- Jan 5, 2023
- 938
- 2,172
In Renpy I always select Unseen text in Preferences/Options and that way I can just hit tab to start and stop easily. Same as the Auto feature but far easier to use and gives you more granular control.
- Thread starter JustXThings
- Start date
- Sep 28, 2017
- 2,100
- 5,766
My wrists are kinda fucked up so I like to just sit back and watch the game go like a movie with the autoplay. With skipping I still need to be manually interacting.
So I do not use it to skip stuff. Just fiddle with the speed until I am comfortable with it and let it play itself.
- Dec 6, 2021
- 496
- 682
No idea, sadly the last thing he said was that he would be off social media, the only thing left is to wait.
I don't know if it helps you, but you can change the skip speed to any desired level so that it feels like autoplay.
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- Sep 3, 2022
- 18,029
- 146,146
- May 22, 2022
- 210
- 1,215
Hi Sinners !
Long time without writing and six months since last release. Time sure flies. This won't be a "happy" update for those who like the game, but I feel people liking The Theater deserve the transparency. It won't be sad either, just a tad disappointing.
1) The game is being developed. No buts. I still sit every day and write, do my renders and advance the story. It's fun.
2) I have enough content to make a release which would be roughly the same size as 0.3.alpha. Content is also pretty good IMO.
But here the disappointing part. There won't be any release in the short / mid term. Why is that ?
Mainly two reasons.
1. The release cycle makes the development of this game exponentially more complicated.
In typical release cycles you add enough content to make a release and keep your player base "happy". The content is linear and most of the story lines don't affect each other. The effort of writing is mostly linear, since the routes don't interact. I experienced this while writing Clara BitterSweet. Simple plot, only two character growths to explore (Clara, her dad), simple to write.
In the Theater of Sinners all stories are interleaved and there are certain milestones that need to happen. Those milestones require the participating character to have the appropriate state of mind to make the interaction "believable". Because the plot advances in several timelines and perspectives. I can't just freely write events which look good and call it a day, everything needs to be cohesive.
I have literally rewritten the event I am working on right now several times to make it fit future shown events. More than one month "lost". Not literally, since the event keeps growing (583 renders as today) and its quality improving. But it is a bit taxing having to discard good ideas because it breaks the already shown timeline.
So, this is the first reason. It makes my life as a story teller a bit more miserable, because I can't backtrack to a shown event and adapt it to the new ideas.
2. Motivation.
This is a hobby. I have been writing for myself since I was a very little kid and 'The Theater of Sinners' is an adaptation of some stories I had written long ago. Some sort of horror + love + sex genre if that's a thing. I added porn and made it a porn game because I like porn games and I was a bit disappointed in how games were kind of a collection of unrelated sexual events, a weird hentai'sh progression (hj, bj, sex, anal) or some cliche'ish relationship simulators with contextual stories. There are great games out there, don't get me wrong. Just not exactly what I was looking for.
At some point I got a bit greedy seeing how much some developers make. Blame the Steam boom =D Not the 'I want to make money out of this' kind, but the 'wouldn't it be nice if I could pay for some electricity bills' kind. I try aligning the greed with my own morals by not delivering 'promises' for money (which is how I understand subscription model) and opening 'Clara BitterSweet', a finished projects, for donations. That didn't go well, so I just accepted that this is a hobby that costs me money and moved on.
But that created the real issue. I am quite a "no fucks given" person. But I inadvertidly created a platform to measure the success of my own work. And let me tell you, it is bad =D Clara BitterSweet was fucking horrific but The Theater of Sinners is much worse (I am not talking about money, I am talking about clicks, etc). I could make ten thousand excuses as why... the genre, the style, the darkness. But the reality is they are both unpopular because of my own shortcomings and that's all. So even if knowing whether what I write is good or not won't stop me from writing. Knowing people don't give a fuck doesn't help my motivation to write publicly so to say =D
In fact, I noticed that after the last two releases I had several weeks were my writing was too dark and I would keep obsessing a little bit about the 'clicks or whatever'. I know it would start again if I were to release and I don't want to have to come to terms with the unpopularity again.
----
Well, this took much longer than I thought. I am a bit sorry for the people who like the Theater, since it will be still be a while until I release something. I will probably release the whole season one all together somewhen this year. A man can dream =D I am genuinely sorry for the people who like this and were waiting for a sooner release.
Topic tags and so on (regarding abandoned). This site has its own rules, so if the project is tagged so be it. No need to take my word if not willing too. It is plenty of threads with devs saying A but doing B actually, so I understand the general lack of trust.
