Cloud Meadow (S-Purple's Breeding Season)

[JudgeHeath]

@Avyta & @Ethereal Dragon, from what I can see, you guys inferred that @DownTheDrain's comment that '@JudgeHeath shouldn't bother to try and defend it because he's part of the team' was some sort of attack on his character, or that he was suggesting the team was untrustworthy.  From what I can tell, he wasn't saying that at all.


Rather, he was saying that people who have a strong negative opinion of S-Purple aren't going to put much stock in the word of people he's working with now, and as such, @JudgeHeath shouldn't waste his time attempting to convince the unconvinceable. The bit about 'setting the record straight' and 'defending a friend' being mutually exclusive is to reinforce the prior point.  It's also true in a general sense, which is why judges recuse themselves when someone they know is on trial; if you're personally involved, impartial accountings of the events are difficult to impossible.


TL'DR it was a misunderstanding, plz drop it.  Let the drama wither and die.

Thank you for clarifying that for others. You got it exactly right.

prepares the bunker for assault 

It's not perfect by any means, the UI needs serious overhauling in both area interactions as well as the combat targeting and explanations for what the moves do and to whom. As it stands only the enter key is used for general interactions and that's against the usual placement for computer games of this nature. The bar at the end of each conversation also is a spanner thrower, as it causes the text to jump if it's far enough at the end. The combat tutorial is buggy and prone to freezing...

But for all of that, compared to BS and in it's own right...it's engaging. The exposition at the start is both general but grounding, giving the player enough setting to allow character interactions to work off of it without drowning them in minutea. The tutorial exposition itself is equally entertaining and feels like a genuine tour between the characters that have some idea of what they're talking about while still helping the player learn what they are discussing. The art is about the same but I did like it before and now is no different. The 2 scenes with the 'merchandise' were a bit jerky in execution but felt more...lively than BS, and all around I find myself actually paying attention to what I was playing and caring about learning the game. The characters also feel like relatively real people and their reactions/interactions feel relatively natural as opposed to outright 2 dimensional caricatures like they were in BS.

It's a good start and while it's way too early on for me to feel certain that I'll want to invest via patreon...it's certainly given me a positive first impression and definitely made a better one than BS did, both the first time and the time I found it again. 


One question: Will pregnancy and lactation for monsters beyond the Holstaur be in the game? Because the cop out of "the pregnancies are chaos magic that summon the spawn instantly." really detracted from the breeding aspect of BS and negated a lot of it's appeal. I can definitely say that if pregnant content/art made it into the game that money of mine would feel a lot more inclined to wander over to CM's patreon.

Thanks for the feedback, and as for pregnancy and lactation, while lactation is almost certainly going to be part of the game eventually, pregnancy is one of the things on our "not essential to the game, but also not something we're going to cut from the production unless we absolutely have too" list. It's not going to go in for a while yet, but monsters lay eggs, they don't open weird monster-summoning magic portals. Female monsters, and the female protagonist, will lay eggs (With the female protagonist waking up with an egg next to their bed to start). That said, eggs (at least those placed in the incubator) will hatch into fully grown monsters. This has mostly to due with the fact that within the team there was a massive backlash against neoteny to the point that there's a general hesitancy to include children in the game at all, except in a narrative sense that 'yes children do exist'. The team is somewhat divided on this, but for the moment it looks like pregnancies will be included (eventually), though children will not.

 

[DownTheDrain]

TL'DR it was a misunderstanding, plz drop it.  Let the drama wither and die.

I wasn't attempting to start any drama, hence my unwillingness to be insulted and painted as a random hater.


Anyway, good post, consider it dropped. 

 

[karunama]

Thank you for clarifying that for others. You got it exactly right.


