Honestly, it sounds like Strange Girl were tired of making a tentacle locker style game and used this complaint opportunity to drop it and run towards a more fun project they have planned... not that I'm complaining, because I'd love to see more entries into the tentacle fantasy style games.
Though the way Strange Girl are dealing with this is weird... just straight up ignoring HotPink who are still trying to get a word in with them. It's just worrying as somebody that has financially supported Strange Girl that they'd be willing to just drop and run from a project so many people loved, regardless of complaints. What happens then if they get tired of the tentacle soda fantasy? Do we, the fans and investors, just sit around and say "Oh, I guess that's it then. Shucks" and move on from another abandoned project? I've seen too many devs in the NSFW scene just drop a game and move on because they don't feel motivated anymore and can't deal with bugfixing, adding new assets, etc... I hope that I'm wrong in this case.
To clarify, we've already done negotiations for the past week. But it's apparent that HotpinkGames is interested more in "acquiring" our team than just the matter of Lovecraft Locker itself. At that point, our negotiation was not getting anywhere until they just decided to file a complaint on Itch.io behind our backs while the negotiation haven't still concluded yet.
We told you privately that we didn't want to acquire yall :P We wanted to work together as a partnership more than anything. Being able to lift up all lewd games together! kangboy123 is right that it's all been very weird, and we want to make sure you're able to keep making updates for the long run without burning out or abandoning projects like this
I'll admit I don't have the whole story but it sounds like one of you is misrepresenting the situation, if I base it off of the last thing strange girl said, it paints the picture that you're trying to strongarm them to get acquired, and before that negotiation was completed you issued this takedown to apply pressure to the decision.
"Die" is a strong term but and maybe "holier than thou" is wrong to say, but the concern is that if there is an active negotiation this is a pretty aggressive tactic to pull, if there isn't then it would be nice to understand that better.
It just feels strange to hear "we want to work with y'all" while you're also trying to cut them in the middle of that discussion
Yea, that's why I don't like them posting this in the public way they did. No way all yall can get the full story from just this. To try and sum things, we approached them to see how we could help. From what we gathered it seemed like a lot they didn't know yet about how to work in this space, so we offered some of our expertise there to help make the game better. Then the idea came to team up. Still remaining separate but offering to help make the game better, as if we were a member of their team. We didn't want to acquire them in that sense of the word. As we also have other games to make ourselves. By by working along side each other we could share ideas, and make sure not stepping on each other's toes. They also have a 'mysterious investor' who seems to be pulling some string behind the scenes and also why likely the drive for profit. When asked to talk to that 'investor' and the rest of the team, we got this reply.
please hold this to more scrutiny from what i know both sides really don't have anything in this image we don't actually know if its real screenshot or not i seen faked screenshots of other people i wouldn't put past anyone if a fake screenshot as for strange girls vagueness its probably because they are getting advice from legal team i would like some hard evidence showing this is infact strange girl and not someone posing as them if you like example of someone not backing up their claims with any truth to them just look towards J.A.R (just a robot) they had something like this come up and they had to prove it by going live and clicking on the persons dms to show he had not done this showing it was infact a poser both sides can be little clearer but seeing how strange girls acting we won't get any word from them untill they are legally allowed to disclose details and with hot pink all they shown are words a testimony if you will they don't hold any real water because there's no foundation and they are just vauge as strange girl is
Hm.. an "investor" as an excuse is... I mean how big could an investor be for a group with no prior experience? Seems like an easy cop out for any project dropping in the future... "Oops, can't work on this our investor doesn't like it anymore". Very worrying that a crowdfunded project can be killed at a single investor's word. I don't want to add fuel to the fire Strange Girl, but how can we trust you guys to continue to work on projects to completion when there's possibly a single investor that can control your entire group? If the negotiations are over, they're over, but that still leaves me with heavy anxiety that none of my contributions will actually mean anything as long as this "investor" exists...
Anyways, I can only hope and trust that whatever is planned will be seen through to completion and as a game that the community will enjoy, not just the "investor". Maybe I'm naiive, maybe I'm optimistic.
So, you offered your experience, and to team up, and then wanted to speak to the investor, but got told no... and you immediately backtracked on all goodwill, reported them, and removed your supportive post. Now you come here, arguing their post and saying you dont like them making any public statement? Textbook narcisist / protection racket move. That kind of garbage closes wallets, and eroge, let alone tentacle focussed eroge, is a small enough scene that word will travel.