Yes, this has become a habit for me, mostly because I am incompetent at evaluating how long writing something takes. I can probably fix this with more writing experience, but at the moment, I am a newbie writer in over his head. I have this wrongheaded idea that I can superman my way through a large amount of writing if I just do long hours and concentrate enough, but it doesn't seem to be working and I need better planning and logistics to my work.
My current plan is to just keep working past the 29th until the V2 content is finished. No eyeballed ambiguous release dates, just work until the V2 download suddenly pops up on the blog. This should have been the original release plan, but I keep getting caught on my own hype.
To illustrate how large the V2 update is, I've put together a quick list of V2 stats and comparisons to V1 content.
V1 content word count 100k
V2 content word count 67k
To illustrate the size of the word count, the first Harry Potter book was 77k words long. The work on V2 started after 1.12 update so I have worked on V2 142 days, which averages to 3.3k words a week, lower than I'd like but I am also illustrating and programming the game.
The V1 dialogue word count for Shyni was roughly 16k words,
A new character in V2 is Nkaanmykiunsuns. She has roughly 19k words.
I'm a very terse writer in terms of descriptions and other writing embellishments, so most of the words are there to drive branching and interactivity in the dialogue.
All these characters have new content in V2 (to various degrees):
- Miggpli
- Taulsol
- Tornoth
- Shyni
- Witch
- Punflen
- Caenemung
- Bykaas
- Breirb
The feral characters have also received a general update to their sex scenes (including the missing m/m scenes).
V2 has several new characters (non-feral):
- Nkaanmykiunsuns
- Noidu
- unrevealed character 1
- unrevealed character 2
- unrevealed character 3
The update features new locations on the map and a few new ferals.
V2 has quadrupled the world map art resolution along with a redone/polished look. The playable area is slightly increased with a smallish new area on the worldmap. The update features a very modest amount of items and other directly gameplay related things, as V3 will include the code/UI/combat/systems revamp update that will shake up the combat and general game feel.
I hope V2 has a route where everyone becomes shyni, including the player. Just imagine shyni's sauna scene except you're also shyni so not only is it hot lesbian sex it's also selfcest. Then tornoth barges in but he's also shyni so she joins in and it becomes a threesome. You leave to go wash your palette by going out into the woods and raping animals but all of them have been changed into shyni's in fursuits roleplaying as the animal she's dressed as.
ReplyDeleteYeah, thats my dream game.
Yes, it was expected :(
ReplyDeleteI'm content with the wait since, the Witch will finally have content!
ReplyDeleteoh, indeed
DeleteYou can write anything you like about the work done, you can judge only after V2 comes out, it may be better to release the content in small portions, rather than delay for several months another incomprehensible update, which most likely will not be 29, patience for a long time is not enough - google translator
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the insane amount of work you have put into this. Just release it when its done, don't worry about dates.
ReplyDeleteHow release dates generally work for everyone else is A: They have a massive team behind them and a publisher cracking a whip or B: They don't make a release date until they are actually ready to release and all that is left is a little polish here and there. Either way don't get discouraged, the work may be slow but it is good, if half of creators (Both professional and amateur) put their hearts into it rather than rushed for that golden release date we'd be living in a world saturated with far better things. Also creator burnout is far more common for the rush to meet release dates and I'd much rather have someone who makes great things at their own pace than rush out a chunk and then just quit. Keep up the good work Meandraco, it's genuinely unique and well made.
ReplyDeleteDraco do us all a favor and upload some small chunks of finished shit, we've been blueballed for the past two weeks.
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe good things take time, so you have my support!
ReplyDeleteAs long as it releases before Winds of Winter, i'll be happy c:
ReplyDeleteSo, with my calculations, we need to wait 10 (+/- 2) weeks. I suppose...
ReplyDeleteHey you go ahead and take all the time you need to get this right, as Shigeru Miyamoto himself said, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"
ReplyDeleteTake your time. Your work is unique and worth of waiting.
ReplyDeleteAt least give us a smaller update to tide us over!
ReplyDeletetake your time, we can wait, whats a few more weeks.
ReplyDeletehave you ever though of doing smaller updates instead of one huge update ?
The delay was a bit expected, but with what I have seen so far any extra wait will be worth it!
