KickStarter Memoirs of a Battle Brothel - a NSFW Cyberpunk RPG

[Tyranicon]

I'm a known entity now. I'm finally famous.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm a known entity now. I'm finally famous.

View attachment 47295

You aren't famous until someone files a harassment lawsuit against you.

 

[Tyranicon]

Just a blogpost, but I'll leave it here:

I own my IP 100% and all creatives should too

Hi all,

A few recent events, not specifically one in particular, have made me think about IP ownership and how it affects creatives in general. So I decided to write a little rant that might be insightful to other people who are thinking about entering the creative field.

Own your work. Own it all.


This is the only way to not only guarantee that you will have complete artistic freedom, but also maintain some degree of business ethics (if you’re an ethical person). From time to time, I make some promises and statements about how I go about developing and selling games. I want people to enjoy my games and the worlds I create, and I never want them to feel cheated or deceived.

It is entirely because I am my own boss that I can make these kind of grandiose statements. There are no strings over me, no massive corporations that I take marching orders from, no investors or any other organized group that I owe fealty to when it comes to my games.

I understand that it is a tremendous advantage that I have over 99% of the games industry, and it comes with very high costs (the main one being that I do not have a stable salary). I know as a solodev I have chosen one of the hardest ways to compete in this industry. Hard in so many ways I can’t really list them all here.

But I’m not here to sell millions of copies so I can afford a penthouse in some exotic foreign locale. I make games because there is something in my soul that I want to share, and a vision that I would like to see completed.

So yes, going solo is hard. But you will own your ideas. You will not just be another faceless employee for some corporation. It is still possible to make art. And if you can accept the consequences for that, and if your heart yearns for something beautiful… then perhaps it is a mountain you should climb.

-ManlyMouseDan

 

[Phinx]

Just a blogpost, but I'll leave it here:

I own my IP 100% and all creatives should too

Hi all,

A few recent events, not specifically one in particular, have made me think about IP ownership and how it affects creatives in general. So I decided to write a little rant that might be insightful to other people who are thinking about entering the creative field.

Own your work. Own it all.


This is the only way to not only guarantee that you will have complete artistic freedom, but also maintain some degree of business ethics (if you’re an ethical person). From time to time, I make some promises and statements about how I go about developing and selling games. I want people to enjoy my games and the worlds I create, and I never want them to feel cheated or deceived.

It is entirely because I am my own boss that I can make these kind of grandiose statements. There are no strings over me, no massive corporations that I take marching orders from, no investors or any other organized group that I owe fealty to when it comes to my games.

I understand that it is a tremendous advantage that I have over 99% of the games industry, and it comes with very high costs (the main one being that I do not have a stable salary). I know as a solodev I have chosen one of the hardest ways to compete in this industry. Hard in so many ways I can’t really list them all here.

But I’m not here to sell millions of copies so I can afford a penthouse in some exotic foreign locale. I make games because there is something in my soul that I want to share, and a vision that I would like to see completed.

So yes, going solo is hard. But you will own your ideas. You will not just be another faceless employee for some corporation. It is still possible to make art. And if you can accept the consequences for that, and if your heart yearns for something beautiful… then perhaps it is a mountain you should climb.

-ManlyMouseDan

Kudos to you. I couldn't ever imagine learning how to develop games, only to slave away creating somebody else's vision.

 

[Tyranicon]

Kudos to you. I couldn't ever imagine learning how to develop games, only to slave away creating somebody else's vision.

The learning part is getting easier. Gamedev tools are becoming more accessible all the time. Even professional engines like Unreal can now be reasonably wrangled by just one dude in a basement.

If you're worried about the money aspect (and people should be, tbh) try it as a hobby.

 

[Phinx]

Kudos to you. I couldn't ever imagine learning how to develop games, only to slave away creating somebody else's vision.

The learning part is getting easier. Gamedev tools are becoming more accessible all the time. Even professional engines like Unreal can now be reasonably wrangled by just one dude in a basement.

If you're worried about the money aspect (and people should be, tbh) try it as a hobby.

I do work on a mod as a hobby (Shadowrun Hong Kong Engine). Crappy and limited engine with an extremely barebones turn-based combat, but at least it fits the setting and aesthetics I wanted. I'm a big cyberpunk fan like yourself judging by your previous work.

What it did teach me is that I'm not cut out for gamedev, as bringing my visions to life will bury me under a pile of work I won't be able to climb out of. My ideas and expectations are too much, and sadly I refuse to settle.

And besides, as great as working for myself in game dev would be, as well as the freedom that it would afford me. My true goal is a different kind of freedom that no job nor pile of money will ever give me.

 

[Roguey]

Played this, here are my impressions. I say I overall liked the experience, but it had its problems.

• Right from the start it asks you to make some lore-dependent decisions without giving you much context to make an informed choice. A character asked me if I wanted to support the traditionalists or the progressives in the Courtesan guild, but at the time I had no idea what the policies of either were. It doesn't really matter, but it was a bit annoying.

• Navigating all the menus and submenus gets a bit exhausting thanks to how the controls/menus are set up in RPG Maker.

• During combat, enemies have an annoying hitch before their action starts. I'm guessing this is the engine going through all their scripts to determine what action they should take. This game really pushes RPG Maker to the limit of what it's meant for.

• Some sloppy editing remains:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• The way the game is structured is that there's an intro and then you have your choice of doing up to four faction questlines followed by an epilogue. However, all the faction quests end with an opaque anticlimax. I found out by looking at one of Tyrancion's posts in the LP thread that this is because this game is a prequel to a tactical rpg he released years earlier. Tsk.

• I liked the "running a brothel and beating people up" parts of the narrative, did not care for the fate-of-the-universe stuff it hinted at.

• The animated pixel sex scenes were not erotic. I would have preferred CG stills or just text.

As for what more I liked, the art style and setting, a good portion of the character writing, and the combat suited my tastes in its ratio to narrative, pacing, and difficulty (that is, if you want hardcore tactical combat, don't look for it here). I died twice; the first time I decided to just pursue a different quest chain until I was leveled up enough to beat it, and then for one of the final battles, I saved it for last and bought better equipment and acquired some useful abilities. You can complete this for the most part ignoring the special ability and equipment progression, it has that RPG Maker foundation where leveling is the most important thing. There's optional grinding sidequests you can take from the overworld map, but I didn't have to do a single one of them, and that's how I like it. Hope the Vampire RPG turns out even better.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I lament I am in a shitty financial situation and couldn't support his latest vampire game. Damn.

 

[Zombra]

I liked this review overall, but it had its problems. Mainly, you don't need to post 8000px screenshots to show off a couple typos. You know you can resize images right here on the forums, right?
Hope your next post turns out even better.

 

[Roguey]

I liked this review overall, but it had its problems. Mainly, you don't need to post 8000px screenshots to show off a couple typos. You know you can resize images right here on the forums, right?
Hope your next post turns out even better.

Automatically resizes on my monitor.

 

[jaekl]

These traveller guys kept insisting that I give them my weapons and I kept insisting that I wouldn't. I think it was about 10 minutes of back and forth insisting. You can shoot in this game without a gun though so I don't know why they cared.