I also appreciate your viewpoint, and similarly I also do not share it. Like I said, everyone is free to do as they please. I don't and shouldn't have the right to tell you what to do, even though I deeply disagree with your position. However, I feel it is important to have transparent discussions about these issues.
My question for you is this: Why isn't your game free? Why are you paywalling further updates through your patreon, instead of sharing everything?
I've seen lots of popular VNs start with sparse art and placeholder backgrounds that became really successful, and afterwards had the funds to hire artists to flesh out their visuals. To this day, all of them remain free on itch and still provide free updates. Why isn't your game free for everyone?
Now, you're probably thinking it's insanely entitled of a stranger to ask you to put all your hard work, that you spent so much of your precious free time on, up for free on the internet. It's yours so you should get to decide what you do with it, right? You have a right to profit off your own work, right?
I agree. The people whose art got stolen for you to use, didn't get to profit off their own work though. If the idea of me demanding you give me and everyone on the internet all your hard work for free bothers you, I encourage you to ask yourself why it doesn't bother you that you're using the free, stolen, scraped art of millions of artists who, unlike you, never got a choice in getting paid or not. They just got their hard work ripped from their hands to watch someone else profit off it. Right now, that someone else is you.
You are supporting corporations who are getting rich off of art they thoughtlessly stole. You are using their product for free (or worse, paying them) to have free access to, essentially, the art of so many people like you, who got unceremoniously robbed of their own art. And, considering you are a writer and creative, and claim to also be a visual artist, I find it really sad that you would sink to this level because I feel like people who create things should have solidarity with each other.
That's all.
makispin
Recent community posts
It's still kinda crazy that there's other creators who put their stuff on here for free when they actually pay artists for their work or do all the work themselves, even if it is delayed by a few updates.
This VN is AI. And unlike others like Leather&Madness who both explicitly states it's made with AI and is free because it is made with AI, this person has the audacity to ask for patreon support when they themselves are stealing from artists.
Everyone's free to do what they want but just saying, there's a lot of other really good work out here that you can support who actually supports other people's art as well, instead of just stealing it for their own ends.
Love your game, one of the most interesting vns I've played on itch.io. I came for the sexytimes but I stayed for the plot, I'm genuinely very intrigued.
Just wanted to ask: I've noticed the three different characters have slight variations (in dialogues + who is on top/bottom in their fantasies). Do they have any set preferences? (For example, is it impossible for David to bottom?)
If I remember correctly, you have to complete the "Rat Problem" and "Rats!" quests for Harold/the Bareshade tavernkeeper, which will unlock the tavern's basement for you.
After that, you have to keep exploring the area close to the entrance until you unlock the mine. It's a random event though, so you gotta keep trying
Hope this helps!
No worries from me, I didn't think you had any bad intentions with your post. It's a really cool game so of course we are all excited for the next update and I was also confused when I didn't see any posts about the delay, which is why I wanted to let you know.
As for his twitter, I found it from the credits on the Tavern of Spear twitter, i think it's @Caro_Zalt.
Hopefully things turn around for him soon, though these things take time and aren't easy to overcome. I hope that he is well.