Damn, no ork girl yet (by the time I finished my text they deliver the update).
Unfortunately for the developers, the world has changed a lot in the last two years. Creating a model that would allow AI to approximate if not replicate the WaL artwork is getting easier each day. Likewise, the number of people willing to pay for hand-drawn, bespoke art in their games is diminishing. Their sweet spot for completing the entire game is likely behind them, but ending the game with .7 is going to feel to their supporters as abrupt a head-on collision at 120 mph.
I actually like these porn games because of how indie and human they are. Not all games, mind you, I'm a nitpicker. Porn without a
rich story is so boring and soulless, one could jerk to the AI porn pics. It's meaningless, it's a pure mechanics, it's fucking animalistic.
I don't like to be a fucking animal to the fucking TNCs and their plays with society. And here is a thing about these porn games. Let's imagine a developer who actually works on the
whole game. Not just a porn project ("
- Hey, can you do a rule 34 art on this one character? - Yes, I can. Hmm, there is the RenPy engine, what if I'd do some kind of rule 34-project for the Patreon, it'd be like a full-time job!"), but the game as it should be - with story, soundwork and shit. And only after 1.0 they deliver updates and DLCs. This imaginary developer would understand what reasonable is, what kind of project they could do in what time boundaries. They wouldn't wobble to the left and right asking community what they'd like to see in a next update. They would just do their game as they see fit. And they would proudly say "No fucking AI art used for this game. Because we can do it ourselves!". Those guys would be heroes.
I totally believe it is possible - that guy did Stardew Valley by himself. That was some time ago. And this two has the opportunities of being the team, the Patreon, the whole community of other devs who might have wanted to join their project.
I'm fucking slow at typing in English, I forgot what I had to say, so I'll try to wrap it already.
I believe that a 'strictly non-AI game' is a thing a dev can exploit. People like me would love to try this kind of a game, IF it meets the requirements to be a game. And if it isn't a Patreon project. I also believe it could be some kind of a statement against modern world. Like, yes, we do a game with hand-drawn graphics and with porn.
There is nothing wrong with the Patreon itself, but you have to deliver a whole product, not the chunk of it. I used to back the Innocent Witches dev, and it was some 4-5 years ago, I guess. I backed it only 1$ for 4 months, which makes it 4$ total, then I realised - where it all leads to? Should I support them further for just a monthly updates? What a total sum would be? Some 50$ for a game, maybe more (I was thinking then)? That is not right, there are better ways to spend my money than for some game I don't quite like. That was the last time I backed a game on Patreon.
As for WaL, there are so many flaws game-wise, I did mentioned them before. I don't play indie games or modern games at all, just the same few favorites for years. And I was so excited when I discovered this game, but I lost my interest in the story after they intoduced the old hag. I'm so old-fashioned that I was fucking disgusted just by the thought
why would a relatively young pair do a game about fucking an old woman? So I came here today to check whether the Ork is out to check the art, nothing more. I'm disgusted by their game. No update, so all that's left is to entertain yourself in the comment section.
It is also possible the WaL devs will use AI themselves. There is nothing left that would be 'beyond' for them.
Speaking of the indie porn games widely, I also would like to mention My Dystopian Robot Girlfriend. It is another game I was so excited about. It is crude (which is kind of interesting, like a statement against the game industry itself), has a lot of placeholder art, but it has the story so engaging, and lots of music! Unfortunately, the dev still can't deliver the whole game. Instead, they decided to stretch the production, doing stuff that is not crucial to the plot.
So this whole situation kind of dissapoints me.
The only promising game project I've seen so far is
Hooked. I'm not here to promote this game, I'm sceptical about the capability of it's creator to actually finish the project, but at least it has a reasonable plot design. There is no magical world full of characters, and the whole plot fits in the summary ('A guy starting a porn career with three girls'). Everything that is beyond this summary could be the fucking updates and DLCs every other devs seem to be after about.
Conciseness as well as to be reasonable about your capabilities as an author are the feats themselves.
Damn this is a huge text, I apologise for this. There are times I want to spill my thoughts out.