Thanks for the feedback, and as for pregnancy and lactation, while lactation is almost certainly going to be part of the game eventually, pregnancy is one of the things on our "not essential to the game, but also not something we're going to cut from the production unless we absolutely have too" list. It's not going to go in for a while yet, but monsters lay eggs, they don't open weird monster-summoning magic portals. Female monsters, and the female protagonist, will lay eggs (With the female protagonist waking up with an egg next to their bed to start). That said, eggs (at least those placed in the incubator) will hatch into fully grown monsters. This has mostly to due with the fact that within the team there was a massive backlash against neoteny to the point that there's a general hesitancy to include children in the game at all, except in a narrative sense that 'yes children do exist'. The team is somewhat divided on this, but for the moment it looks like pregnancies will be included (eventually), though children will not.

Why not settle on a compromise?  Something along the line of 'egg hatched, child needs 7 days to grow before interaction is available' with a half sized sprite.  It shouldn't be hard to hand wave the monster growth period as being super short without the weirdness of them hatching full grown and rdy for fucking.

 

[argenten]

Thanks for the feedback, and as for pregnancy and lactation, while lactation is almost certainly going to be part of the game eventually, pregnancy is one of the things on our "not essential to the game, but also not something we're going to cut from the production unless we absolutely have too" list. It's not going to go in for a while yet, but monsters lay eggs, they don't open weird monster-summoning magic portals. Female monsters, and the female protagonist, will lay eggs (With the female protagonist waking up with an egg next to their bed to start). That said, eggs (at least those placed in the incubator) will hatch into fully grown monsters. This has mostly to due with the fact that within the team there was a massive backlash against neoteny to the point that there's a general hesitancy to include children in the game at all, except in a narrative sense that 'yes children do exist'. The team is somewhat divided on this, but for the moment it looks like pregnancies will be included (eventually), though children will not.

Yw, like I said one of the biggest issues so far is UI and the targeting system in combat, but overall I felt there was more positives than negatives.

Glad to hear that lactation is going to be a thing (kinda hard not to with the cowgirls in the game  ) and that while pregnancy isn't going to be a major priority, it isn't going to be skimped either. I can appreciate that it'll take a bit of finagling in order to make it fit, it's arguably one of the most cumbersome fetish sets out there, so I don't blame you for needing to be careful with it.

Egglaying, yes, that makes so much more sense than the portal nonsense in BS. And eggs can  gestate in the female monsters for a few days to give the pregnancy content before being laid to be in the incubator (another nice touch.) without feeling inconsistent. Can give reasons like "Too early and the eggs never hatch." or "The eggs need to reach a certain size before their growth is self-sustained in the incubator.".



Their hatching into fully grown monsters in the incubator works for me again, and fits with the rapid paced monster breeding that is apparently inherent in CM. I agree heartily with the 'no neoteny' idea but I do think children could be included...just in areas that will not have sex, basically creating SFW areas. But I can see how it's better to error on the side of not supporting loli or pedophilia.

Good luck, the game made an overall good impression and I'd like to see it do well.

 

[levant]

*shrugs*
I don't have money to throw at crowdfunding regardless, but I've always liked Schwigg's art, and I do plan on playing the public releases and enjoying them while giving exactly 0 fucks about drama; no more, no less

 

[KnightOfXentar]

I am surprised so many idiots fund this game on Patreon.
1st issue)
It will take at least another 12 months before Cloud Meadow gets as big as Breading Season. So why fund him now?
2nd issue)
Departure of that guy killed Breading Season and now he start everything from scratch?
I wouldn't trust this guy ever again. Who knows what will happen after 2 years... he might as well kill Cloud Meadow and start everything again.

 

[Avyta]

I am surprised so many idiots fund this game on Patreon.
1st issue)
It will take at least another 12 months before Cloud Meadow gets as big as Breading Season. So why fund him now?
2nd issue)
Departure of that guy killed Breading Season and now he start everything from scratch?
I wouldn't trust this guy ever again. Who knows what will happen after 2 years... he might as well kill Cloud Meadow and start everything again.