ReplyDeleteThough I would ask that you consider picking up your Twitter again, even sporadic updates on what is being worked on really helps~
indeed, i knew it was going to go past the 29th so i wasn't getting too excited.
Deleteyeah i hope he starts back to using twitter for updates, the last one was from the 4th.
he needs reported
ReplyDeletethat Henry Von Frompf person needs reported
ReplyDeleteI'm just happy to have some news, I love this stuff as one of the problems I have with most "monster" girls is that they're not that monstrous, little more than Star Trek "aliens" generally.
ReplyDeleteOne thing of great interest to me is that Caenemung is listed in the updated "characters".
"All these characters have new content in V2 (to various degrees):
Caenemung"
For those of you that don't remember Caenemung is the Giant Serpent in Breirb's cave which makes me wonder if Caenemung is a "Talker", would explain why a large predator like that doesn't kill or eat the Player when/if they lose the fight.
Extremely excited for new content. In all honesty I went into this game with low expectations. I thought "oh great. Chances are that every fucking alien is going to look humanoid and even if they aren't all they'll do is fuck." But I was overwhelmed with the amount of content that was offered. Played it for four horns to get every little thing. First of all you have variety want to fuck a bug like thing? done. What about a gorgeous horned lady? done or hell a feral beast. To be honest I wasn't entertained just with the sex scenes I loved getting to know these characters. They feel real and so does the world. I have a huge respect for 18+ games that make sex feel like an option rather than a goal. Before V2 comes out I guess I'll give my critique.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I felt a bit annoyed with the menu. Not what's there already but how to access it. Maybe there's a way I don't know about that allows you to see it but I didn't enjoy going to the world map constantly to save. If you're worried about it killing a scene have an option to hide the menu or have a very small icon in the bottom corner of the screen.
My next problem is most likely going to fixed in the future but I felt like some scenes with intense atmosphere were lacking audio to accompany it. Not saying I need to hear shit like someone having an orgasm but rather any time someone chuckled or the sounds from the background. Chances are that music and audio is planned for the future and I hope so. During the wooden bowl scene I was blown away by the text and imaginary, I actually felt tense and I think having some audio to combined with other factors would make anyone horrified especially when it comes to the worse outcome.
That's all I have to say for now, good luck!!
UPDATE: My computer might of failed to process the music during the download. I have found theme music but it doesn't play on my computer
Deletebeen checking daily to see if v2 launched, its starting to become ingrained into me to the point im not going to know what to do once v2 launches
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Delete@JesterHell999 ahhhh wot
Deletei think Meandraco should either disable comments, or enable Comment Moderation.
DeleteI have to ask, are you still working on content that was planned for the July 29th release or have you expanded upon what was planned?
ReplyDeleteI mean the more content the better I'm just wondering if you've added to what was planned, had writer block, had personal matters surface or if your first estimated release date was really a few weeks/month off?
i have to wonder the same
DeleteI have a day job and other obligations I have to attend to on a daily basis. Most of the work has been on the promised features, and last new "content" additions were added/started two months ago. The writing is surprising amount of work because of its non-linear nature.
DeleteThank you for the reply, so the final/max Patreon goal is to make Teraurge your "day" job then?
DeleteI have few questions that are more about content then development.
I have an idea for a Hive Mind character inspired by Phylla (ant-queen) from CoC, the Rachni Queen from Mass Effect and hive mind government type from Stellaris, one character with "multiple" bodies because of the fact they/it/her is actually a "single" Hive Mind creature.
As it stands I'm working out the biology and sociology of the them and how/why they exist but I'm also wondering about their place in the Teraurge setting and if they even fit, so my questions are as follows.
1. Do hive minded creatures exist in Teraurge.
2. If they do what is their nature, e.g. group minded (many minds connected) or overmind (one mind many bodies).
3. Do psychics exist in Teraurge.
4. Are psychics magical in nature or are psychics separate from from magic (because magic is rare).
5. If 99.999% of creatures are "native" what is the number of witch summons in the world.
I just hope there's more content with the bowl if you decide to take it, it could be interesting if you can use it against enemies like a berserker mode, or if you can force your enemies to want to... breed.
ReplyDeletethat would make things interesting
DeleteI second that. Although, I think it would be unlikely - we've already shattered the bowl into bits(well, some of us). I don't think its remains will be used in that way.
