Flimsy
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Release Process
🕑 Added 2023-09-11 19:27:06 +0000 UTCWriting this post to give more context as to the mess that the past few weeks has been.
DLsite. The process with them has been very messy all throughout. For now I'll just talk about the main issue, which was the mess that was getting the game through their verification process.
I properly censored the game, and sent it to be reviewed. A few days later, they tell me they cannot sell it because there is an issue with the censorship. Needless to say, "There being an issue with the censorship" was a bit vague. Unfortunately, they refused to give any further details about what the actual issue was when asked about it. Was the censorship throughout the whole game not enough? Who knows. Were there perhaps a couple very specific images that weren't censored enough? Who knows. Was the issue something else? Who knows. So, without any hint or clue as to what I was supposed to fix, all I could do was increase the censorship throughout the whole game. Keep in mind that the process of re censoring the whole game takes some time. Well, I later sent it to revision again and a few days later it was denied again. Long story short, I ended up re censoring, tweaking various things, and then sending a new revised version of the game to be reviewed about 7 times. My patience had already ran out by the third attempt.
Things got even messier. As you can expect, DLsite tells you when your product fails the verification process, and why it failed. Great, by knowing that it didn't go through, and why, you can immediately start moving to make adjustments and send a revision of your product again. But for some reason DLsite thinks it's a good idea to not tell you about either of these things after the second revision of your product. "Should we tell him his game didn't pass the verification failed? Nah, he doesn't need to know that.", "Should we let him know if there have been any changes/improvements in what the issues are? Nah, that's not important.". Each attempt at the verification process alone already takes at least 3 work days, but cutting off the communication just further slowed down the process.
Anyhow, after multiple weeks of trying to work this out, the revision I sent a week ago was finally accepted today. I still have no clue of what the actual issue with the censorship was.
Another thing to add is that while doing the messy process of sending revisions over and over, along the way I unfortunately forgot to change the release date, and when this last revision got approved it was released immediately, hence why it can currently be purchased on DLsite.
Steam. There were definitely a few issues, but overall things were mostly smooth. The main issue was the time gating. With Steam, the earliest you can release your game after starting the process is based on two conditions: 1. 30 days after starting the process, 2. at least 2 weeks after setting a release date, meaning that when choosing an internal release date, the earliest date you can choose is 2 weeks from then. Great, the earliest you can release is 2 weeks later. In the meantime you can work on your page, fill out stuff, send your game and your store page to be approved, etc. Now, when your store page gets approved, you can choose when it goes live and is visible to the public. The issue here is that when it gets approved, a condition for the game to release is added, which is that the store page has to be publicly visible for at least two weeks for you to be able to release. I was a bit too focused on getting the DLsite stuff solved, and unfortunately didn't see this new time game until a few days ago.
Because of the Steam time games, the new release date will be set as the 20th of September for all 3 platforms. The good news is that everything should be done and approved on all 3 platforms. There should absolutely no longer be anything else that could go wrong.
Overall, the process was very messy. I mentioned the main issues, but there were many others. For some of them, I'm not sure if I just had some terrible luck. Others, such as the time gating with Steam, perhaps could've been avoided if I had done a bit more research.
I hope this can give context as to why the game has been delayed so many times in these past few weeks.
Who would've known that the finish line would be the most tedious and frustrating part?
I do apologize for this ranty post. This month has just been abysmal on this side of things.
Comments
Epiccam12
I'm so ready for release I even have the 20th off from work to play it
Anurabis
I don't even really care if non-patrons have earlier access to it. For me it would really just be enough if there were clear cut conditions which Patreons get the game. Cause "long time patreons" is a terribly vague and subjective condition.
Mr.Johnson
I understand that keys will be distributed to patrons who meet the requirements, but could you please clarify the conditions? I know that Filmsy said "More on this later." but now that it is available on DLsite, it is hard to resist the purchase opportunity that is right in front of us. I am very aware that this is not the type of release Flimsy wants and that this situation is not Flimsy's fault, but I honestly do not think it is a healthy situation for patrons to be slower to obtain the work than non-patrons.