People are supporting the new project because they see that the game seems to be well managed. S-Purple really lost reputation because of Breeding Season.
And the second point, I think you're wrong, tell me which advantage that S-Purple would get destroying the own project, after the project grow.


You must remember the main culprit of the Breeding Season fall and the theft has been H-Bomb...

 

[TheDarkMaster]

STOP!


Every time someone else comes in here the conversation on who's fault it is that Breeding Season gets started again!  Look, both H-Bomb and S-Purple did bad things, whether one is more at fault than the other is irrelevant.  Everything that needs to be said has been said and nothing more can be gained from continuing.  Please just don't, otherwise we won't be able to discuss the games at all anymore because of this constant unnecessary argument always coming up.


So if anyone brings up that discussion anymore, just ignore them.

 

[Consciousone]

What Judgeheath has been saying here has me mildly optimistic about hte future of Cloud Meadows.


So thatäs good.

 

[Avyta]

STOP!


Every time someone else comes in here the conversation on who's fault it is that Breeding Season gets started again!  Look, both H-Bomb and S-Purple did bad things, whether one is more at fault than the other is irrelevant.  Everything that needs to be said has been said and nothing more can be gained from continuing.  Please just don't, otherwise we won't be able to discuss the games at all anymore because of this constant unnecessary argument always coming up.


So if anyone brings up that discussion anymore, just ignore them.

I was just answering the guy up there ...
But I see that you are right, everything has been said. If my comment was prejudicial simply ignores it.

 

[TheCount99]

It will take at least another 12 months before Cloud Meadow gets as big as Breading Season. So why fund him now?

Because we see potential.  If they don't get any funding, the progress is going to be EXTREMELY slow, if  it isn't just outright dropped.  Without it, S-Purple would be paying for the wages of the rest of the team out of his own pocket.  While I don't know what his financial situation looks like, I doubt he could keep that up for long.

 Further, the contract HBomb wanted to give the guy would have forced the kid to contact HBomb for every single little detail and change he wanted to enact in how the game was being developed, putting him in a position where he was paid to be impotent and unable to actually do anything without being able to talk with HBomb,

Lol, that sounds exactly like the situation that most of the managers in the company I work for are in.  The owner basically tells them "Here, you are in charge of this.  I trust you.  But make sure that you pass every decision you make through me first, no matter how minor."  I'm pretty sure that we could get rid of about 75% of our management with absolutely no effect on the company at all.  And that's nothing against them, it's just that as it is, their positions are pretty much pointless.  So I can certainly understand vetoing that!

 

[DownTheDrain]

Everything that needs to be said has been said and nothing more can be gained from continuing.

Heh, what else did you expect?


It was arguably the biggest (and most profitable) NSFW project on Patreon and it went down in a truly spectacular and ugly fashion. Both the never-trust-this-scum-again brigade and the fanbois-to-the-rescue defense force are pretty strong in this thread and many others across the web and it'll probably take a while before it all dies down eventually. The fact that the new project is very similar looking and was started immediately after the last one crashed (or even before that) doesn't exactly help either.


So yeah, you're right of course, but you can't be surprised about internet drama when for once there is an actual reason for it.

 

[Avyta]

It was arguably the biggest (and most profitable) NSFW project on Patreon and it went down in a truly spectacular and ugly fashion. Both the never-trust-this-scum-again brigade and the fanbois-to-the-rescue defense force are pretty strong in this thread and many others across the web and it'll probably take a while before it all dies down eventually. The fact that the new project is very similar looking and was started immediately after the last one crashed (or even before that) doesn't exactly help either.

At this point I agree with you, it was the biggest and best supported game project I've ever seen, but I always thought it was a mediocre game to receive so much support and having so many supporters. I never understood how BS can be so supported.
Naturally with such a high amount of support you can expect a great game and a dedicated team... which did not happen...

 

[DownTheDrain]

I never understood how BS can be so supported.

It catered to the furry community, plain and simple.


