Deleted 1 year ago
1 year ago(+9)(-1)
Please check the social media links or the links posted above on the game development. It can be pretty frustrating when I make the game for free and people like to point out that it's not being made quickly enough for them.
1 year ago(+7)
Your genuine question was riddled with sarcasm, whether you're going to admit that or not. The game IS FREE to play, and will always be FREE to play - Patreon subscriptions are there primarily to help fund a FREE to play game, and provide people with consistent progress updates and supplementary content - such as the Selfie sets.
If you were a £4 Patreon Supporter you should have been well aware with the current update progress, as there have been several posts in regards to it. We are very transparent with how each update progresses - whether that be on our public Twitter pages, Discord server or Patreon.
The amount of hours we put into this game is beyond the normal hours for a normal day job. The planning, writing, CG creation- it's all done with a very small team of 3 people, two of which have day jobs too. Game creation takes a lot of time, especially if you give a shit about the content you're making and want to release a quality product.
We thank you for your support up to this point, and hopefully you understand the process a little bit better and know where you can find updates on the game progression in future.
1 year ago(+5)(-1)
Lemlin67,
There's a lot to unpack here but asking you to be polite on a public forum is not a toxic trait. I'm truly sorry you've missed the point of this story and why I'm doing this despite my frequent posts as public comments here, Twitter, my Patreon, F95zone, and Discord. I'm unsure why you think there's no content when there's 30 Patreon posts between December 2, 2021, and today (June 28, 2022). Some of those are about the game and some are supplemental content. But this is itch, so I'm not sure why you're talking about Patreon content here when you could have messaged me on there. I'm pretty approachable.
The game is free. I post it for free. People donating money to the project is not the same thing as charging for it. Do I accept donations? Yes. Because making this requires supplies and has cost me thousands of dollars to make because I do it legally rather than pirate the assets. I'm fine with that. But if people want to chip in and help out with that, I'll reluctantly accept the money and I appreciate it beyond words. You can make your own decision on whether you think I'm genuine in that; I have no control over your assumptions. If you've read even one of my posts, I'm sure you could tell where my heart is. Many of my Patreon posts are public and free so anyone is able to see that and I would encourage you to go back and look at any of those if there is debate.
I appreciate "support" and that is not the same thing as money. Throwing money at something does not mean you support it. I don't want money and I certainly don't want money from sources that have made false judgements about me or have name called people on a public forum after self-identifying as "genuine" like you did to another user below.
Please respond with your Patreon user name and I will gladly refund you. Patreon billing only allows me to refund the past 3 months. If you've donated for more than that, I will refund what I'm able to and donate the rest to a charity and post a screenshot publicly because I'm not interested in keeping your donation when you harbor such ill feelings about my project.
1 year ago(+7)(-1)
The Trevor Project thanks you for your generous $50 USD donation. I matched your donation to my project with a little interest.
Also, for anyone else interested, I just realized that the Trevor Project is matching all donations this Pride month at 100%. If you would like to donate, it's one of my favs but it is US based to my knowledge. You can find out more here:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with organizations in the UK otherwise I would have directed the funds back in that direction. Regardless of your blocking, I hope you find happiness in this life.
1 year ago(+1)(-1)
I'm just popping in so I can't see the original question/comment.
I'm a little confused as any information needed is readily available. If you are a patron as well, I don't see why you wouldn't message directly rather than try to create drama on a public forum.
Furthermore, developing any game is expensive (AAA games are something around $80-100 million) and time consuming, but there has never been a requirement to pay.
This team has put their heart and soul into this as a passion project, not something to make money off of.
The last piece I want to say (and I hate being this bitchy) is get over yourself. its £4 you were never even asked to pay and if you take your head out of your ass, you would see there are constant improvements being done and shown as well as other non-canon content to hold everyone over while the story is being written and perfected.
I hope that one day you can see just how much has been put into this and the countless people it has helped in so many different ways.
1 year ago(-1)
Heya,
Yes, the OP appears to have been deleted. While I'm able to ban people or delete posts from the page, I normally do not do that (The exception being when someone deletes a post and I just purge it to clean up the page). However, in this case, my assumption is that the OP deleted the post because I did not. I don't like censoring comments just like I don't like censoring the game writing. I did however report two of the comments simply because they were attacking another user directly and there's just never any need for that. But enough about that, let me briefly and objectively summarize some reactions to some other points that you made regarding game development.