Long time without writing and six months since last release. Time sure flies. This won't be a "happy" update for those who like the game, but I feel people liking The Theater deserve the transparency. It won't be sad either, just a tad disappointing.
1) The game is being developed. No buts. I still sit every day and write, do my renders and advance the story. It's fun.
2) I have enough content to make a release which would be roughly the same size as 0.3.alpha. Content is also pretty good IMO.
But here the disappointing part. There won't be any release in the short / mid term. Why is that ?
Mainly two reasons.
1. The release cycle makes the development of this game exponentially more complicated.
In typical release cycles you add enough content to make a release and keep your player base "happy". The content is linear and most of the story lines don't affect each other. The effort of writing is mostly linear, since the routes don't interact. I experienced this while writing Clara BitterSweet. Simple plot, only two character growths to explore (Clara, her dad), simple to write.
In the Theater of Sinners all stories are interleaved and there are certain milestones that need to happen. Those milestones require the participating character to have the appropriate state of mind to make the interaction "believable". Because the plot advances in several timelines and perspectives. I can't just freely write events which look good and call it a day, everything needs to be cohesive.
I have literally rewritten the event I am working on right now several times to make it fit future shown events. More than one month "lost". Not literally, since the event keeps growing (583 renders as today) and its quality improving. But it is a bit taxing having to discard good ideas because it breaks the already shown timeline.
So, this is the first reason. It makes my life as a story teller a bit more miserable, because I can't backtrack to a shown event and adapt it to the new ideas.
2. Motivation.
This is a hobby. I have been writing for myself since I was a very little kid and 'The Theater of Sinners' is an adaptation of some stories I had written long ago. Some sort of horror + love + sex genre if that's a thing. I added porn and made it a porn game because I like porn games and I was a bit disappointed in how games were kind of a collection of unrelated sexual events, a weird hentai'sh progression (hj, bj, sex, anal) or some cliche'ish relationship simulators with contextual stories. There are great games out there, don't get me wrong. Just not exactly what I was looking for.
At some point I got a bit greedy seeing how much some developers make. Blame the Steam boom =D Not the 'I want to make money out of this' kind, but the 'wouldn't it be nice if I could pay for some electricity bills' kind. I try aligning the greed with my own morals by not delivering 'promises' for money (which is how I understand subscription model) and opening 'Clara BitterSweet', a finished projects, for donations. That didn't go well, so I just accepted that this is a hobby that costs me money and moved on.
But that created the real issue. I am quite a "no fucks given" person. But I inadvertidly created a platform to measure the success of my own work. And let me tell you, it is bad =D Clara BitterSweet was fucking horrific but The Theater of Sinners is much worse (I am not talking about money, I am talking about clicks, etc). I could make ten thousand excuses as why... the genre, the style, the darkness. But the reality is they are both unpopular because of my own shortcomings and that's all. So even if knowing whether what I write is good or not won't stop me from writing. Knowing people don't give a fuck doesn't help my motivation to write publicly so to say =D
In fact, I noticed that after the last two releases I had several weeks were my writing was too dark and I would keep obsessing a little bit about the 'clicks or whatever'. I know it would start again if I were to release and I don't want to have to come to terms with the unpopularity again.
----
Well, this took much longer than I thought. I am a bit sorry for the people who like the Theater, since it will be still be a while until I release something. I will probably release the whole season one all together somewhen this year. A man can dream =D I am genuinely sorry for the people who like this and were waiting for a sooner release.
Topic tags and so on (regarding abandoned). This site has its own rules, so if the project is tagged so be it. No need to take my word if not willing too. It is plenty of threads with devs saying A but doing B actually, so I understand the general lack of trust.
- Aug 5, 2016
- 4,669
- 12,613
Share your stories in Literotica or add some renders to them and share them here. That way the wait would be less painful
- Oct 13, 2016
- 3,432
- 7,164
I can't see this game worse than anything else we have. and I mean those "top-scored" games. its a quality game for sure. and I like it.
now with the critics.
I do feel the story could be less complicated. I enjoy a linear story with some choices, but this is complex, with timelines, multiple characters that unlock something for another character etc. even if this is something great, it can make the experience for the player a bit stressful. we are almost going into sandbox-feelings here.
even so, I always say that the most important thing is the motivation and freedom for the DEV. u should do what u enjoy the most even if theres people that don't agree or don't like it.
now with the critics.