If you're vanilla you can get your fix just about anywhere. For most kinky stuff there's a number of venues as well, regular porn, porn games, H games, whatever, but apparently furries are starved for some attention.


Makes sense too, even mainstream porn covers sub, dom, pee, old/young, bdsm, spanking, foot fetish and so on. The Japanese explore a lot of the darker themes, including a whole lot of rape, chuckolding, mindbreaking, scat and underage content, but at most you'll get petgirls or some such, no anthros.


So when someone finally offered a semi-decent game that was right up their alley I guess the furries all jumped aboard.

 

[JudgeHeath]

Why not settle on a compromise?  Something along the line of 'egg hatched, child needs 7 days to grow before interaction is available' with a half sized sprite.  It shouldn't be hard to hand wave the monster growth period as being super short without the weirdness of them hatching full grown and rdy for fucking.

I can bring this to the team, but if I'm being completely honest? I just don't think it's going to fly. The fact that S-Purple's IRL info got outed, and even the CHANCE of the rest of us being linked to pedo-crap, is too big a risk when put together.

<snip>

Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'll bring those little snippets to our writing team as well in case they think it's appropriate to include anywhere (They probably already covered it, but it never hurts to share ideas)

Because we see potential.  If they don't get any funding, the progress is going to be EXTREMELY slow, if  it isn't just outright dropped.  Without it, S-Purple would be paying for the wages of the rest of the team out of his own pocket.  While I don't know what his financial situation looks like, I doubt he could keep that up for long.

A few more months, maximum, before I start kicking people other than the core team members off the team in his place, then resigning myself until he is able to afford to pay me and the others again. That said once we hit the 9k mark, that time-limit increases significantly, and at the 11.5k mark, the project will become self sustaining, if slow. There's only a few other people besides me who actually draw pay, and most of them draw it less than full time for the moment, that'll change as we get more and more patronage.

Keep in mind that technically S-Purple could probably carry us all for a significantly longer time than I'm willing to allow him too. Part of my job as a designer and project manager is to ensure everybody is able to survive on what we're doing and what they're doing. Our team lead (or anyone on the team for that matter) forcing himself into poverty is not an option as far as my professional ethics are concerned.

 

[Ethereal Dragon]

I can bring this to the team, but if I'm being completely honest? I just don't think it's going to fly. The fact that S-Purple's IRL info got outed, and even the CHANCE of the rest of us being linked to pedo-crap, is too big a risk when put together.


Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'll bring those little snippets to our writing team as well in case they think it's appropriate to include anywhere (They probably already covered it, but it never hurts to share ideas)


A few more months, maximum, before I start kicking people other than the core team members off the team in his place, then resigning myself until he is able to afford to pay me and the others again. That said once we hit the 9k mark, that time-limit increases significantly, and at the 11.5k mark, the project will become self sustaining, if slow. There's only a few other people besides me who actually draw pay, and most of them draw it less than full time for the moment, that'll change as we get more and more patronage.

Keep in mind that technically S-Purple could probably carry us all for a significantly longer time than I'm willing to allow him too. Part of my job as a designer and project manager is to ensure everybody is able to survive on what we're doing and what they're doing. Our team lead (or anyone on the team for that matter) forcing himself into poverty is not an option as far as my professional ethics are concerned.

SP should really look into this, especially since his personal information was released without his permission.


http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/publishing-personal-and-private-information


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law

 

[KnightOfXentar]

SP should really look into this, especially since his personal information was released without his permission.


http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/publishing-personal-and-private-information


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law

seriously? You post this here in the middle of nowhere, where absolutely nobody gives a fuck?
NEWS FLASH: you are not first who gave him such an advice!
 

I can bring this to the team, but if I'm being completely honest? I just don't think it's going to fly. The fact that S-Purple's IRL info got outed, and even the CHANCE of the rest of us being linked to pedo-crap, is too big a risk when put together.

it got out to internet community, where nobody gives a fuck. Also their game is in furry anime drawing style, so amounts of fucks given is triple negative.

