Next Update Will (Probably) Be The Last One, Get Hyped.

This has been a weird week for me. Last week I was going through some serious depression and I pushed through it to release the final update of Robot Kitty City, which I regret because I am deeply unhappy with how I ended it, so I want to go back to it and add more to it when I feel better because I feel like I can do better with it.

The problem is that I feel like I would only be doing it for myself because people aren't commenting on it, or supporting my Patreon. Yes, there's a comment there now, but that's from my friend's alt account that he doesn't really use because he hates this site (someone got his personal information through the site, so he deleted his main account here to protect himself).

This coincides with something that's happening in the Yu-Gi-Oh community, which I am very invested in, where a number of pro players are quitting and playing other games, like Lorcana and the One Piece card game. Why are they quitting? Well, a big reason is that the pro players feel unappreciated by Konami and I assume their own community, but to a lesser extent than Konami for what I hope are obvious reasons.

The thing is, something I had to struggle with and move past is the fact that most people in the AVN community will never leave a comment on anything unless the website encourages it in some way, which Itch and other websites I've been on don't tend to do. The websites that do encourage comments effectively tend to be things that people play in browsers with a comment section just underneath since the easier it is to leave comments, the more comments will likely be posted. So, what I'm saying is that I'm not upset that people don't download my things, then after they've spent an hour or two playing through one of my things they return to the website just to leave a comment.

But, I am saying that it is disappointing when people come to my stuff because they see that I've posted an update (I see it through my analytics) and don't drop a comment. That does strike me as being ungrateful because they clearly like my stuff enough to download an update, to follow me, and in some cases to translate my things and post them on another site, but don't care enough to leave a comment.

The thing is, I find it flattering when I do get likes, follows, and when I see my stuff pirated on foreign language sites. What annoys me, and has always annoyed me, is how little Itch seems to care about keeping me happy and motivated. It feels like the platform doesn't care about motivating me to create the best content I can, but still expects me to produce good content for them. Like, I'll only get support when I've proven that I don't need support.

Is that too much of an ask? Well, I think that for a number of websites people are conditioned to think it is. We're told that it isn't Youtube's responsibility to motivate their creators, for instance, and I imagine you could probably think of many other sites where users have the same attitude. That said, Youtube is a bad example because they do pay their creators with ad revenue, and offer rewards like Play Buttons when Youtubers reach certain milestones, which is a big reason why they can retain top talent on the site and other video-hosting sites can't.

I feel like online there's a growing number of people who were promised a lot of things on the internet that they just aren't getting, and seeing others earn those things by putting in less effort (or, coming across as such) simply because they made their work more accessible are getting disenfranchised with their chosen platform. They're told "If you just keep going at it, even if it takes years, you'll eventually be rewarded."

It is pretty disenfranchising that Almost A Kiss was hosted on LewdNinja and other sites mainly because the first update was posted by someone else on PixelDrain, but the wrong version of Pet Foxes is hosted on other sites because the people uploading it couldn't be arsed to even look at the filenames and just downloaded the latest version, an intentionally 'broken' version of the game that I made for fun. It's like I'm being punished for using this site to post my stuff because the people running those piracy sites won't even bother pirating my stuff unless it's made as easy as possible for them to do.

Well, I kinda think that the platforms should reward all of their users, or at least as many users as possible, and prioritise the ones who, even if they're not all that popular, choose to remain on the site and produce content for it over a period of years. Like, I've been producing content for Itch for three years at this point, and I've stuck with it despite never getting a lot of encouragement for anything except Pokemon Babysitter. Why shouldn't a member of the site's staff be like "Congrats, bro, it's your 3-year anniversary," or to get, like, a digital ribbon or something I could put on my profile? I've said it before, but it would have meant a lot to me and probably helped how I look on the site to other people if there had been something done by the site when I reached 100 followers. It might have motivated me to create an actual profile pic.

Right now, I really do feel like those Yu-Gi-Oh players feel, as though Itch doesn't care about me, and the platforms that host my stuff without my permission also don't care about me. Yu-Gi-Oh players felt that way for years, of course, but it's only when newer, hipper alternatives like Lorcana appeared that go out of their way to reward the professional players that we saw a significant exodus of the best players.

The thing is that I do want to leave Itch and move to another site, but there aren't really viable alternatives except for Steam, which requires you to pay more than $100 to submit and it isn't guaranteed that you'll end up there, especially for adult games like mine. So, I feel like Itch can get away with making me feel like they don't care about me because, well, it's probably true and I don't have an alternative to go to, so for better and worse I kinda have to stick with this site, or carve out my own part of the internet to post on, which I don't want to do. Like, I don't want to feel like I need to create my own Open Mic at a coffee shop and go through the trouble of promoting it just so that I can attend an Open Mic where people clap after my performance, I'd rather pay $10 for an overpriced coffee and dessert every week when I perform my stuff.

Do I think this will make a difference or encourage people to comment? Well, I'll probably lose followers and I might get a comment relating to this, but not the kind of comment I would like to receive. Like, I want comments that talk about the story in my visual novels mostly so that I can understand what readers like, and what their expectations for the story going forward are, as well as what they dislike so that I know what to focus on in future projects and what stuff not to focus on or to omit. "This visual novel is weird/good/bad," isn't all that useful to me aside from providing validation.

With that rant out of the way, here is what you can expect from the last update for Pet Foxes 3.

1. It will likely be released in 1-2 weeks - I'm pretty slow on working on images and text for this update because I'm kind of unmotivated, the heat wave sucks, and I've been busier lately as well as more stressed. Work sucks and life is kinda making things difficult for me, but I am dating which sometimes puts me in a good mood but, honestly, is also making feel depressed for different reasons than being alone does.

2. It will have some very impressive images - Some of my most impressive images ever have already been completed for this visual novel. They're on my computer right now and they're gorgeous. I'm excited about sharing them with people, but my excitement really goes down a lot because Robot Kitty City also had images that I was very proud of at the end that didn't result in more comments or interest. So... like, that's a letdown, and thinking that Pet Foxes 3 will also result in a letdown also makes me depressed. Still, no matter what, those images are completed and more are on their way.

3. The ending will make Pet Foxes 1 better - This is a bold statement, but I did have a plan to make people think "Oh! I hated that ending but now it makes sense and is actually pretty cool," from the start, and I'm glad that I've gotten to the point where I can post that ending in Pet Foxes 3. It's going to be cool.

4. The worst thing that Icestar/Darkstar ever did - I feel like the next update will be controversial because it will feature what I consider to be Icestar's lowest point because it will show, what I believe to be, the worst thing that Icestar ever did.

Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, to get stuff off my chest and hopefully hype people up for the ending of my most popular series. Every day a couple of people download the first Pet Foxes and experience it, but comparatively few of those people end up at Pet Foxes 3. So, for those that do, know that I appreciate you for sticking with the series.

With Love,

Weird420XL