I do feel the story could be less complicated. I enjoy a linear story with some choices, but this is complex, with timelines, multiple characters that unlock something for another character etc. even if this is something great, it can make the experience for the player a bit stressful. we are almost going into sandbox-feelings here.
even so, I always say that the most important thing is the motivation and freedom for the DEV. u should do what u enjoy the most even if theres people that don't agree or don't like it.
- Jul 12, 2020
- 7,938
- 17,573
You do you...as long as you're well. This is one of the better VN's about but yeah, it's a little more niche, but that's why I like it. If an update comes it comes, if not, so be it. Not going to complain about time etc.
You take care man, hope to see more later in the year.
- May 8, 2022
- 1,292
- 2,059
JustXThings
true is dark and with femdom undertones but is hot as fuck.
Some people are kinda wishy about female MCs so that is the big hurdle. but good luck!
true is dark and with femdom undertones but is hot as fuck.
Some people are kinda wishy about female MCs so that is the big hurdle. but good luck!
- Jan 29, 2018
- 243
- 406
My two cents. The way you're developing the game is unnecessarily complicated. Obviously it's your game, and it's your decision. But if most developers make their games with a linear script, it's for a reason.
This is not the case because you don't have a patreon or anything like that, but if it were the case, I personally would never become a patron of a game like that. Simply because it is obvious that the development of this game is going to be extremely slow.
Now, don't take my criticism the wrong way. To me, your game seems like one of the best around here. Especially Paula's scenes with her neighbor that are fucking hot. However, in my opinion, the game would be just as good with a more typical design approach. And the development would be simpler and more fluid.
This is not the case because you don't have a patreon or anything like that, but if it were the case, I personally would never become a patron of a game like that. Simply because it is obvious that the development of this game is going to be extremely slow.
Now, don't take my criticism the wrong way. To me, your game seems like one of the best around here. Especially Paula's scenes with her neighbor that are fucking hot. However, in my opinion, the game would be just as good with a more typical design approach. And the development would be simpler and more fluid.
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Thanks for sharing your plan and feelings about your game. IMHO, your arts including writing and renders are exceptional and something I have enjoyed so much. I understand what you are feeling about your game's popularity. A creator should do what he wants to do for his creativity.
One question: If you really care about game's popularity, why do you plan to decrease game's exposure to public? There have been many people asking you about your patreon or subscribestar site that would increase the exposure, you didn't even respond.
Wish you nothing but happiness.
- Jan 29, 2018
- 243
- 406
In my opinion, if the game is not more popular, it's simply because of its slow development. I mean, look at the scores. Almost everything is 5 stars because it is an excellent game. The problem? That many people simply don't know that this game exists. And why? Well, because they don't see it. There are many people who visit the forum once a week or less and, by then, it's very likely that when they search for a game with their fetish, it will already be on the second page. And we all know that almost no one looks at the second pages in a search engine.
How many updates has this game had in almost two years? Three? Four? The chances that the possible target of this game will see it are greatly reduced.
There are developers who start very strong, with updates every 15 days or a month and, when the game already has a certain popularity, they slow down. There the damage is less, because you have already created a "fan base" that follows the game, and they will receive a notification when someone comments on it (which with exceptions in very popular games, is usually when the game has been updated) .
How many updates has this game had in almost two years? Three? Four? The chances that the possible target of this game will see it are greatly reduced.
There are developers who start very strong, with updates every 15 days or a month and, when the game already has a certain popularity, they slow down. There the damage is less, because you have already created a "fan base" that follows the game, and they will receive a notification when someone comments on it (which with exceptions in very popular games, is usually when the game has been updated) .
- Apr 25, 2020
- 4,542
- 12,357
Good point but that's not the only issue imo. Furthermore it's become tougher and tougher to make a lasting good impression. Female MC are less popular and the game has a peculiar narration structure (not linear). Also the dev said from the start it's just a hobby and don't really ask for support. It's commendable because you won't become a milker when motivation is not there anymore, but less incentive to produce regular content as we can see.
Hi there, so good to hear of you again! But yeah, no happy update.
one of the best visual novel I have ever gotten my hands on! Not that I am a famous critic, but rating texts (expecially their logical functionality) is one of my tasks at work. I have a higher academical grade and at least some eye for visuals. I don't want to brag about this, but I think this gives me a good starting ground to asses a linguistic text to some extent.
Your writing skills are far better than most professional erotic writers and on par with many good professional genereal writers. I could spend hours to praise your games (and you know I already did to some extent).
If your games are not that popular, it is not even partially due to a lack of abilities on your side. There are three possible and possibly interwoven reasons for it:
1) Most of the people would not even recocnize the abilities of a masterpiece-writer of the century. They are stupid and long for trivial fruits.
