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Results from August Survey and Other Stuff (Patreon)

Published:
2015-09-28 03:50:31
Imported:
2026-06

Content

HI guys, thanks for filling out the survey! 

Here are the results:


Backer satisfaction

$25'ers: 4.25

$10'ers: 3.93

$5'ers:   3.79

$1'ers:   3.95

Unweighted average: 3.92


Really not too bad of a score considering we didn't release any new games since the last survey, and also had to take down "My Housemate is a Maid" because of my stupidity. Of course, the new art for Re-Maid is absolutely fantastic, though. Like last month, $5 pledgers were the least satisfied, and less satisfied than other backers by a significant amount. We've decided to move "WIP illustrations" down to the $5 level as a response to this. 


Game Expectation Index

Re-maid                4.33

Crusoe Sequel     4.29

Bron's Quest        3.82

My Stepsister       3.72

Tutor A                  3.53

Post-Apocalypto  3.52

Zombies                3.50

Crusoe Dreams    3.50

Please Continue   3.36

The Alcheringa     3.28

Jesus game            2.78


So "God Damn It, Jesus Christ!" turned out to be rather more controversial than we had expected - our bad, but now we know. We've decided not to push forward with this particular idea for the meanwhile (apologies to those of you who did get excited about it).


Otherwise, Re-Maid topped the list - no doubt thanks to the awesome art re-make. The full-length Crusoe sequel, though only vaguely defined, also drew a lot of support, but the reaction to the dream world Crusoe mini-prequel was not quite as enthusiastic. We've decided to stick to only doing the full-length sequel if/when we reach the new $15K milestone though, as it would divert a lot of time and resources and we'd still want to be able to release shorter stuff at the same time. The dream thing is also on ice for now because of the low rating.


Re-Maid and Bron's Quest will be our two next new releases, mostly by chance, but we're happy this aligns with your wishes. "My Stepsister's Wedding" on the other hand is unfortunately currently in limbo as the writer to whom we tried to outsource the fleshing out Ben's first draft (as Ben wanted to concentrate working on Tutor A) has become MIA. We'll see if we can't divert some of Ben's energy back this way though, tough it needs to be said that Tutor A is shaping up to a totally mind-fucking bad-ass of a game/script, with something like 20 totally different endings to explore. I'm sure you will all love it to pieces even if the synopsis maybe doesn't do it justice.


Feedback/Suggestions

We also got a bunch of really useful feedback and suggestions.


One thing that was made abundantly clear is that pretty much everyone is into the anime/manga art style we've been doing so far, while no other style has even 50% support (though Disney/CalArts style came very close, and Tarusov-style pinup clocked in just below Disney). Personally I'm into all kinds of styles so I did hope to get to experiment working with al kinds of artists, but we're going to heed your advice on this and be a little more conservative.


A few of you pointed out that entering the cheats isn't that easy, and one of you suggested having a "cheats menu" instead. We do agree and we've tasked Tsubaki-kun with coming up with a better implementation. Ideally we'd like to have a menu where you can just toggle stuff on/off, but the problem is ... well, we've had a LOT OF fake "pledge-and-runners". Actually almost 50% of all backers decide to not stick around until their payment is processed, which feels like shit for us but also just isn't fair to all those of you wonderful people that do. To combat this, we're not going to give out cheats in the content feed any longer but instead send them out as PMs. Problem is, there's no way to attach files that way, making it a bit of a headache if we wanted to go with the "toggle on/off menu" option. We might just compromise and have an "enter cheat box" so you can at least see what you've typed out. We've definitely heard you on this one, though, so please bear with us.


Another suggestion was that the cheats released each month should be more than just a graphic hack, something that actually makes it worth replaying the game - like adding an additional chapter, for instance. I'm not sure whether the person who left this comment thought the "cat girl" / "elf" cheats counted as "replay worthy" or not, but either way, it's a good point. If we did this, we could perhaps make sure we have something small out every month, but the downside is of course that any time spent working on adding extra stuff to an old game is time not spent writing new games. Also, adding new CG's/sex scene graphics just for a cheat feels like a bit of a waste - we'd want to include it in the main game as well. That would be alright if we did the new mini-chapters as separate releases, but then... you'd want cheats and premium content for these as well, right? And we'd end up with even less time to work on new titles. It's tricky, but we're thinking about how we might be able to implement this or something along these lines. We would love to be able to offer something worthwhile to backers every single month.