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ReplyDeleteYou're an odd man Henry. How do you like the game?
ReplyDeleteGet your shit together!
ReplyDeleteMany authors(especially on patreon) stay strict to their release dates. It is not just a date to aspire to, no it is a date you post what you have at the moment. Finished or not - you can always fix it later, you'll have to fix something in any way.
Stop chasing fucking epic goals like Harry Fapper-like books. Stick to something smaller, something you can release every month or two. It will keep the people interested, it will attract more new patrons(read: money), and it will be less stressful - just work on your game and release what you have on a set date.
Get your shit together, Draco!
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DeletePeople don't seem to understand how hard it is to develop a game.
ReplyDeleteA quality scene may take a day for a single asset to be finished, weeks to piece the writing together and even more to make sure the game isn't going to come out unplayable.
His understatement regarding the date is inexcusable, even more with the people that are backing him up, but being a cunt won't speed the release date.
With luck we'll have Meanie learn from his mistake, supporting his work some more wouldn't hurt either.
Been awhile since i checked this place. Comments are gettin rowdy!
ReplyDeleteEverything alright?
he needs to enable comment moderation due to e certain someone in the comments.
DeleteMeandraco, it has been 12 days since the last bit of information from you, can you give us a new message with some information or even better an eta like 1 months or 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteThx for your work.
Edit 10 days since your last comment was the 12 August
DeleteI think Draco should release an early_beta for the public. So most of us can test the new functions, dialog...etc. and give feedback on the bugs and errors. Then he can add the fixed files as a patch till we reach V2.0... lets say 2-3 bigger-smaller patches should do.
ReplyDeleteMost studio with Early Access games on Steam doing this. Yes, sometimes they implementing something new which crashes everything so they must rollback and work on it again. But at least they keep the people updated and in hope that one day they will see the final release and the feeling that they are helping with the building of the game hand-in-hand with the developers.
My biggest concerns that because Draco isn't working with the fans and this Xeno subculture he will lose a lot of potential paying customer and this project will fade away eventually. I would gladly give him $100 now to publish something, the current state of the game, even with placeholders for the future artworks, or markers for the future dialog.
Just give us the hope that there is progress and you did not give up...
You have lost alot of patreons including me sorry but updates taking to long with long periods with no news
ReplyDeleteI understand the frustration of waiting, but you aren't losing anything people. Remember that.
ReplyDeleteMeandraco is just about the only person making content like this, he's doing it almost entirely alone and at his own time and expense. Currently his patreon is bringing him ~$410 a month with 100+ patrons. It isn't required to play the game. I pay Meandraco because I like what he does and I want him to create more. You can't squeeze the golden egg out of the goose. Fingers can only input so many kb of data so fast.
A self named novice of a coder has a hard time setting an ETA, where have I heard that one before? Pretty much any dev team I have ever payed attention to has had this happen and moreover. Patience, Grasshopper.
Take it easy dude, but take it!
@unknown
DeleteIt is not about him not writing anything, it is about him writing AND not showing anything. I know very well about that shield-phrase "patreon is a tip-jar, you're not hiring an artist to work on you, they own you nothing" and I have to disagree with this one. If it is just a tip-jar, than why bother with goals and patreon rewards, hm? That's not appreciation from an author, nor it is his "thank you", no. Say what you want, but patreon is business and a good business works both ways. He failed to deliver content on a date he set himself and he failed to uphold his own patreon reward of posting monthly pics. And that's why people are getting angry.
@avvava whoa! Cool down, man. I'm not too happy about all of this myself, but let's not throw shit at each other, ok?
There are plenty of content creators on patreon. It can't be a excuse that he is working alone, or this is thing's quaility is very high so this is take time or something like that.
ReplyDeleteThere are many people with good quaility stuff or solo working content creators, and still make their patreons happy and satisfied.
I love his work. but I think he is just lazy cuz whatever he show us his work or not, he still getting paid every month, like every other fucking garbage patreon host. that why he didnt even tell us when this is showing off.
Meandraco, if you really felt the appreciate of the people's donation and loving about your work. Just let us feel satisfied too. you know you already break your promise about date. plz not any more of those bullshit
I mean, updates from him are more regular and straightforward than many others i have seen, and as of yet has not done anything to earn this kind of ire.
