Ren'Py Abandoned What a Legend! [v0.6.04] [MagicNuts]

[Fantaldebert]

A month or two for 'playtesting' is ridiculous. Triple AAA studios launch entire games that play for dozens of hours (BG3) with less play testing.

I mostly agree with you but your arguments are wrong here.

1) Larian studio (BG3) isn't a AAA. They operate on two financial sources : selling games and.... Patreons. For many years, BG3 was just a dream built on the base of Divinity. It took a lot of time, a lot of people, a lot of money and a lot of playtesting act 1 by numerous patreons.
Larian is an indy dev studio doing better work than AAA big publishers.
Most Devs (and certainly MagicNuts) would be thrilled to be compared to Larian.

2) The size of the teams scale in both way. Yes, the game is small. Yes, renpy is easy. But MagicNuts is a team of two. If they do all the testing by themself for fear of leaking (a frequent occurence in the porn novel games) this will indeed take a lot of time. And while they test they dont draw nor fix bugs.

 

[EroBakugou]

why this have the abandoned tag?

 

[Kisama33]

why this have the abandoned tag?

"Abandoned" tag can be used in various circumstances, like if a game doesn't receive an update for more than 18 months. View attachment 4009260

 

[moskyx]

If they are burnt out, why not come out clean and call it a day?

Alternatively, there's a chance they've been totally honest during these two years and you just choose not to believe them anymore even though they're telling the truth.

My guess is they've finally started working on it again/are nearing the completion levels they claimed to have back in January. That was right around when Nuts said it would be done in a couple of months, as I recall.

I don't think they ever said that, but in any case they did have the update done by early April. It's just that it was a rough update that needed some serious polishing work, including redoing several things from scratch.

I really, truly don't believe a word these guys say, but even if I did. A month or two for 'playtesting' is ridiculous. Triple AAA studios launch entire games that play for dozens of hours (BG3) with less play testing. This is a single chapter of a completely linear, Ren'Py game. You could test it in a day with time to spare.

Again, it's not 2 months of playtesting. Playtesting as in 'take the whole game and test it thoroughly, playing the events in different order from start to finish and without skipping texts to see if everything works fine under any possible combination of routes' only takes a week or less. They are editing and redoing artwork and dialogues that didn't feel right when they playtested the update's first draft back in April, including creating some new scenes, all of which forces new changes in other scenes and dialogues to fit this new content, then testing it again, rinse and repeat. Not to mention they never had the whole day to work in the game but only the few hours they could squeeze in while taking care of their little children (unlike previous updates, this time they've been unable to work simultaneously, meaning 8 real time hours didn't translate into 16 working hours). They are now on the last stretch and are willing to break their rule of never giving any ETA, which only can mean they are confident enough this won't take much longer now.

Of course, the first part of this comment replying the other guy still applies.

 

[caviarkush1]

We all love the game, that's why we're frustrated with the lack of updates. Even the developers have said 2 years is inexcusable.

I can't understand why this guy is fighting on the frontlines - defending the developers' lack of updates when even the developers themselves admit this is unacceptable.

Everyone is right to be frustrated at this, especially when some are financially supporting it.

 

[moskyx]

We all love the game, that's why we're frustrated with the lack of updates. Even the developers have said 2 years is inexcusable.

I can't understand why this guy is fighting on the frontlines - defending the developers' lack of updates when even the developers themselves admit this is unacceptable.

Everyone is right to be frustrated at this, especially when some are financially supporting it.

I'm not fighting, I'm just sharing official info when I feel other people are spreading wrong info like playtesting taking 2 months, and also stating every once in a while that not believing in devs' word doesn't mean they are lying. As you said, devs are the first to acknowledge this is an unacceptable situation. The 0.8 update will be the real test for them: if they manage to release it within a reasonably quick timeframe and everything comes back to what it was before 0.7, there would be no harm done; if they claim they keep facing unexpected real-life issues and delaying the update, I'll be the first one leaving this thread to rotten.

 

[EroBakugou]

"Abandoned" tag can be used in various circumstances, like if a game doesn't receive an update for more than 18 months. View attachment 4009260

i dont get it, according to the first page there was an update on "2024-08-27", so none of the conditions were met, also if there was an recent update idk why the game page (when searched) show the last update as 2 years ago

 

[Kisama33]

i dont get it, according to the first page there was an update on "2024-08-27", so none of the conditions were met, also if there was an recent update idk why the game page (when searched) show the last update as 2 years ago

The "update" in question is not considered even an update at all, it's more like a patch to make the original game compatible with the new Patreon guidelines (check the changelog for details about these changes).

Nos I don't know what "page" you are talking about but the original website for the game page and probably patreon have the new version/patch available to download same for the OP of this thread.

 

[Kisama33]

The 0.8 update will be the real test for them: if they manage to release it within a reasonably quick timeframe and everything comes back to what it was before 0.7, there would be no harm done; if they claim they keep facing unexpected real-life issues and delaying the update, I'll be the first one leaving this thread to rotten.

This is how I see it too, I can't say for sure if what they are saying the truth but can't say the opposite either.

The frustration people have is what you can expect from "consumers", the "process" doesn't matter to them only the "product" and for more than 2 years all they got was the "process". But it's still true that 6 updates released without issues and in the first 1 things went wrong they immediately turned their back to the "product" they enjoyed so far because that was "easier" to them. Some even try to label it a "scam" (and it may very well be one) with the expectation that this would make the devs work faster (that has in fact what also happened at some point some when members requested the abandoned tag for this exact motive and look how much that helped).