2) Your games are missing inertia - fame is build on fame. If you have no followers, nobody will follow you. The people simply don't know about your game. Many half-as-good-as-you-developers are on Steam and Patreon not because they like it there, but it comes with a big user-base. Luckily for us, but bad for your fame is the fact that your games are to dark for this platforms. But you should not chance an inch in order to meet their vanilla-standards.
3) Your update-cycles are a bit slow, but this is not the most important, I think. There are also some thought by others about this point.
For real: Usually, I forget about a game and it's content if it isn't updated every month or every other month. But with your game, I find myself hoping for an update every time I check f95 for quite some time now. You really made an impact on my with your great development.
If you ever feel down, just tell me and I will write you what I love about your games. I promise one thing, though: I won't lie just to make you feel good - every praise is the truth.
But nevertheless: This is one thing that makes your games so special: You really get them quite perfect and are willing to scrifice a loit for good scenes - not the opposite like some of your "comeptition" "Hey, an anal scene is due - how can I bend the story to fit it in?"
Then, you can restart the Theater freshend up.
But no, this is no sandbox feeling. Remember, a sandbox game is a game where they promise you what JustXThings delivers, but all the events soon feel out of sync. At one location, the MC of other games sucks and fucks like a whore, while at the same chaper in a different region, she is shy like a non when it comes to kissing. It feels well ment and badly done most of the time.
But if I understand JustXThings correctly, the core of his text is him being hurt by having accidently allowed his skills to be measured (even though I think this is a wrong conclusion) and seeing that his game is not that popular. So I can understand that being active here but just getting some minor praise might feel a little underwhelming. That's why I would want to lift up his head for him and give him some hugs and cuddles to bring him out of frustration. The game is a masterpiece - but people do not always recocnize masterpieces.
I really wish I knew were you are living because I would go to you and give you a good slapping (verbally or even physically) for saying something like this! Man, you are writing
Your writing skills are far better than most professional erotic writers and on par with many good professional genereal writers. I could spend hours to praise your games (and you know I already did to some extent).
If your games are not that popular, it is not even partially due to a lack of abilities on your side. There are three possible and possibly interwoven reasons for it:
1) Most of the people would not even recocnize the abilities of a masterpiece-writer of the century. They are stupid and long for trivial fruits.
2) Your games are missing inertia - fame is build on fame. If you have no followers, nobody will follow you. The people simply don't know about your game. Many half-as-good-as-you-developers are on Steam and Patreon not because they like it there, but it comes with a big user-base. Luckily for us, but bad for your fame is the fact that your games are to dark for this platforms. But you should not chance an inch in order to meet their vanilla-standards.
3) Your update-cycles are a bit slow, but this is not the most important, I think. There are also some thought by others about this point.
For real: Usually, I forget about a game and it's content if it isn't updated every month or every other month. But with your game, I find myself hoping for an update every time I check f95 for quite some time now. You really made an impact on my with your great development.
If you ever feel down, just tell me and I will write you what I love about your games. I promise one thing, though: I won't lie just to make you feel good - every praise is the truth.
I feel bad for you. This must have been hard. Maybe you could fit it into an "outtakes"-section (like a gallery)?
But nevertheless: This is one thing that makes your games so special: You really get them quite perfect and are willing to scrifice a loit for good scenes - not the opposite like some of your "comeptition" "Hey, an anal scene is due - how can I bend the story to fit it in?"
If you enjoyed it, why don't you give yourself some "vacation" from writing the Theater of Sinners once in a while? Why not make another unlerated short story every three or six months? You were incredibly fast with Clara and the game sported most of your to features.
Then, you can restart the Theater freshend up.
Talking about donations: I already "bought" Theater of Sinners some while ago. I am no more offered a way to buy it at itch. Is there any other possibility to send you money? I would like to "redonate" some.
Yes, I think the non-linearity is just the cherry on top of the cake, but if the developer seems to be a little overwhelmed about the story-spred, dropping this feature could release a lot of time with only a minor sacrisfice of game mechanics.
But no, this is no sandbox feeling. Remember, a sandbox game is a game where they promise you what JustXThings delivers, but all the events soon feel out of sync. At one location, the MC of other games sucks and fucks like a whore, while at the same chaper in a different region, she is shy like a non when it comes to kissing. It feels well ment and badly done most of the time.
I would see some minor skimps, but no, nothing major.
Also a good point. Instead of saying "No more comments here for some while" I would suggest to stay active here in order to generate more publicy for the game.