DeleteUnless you have sufficient evidence proving that he is "like every other fucking garbage patreon host"/"just lazy"as you have put it, i think it might be prudent to calm down a bit?
(I think some of your hatred for other, *actually* despicable patreon creators is showing, just please do double check who you are aiming your words at)
and before you go calling me a "you stupid fanboi scumbag" as you have others, please do note:
I'm not even a Patreon of his, i'm just seeing how you are acting found it quite... *unique*...
"updates from him are more regular and straightforward than many others i have seen, and as of yet has not done anything to earn this kind of ire."
DeleteAre you for real? And how many have you seen?
What kind of updates are you talking about? If you mean his twitter - it is nothing really special.
And such a reaction is well-earned - he failed to stay true to his own deadlines more than once, he no longer posts his news updates you were talking about(at least, not weekly) and he failed his patrons with monthly rewards.
I think such a reaction is well deserved, don't you think? Or you're just another "marshmallow", who thinks that the only good feedback is a positive one?
Look at this in other way, his blog hasn't had so many comments since initial release. Besides, I can't remember any kind of negative comments before that - be they on twitter, patreon, blog or FA.
Such a spike in activity should tell you something, right?
seeing so much hate for Draco is making me rather sad and thinking these angry people don't understand that he probably has a job he has obligations for and a family be it a wife with child or parents and siblings that might be more important than churning out hot monster smut for the masses even if they are paying him as this is a side thing to do in his free time for the enjoyment of himself and others so stop hating people and if you aren't happy paying him then sit here quietly like the rest of us and wait even longer for free stuff he no longer has fan support of
ReplyDeletebut other than me being angry at the hate it is your money so your choice just had to speak up for meandraco somewhat
So... either "soft" criticism or nothing at all, that's what you're trying to tell?))
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Deleteno I am just saying the hate is pointless if it doesn't teach anything
DeleteYou know, I've checked this comment section at least three times and it would seem that we have very different views on what hate is.
DeletePoint me at least one comment where someone is hating on Draco, just one. Cursing? Name calling? I can't see anything.
Trolls like our Adolf? Who doesn't have trolls? Be thankful, we just have one and it is easy to ignore him.
Sarcasm like "we'll see v2 in 2099"? Ahem... so sarcasm is now considered to be hate speech?
What I saw is that many people are upset with another delay and suggestions for Draco to switch to smaller, but regular updates. Is that hate?
Only one who might have gone a little over board is avvava. Still, he didn't attack Draco with curses. He did attack other commenter and called unknown "fanboi scumbag". But, if we are to believe avvava, they are a patron and in way such reaction becomes understandable, rush, but still understandable. People tend to get violent when they spend money(even as small as 1-4$).
So, I can't really see any hate here. If there was hate, than we would see people screaming all over the place and harassing Draco witch titles like "sick bastard/pervert/weirdo".
If you really want to see hate, search for info about hate crusade against Seeds of Chaos and their NTR content.
I don't know I am just trying to not lose the best thing I have found on the internet to enjoy this much since Fenoxo and his buddies sextual adventures in corruption of champions and trials in tainted space and I like this far better as the aliens/monsters truly are monster looking and it is made by one guy and not very far along yet it even has a decent story coming along it seems like
DeleteIt seems like you finally converted Henry, good job MeanDraco.
ReplyDeleteAnd Henry thx for making me laugh ^^
ReplyDeleteYou were asking "how people set the deadlines for themselves?". Well, most of the time they release at least something when the time comes. Even if you did not finished what you wanted or supposed you, you should release at least something. That's one of the rules of business.
Also, hire yourself a manager or failing that - ask a friend to "push you in the ribs". You think you're the only one who has this problem with deadlines? 99% of all creative people have that, myself included. That's why we hire ourself a manager or ask a friend(s) to push us forward. Do you think we would ever see anything from LotR series if not for C. S. Lewis(the creator of Narnia, also a close friend and college of Tolkien's) poking huge iron pipe up Tolkien's ass so he would write at least a page a day? Find someone who would push you forward and also keep you from aiming for goals too epic for you.
