8/26 Status Update
Added 2022-08-26 20:33:23 +0000 UTCLast week I talked about how I was starting to get burned out a bit and got a lot of very kind comments, so thanks for that. I've thought about it more and think I've come to a short term solution.
The problem is not that I'm tired of making video games, I really like making video games. The main thing I was doing the past two weeks while procrastinating was just making a different video game. The problem is that I have too many video games that have obligations attached to them on when I have to get updates out. So let's go over them one by one.
The Monster Within:
- This has the most responsibility attached to it because it's a commercial game and the artist has a revenue share, so if I just abandoned it that would be very unfair to her. Thankfully, the game is set to come out of early access and be finished by the end of October. So just two more months and this one is wiped from the slate. So I'd say it's fine.
TF Card Battle:
- This game is almost four years old at this point, and I made a completely rebuilt version of it with a different theme already. So safe to say I'm pretty sick of it. Not to mention the engine it's in is terrible for what I use it for. But it's a really good marketing tool for TMW and a lot of people love it. I already don't regularly update this one, so just keeping it on the "whenever I feel like it" schedule is fine with me.
Futa Oasis:
- This game is relatively "fresh", but I've been working on it for two years. I like the setting and characters and it's fun to write for. But that damn card game is such a headache. It's not good and every time I've tried to fix it or design new cards for it, I hit a wall. But some new random events and a sex scene for each character once a month? I can keep that up. I plan on releasing this commercially at some point anyway so I'd keep working on it in the background regardless. The current pace seems fine overall. Here's some more preview art for that next update.
Naked Ambition:
- Ah, so here's the first game that's a big problem. I'll be honest, I'm sick as hell of this game. It's complex and divisive, the game I get by far the most criticism about. It's going for a very specific feeling and emotion and pulls it off pretty well, but a lot of people don't want that feeling in their porn games. And I get it, In porn games you want to be able to choose what content you get and you want be able to access that content consistently. And that is the exact opposite of what Naked Ambition does. It's a pretty terrible porn game.
- But I think it's generally a good game overall. It has a lot of interesting ideas and characters. But damn do I not want to write for it anymore. All that's left is the endings basically and oh boy is that going to be a lot of work. I don't want to abandon it, but I really don't want to be working on it right now.
- There's also the matter of Clothed Ambition, the SFW version I have planned, like the TFCB to TMW transformation. I think Clothed Ambition could be a much better game, but there's no way I will work on it at the same time as Naked Ambition.
- So for now I think the best answer is a hiatus. It will definitely get finished, just not soon.
At the Mountains of Friendship:
- Now THIS is a game I can get behind. Killer art, good gameplay, good concept, I think this is going to be the big one. Will it do well in terms of bringing in money? No idea. But will it be a good game? It already is and it's only like a third finished. My plan is for the Patreon to eventually be completely warped around this thing. But that eventually is a good ways off. Right now it's a work on it when I can kind of thing while art is still being made. Honestly, if this didn't exist I'd be making a solid profit off games right now.
- But it does exist, and it's going to be awesome. The only thing that could prevent that is my own ability not being up to the task.
Fire Emblem style NTR game:
- This is very new, I only started work on it two weeks ago. Basically, I wanted to play around with SRPG Studio because I love Fire Emblem. And then I had a blast playing around with it, and had some mechanic ideas. And then those ideas led to more ideas and in like a five day storm of creativity suddenly I had this game with really cool NTR mechanics.
- At this point NOT making it isn't really a possibility. Since I'd still work on it in my spare time anyway. So might as well make it a full game. It has a pretty firm breadth of content, we're only talking like 3 updates after the initial release. If I just take it at my own pace and don't force anything it'll get done eventually. If it sounds like I just add games to my schedule willy-nilly that's not true. Do I start new games willy-nilly? Yeah, it's fun. But I have dozens of half started games that didn't get traction and I dropped before really showing to anyone.
