Re: Deathblight Apocalypse
Sorry for the late reply, I didn't check this specific topic regularly as I didn't think people would post into the topic of Deathblight Apocalypse.
(Deathblight RPG - Operation Thunderfang, is in fact a different game we're currently working on, and Deathblight Apocalypse is on hold until we acquire enough funding to hire a professional pixel artist, our Patrons voted for us to work on Deathblight RPG in the meantime, and that's what we're doing)
At any rate, I figured I should answer the questions here:
Thank you very much for the praise.
We based the game on "The Moral Sword of Asagi", in fact we asked Ahriman for permission and he kindly granted us the permission to use his scripts.
(which basically explains all similarities in the code, but we also did some modifications, and there will be some more modifications down the line)
Since this got bumped I figured I'd ask:
Do you have to read their ongoing comic series or be familiar with their characters to know what's going on in this game?
Also, is the game's story in any way connected to their other works, or is it a completely standalone game that will introduce everything to newcomers?
We actually plan to have this game as standalone game, no reading of the webcomic required.
Currently some of the introduction is not final and we'll add some more of the important information to the game.
So it should be possible to enjoy the game without reading the webcomic.
(however, the webcomic does provide some additional background story and events, which happened in the characters past but are not mandatory to be read)
I think summary pages of the comic should be enough. I think the story is along the lines that they're demon hunters (even though they're demons themselves) hunting down naughty demons that like to rape things.
Seems like it's stand alone but the developers said that they may change the dialogue within the game at any given time. If I had to take a guess, they'd probably make a suitable introduction for us people who are newer into the comics but everything is still up in the air with regards to the story aspect.
All of this is correct, yes.
(Thank you very much for answering the previous question, I just thought it would be a good idea to answer it as well, but you're absolutely correct, thank you very much! ^^)
Somehow, even with a decent and dedicated artist their franchise never really took off. Not sure why, I initially attributed it to vanilla content, but they do lots of rape, plants, tentacles, mindbreaking, and I think even impregnation so really their content should draw enough people...
But then again I've never really found them appealing myself, not that I can put my finger on why maybe not enough sharp teeth and claws?
It's actually quite simple:
I don't advertise our current game and Patreon on any websites or forums at all.
We're pretty much completely under everyones radar.
(and we're kinda like one of these "secret clubs" only a few people know about)
In 2016 I had to do this because we would have had to pay considerably more taxes if our Patreon slightly increased a bit too much.
The trick was basically to hit the sweet spot to not pay more taxes, but at the same time earn enough money.
In 2017 we were free again to boost our income as much as possible.
And towards the end of the year I need to check if we need to push more or "stay under the radar" again.
Though I think 2017 will be less dramatic as it was in 2016, as this year we managed to already save up some extra money to pay taxes, so we're fine.
Now, in 2017 we picked up major hired work for another hentai game developer which at this point wishes to not be named.
(it's a very respectable developer I really love working with though!)
We decided to jump on this opportunity as our Patreon is still fairly small (compared to other hentai game projects that is), and also because the cooperation is beneficial to that other developer as well as us.
So effectively we work on 2 games at once, making decent progress on both of them.
(Deathblight RPG, and the other game is the one of the other developer we got hired for)
Of course we're putting a lot of care into investing as much time as we can into Deathblight RPG.
In conclusion, I personally think it wouldn't be fair to "push" and advertise our Patreon because of this special situation.
Why do I think like that?
Well, I personally think, if our Patreon grows more, we need to deliver even more content than we already do now.
(which we can do once we get that other game of that other developer done! But we can't do it before)
I mean, we already get a lot of stuff done and everything.
But... I tend to be my own worst critic I guess?
I'm constantly not happy with my own work, so I try to push even further and improve even more.
My reasoning might sound dumb... but that's the kind of person I am.
I constantly try to do the "right" thing, and I value morals and stuff a lot.
(and yeah... I don't think doing hentai games is bad morals, for real... I just think that I want to be fair and transparent and open to any questions and criticism, and not doing things that are obviously not right in one way or another, that's what I mean by "I value morals")
I know I always find some stupid reason to "not advertise" things and "keeping a low profile".
(let's face it, we're doing a good job at staying under everyones radar haha...)
But I guess that's my own moral code which get's into the way...
I just can't "push" my stuff in good consciousness as long as I know that we're currently also making money via other means (hired work).
On the other hand... more money would allow me to full-time employ some of our current team members, as well as possibly hire a pixel artist.
Which would speed up a lot of progress and, in the long run, would enable us to finally tackle "Deathblight Apocalypse" as well.
(it needs a lot of pixel graphics, so we really need to hire a dedicated pixel artist for that one)
At any rate, that's the reason why we don't advertise our stuff for now, and why our Patreon is growing only slowly.
I hope you understand.
(yes, I also have not placed a Patreon link in my signature)
I actually replayed paperheads for shits and giggles and honestly the art was fine but there were design decisions in the game that made it not so fun to play. The stamina meter (seriously, with the amount of running around, it shouldn't consume stamina to run and jump) and instant death for not doing certain things/requirements really irked me.
I agree haha ^^"
I did lots of weird design decisions with Paperheads, but at least I learned from mistakes of the past.
The developers have my utmost respect considering that the content that they plan to release is for free and they're living off of donations from patreon. Even then, public vs patreon game version difference is only a single version difference rather than what most developers choose to do nowadays which is to bar everything until the final release. I'm actually really tempted to be a first time patreon (and I really dislike patreon) because of how fair their business model is.
Thank you very much for considering to support us, especially given that you dislike Patreon.
It really means a lot to us to hear that people value our decisions we make.
(as a gamer myself, I constantly think about what I like and what I dislike about other game dev's, indie and AAA alike, and we do our best to walk down a path we personally agree with our own morals and what we personally value most)
Yeah, they mentioned right on the patreon that it's an intentional ripoff of Asagi, which is fine by me because it does it alright.
Only real complaint is that, even when there's a horde of nine enemies on screen, they're never a threat to capturing the girls even when I let them try. The enemies are pissweak, and it has the same flaw that Asagi's combat did which is "there is no 'wait' skill." Some of your team always has to attack, no matter what. And this kills potential rapists. It was arguably more important in Asagi than here because it was one of the only two ways to make money, but the game is still early and I think this is something that should be considered.
And if the devs are reading this, then yes, I did get the reference here.
Yes that is correct, as we mentioned on Patreon, the game uses the scripts of Asagi and of course we asked Ahriman for permission beforehand.
While there is no wait skill, we plan to include some items to get characters "captured" or weakened (as it is in Asagi) with one of the upcoming updates.
(most likely we'll add more and more items as we move forward)
Also, combat will gradually become more difficult and tactical.
We figured the first level shouldn't be too hard, though upcoming levels will be harder.
I think the reference happened by accident?
I mean, we didn't intend to reference anything on the position you provided a screenshot for.
What reference would it be?
(accidentally referencing stuff is always something haha)
Thank you very much for your feedback and thoughts everyone!
We're working really hard towards getting the upcoming version (Deathblight RPG Alpha 3) out there.
But it will still take a while since it's a lot of work (new character: Catheline, as well as a lot of other things), but we're working as hard and fast as possible.