Now I will not play this game again until it's finished/abandoned officially but I still want to see how the next update is going to turn out. I want to know if the benefit of doubt I gave them is deserved or not. And I know very well that if they really want to recover the trust from their fans and supporters they must do it different this time no mattering if the motives they gave were real or not, 0.8 may be the final test to save their reputation.

 

[Porn_Jesus]

Wouldn't be surprised they release this new build and then call it quits due to overwhelming bad feedback.

Ofc no bugfixing, build is fucked up with lots of errors.

 

[Kisama33]

Wouldn't be surprised they release this new build and then call it quits due to overwhelming bad feedback.

Ofc no bugfixing, build is fucked up with lots of errors.

From what I can see this "overwhelming bad feedback" is exclusive to this place, other places like itch.io, Newgrounds and even reddit are free of that for the most time and when it happens is in a more respectful way and with less toxicity,

Can't say anything about how it is on discord or what amount of work is made by mods to keep it that way in each of those places but that would be a bad excuse to use and harder to accept than a simple "We just don't feel engaged to keep working in this project anymore", at least from my perspective.

 

[creeperawmann]

I wonder how long it'll take to go to other parts of the map, the far right island the bottom right desert village look really cool

 

[TVHH]

Lets tone down the negativity. I'm happy we're about to get an update. i've been looking forward to it for a long time.
Lets go orc girl! She's hot af

"long time"

 

[moskyx]

From what I can see this "overwhelming bad feedback" is exclusive to this place, other places like itch.io, Newgrounds and even reddit are free of that for the most time and when it happens is in a more respectful way and with less toxicity,

Can't say anything about how it is on discord or what amount of work is made by mods to keep it that way in each of those places but that would be a bad excuse to use and harder to accept than a simple "We just don't feel engaged to keep working in this project anymore", at least from my perspective.

Discord is pretty chill despite being open to non-patrons, who have less info about development and are logically bound to ask more often why it's taking so long, sometimes not with the best manners. Sure, every once in a while someone comes in straight-up laughing at patrons and insulting devs, but those are a clear minority; most newcomers and randos only ask if there's any ETA, get their info, and go back to their silent wait. People tend to voice their concerns respectfully, or simply stop supporting the game and leave quietly, as adults do.

In fact, I think this announcement of an upcoming ETA came because someone on Discord pointed out how misleading the progress tracker is for this update, and devs agreed with him. Since devs did a 'lousy job' estimating the tasks needed (in devs' own words) and they keep changing and editing things as they go instead of taking some days to play the whole thing and make another estimation of the actual tasks needed, the tracker has become a mere indication of the work done instead of the amount of pending work -the infamous one task added and completed per day shows they keep working on it but no longer allows people to guesstimate how much work is still to be done. So devs considered that, if everything goes smoothly in the next couple of weeks, they'll be ready to set a proper deadline they'll be confident enough to meet, so they'll share it with the game's fans despite the pressure this could put on them. We'll see.

 

[ztg1234]

View attachment 4036852

I wonder how long it'll take to go to other parts of the map, the far right island the bottom right desert village look really cool

 

[Finuee]

I'm not fighting, I'm just sharing official info when I feel other people are spreading wrong info like playtesting taking 2 months, and also stating every once in a while that not believing in devs' word doesn't mean they are lying. As you said, devs are the first to acknowledge this is an unacceptable situation. The 0.8 update will be the real test for them: if they manage to release it within a reasonably quick timeframe and everything comes back to what it was before 0.7, there would be no harm done; if they claim they keep facing unexpected real-life issues and delaying the update, I'll be the first one leaving this thread to rotten.

I agree that update 0.8 will need to go back to a similar release schedule as before, for them to earn back some trust. The wait time for that one will be crucial.

This is how I see it too, I can't say for sure if what they are saying the truth but can't say the opposite either.

The frustration people have is what you can expect from "consumers", the "process" doesn't matter to them only the "product" and for more than 2 years all they got was the "process". But it's still true that 6 updates released without issues and in the first 1 things went wrong they immediately turned their back to the "product" they enjoyed so far because that was "easier" to them. Some even try to label it a "scam" (and it may very well be one) with the expectation that this would make the devs work faster (that has in fact what also happened at some point some when members requested the abandoned tag for this exact motive and look how much that helped).

Now I will not play this game again until it's finished/abandoned officially but I still want to see how the next update is going to turn out. I want to know if the benefit of doubt I gave them is deserved or not. And I know very well that if they really want to recover the trust from their fans and supporters they must do it different this time no mattering if the motives they gave were real or not, 0.8 may be the final test to save their reputation.

Mostly agree with you, except that I will indeed play the release as soon as it's out.

View attachment 4036852

I wonder how long it'll take to go to other parts of the map, the far right island the bottom right desert village look really cool

Oh yeah, I agree! The desert village looks really intriguing!

 

[BurninU]

Is this game really abandoned? I was waiting for this game to finish before i bought it on steam.

 

[Kirel]

Is this game really abandoned? I was waiting for this game to finish before i bought it on steam.

No.

 

[Kisama33]

Is this game really abandoned? I was waiting for this game to finish before i bought it on steam.

"Abandoned" tag can be used in various circumstances, like if a game doesn't receive an update for more than 18 months. View attachment 4009260 (Read this attachment for further information).

 

[Gregor909]

will be updated in 20 years keep supporting them it will definitely happen... someday... probably... most likely... but you believe. they also trained the bot to write excuses every week...