Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

[thswherizat]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Yeah, I don't have too much money to be spending on patreon, so I've been trying to support different creations monthly, but it's really tough when you end up in a situation like this, where I could put the only spending money I have towards this, and then end up with nothing for it.

Well, hopefully they get a new version out soonish.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

When i saw this post, i feared the worst.
When developers start talking about health issues... you know is the beginning of the end.
Hope he keeps going tho, he has made an amazing work so far!

If you think about it, a lot of developers and people working on games currently have health issues, and this is part of why they're working from home (because an office job wouldn't be feasible); this doesn't mean the game is going to collapse though, it just means they have health issues.

Yeah, I don't have too much money to be spending on patreon, so I've been trying to support different creations monthly, but it's really tough when you end up in a situation like this, where I could put the only spending money I have towards this, and then end up with nothing for it.

If you're pledging to support a developer/creation, then you do end up with something for it; you're part of what's making the game a reality. Now, if you're pledging primarily to end up with something in your hands at the end of the month, then the primary motivation isn't to support. Not that this is a bad thing, but just noting that if you are primarily doing this to support a creation coming to fruition, then yeah, you did end up doing what you intended (since the game will eventually be finished and thus your contribution is part of why it gets finished and thus what you end up getting at a minimum level)

 

[thswherizat]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

If you're pledging to support a developer/creation, then you do end up with something for it; you're part of what's making the game a reality. Now, if you're pledging primarily to end up with something in your hands at the end of the month, then the primary motivation isn't to support. Not that this is a bad thing, but just noting that if you are primarily doing this to support a creation coming to fruition, then yeah, you did end up doing what you intended (since the game will eventually be finished and thus your contribution is part of why it gets finished and thus what you end up getting at a minimum level)

Of course, and I have a few developers I support monthly, and then when I feel like I have some extra money I'll look between a few promising demos and pledge for a month to see the updated version and everything it holds. I don't pretend to be overly dedicated, but just there to play a version of the game for my pledge.

The problem I was running into specifically here was that I couldn't tell what had been added to the game. I don't want to be the jerk that pledges just to see what's new and then removes a pledge if he isn't satisfied. But, as I'm also not there to support for the long run, I don't want to pledge my money to find out that a release has been delayed, either.

That's nothing bad to say about Viper, though. I'll just wait to pledge until there's a new version released!

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

The problem I was running into specifically here was that I couldn't tell what had been added to the game.

Yeah, I will say Viper probably needs to do more public posts about the state of new demos, but he's pretty jaded about public communication given the reception that most h-devs get on most forums, so I can't really blame him, haha.

 

[censuur]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

It's honestly often for the best for amateur devs to leave CI to a minimum, as it's often a full time job just dealing with it all, not to mention it actually takes a lot of patience and know how to not then end up fighting your own audience and alienating potential 'investors'.

That said, it'd be a good idea to more publicly disclose information about your project, if only to show progress and work ethic to those potential Patrons who are still on the fence (and now can't see any work being done for months, not a good advertisement)

And last but not least is the risk of turning your group of supporters into a little echo chamber where you'll no longer be able to get fresh ideas, opinions and feedback because you've retreated to the comfort of the people you know (which is fine if you really want to limit yourself to that) while shunning or ignoring the people you don't.

The reception most H-devs get on forums is always going to be a mixed bag. Between hyped up fanboys and jaded cynics there is a complete plethora of 'shit to deal with'. Fact is though, that lack of communication will often exacerbate these issues. All too often you'll hear complaints about a dev seemingly vanishing off the face of the earth only to have people come in and tell others they're very active on Patreon etc. Now, for a skeptic this can get a little hard to substantiate, if not hard to believe, especially when faced with examples such as Breeding Season or Akhabur.

Your best bet in dealing with cynics though, is to just demonstrate that you're reliable, stable. Whatever reasons you might have for an extended period of inactivity, believe me, they'll have heard it all before and you'll be wasting your breath. Avoid excuses at all cost, regardless of legitimacy, it's not really doable to prove such things either way and certainly won't sway skeptics. Above all else, something like a monthly status report goes a very long way in building trust, something that is rather vital to a platform like Patreon.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

amateur devs

Just to note, Divine Arms would be ViperV's tenth or so game completed AFAIK, he's been making games for the past 10+ years

 

[censuur]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Just to note, Divine Arms would be ViperV's tenth or so game completed AFAIK, he's been making games for the past 10+ years

Aye I'm aware of this, amateur isn't really the best choice of words but as far as I know he's not a full company that has hired a PR guy, compared to full companies ViperV's operation is somewhat 'amateur' which is by no means a bad thing, just means there's some hurdles and limitations.