Yes. It's expensive. You mention AAA studios and the budgets. It's crazy how much this costs and how much time it takes. Regarding what the OP originally stated, there's an expectation that game updates for games such as mine will occur monthly. With Patreon, people pay on a monthly basis so if they're paying, they like to see something immediately for their money. I have two reactions to this:
1) People that pump out monthly updates normally release very small updates (usually 10 or 20 minutes of gameplay). In contrast, Straight releases much less frequently but the there's more content because I just like being able to sit longer and have time to actually dive back into the world. Releasing 10 minutes of this story, imo, wouldn't give us enough time to have emotional reactions to the situations so I spend time and drop an update that usually takes around 90 minutes or so to get through. Buuuut, it takes me like 6 months average to pump those out anymore. This story also comes from the heart so I have to feel this out. Because of the inconsistency and my own inexperience with doing this, I have always refused to charge for the project because I don't know when I'll get the updates out. I care about them so I want them to be good. If you wanna chip in money for the project, it's appreciated but never required. There's a million ways people can be supportive of this project without paying or donating.
2) While I disagree with the OP tone and profanity towards other people, I will objectively piggyback off one comment that he directed towards me: The indie dev community is actually pretty toxic and inconsistent. Games like this get abandoned constantly. In fact, I would argue that abandoned games are actually the norm--especially in this genre. Many devs are super money hungry and it's created a culture where followers have a right to be skeptical and mistrusting of them. Some have publicly admitted later that they put out a couple good game updates as bait and then abandoned the game but left Patreon turned on to autobill people for months or years. Another popular trope is that indie game devs in this genre will have some sort of mental health crisis that delays updates but ironically the billing stays turned on *eyeroll*. Honestly, it's terrible and something that I'm very conscious of. When you're honest with people, that's the last thing you want people to think. But I've also learned that some people have an extraordinary ability to jump to conclusions on the internet and I have no control over that. I have a good 5 years of posts on here, Patreon, f95zone, and Discord that I feel adequately illustrate where my heart is with this community and with the project. All of those posts are available publicly and I would encourage people to look at them if they've attached any conspiracy theories to me.
I started this project in 2017 and have consistently put out updates. The overwhelming feedback that I have received over the years is that each update was better than the previous one. I have a track record with the project and I have enough respect for the community and these characters to finish this. Throughout the process, as you stated, the art has improved and the quality of the writing has improved--unfortunately that translates into the project taking longer each time but people enjoy it and I honestly enjoy it. Ironically, it's usually the players donating that are telling me to take a day off; and while I appreciate that and it's reassuring-- it'll never be taken advantage of. The game will be finished and everyone will have access to it without the need to pay for it.
In short, do I mind if people ask when the next update is? Nope. I also understand that a lot of people don't follow other sources of social media and things like that. People are always welcome to ask (just don't spam me because then I spend half my day answering the same question). However, over the years about 3 people have gotten an attitude about the game updates and they want them now and for free and there's zero respect there at all. Just be nice when you're on the internet and remember that there's other people on the end of the screen. People have been very supportive of this project and I've only gotten hate from like 3 people over the years but I definitely see entitlement with other projects and I will get defensive if I see that attitude creeping near this one.
1 year ago(+1)(-1)
Yours is the first game of this type I ever played, so I pay special attention. I've tried to read every post and see the journey to create what you have. I am easily the type that gets frustrated when I binge all the available content of something I like. the difference is that you guys communicate everything. as ive started supporting more games and content creators I have started to see the "mental health excuse."
I have not seen you do this.
there is a fairly consistent stream of information or content so I was dumb struck seeing someone get upset especially on a public forum.
On the main subject of indie games being abandoned as being the norm...why does that matter? this is not every indie game, and you are not every developer.
haven't we learned not to stereotype or generalize? haha
I will say I am so glad that that you've only had 3 people over the years give you hate.
and again im sorry for getting a little inappropriate in my comment.
I just tend to become very overprotective.
1 year ago(-1)
Lemlin67, I really wish that you would read more of my public posts or information about the game production rather than keep posting rants on here that are contradicted by my daily interactions with the community.
