Re: Akabur Games
If you think he is really abusing his fan support then prove it. Make game on his level or better and make it quick. And then you open peoples eyes and they will not support his games.
I don't need to prove it by making a game. I can prove it by pointing at Akabur's previous games.
He produced several small games in 2012, and made a flash demo for Magic Shop (only the Ariel conversion and one other conversion) which he released in June 2012.
By June 2013 he released Magic Shop 1.0 and by September 2013 he released Magic Shop 1.1 -- I don't know exactly how long he needed to build it, but it looks like about 6-9 months, because...
By December 2013 he released Magic Shop 1.2, which had two new CG scenes added, namely the "evil & good Jasmine" scene, and the "dream" scene. That's 2 extensive CG scenes in 3 months.
In April 2014 he released Princess Trainer, which existed in a rudimentary version in Magic Shop 1.1, but was now greatly extended, with many, many new events (including all the brothel scenes). That's three-quarters of a game and a dozen CG scenes in about 4 months.
In December 2014 he released Witch Trainer, which was a rather tedious game with only 2 CG scenes (long, but for the most part a copy of each other). That is setting up a complete new game, with a few drawings, in 8 months.
Akabur himself demonstrated that with little or no funding he can create a complete game in 6 to 12 months, and needs much less than a month to produce a long CG scene.
And now he has been working on an update for Princess Trainer for 7 months, and has produced -- if we can believe what he says -- about 2 CG scenes in that time. Compared to his earlier output, working on a small update for 7 months is patently ridiculous, and demonstrates that he is actually not spending a lot of time on producing a game.
When I send money to a guy who I know produced three complete, big games in 2.5 years or less (we know he started using Ren'Py after June 2012, and he had produced Magic Shop, Princess Trainer, and Witch Trainer 2.5 years later), I do not expect him to need another year to make a few updates to a game that he already made before.
By this time, I can't imagine that even his most rabid supporters are not getting the uneasy feeling that they are throwing money into a black hole. The large number of additional supporters that he got in December 2014 were undoubtedly expecting the PT:G release within a few months, and either some more scenes in Magic Shop a few months after that, or a completely new game by the end of 2015. They aren't going to get any of these.
I think Kieran is right with his assessment. PT:G will be released at some point, so that Akabur can tell people that he has spent their money well as this was a LOT of work (even though when you examine the results, you find that only a few CG scenes have been added). But it will be released as late as possible so that he can milk his fans for as much as he can, after which he stops making promises and goes to Canada. His support will drop off at that point, but no doubt he will still be getting a few thousand monthly from his most blind fans.
As I said, I think it is really sad. Because I think Akabur is actually a talented guy who has a great sense of spicy humor, and can draw really well. But he found out that he can live well off making promises rather than producing work, and this made him evidently lazy. I believe he lost all enthusiasm for making games (Witch Trainer is much less inspired than any of his previous games), and is looking forward to his art studies.
I can't blame him for profiting from blind fans. But I deplore that we will not see any more of his work. Because in the land of Hentai games, his work stood far apart from the rest that I have seen.