 

[iamnuff]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Aye I'm aware of this, amateur isn't really the best choice of words but as far as I know he's not a full company that has hired a PR guy, compared to full companies ViperV's operation is somewhat 'amateur' which is by no means a bad thing, just means there's some hurdles and limitations.

Indie is probably the word you're looking for.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Aye I'm aware of this, amateur isn't really the best choice of words but as far as I know he's not a full company that has hired a PR guy, compared to full companies ViperV's operation is somewhat 'amateur' which is by no means a bad thing, just means there's some hurdles and limitations.

Ah, gotcha. I guess for the time being I'm serving as the psuedo-PR guy, since I'm involved with Divine Arms also (I'm doing the writing/storyline for it) and he's involved with Internal Interrogation, etc.

 

[Krampus]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

So what exactly is going on with this game? There was apparently supposed to be a new demo in April. Then June. Then 'totally by my birthday in July', and so on and so forth. Is this just another one of those games that stays in development until the creator just decides to take his share of 9k worth of pledges a month for the last 4+ months and leave, or is there progress going on behind the scenes that isn't public knowledge?

I was thinking about making a Patreon account to help this game along, but after so long with very little publicly noticeable progress, that doesn't seem like a great decision.

 

[Balmunk Fezarion]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

So what exactly is going on with this game? There was apparently supposed to be a new demo in April. Then June. Then 'totally by my birthday in July', and so on and so forth. Is this just another one of those games that stays in development until the creator just decides to take his share of 9k worth of pledges a month for the last 4+ months and leave, or is there progress going on behind the scenes that isn't public knowledge?

I was thinking about making a Patreon account to help this game along, but after so long with very little publicly noticeable progress, that doesn't seem like a great decision.

You might have missed out all of the updates on his patreon, since the stickied post is so damn long you have to scroll down until like the bottom 40% to see the posts about the development progress. Long story short the developer had to move so he couldn't do anything for a month or so, but is now catching up slowly.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Is this just another one of those games that stays in development until the creator just decides to take his share of 9k worth of pledges a month for the last 4+ months and leave, or is there progress going on behind the scenes that isn't public knowledge?

ViperV isn't going to just up and leave with the money; as I noted above, this would be his tenth or so game. He's completed multiple other games prior to this, multiple ones of which have been front-paged on Newgrounds, like these;

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

If there's ANYONE on Patreon who you should see as being reliable at finishing the job, it would be ViperV, given their track record.

I was thinking about making a Patreon account to help this game along, but after so long with very little publicly noticeable progress, that doesn't seem like a great decision.

As also noted, he's been posting updates on Patreon; he's not really a people person, especially since English isn't his first language. He's also admittedly the type of creator that likes to make each demo wholly different from the last, so instead of a new demo every month with tiny additions, he prefers to do demos once or twice a year with massive amounts of additions to each demo.

I talk with him every day though, and I can promise you that he isn't going to abandon the game, and he's busting his ass on the game day in and out.

 

[MartinX]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

He's also admittedly the type of creator that likes to make each demo wholly different from the last, so instead of a new demo every month with tiny additions, he prefers to do demos once or twice a year with massive amounts of additions to each demo.

I just want to mention that he has stated before that he wants to release demos more regularly - here's a recent quote from him: "...I ended up delaying so much, I wanted to put a lot of scenes in the next update until I can REALLY update consistently every 2-3 months."

It's been a hard beginning for sure. After his campaign skyrocketed, he needed some time to finish commissions in order to start working full-time on the game himself, and also hire a full-time animator (who started working on Divine Arms in March I believe). Then there was a code overhaul for the game, more and more scenes started getting added to the demo (one of which turned out very troublesome to implement), stuff happened IRL, and all that combined with who knows how many unexpected bugs and setbacks.

