freshmulan
patreon
Post-Business
🕑 Added 2024-07-01 14:38:01 +0000 UTCHowdy! Me and Moana did a lot of thinking about the future of the game and came up with some changes that we’d like to announce here.
But first, I’d like to give you some context.
Moana is not my employee, Moana is an equal partner.
We make all decisions together and we split the income 50/50. Whenever we want to buy something for the game (like a background art or commission someone to write lewd text for an H-events) we chip in 50/50 as well.
While I started this game alone, Moana joined later when it appeared that there was indeed a demand for it, which was always the plan since I offered to make this game together with pretty much all my close friends back when I started. And there are still people I know, like and trust that could join the development if we’d have more budget.
Our shared dream and a goal with this project is to eventually release it on Steam, to grow and create our own little game dev company and to keep on working in this industry.
This dream heavily relies on us finishing Defenestration of course, but it’s evident to us that at this rate it won’t happen soon.
We can do absolutely anything, we have the skills and the will to keep on making Defenestration and plenty of ideas for future projects. In fact, we would like to release a shorter game that would use the art from Defenestration on Steam to test the waters (since Steam has 1-shot policy and if Defenestration gets rejected - that’s it) and we already found a separate programmer for that - another friend of ours with years of experience as a game-dev and a desire to work on games with us.
But, we can’t make that smaller game without compromising Defenestration, as it would most definitely take plenty of our attention and dev-time. Which is our one and only real obstacle - time.
Everything is just so time-consuming, all the variability, details, text, even my artstyle. We just don’t have time for everything and it often leads to some aspects of development suffering, usually we sacrifice the “management and communications”, turn on the “hermit mode”, and work on the game till it's done.
This dev philosophy just gets things done, but it always leads to frustration for everyone involved.
We become extremely nervous and stressed and I know that most of you don’t like it when we do this. Communication is important and we shouldn’t just neglect it every time some obstacle appears - so we’ll try to always post something, even if it means that the update will take longer to make.
We have dreams and ambitions, we want to keep on doing this, we have a ton of other interesting ideas and projects in mind, but it all depends on Defenestration being finished.
The only real obstacle is time, and it could be fixed with more people, with more budget. Commissioning lewd writers, commissioning art.
For example, I’d love for our game to have custom pixel art, for all our locations to be pretty and unique, but I just don’t have the time to do that - I have to draw events and characters. With a budget, we could hire an artist to do that for us and we’d love to do so.
With a budget, we could speed up things significantly and give you a better game.
We’re not under any illusions, we’re making a porn game, it’s meant to be erotic and fun little piece of entertainment to hopefully make your lifes a little bit brighter.
That does not mean that we’re not pouring our hearts and souls into the game. We just have no desire to preach anything to you, and we’re doing our best to prevent our personal struggles from affecting the game, at least to some extent.
There’s also things that are simply bigger than us, and I’d hate for the next part to come off as an excuse, but I simply feel like we have no other option. It affects the development, so it has to be mentioned.
So, in two words, we’re still in Ukraine and have no intention of leaving, but there certainly are some struggles and challenges - like the lack of electricity for example.
We remain optimistic and our spirits are high, but things can get rather difficult from time to time and it does hinder our development.
I want you all to know that we wholeheartedly believe that all of you are saints for supporting us and we are not asking for more.
Your emotional, creative and financial support is what keeps us going and we will forever be grateful for everything that you’ve done, especially for your faith in us and our little project.
But we do have dreams and we are really scared, so we’ve decided to de-list the 2$ tier.
This is not something we want to do, we just feel that we don’t have a choice if we want to survive and grow.
$2 tier will be given a “legacy” status and new patrons will not have access to it. It also will not be possible to switch to it or to resubscribe once you’ve halted subscription. For all patrons who will remain on $2 tier nothing will change, you will still receive all the rewards and you will remain on it if you wish to do so.
Our tier system hasn’t changed since launch and we’ve noticed that in comparison with similar developers we are missing out quite a lot.
Our production became pricier with years, especially being located in a country torn by war. In other words - we need to spend more and more time on game dev with each update (due to variability of our game) and it seems that we either need to prioritize our irl activities more or make gamedev earn its worth, it can’t be both. Sometimes we just have to make choices in favor of supporting ourselves.
Looking for excuses and whining is the last thing we’d want to do and it is highly condemned in our country, but we are where we are and we hope you will understand.
So, in short - No prices will be raised for you, no tier rewards will be taken from you. Like I’ve said, you all are doing more than enough and I would never just take you for granted and ask for more.
That said, going forward, it won’t be possible for anyone new to subscribe to the 2$ tier. It becomes a legacy tier that we will honor and maintain till the end of the development.
I like using patreon, it’s just convenient. I really hate all the censorship stuff, but it all comes from MasterCard and Visa. Patreon was pretty clear about that. I mean - they straight up said so in their email.
They also clarified that most censorship changes do not apply to drawn art, so we should be good. But you never know.
Which is why we’re launching alternative ways to access our content on Itch.io And SubscribeStar. (Pages are currently under review)
I’ll duplicate all my posts and polls on SubscribeStar and add up the results (in case of polls), and itch.io is just a one-time payment kind of deal, from what I understood.
We voiced our desire to get bigger and better, but what are we going to do about it?
For the last 3 years or so we’ve tried different approaches to updates and our overall schedule. We did small monthly updates which led to some people being upset because there wasn’t lots of content. We did huge updates that took us 6 months, which was upsetting to other people who didn’t want to wait. We also had trouble conducting impactful polls and interesting progress reports, since they take time to implement and prolong the waiting even further.
All things considered and drawing from our past experiences here’s what we came up with:
The schedule above is pretty much a combination of what we did in the past, but just the good parts. It has its own drawbacks, but if it works as intended - I think everyone will be happier.