But if I understand JustXThings correctly, the core of his text is him being hurt by having accidently allowed his skills to be measured (even though I think this is a wrong conclusion) and seeing that his game is not that popular. So I can understand that being active here but just getting some minor praise might feel a little underwhelming. That's why I would want to lift up his head for him and give him some hugs and cuddles to bring him out of frustration. The game is a masterpiece - but people do not always recocnize masterpieces.
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Female corruption games are VERY popular. There are other fairly dark ones like this and Clara with plenty of people following them. And your choice of female innocent looks (Clara/Paula) plus darker tone would be very popular with more exposure and a simpler structure imho. There are plenty of darker games here that are popular.
Basically, if you want to be more popular, you kinda have to cater to what is popular: A simple dark single protagonist female MC game.
This game obviously has a different approach and me personally, I also enjoy Paulas story more than the other one in ToS since it follows the structure I mentioned above. My preference would just be the whole game being focused on Paula tbh, and I think many would agree based on what female protag games are popular. The female lead in the other path is a bit much for me and honestly, both paths feel like they should be 2 different games with different thematics. The Paula path is great tho.
Most male players probably dont really want to play as an evil female MC that tortures other women. There needs to be some kind of twist to it at some point. Even just her dominating male characters instead would probably attract more interest (which would also make more sense with an abusive father). Or if she was a side character who would interact with/dominate Paula instead of a 2nd lead, which is something you did in the Clara One off aswell. The dark tone isnt the problem, just the implementation imho. The focus should be on one playable character for wide appeal, then you are basically free to incorporate the character any way you want.
The Clara one off was praised from what I can remember, but at the end of the day it was only a relatively short one off - many people wont even bother downloading a Demo/One off with limited content. The Clara game (or Paula game) with a fleshed out story and regular Updates would be pretty popular imho. The writing certainly wasnt the issue, just that it was fairly short and clearly indicated as completed short game and not an Intro or Verson 0.1. If your main takeaway from that game was that something like this wouldnt be popular, then that takeaway is wrong imho.
And well, as others have said, regular Updates build a following and support. Thats the biggest issue. Many games use smaller Updates early to be on the frontpage more often and show as recently Updated. While many players prefer to play a 1k Render Update, for a Dev without an established base making smaller more frequent Updates is actually beneficial.
A Clara style game or one like the Paula Path should be what you should focus on if you want to get it to the next level imho. I think you were on the right Path with that game and should focus on this going forward, either with a 2nd game or for Season 2 of ToS.
Basically, if you want to be more popular, you kinda have to cater to what is popular: A simple dark single protagonist female MC game.
This game obviously has a different approach and me personally, I also enjoy Paulas story more than the other one in ToS since it follows the structure I mentioned above. My preference would just be the whole game being focused on Paula tbh, and I think many would agree based on what female protag games are popular. The female lead in the other path is a bit much for me and honestly, both paths feel like they should be 2 different games with different thematics. The Paula path is great tho.
Most male players probably dont really want to play as an evil female MC that tortures other women. There needs to be some kind of twist to it at some point. Even just her dominating male characters instead would probably attract more interest (which would also make more sense with an abusive father). Or if she was a side character who would interact with/dominate Paula instead of a 2nd lead, which is something you did in the Clara One off aswell. The dark tone isnt the problem, just the implementation imho. The focus should be on one playable character for wide appeal, then you are basically free to incorporate the character any way you want.
The Clara one off was praised from what I can remember, but at the end of the day it was only a relatively short one off - many people wont even bother downloading a Demo/One off with limited content. The Clara game (or Paula game) with a fleshed out story and regular Updates would be pretty popular imho. The writing certainly wasnt the issue, just that it was fairly short and clearly indicated as completed short game and not an Intro or Verson 0.1. If your main takeaway from that game was that something like this wouldnt be popular, then that takeaway is wrong imho.
And well, as others have said, regular Updates build a following and support. Thats the biggest issue. Many games use smaller Updates early to be on the frontpage more often and show as recently Updated. While many players prefer to play a 1k Render Update, for a Dev without an established base making smaller more frequent Updates is actually beneficial.
A Clara style game or one like the Paula Path should be what you should focus on if you want to get it to the next level imho. I think you were on the right Path with that game and should focus on this going forward, either with a 2nd game or for Season 2 of ToS.
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" Most male players probably dont really want to play as an evil female MC that tortures other women. "
Honestly i'm mostly here for that one.
Honestly i'm mostly here for that one.