And to be honest, if any law enforcement wanted to persecute him, they have hundreds of ways to get his IRL info. lolz


PS: if he is afraid of fanboys, then he should be afraid of those who pulled tons of money into Breading Season... there is zero chance somebody will beat the shit out of him because of some loli content. Actually they might even forgive him ,if he makes new game interesting, lolz

 

[Magic Ted]

SP should really look into this, especially since his personal information was released without his permission.


http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/publishing-personal-and-private-information


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law

Man, don't play internet lawyer. 


(ps, as usual, a bad poster was given a hefty warning and plz do no emulate such bads etc)

 

[ShameOnYouMagicTed]

(ps, as usual, a bad poster was given a hefty warning and plz do no emulate such bads etc)

You have been warned by Magic Ted for a comment made in a topic, Cloud Meadow (S-Purple's Breeding Season)
Reason: Warning
Penalty: - 30 points that will never expire
             - banned 2 days and 23 hours
Note: I care about you not posting like hot, flaming, vitriolic garbage and looking at your post history that's just your gimmick, plus not using capitalization. You should fix that!

Not using capitalization???! HAHAHA
Seriously?? (my usage of capitalization is not even that bad)

Also your words are very offensive. When somebody uses phrase "nobody gives a fuck" or "amount of fucks given is zero" it doesnt give you right to call him "vitriolitic garbage". When you compare those 2 things, then your words are way worse than original issue.

Lastly you got definition of "warning" wrong! Warning is something that serves to warn, give notice, or caution. If you are already punishing somebody with ban, then it is no longer a warning, but a punishment.

Peace

 

[Shizenhakai]

Heh, what else did you expect?


It was arguably the biggest (and most profitable) NSFW project on Patreon and it went down in a truly spectacular and ugly fashion. Both the never-trust-this-scum-again brigade and the fanbois-to-the-rescue defense force are pretty strong in this thread and many others across the web and it'll probably take a while before it all dies down eventually. The fact that the new project is very similar looking and was started immediately after the last one crashed (or even before that) doesn't exactly help either.


So yeah, you're right of course, but you can't be surprised about internet drama when for once there is an actual reason for it.

I'm not sure about the "most profitale" one..


I think Roundscape Adorevia gets similiar revenue (forgot the exact numbers of BS, so correct me if I'm wrong ^^)..


Although it appears that game has a better management (even though they decided to not have public version after all ^^')

 

[Tinman]

I'm not sure about the "most profitale" one..


I think Roundscape Adorevia gets similiar revenue (forgot the exact numbers of BS, so correct me if I'm wrong ^^)..


Although it appears that game has a better management (even though they decided to not have public version after all ^^')

Breeding Season got about $40k per month with, I think, 3 full time employees.  I'm not sure exactly how much each of them were getting paid, but that's roughly half a million per year before expenses.  I have no idea how much Roundscape Adorevia brings in, but it's probably competing with about $300,000 in annual profits during the time BS had a patreon.

 

[Shizenhakai]

Breeding Season got about $40k per month with, I think, 3 full time employees.  I'm not sure exactly how much each of them were getting paid, but that's roughly half a million per year before expenses.  I have no idea how much Roundscape Adorevia brings in, but it's probably competing with about $300,000 in annual profits during the time BS had a patreon.

40k? please tell me that is an error.. O_O


With that money they could have easily hire a project manager to get everything on track and ensured long-lasting profit..


Well, that means the numbers I remembered where waaay off. Why does a poorly managed game get more patreons than its more transparent and well-managed competors?


Anyways, sorry for slightly derailing the thread ^^'

 

[ShameOnYouMagicTed]

40k? please tell me that is an error.. O_O


With that money they could have easily hire a project manager to get everything on track and ensured long-lasting profit..


Well, that means the numbers I remembered where waaay off. Why does a poorly managed game get more patreons than its more transparent and well-managed competors?