Some suggested we should add new milestones for animation, releasing more games, and so on. The main reasons we're not doing more milestones is 1) we think it's kind of manipulative and 2) we really don't want to promise more than we can keep. Actually we didn't even want to do the $3K milestone at first but Patreon wouldn't let us launch the page without at least one milestone. Promising the moon might bring in more pledges in the short term, but we want to stick around for a long, long time, and we don't want to force our future selves' hands based on shoddy predictions and assumptions made in the uninformed present.  


Specifically on animation though, I was actually looking into this rather seriously in the beginning, but it turns out it's really hard to find available animators. We do kind of want to include animation at least occasionally but again, we really don't want to promise more than we can keep. Also with animation... Flash, at least as a web platform, is facing very certain death within the next couple of years. When that happens, there aren't really any advantages for us to use Flash any longer - so, our long-term plan is actually to eventually switch from our homemade Flash engine to this engine called Ren'py. If you're not familiar with it, it's a full-fledged thing that pretty much all Western-developed visual novels use, including the "Sakura" stuff. It would pretty much allow us to do everything we are already doing now - Mac/Win/Linux desktop no problems, PLUS android. The downside, though, and the reason I'm specifically mentioning this here, is that converting flash animations to video - esp. if there's even the least amount of interactivity involved -would be an enormous hassle. Never say never though! But we won't make any promises at this stage.


Again, thanks for backing us! The future looks bright and very exciting. 


Until next time,

Godspeed,

BigB

Comments

Arcana37210

Wow...I have to say, I greatly admire your sincerity towards both yourself and us, the crowd. You're not sugarcoating anything, but rather are 100% honest while making your intentions to do your best quite clear at the same time. You certainly would've earned my trust with this message if I wouldn't have had faith in you before. On a side note, about the Jesus thing...For me personally, the problem with this draft wasn't of religious nature at all. My problem with the piece was its transparency and seemingly dogmatic nature. The way you portrayed it in the preview left not that much to the imagination in relation to the course and ultimate end of the game, which sorta takes away the thrill of adventure and sense of freedom you feel when reading a choice-based visual novel. I'm well aware that there most likely would be multiple endings, but the seeming favour of the cross just tied down the wings a little. Also, while I'm neither disapproving nor particularly enamored of any kind of (major) religion, the dogmatic mentality most of them possess is something I can live without - and at least to me, the preview seemed to carry that sort of sensation in its choice of words. If the title would've been more vague worded, I would've felt WAY more compelled to give a higher rating. I hope you don't take this as offensive - I just thought you could use some feedback as to why a title might've gotten a poor rating, and also felt I needed to explain myself somehow. I hope you find an effective way to put a stop to "pledge-and-run" incidents soon. That's really unfair to you guys, seriously. Whatever you make in the future and how you manage the time and energy you have, keep on being the way you are right now. I'm becoming really fond of you guys!

Ginger Faux

Man. Sorry to hear about all the dine and ditchers. I figured there'd probably be some, but not too many. Guess I was wrong. Makes me feel a little bad that I have to drop my pledge down for this month. Gotta get all tight-belt all around for October. Too much stuff going on, not enough money rolling into the bank. Or, at least, too much of it rolling out. Just hope y'all don't feel like I be stiffin' y'all. (Heh. Stiff.)

ODX

Having played/read many VN games on the Ren'py engine, I really look forward to your move to that engine. What you are wanting to do with the gameplay added on to Bron's Quest will work on that engine. Winter Wolves makes games on that engine and I am a firm supporter of theirs buying every game they release. So I again look forward to your switch whenever it occurs.

Fawkes1989 Productions Youtube

I didn't get a chance to do it. I didn't even notice the message until the 27th, sorry guys. I'll try harder to be more timely for the next survey.

marblesyrup
>>842495

I think you can have your settings so you get an e-mail everytime you get a PM (I think that's default, actually - I know I get these e-mails). We're probably using SurveyMonkey next time around though so we will probably send the survey straight to your e-mail from now on though (not sure exactly how it works as of yet)

ODX

One thing that might help both keep mystery and yet gauge the audience for a particular story arc, would be just to survey the setting. For example, I am tired of Zombie stories, and I am not a big fan of time travel stories as they are very difficult to write properly. On the other hand any good story in a dystopian future(ie Blade Runner, Johnny Mnemonic, etc) will grab me. I also like just about any modern taboo(like Crusoe) or modern college or university type setting and I am a huge fan of both Post Apocalyptic and Fantasy setting. Religion parody would be interesting too, though I understand that can be a really touchy thing to tackle. I think just getting an idea of what settings are preferred would help you get a focus on what stories will have a larger acceptance.

marblesyrup
>>845652

Yeah the settings thing is something we asked last month and intend to do every other month together with turn-ons and turn-offs. I do think it's useful to also ask about specific titles and ideas, though.