You're the only person in the history of this game that thinks there is a conspiracy here. There's not. I regularly post content that shows otherwise. I'm just a dude writing my first VN and learning as I go. Sometimes content comes out fast, sometimes it doesn't. It really depends on what I'm trying to do and how long it takes me to do it. That's as deep as this goes dude. There's no Deep State in my gay game.
The game is literally free. You don't have to pay for it. You can download it for free. I've stated above that I accept donations to help cover the cost of production. I'm not sure what you think goes into game production but there's a reason that the credits at the end of movies and games usually have more than 1 to 3 names on it. Because it's a lot of work to do mostly by yourself. I don't want a large team. This is a passion project that means a lot to me so I'm mostly doing it myself.
Each update I put out usually takes at least a few thousand hours to complete. If you're able to do a few thousand hours of work within the time span of a month, that's very impressive. I can't and I'm still learning how to do this. I'm very clear with the public, and to you in one of my above responses that you downvoted. I am not a professional game designer or writer. I have a clinical psych degree and I'm just a regular dude. I'm continuing to learn as I go. I google a lot of stuff. Again, that is why the game is free to download and play. If people want to donate, then I put that money back into the production through hardware upgrades, assets (and hopefully music one of these days) and that is why the game has progressively gotten better.
1 year ago(-1)
Lemlin67,
No one is lying to you. I've responded to you several times and at this point, it would be helpful if you would read the responses rather than just type back hostilities and downvote my responses to everyone from several years ago. Please scroll back up and read the exchange. Especially when I'm trying to help you out and apparently you're not doing something correct and still getting billed. I can help with that, you just need to stop insulting people and read my responses-- or literally any other response I've ever given to anyone ever.
I didn't "delete" you. The community is pretty chill and because of that, I already told you that I have no need to block people because I think blocking is an overreaction and not something i've never had to do. You have publicly said twice now above that you have unsubbed. I asked you for your screen name to verify or refund you and you refused to give it. Now if you want to send that privately, that's fine. I will respect your privacy, just let me know and we can figure out a way for you to send it. Since you refused to give the screen name, I can't refund you. I can't refund money to a subscription account if you refuse to give me the name of it. Instead of giving me that account name, you told me to keep the money as a "lesson." I did not keep it because I have no desire to take money from people against their will. I posted a screenshot where I donated 4x your donation amount to a LGBT+ mental health charity. All of that is posted above and you downvoted it so I assumed that you read it and you disagreed with it.
Now, if you didn't unsubscribe from Patreon correctly, it could have billed you again automatically on July 1. That's not me, that's how Patreon works. If you're subscribed to someone on Patreon, it will bill you on the first of every month regardless of when you subbed (I actually refund a lot of people that sub late just because of that reason but I'm guessing you didn't see those posts). Now, if you're unhappy with that, I can still refund that. If you've subbed within the past 3 months, I'll still refund all of your subscriptions--- but... I need your account name. There's no conspiracy here. But you need to stop being hostile and bragging about how quickly you've uninstalled the game and unsubbed from the website if you didn't do it right. Luckily you didn't block me on here so we can probably still figure it out. I need your account name or I can't help you.
1 year ago(+4)
Reported this troll...don't let him get to you, you've been working your ass off on this story for years and clearly he doesn't understand how to appreciate the amazing story you've put together and the amount of time invested...or that its available for free for those who choose to read the itch and patreon pages -.-.
1 year ago (-9)
LOL. dick head. report me to whoever you want. Kiss my arse.why not report the dev to patreon for taking £10k with nothing in return. Keep feeding him cash you suckers
1 year ago(+3)(-1)
Thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah, I feel like I'm pretty open. Sometimes it takes me a little longer to do things cause I'm learning as I go. I'm a psych major, not a game developer. I sorta just fell into this and people responded to it and it's something I want to finish <3
1 year ago(+5)
Try to ignore such comments. Every morning there is a weird guy in a strange mood somewhere opening his eyes..
Doesn't mean that you did something wrong at all. And the majority here greatly appreciates your work, so don't mind.
1 year ago(+5)(-1)
No worries. I do. I literally have thousands of letters over the years and like 3 people that have yelled at me. That's pretty good. Most of the people that go off about things on the internet are usually unhappy about more than just the thing they're complaining about. I hope those kinds of people find happiness some day. Being angry at everyone is no way to live.