Your maximalism - release everything or nothing - is your worst enemy. I've said it before, stick to smaller updates. The people are more willing to support someone with regular updates rather than someone with rare and sporadic ones.
Start with something small - 3-5k words and a pic or two, that's a decent amount of content and it gives you plenty of time to crash test it for bugs and typos. After that you can slowly start to enrich your updates with more content. Think of it as a workout. One doesn't start working out at a gym with something really heavy, no - you start with something light and then slowly build up yourself for top heavy. Slowly build up your regular updates until you reach your limit and will be able to tell yourself "yep, that's my top limit, I can't do more than that in a given period of time".
If you will stick to your usual updates, then you risk not only to lose your audience, but to lose interest in your creation itself. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
Huge like for this! 100% agree.
Deletei can't agree more.
DeleteQuite a handful of people are starting to get impatient, I can understand why. (I miss exploring Penisula)
ReplyDeleteAlthough what keeps me from going "FUCK YOU DRACO! YOU SCUM MONEY LAZY WHORE" is that while having a lot of supporters he doesn't have enough to focus fulltime on the game. When compared to other indie game developers such as Yanderedev I know the difference between passion and money. Teraurge is a project that Draco wants to complete, holding a concept for so long and actually making it takes a lot of dedication and risk since what you love might not be a success at all. Yanderedev on the other hand obviously doesn't give two shits about his game shown by his "feature creature" like behaviour. (putting a bunch of stuff that doesn't advance the game's core gameplay)
Does that mean he's free of criticism? Fuck no but I can't hate me for having shit like this happen. What needs to happen in my opinion is time management. As an artist myself I can not stress how hard it is to stay focus doing anything at random times since something will most likely distract me from advancing my work/completing it. A lot of my projects from last year were underwhelming because I didn't have any time planned when it came to working on them. I still struggle with time management but boy does it feel worth it when it goes right. It's important to remember that some stress is good, burnout isn't. Taking breaks isn't bad but constant distraction is the worse thing that can happen. Deadlines are hard to live up to especially when the subject at hand is in fact incomplete however being reminded of those deadlines should help you as it is a reminder. Yes it is stressful but it gives you enough time to think about what days will you work on and during those days what will be the focus of it? Art? Writing? Gameplay?
These mega updates are extremely exciting don't get me wrong at all, but I think the idea of adding a bite size update every now and then would keep the players updated and interested. Anyway I love your work Draco, I believe in you and I hope that we're updated soon enough!
Damn straight
ReplyDeleteWith so many people frustrated with the lack of updates (I am among them) I'd like to point out that Draco is Human and is thus susceptible to everything from injure to family issues to broken internet. He may have a very good reason for not posting anything. He might not but it's good to consider that something might have happened, today's theory is that he's in a coma from tripping on a banana peel.
ReplyDeleteI don't want this to go the way of DoodleNooch.
ReplyDeleteJust radio silence and death.
Hello again everyone, I have returned with another theory on Draco's status. Draco was kidnapped by a small army of varmints to present to their god, who happens to be a poodle.
ReplyDeleteill be dead by the time the next update comes out
ReplyDeleteI really like what you have already and you should take as much time as you need to update your game. I do have some questions though: Will there be pregnancy? and: With who/what can the player get pregnant or impregnate?
ReplyDeleteit has been an actual month since this post, can you atleast say something to show you aren't dead
ReplyDeleteI've been working on it. The idea is to release it this week.
DeleteI understand the disappointment, but the reasons for delays are the same I've already given, but I'm still working on it. The game is free and there are no real extra perks for pledging so I implore you to withdraw your pledge if you feel dissatisfied.
DeleteMan, I love this literally free high quality porn. The only problem is, updates don't come every week as I'd like them to. So I'm gonna insult and belittle the creator until the updates come. Yeah! That should work great. /s
DeleteHey, MD (can I call you MD?) take your time and ignore these assholes. The updates will come when they are ready.
Just discovered the game, loving it so far, just one or two issues. One that is kinda big is that on the new game screen, the options for rape, gore etc, I can't really tell if it's on or off, maybe if you could change the boxs to one box, and just put a tick in it to show ON.
ReplyDeleteThe original filter buttons were actually single button switches but people said that was too confusing. I was told the the two button approach is less confusing, Uh.
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ReplyDelete