I am 100% sure, they had more than 30k every month (so it going to 40k could be very accurate)
And reason why they didnt hire more staff like a project manager? Same as usual: greed. H-bomb was project manager and he didnt want to give up that position and to share profit with new members. Well, they could have tried talking about this issue, but S-purple decided to silently abandon the ship instead of saving it (and he also ensured that ship would sink after he left...)

Like it have been said earlier, they both have done some bad things...

 

[buffmuffin]

lol, oh ffs... this is still going on?

Oh, what the hell.  Get the weenies and popcorn. 

 

[Avyta]

I am 100% sure, they had more than 30k every month (so it going to 40k could be very accurate)
And reason why they didnt hire more staff like a project manager? Same as usual: greed. H-bomb was project manager and he didnt want to give up that position and to share profit with new members. Well, they could have tried talking about this issue, but S-purple decided to silently abandon the ship instead of saving it (and he also ensured that ship would sink after he left...)

Like it have been said earlier, they both have done some bad things...

The BS reason to be very supported has been discussed here.
Very few projects has such a big hit (in number of supporters) and value received.
The reasoning is simple, as stated above, 40k is a very high value, this value could have been done a great game, provided there was a competent and dedicated team. Only remains ask, who the BS team was really qualified for the job, and who really wanted to do a good job... After all...

 

[jk103]

I am 100% sure, they had more than 30k every month (so it going to 40k could be very accurate)
And reason why they didnt hire more staff like a project manager? Same as usual: greed. H-bomb was project manager and he didnt want to give up that position and to share profit with new members. Well, they could have tried talking about this issue, but S-purple decided to silently abandon the ship instead of saving it (and he also ensured that ship would sink after he left...)

Like it have been said earlier, they both have done some bad things...

From what I read, and I think S-Purple actually confirmed this, H-Bomb actually wanted to hire a project manager but S-Purple vetoed the idea.

 

[DownTheDrain]

From what I read, and I think S-Purple actually confirmed this, H-Bomb actually wanted to hire a project manager but S-Purple vetoed the idea.

Yeah, that was confirmed and the reasons why no project manager was hired have been discussed to death. Not that any of this matters now. 


Once there's a public demo available we can judge Cloud Meadow on its own merits. Until then we can go back and forth about who fucked up what or why so-and-so is a horrible person or totally innocent but none of that is going to bring Breeding Season back from the dead.

 

[jk103]

There is a public demo now, and it's pretty bad, but that's to be expected this early in development. They said they've improved the writing but decided not to add those changes to the public demo, which I guess is a positive step because the writing is wretched and there's way too much of it. I think BS had equally terrible writing but they were kind enough to add a skip-dialog button.


To talk about the game itself, I'm curious to see if there will be the same variety in the monsters' appearances as there was in BS. Like, different hairstyles, features, and bodytypes for two catgirls with different traits. I think switching from Flash bone-based animation to keyframed pixelart might make things more difficult, but I haven't seen their workflow.

 

[Avyta]

Yeah, that was confirmed and the reasons why no project manager was hired have been discussed to death. Not that any of this matters now. 


Once there's a public demo available we can judge Cloud Meadow on its own merits. Until then we can go back and forth about who fucked up what or why so-and-so is a horrible person or totally innocent but none of that is going to bring Breeding Season back from the dead.

From what I know, H-Bomb could have given continuity to BS if he wanted, he would need only hire a new team, something he could easily do with the support of Patreon.
And I believe he still can if you want... With the money he was able to "collect" during the project course.

 

[DownTheDrain]

From what I know, H-Bomb could have given continuity to BS if he wanted, he would need only hire a new team, something he could easily do with the support of Patreon.
And I believe he still can if you want.

No he couldn't have, not without somehow replacing all the artwork that S-Purple retained the rights to because H-Bomb was dumb enough to include that in the contract. The game is dead and resurrecting it now would be akin to starting from scratch in many regards.