginning till when MC becomes King in VN mode, which literally created the expectation and hype with it being a pure VN game (with many hours of game playing time until that point).
And one day, you announced you're inserting in sandbox, and splitting the game into 2 modes.
This really split the fanbase into "I'm not a fan of sandbox" & "I still think the game is great" camps.

Problem is not the fact you put in sandbox, but when.
If you really wanted sandbox Kingdom management gameplay, that really should have been in the game from the get go (or very early in act 1, like most sandbox titles do), not when the game is in act 5, or 6 (or what the number it would be).
But given Vis's story (MC not being King until much much later into the story), I'd say the most sensible solution would have been to push the Sandbox/Kingdom management gameplay feature into the backburner, and finish the game till the very end in VN mode.
That's where you built the hype around the game, and where the focus should have been.
After Vis has been completed in VN mode, you could have just announced a remake with sandbox/kingdom management features and whatever little features that you feel ambitious about.

Sure, you're pushing back a feature you have wanted but at least the hype and trust would have been ongoing.
But instead, you started juggling sandbox and things started to slip away from you....


But I guess the bigger issue is;

2) After you put Vis "on hold" I didn't check out Highway to Hell, beccause well.... it just didn't interest me.
So given what you stated with that 1 star review, while on one hand I understand you were upset (you released something with so much effort, and some idiot made an absurd comment with one star about it). But on the other hand, I don't.

Why?
Well, this is f95zone (aka "the zone").
All sort of people are here, not just sensible & rational people, but also trolls, idiots, people who whine and complain at devs about all sorts of stupid little things.

And I see devs handling it in various ways, which I'll list;

- Thick-skinned devs: these are the devs who pretty much brush off all the trolls, idiots and go about their way and their work on the game like usual. They survive the longest on this site.
- Sensitive devs: these devs, they don't handle it all too well when criticized or complained at, and from what I've seen till now a lot of them either delete their f95zone account and purely resume their activity exclusive on Patreon (or Subscribestar or whatever platform they are on).

Now, I'd say from what I can tell you're in the latter category, but you took a step further to the extreme and deleted all your Patreon, Discord and other social media accounts, except DeviantArt.

From my (and others') view, I'd say this was a big mistake (probably biggest, even bigger than your decision to implement Sandbox/Kingdom Management gameplay) and very rash.
You said you had gotten a "well deserved break."
And there's nothing wrong with that.

However, your break could have occurred without deleting your Patreon & Discord, and other social media accounts.
With Patreon, most rational solution would have been being honest about what you were feeling such as "Guys, I'm at a breaking point, and I really deserve a break, and will take time off from any game development" (and afterwards, of course pause Patreon payments with that post to stop the whole 'dev is milking' comments. You can unpause Patreon payments when you definitely are back with the release of the new game)

Same with discord. An announcement saying you're taking a break and folks would have been understanding.

Instead, you cut everything off.
And what's the primary thing fans think of when a dev deletes everything?
Well, there is only one; "dev literally gave up on game development permanently cause of some reason, whether it's monetary, or other irl reasoning etc."

Pretty much everyone thinks that is the case and moves onto other (possibly better) games.
You made an action which made folks think you abandoned everything.
So the question people will ask in their minds is "What's to stop this dev from calling it quits and deleting his accounts again when going gets tough?"

And yes, I get that you're releasing on Steam, but Steam I'd say could be as much of a prison as reviews on this site.

In the end, I don't think the whole "cut everything off" decision you made was the right call.
In fact, I'd say it probably did more harm than good to your reputation.

Cause things like flaws within a game itself, people tend to forget more over time, sooner than you think.
But actions like abandoning games (as Maviarab listed, it's 3 game now), or cutting off contact entirely, folks remember them for much longer.

(With cutting off contact; whether people believe you only decided to only take a break, or whether you were so upset that you decided to call it quits entirely & changed your mind later to come back?
It won't matter. The issue is the optics; which makes it very seem like you gave up)


Honestly?
I didn't expect to write this much on this.
But I think it's best to give an honest feedback.
You made a lot of mistakes (some of these mistakes, I think could have been avoided and handled a lot better), and I think you have an even larger uphill battle with this new game than with Vis before (at least with that game, the AVN you had until Kingdom management was solid, afterwards where things began crumbling down).

But oh well, what's done is done.
No going back now.

And with the new game being free-roam RPG mechanics, while on concept it sounds nice, like Maviarab said I remain unconvinced it's gonna be up to standard like those freeroam games from AAA or even AA studios (biggest hurdle would be resources, given you're forking out your own money to finance this).

So even with you coming back, sorry to say but I can't help but feel pessimistic about this.

 

[Ghost_of_MK]

I think after reading this, I can only give you my following thoughts; and I'm gonna be real about this, so it's gonna be a bitter pill to swallow (please bear in mind this is not an attack on you in any way);

1)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having ambition with something bigger as your goal of sandbox gameplay.
Having said that, the way you went about it....... really wasn't well planned or well thought out.

You've spent so much time from game's beginning till when MC becomes King in VN mode, which literally created the expectation and hype with it being a pure VN game (with many hours of game playing time until that point).
And one day, you announced you're inserting in sandbox, and splitting the game into 2 modes.
This really split the fanbase into "I'm not a fan of sandbox" & "I still think the game is great" camps.

Problem is not the fact you put in sandbox, but when.
If you really wanted sandbox Kingdom management gameplay, that really should have been in the game from the get go (or very early in act 1, like most sandbox titles do), not when the game is in act 5, or 6 (or what the number it would be).
But given Vis's story (MC not being King until much much later into the story), I'd say the most sensible solution would have been to push the Sandbox/Kingdom management gameplay feature into the backburner, and finish the game till the very end in VN mode.
That's where you built the hype around the game, and where the focus should have been.
After Vis has been completed in VN mode, you could have just announced a remake with sandbox/kingdom management features and whatever little features that you feel ambitious about.