So, from now on, we will keep working on our scheduled “major” updates, which are usually either too big or just technically difficult, while releasing smaller fast-updates in between them.
The content of said fast-updates will be up to you and here’s the current list of things we want to implement:
There’s currently a poll running, to determine what we should implement in our first “fast” update. But, for the next one, please give us your idea of what you’d like to see.
Just keep in mind that it all has to be easy to implement in order for this whole thing to work. Something that uses the existing art is preferable, but not strictly necessary. It also doesn’t have to be lewd.
As for the drawbacks of this - we know that this schedule would mean that the “major” update will come out later than it’s supposed to, since we will spend some time on fast ones. But the game needs small events as much as it needs bigger ones, so it all has to be done and we believe that it will result in a better experience.
Overall, things are fine, we remain optimistic and we’re hoping that the new update policy will result in a better development cycle.
We’ve been waiting to implement those changes for some time now, but it didn’t feel right, since you all were waiting for an update for so long. Thus, after the release we’ve decided to finally go through with it. We are hoping that you understand our reasoning for it.
We are immensely grateful for your support, both financial and moral, it means everything for us. I mean it - It really pushes us to keep on going when we know that there are 1000+ people that will enjoy another depraved joke, character or a quest that we come up with. Thank you!
That said, all of the things mentioned in this post are meant to give you a better idea of what we want and what we have. We’re also trying to take some necessary steps in order to not just survive, but grow and finish the game faster. I really think and hope that this is for the better.
So, in summary:
-Soon there will be more ways to access our content
-The 2$ tier becomes a “legacy” tier (unlisted, but functional)
-We’re shaking up our whole update policy with major/fast releases
-From now one there will be regular polls to determine the content of "fast" updates
Here’s the first content poll, in case you missed the notification:
Fast Update Content Poll (click me)
As for the major update - We’re currently working on the pole events, but we will switch to work on the winner of the poll to make the first “fast” update. Since the pole update will definitely take some time to be completely finished.
Once again, big thank you to every single one of you, none of this would've been possible without you and we sincerely appreciate everything you’ve done for us! The end is near!
Comments
Mahnaemisjeff
Well dev didn't share it around much, so I don't blame you.
V
Oh, I didn't realize that
Mahnaemisjeff
Ukraine
V
Which country?
Mahnaemisjeff
Could be tomorrow could be middle of September, don't forget dev lives in the country ravaged by war and planned black outs are norm now.
V
Do you know when the next update will be out?
Mahnaemisjeff
Can't wait to see what both of you are cooking.
Darth Najida
Thanks for the post and the sincere words, I will do everything possible to help the development of the game, for what I will also succeed financially every month and in any case I am happy that you are looking for other places to avoid censorship... also I like the idea of the Fast updates, with pool, and Major updates. Thanks for everything in the meantime and good work, May the Force be with You and Long live Defenestration and Long live Ukraine 💪💖💖
Mahnaemisjeff
Okay I think I distracted you more than I should, anyway Godspeed and may the force be with you.
Fresh Mulan
It will be a rather challenging task with the overhaul I have in mind for it, and adding it now would just add more unfinished content into the game, since we will work on Vivarium and some other quests before fully committing to the movies arc. Plus, it significantly boosts Kira’s fame, so we also need a fame stat overhaul. It’s definitely more fit to be a “major” update and we will do it at some point, I just don’t think now is the time for it.
Mahnaemisjeff
I don't think it'll fit "fast update" category, but return of the Mosfilm branch would be nice.
Anna Gancarz
I know you guys don't like releasing updates that break previous saves, but that can't always be helped, so you shouldn't stress too much about that.
Fresh Mulan
Thank you, I agree, we do need to upgrade our rewards overall and we already have a few ideas, including a new tier between 10 and 50. As for the 2$ tier being unlisted, we honestly don’t know whether or not this is a good idea and we kind of just copied other devs, not to mention that when I created a SubscribeStar page, it straight-up recommended setting the lowest tier to 5$. Fortunately, it can be added back if this idea doesn’t work out. Or maybe we’ll make a new 2$ tier that just gives access to the post, time will tell.
Mahnaemisjeff
You know Engels I think you're up to something
EngelsPringles
Appreciate the candid status update, I think it's helpful in showing us that the team is still committed. With that in mind, I do question whether removing the $2 tier will have have the results the team is hoping for. Even though it doesn't seem like it, $5 is a pretty large ask for people that are just coming across the game and are interested in seeing how the development is coming along. Has the team considered a lower tier that would give access to a good chunk less than the higher tiers? Like a tier that doesn't get access to posts with art or polls, and gets access to game updates only when the next one has released for higher patrons. It still allows newcomers to assess and decide whether they want to stick around, while also further incentivizing the higher tiers. In all honesty, all of the tiers could probably use an overhaul. As it stands the only difference between the $5 tier and $10 tier is buying more democracy, and the jump from $10 to $50 feels like there is a probably a monetary milestone somewhere between that is worth capitalizing on. It is quite ironic discussing how to maximize capital on a game about the Soviet Union though lol. Good luck on the coming Fast Updates.
Mahnaemisjeff
No worries if there's will there's a way. Discontinuing 2$ tier sucks, but it is what it is, I have faith in you guys hopefully the new method will be efficient enough. Can't wait for full release
GManSith
Agreed and same action on my part. I'm more than happy to let you give us a complete game
JC
Thanks for this post, Mulan - we like sharing in the victories, but want to know the struggles and obstacles as well. I've been supporting this for 5 years now, and I'm not alone; you're stuck with us degenerates. I have moved up a tier to back that up. We will see this complete - Godspeed, Supreme Leader!