However, I think the ball will really get rolling, since ViperV spoke about getting more animators on board a week or two ago. Plus, from now on he'll have to do less animation touch-ups and polishing because his current main animator now has to work with fully-shaded/detailed stills that ViperV sends him(not just rough sketches like before).

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

I just want to mention that he has stated before that he wants to release demos more regularly - here's a recent quote from him: "...I ended up delaying so much, I wanted to put a lot of scenes in the next update until I can REALLY update consistently every 2-3 months."

Yeah, I mean even then, most people expect monthly demos, but I think his style is gonna prevent him from doing monthly, but 3 or so months he can probably shoot for, for sure

also hire a full-time animator (who started working on Divine Arms in March I believe)... however, I think the ball will really get rolling, since ViperV spoke about getting more animators on board a week or two ago.

This was also one of the reasons for starting Internal Interrogation, too; if that game blows up (and it hopefully will once the Newgrounds demo gets going), the influx of money will likely be enough to hire extra animators for both games, allowing them to both speed up development dramatically.

 

[Livedreamer]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

I'm frequently watching the Patreon site, and I know that Patreons have voted for quality > speed, but do we have any e.t.a. on new demo? I just keep reading how he's finished with this, and that, and I'm just like: GIVE ME THE DEMO IF THIS AND THAT IS FINISHED! D:

 

[miachan]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

When he got called out for having no work done after spending time contributing art to another game, he made a poll on his patron if it's okay to delay the demo again.

Also, the ability to purchase commissioned pinups in the 100 tier was removed because he would actually have to do work.

I suspect it's about time for another illness. c_C

 

[MegatronYES]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

ViperV isn't going to just up and leave with the money; as I noted above, this would be his tenth or so game. He's completed multiple other games prior to this, multiple ones of which have been front-paged on Newgrounds, like these;

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

If there's ANYONE on Patreon who you should see as being reliable at finishing the job, it would be ViperV, given their track record.



As also noted, he's been posting updates on Patreon; he's not really a people person, especially since English isn't his first language. He's also admittedly the type of creator that likes to make each demo wholly different from the last, so instead of a new demo every month with tiny additions, he prefers to do demos once or twice a year with massive amounts of additions to each demo.

I talk with him every day though, and I can promise you that he isn't going to abandon the game, and he's busting his ass on the game day in and out.

I can only think to just REPOST this in order to defend the artist.

 

[censuur]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Just keep in mind there comes a time where past accomplishments cease to be convincing, and when you have so little to actually argue that you just end up repeating past arguments it's probably better to just stay quiet.

There is absolutely no point in arguing with people who are skeptical of this project, you have just as much proof as they do and you'll just end up in a religious debate between what the both of you believe (or don't believe) and unless you can blatantly disprove someone's claims you're being entirely disrespectful by insinuating their skepticism is somehow unsubstantiated. Not the best basis for a healthy conversation, that.

While I by no means consider this kind of behavior trolling it's best treated as the same. Just let people vent their opinions without fanning the flames.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

When he got called out for having no work done after spending time contributing art to another game, he made a poll on his patron if it's okay to delay the demo again.

He spent one day doing the designs for Internal Interrogation. That's the whole of the time he's spent on that game, lol.

Also, the ability to purchase commissioned pinups in the 100 tier was removed because he would actually have to do work.

No, that's because he wanted to focus on the game.

you have just as much proof as they do

Well, that's what I was saying above, is I actually talk to the guy personally nearly daily and I work with him on projects, so... I figure that's a bit stronger than speculations. I get what you're saying about letting people vent though, so I'll stop pointing out stuff and let it be.

 

[Jesus]

Re: Divine Arms - A magical action-adventure hentai game

Jesus H Christ (That's me!) can we drop the Patreon drama bullshit? One big adult-game related Patreon goes tits up and suddenly everyone running one is less trustworthy than Hilary Clinton. Speculation its self is pointless - Yes, Patreon should have tighter control on it, but at the moment the only solution is to simply not pledge if you fear getting burned. For those that continue to do so in the event the developer doesn't deliver, it's a lesson learned. Accusing these people of malpractice on the basis that they don't share every single step of development probably contributes a great deal to motivation loss too. If you're sceptical of Patreons, shut up until what you prophesize is proven or not, then you can rub peoples' faces in it all you like. Until that point in time (And beyond), you're not helping anyone.