I get that, but look at a game like Melody. Complex story with many branching paths. Systems in place to track points for characters. And done in Ren'Py which looks fantastic. Saying Ren'Py cannot handle the workload is frankly not true.
I cannot fathom how you would not want to care about the people who are not Patrons yet, obviously you want to keep people paying who are already subscribed, but I would be doing everything in my power to draw in new subscribers. Go look at other RPGM titles, even the ones people consider good and look how many posts are of people writing it off and not even giving it a chance simply because the engine it is made in.
It is obviously your game and you guys make the final say, but there is no switching from Ren'Py, which is what people know for your game into RPGM will draw more people. Can you point to... 3 games total that are made in RPGM that use the systems well that Ren'Py cannot? That doesn't treat the non render scenes as anything but a travel device to get to the next scenes? I can't think of a single one
I have to admit that you aren't wrong, of course we could do all the stuff in ren'py. But an inventory, the items, shops and everything you'd need for that, would have to be rendered, which takes time off from those we really need to implement. Sure you can make some "make believe" traveling systems or battle systems in ren'py too, they do work great and aren't that bad either. But these want to be rendered too... meaning, every little thing has to be rendered or drawn by hand for each button/thing we need and want to implement. So yes in RPGMaker we can do stuff like that with less effort and since an inventory isn't as important as a nice steaming hot sex scene it gives us more time to do these things.
Our time is limited, we don't have unlimited amounts of it. Neither do we have a big team or the money to get more people on board to do all those things simultaneously. Sure, the pixel art isn't "in" anymore, and it's absolutely outdated. But for simple things like moving around or buying some things, maybe even a fight or two along the road, it suffices. If it wasn't for the time and money problem we'd be doing the exact thing two quotes down from this one.
So all in all it's just a matter of time, money and the ever lasting "not enough content in this update" screams that made us the choice pretty simple.
We could either kill ourselves for a few bucks each month and try to go on as we did, or we can change the engine to do the scenes we want to have as renders and can leave out simple not as important dialogues or other scenes which can be done in rpgmaker then without the need of additional renders except maybe some side images.
I mean come on, you want to see the hot scenes, maybe some real important story relevant scenes, but a simple monologue or a shopping scene doesn't "need" to be rendered if it can be done simply as a dialogue shown on a pixel art screen.
Sure, some people would rather see it all as renders, but those are most of the time the loudest voices when there isn't enough "content" then
So there's always two sides on a medal.
RPGMaker isn't our first choice nor is it our favorite choice. But it's the most affordable for now and the simplest way of doing a "real game" instead of a comic book with a novel sized story. I don't like the graphics of rpgmaker games either, but that doesn't change the quality of the renders in any way.
It's just the "game art" that isn't my thing. The renders will still be 1920x1080p full screen renders the same quality they have been. But enough for now
I guess most things were answered, some maybe not. But in the end it's a matter of time, money and managability.
With more time we could do everything as renders. With more money we could do everything in a high quality 3D engine (i.e. Unity, Unreal Engine, Havock or whatever engine there is that fits our need) in realtime.
And the managability part, well out of render stuff is just easier to manage in rpgmaker than it is in ren'py. ie. a shop would always need new renders for new scenes inside it. In an RPGMaker game you can do those "not as important" scenes as pixel art crap, sure it doesn't look as good, and probably doesn't feel as nice but if it would be something important it would be rendered.
As long as it isn't as important we can keep that time for i.e. a scene outside the shop where william gets harrassed or whatever
There's more to it but as I said, I don't have unlimited amounts of time and have to go to work in an hour again. So for today that should be enough
First thanks for your work, your way and the statement that you will continue to do it your way. I appreciate your meedling with us and your charity - without this I wouldn't be hooked on this game.
If you listen to us more than it does good for your game I blame you:evilsmile:. For myself I respect your desicion and have hope you didn't falter.
And for good RPGM games I consider
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as one of the better ones. I also consider Final Fantasy 6 as the best:coldsweat:.
That is one of the better games made in RPGMaker that's true! I'm still reading up on the rpgmaker stuff, so I'm still not entirely sure what the limits of the engine are. But I'll try to hit those limits and if possible even overcome some of them. If not, well then I'll make sure that the limits aren't hurting the players experience in any way.
:evilsmile: Nice one.
But yeah I can't wait for the day that there will be an adult game company that would be able and willing to create a Dragon Age or Witcher quality adult game. Not holding my breath though in meantime. :winkytongue:
True, that's what we like to actually do. But for that we need a good team and if possible the company that Jack works for so that they can create some of the assets we need i.e. the character "figures", clothes and so on. I've seen some work of them and what they started to do for a (far in the future) game that Jack wants to do someday when we're finished with wicked choices and have the following to make it happen. It's to say the least damn awesome! G8 is nothing compared to what they created there... but after all they want to get paid for it too
So as you could see in the old goals (not sure it's still in the new ones) we'd need to hit a certain goal to get them to work on the assets and all the stuff we need. When that time comes I promise you guys RPGMaker or ren'py will be just a bad memory for all of us