Sure, you're pushing back a feature you have wanted but at least the hype and trust would have been ongoing.
But instead, you started juggling sandbox and things started to slip away from you....


But I guess the bigger issue is;

2) After you put Vis "on hold" I didn't check out Highway to Hell, beccause well.... it just didn't interest me.
So given what you stated with that 1 star review, while on one hand I understand you were upset (you released something with so much effort, and some idiot made an absurd comment with one star about it). But on the other hand, I don't.

Why?
Well, this is f95zone (aka "the zone").
All sort of people are here, not just sensible & rational people, but also trolls, idiots, people who whine and complain at devs about all sorts of stupid little things.

And I see devs handling it in various ways, which I'll list;

- Thick-skinned devs: these are the devs who pretty much brush off all the trolls, idiots and go about their way and their work on the game like usual. They survive the longest on this site.
- Sensitive devs: these devs, they don't handle it all too well when criticized or complained at, and from what I've seen till now a lot of them either delete their f95zone account and purely resume their activity exclusive on Patreon (or Subscribestar or whatever platform they are on).

Now, I'd say from what I can tell you're in the latter category, but you took a step further to the extreme and deleted all your Patreon, Discord and other social media accounts, except DeviantArt.

From my (and others') view, I'd say this was a big mistake (probably biggest, even bigger than your decision to implement Sandbox/Kingdom Management gameplay) and very rash.
You said you had gotten a "well deserved break."
And there's nothing wrong with that.

However, your break could have occurred without deleting your Patreon & Discord, and other social media accounts.
With Patreon, most rational solution would have been being honest about what you were feeling such as "Guys, I'm at a breaking point, and I really deserve a break, and will take time off from any game development" (and afterwards, of course pause Patreon payments with that post to stop the whole 'dev is milking' comments. You can unpause Patreon payments when you definitely are back with the release of the new game)

Same with discord. An announcement saying you're taking a break and folks would have been understanding.

Instead, you cut everything off.
And what's the primary thing fans think of when a dev deletes everything?
Well, there is only one; "dev literally gave up on game development permanently cause of some reason, whether it's monetary, or other irl reasoning etc."

Pretty much everyone thinks that is the case and moves onto other (possibly better) games.
You made an action which made folks think you abandoned everything.
So the question people will ask in their minds is "What's to stop this dev from calling it quits and deleting his accounts again when going gets tough?"

And yes, I get that you're releasing on Steam, but Steam I'd say could be as much of a prison as reviews on this site.

In the end, I don't think the whole "cut everything off" decision you made was the right call.
In fact, I'd say it probably did more harm than good to your reputation.

Cause things like flaws within a game itself, people tend to forget more over time, sooner than you think.
But actions like abandoning games (as Maviarab listed, it's 3 game now), or cutting off contact entirely, folks remember them for much longer.

(With cutting off contact; whether people believe you only decided to only take a break, or whether you were so upset that you decided to call it quits entirely & changed your mind later to come back?
It won't matter. The issue is the optics; which makes it very seem like you gave up)


Honestly?
I didn't expect to write this much on this.
But I think it's best to give an honest feedback.
You made a lot of mistakes (some of these mistakes, I think could have been avoided and handled a lot better), and I think you have an even larger uphill battle with this new game than with Vis before (at least with that game, the AVN you had until Kingdom management was solid, afterwards where things began crumbling down).

But oh well, what's done is done.
No going back now.

And with the new game being free-roam RPG mechanics, while on concept it sounds nice, like Maviarab said I remain unconvinced it's gonna be up to standard like those freeroam games from AAA or even AA studios (biggest hurdle would be resources, given you're forking out your own money to finance this).

So even with you coming back, sorry to say but I can't help but feel pessimistic about this.

Hi mate,

Good to see you after a long time. I resonate with most things you said, but:
Patreon is no longer an app/website for freelancers if they are not a legal entity.
Regarding the f95 community, you are right. I think that there are developers that tend to bend under pressure and devs that are not. In my case, I think it was due to the fact that I was and I am too involve into this project than I should have. And at some point it pilled up and I cracked.

The sandbox elements, I thought at that point that these will be inherited well once MC becomes the king and it could bring the game to the point I wanted.

Regarding the break, its a bit more complicated than this. I took some small breaks for holidays and the patrons count started to drop. Dropping meant less money and this would impact the payments to my team.

Thanks mate for all the words and staying for the trip.

 

[c3p0]

Another thing, although I can understand why try to separate you new game from your old games and don't make connection, I assume this will bite you in the arse one way or another.

So, in my eyes, I would appreciate, if I where a new customer of you, if you would be straight with your history ideally from the very beginning of your new journey.
If you can't or won't do that then at least be faster than the crowd who will find out that you already have develop some games and already have a new and a history.
And last possible option, if the crowd is faster than you and bring your history to light, then don't try to evade it. Come clean write your reasoning and be honest about.

 

[RobLocksley]

I like Vis so far! However, I don't know I'd install Steam just to play a visual_novel/game... might try (might not run well on my OS).

[...]Patreon is no longer an app/website for freelancers if they are not a legal entity.[...]

Why do you say that? I'm a patron of people, and a creator, there, but not a 'legal entity' but still receive minimum amount/month because of a staunch supporter friend... despite some months I don't link creations, and other months I link several/many... made a little more when previously associated with an organization, but haven't been asked to become a 'legal entity', though I read some financial-focused websites are restricted some ways (such as Stripe) so for some creators (depending what they create or where they live) might get restricted, and others don't.