- Futa Oasis and At the Mountains of Friendship were both intentional choices to make games I started for production schedule reasons. Futa Oasis because I wanted to try making an adult game straight to Steam without Patreon releases (which I abandoned because my who release plan changed) and ATMOF to be the next sexy-> SFW conversion after Naked Ambition finished. The timing got kind of messed up but the process behind starting them was sound and made sense. This new game is the first in a while I'm making just because it was such a good idea and worked so well I had to.
- Here's some character sketches for this new game. I think it will turn out pretty awesome.
So let's summarize:
TMW will be done in two months. After that TFCB updates will be very sporadic. Futa Oasis will continue as normal but I'm probably just going to ignore the card game for now. I'll likely have to completely rework it at some point, Naked Ambition is on hiatus (just saying that makes me feel way better), At the Mountains of Friendship is the future, but that future is like half a year away. And this new NTR game is coming out whenever stuff gets done for it.
I want to be upfront with this so you're not paying for something I'm not making. If you're here specifically to get Naked Ambition test builds or something, you're not getting them, sorry about that.
That's all for this week. As always, thank you for your continued support it means a lot to me.
Comments
Can't wait to see what you have in mind for the Fire Emblem NTR! I've only played like one other game like it (the crown princess Leane 2 game, that is now one of my all time favs!) So super excited to see what youre gonna do with FENTR! :D
Arty
2022-08-28 16:50:27 +0000 UTCYou already can. It's on Cecily's green route. So the Princess needs to draw a green card during the initial kneeling in front of Cecily scenes.
Apollo Seven
2022-08-27 18:35:18 +0000 UTCI also subscribed for Naked Ambition and will continue supporting with the news of the hiatus. I just need to be assured that we will eventually get to futa dick down Adelin. :P
2022-08-27 11:37:42 +0000 UTCi originally subscribed for Naked Ambition, so i'm of course sad to hear that it's going on hiatus. But i'm open to see where Mountains of Friendship and FESNTR are going
Dyamonde
2022-08-27 01:21:45 +0000 UTCOriginally what was going to happen was Naked Ambition and TMW would both be wrapping up around November. Then Clothed Ambition would take over TMW's slot and ATMoF would take over Naked Ambition's slot. But that got kind of messed up by me deciding to Patron-ize Futa Oasis and Naked Ambition stalling out. So yeah until TMW is finished that's priority #1 with Futa Oasis standard monthly content update as #2. All other projects are just what I feel like doing. Then once TMW is done, Futa Oasis should be pretty fleshed out and ATMoF's art should be getting closer to done and that will be the main focus. If that game's a success then the monthly content update for that will take a lot of my time until I decide it's time to make the SFW version.
Apollo Seven
2022-08-27 00:58:51 +0000 UTCThanks for sticking around! I want to be honest about what I do and don't want to work on. It's not fair to my patrons if I just string Naked Ambition along, giving token updates every other month. So I felt just saying it was on hiatus so people don't have expectations is the fairest thing to do.
Apollo Seven
2022-08-27 00:53:25 +0000 UTCI think that's a great plan, and I'm glad you had the courage to open up to us, instead of bottling it up. So, to summarize what you said (I think), the 3 top priorities in the near future are 1) TMW for obvious reasons, 2) Futa Oasis, except for the card system, and 3) NTR S-RPG game, which is very promising. Then further into the future when TMW is complete, AtMoF takes that slot, and the 3 main priorities become 1) AtMoF, 2) Futa Oasis, and 3) NTR S-RPG. Those are all new, promising games, refined by the lessons learned from the previous games. The other games - TFCB, Naked Ambition, and AtMoF initially - can get some dev time, but they're really at the lower end of the priority, and NA is pretty much on hold, because it will need some dedicated time and focus. I think that's all fair. I'm excited to see the newer games!
acac
2022-08-27 00:24:04 +0000 UTCPersonally, I subscribed for Naked Ambition. Futa Oasis is cool but not 100% my thing. However I'm absolutely stoked for At the Mountains of Friendship! So, even with Naked Ambition being regulated to a Hiatus, I still plan to stick around. There's always the occasional Futa Oasis update to enjoy while I wait. Just one person's perspective.
Ellie
2022-08-26 21:58:14 +0000 UTC
