Breeding season. That's pretty funny and sad in same moment. Some people make really dumb decisions, many many other suffer of consequences. It's pretty bad, that there's literally no chance to see any game of that sorts come out anymore(maybe someone should go for that niche, hah), unless miraculously those two would make up, which I'd really consider best possible outcome for them, since right now their project and reputation hopelessly ruined.
That is a considerable hit to crowdfunding projects of the same crowdfunding nature, especially when you consider that they were one of the biggest patreon projects. It kinda opens more spot for other similar games, but I don't really think there's much of competition here in first place. It's not like player has to select which project to support unless he's really low on money, which would probably make correct not to support either. Arguably, average user does not risk all that much, as his funding is not very significant on bigger scale, but I do know exactly its the expectations what really suffer, and when reality crushes it, it causes huge discomfort.
Personally though, I take few notes on the stuff I really shouldn't do. Not that I tend to trust other people at all.
One of the biggest problems Breeding Season had: Lack of good management and a split "leadership".
ReplyDeleteFor a project you need someone that can keep the project together at least via legal means. NEVER allow parts of the content to be owned by someone else, because as soon as they go you are in deep ship if it is needed content they take with them.
Also you need someone that has at least a idea how to manage things (especially if the project expands far faster than you would expect, it would be best if the "leader" also has knwoledge of management).
Breeding Season had none of that, the leadership was split between HBomb (the "founder") and S-Purple (the main artist and second person in the team after HBomb) and it lacked a person that had ANY idea how to manage the project. The content went back and forth, sometimes moving MONTHS back (because of overhauls or whatever).
HBomb says that HE wanted to hire a person to manage the project cause he had no idea how to do it, but S-Purple outright vetoed it and that was MONTHS ago. (Nobody knows if HBomb is saying the truth so take it with a grain of salt) This alone shows that you shouldn't split leadership over such a project.
Personally, I'm not very familiar with situation, but this seems to be the case. I feel somewhat guilty for saying it, but in this world you can only trust 2 people. Yourself and that guy in the mirror.
DeleteYeah the only person you 100% know you can trust is yourself, so if you are starting a project better make sure that you have the control over it.
DeleteIf you rely too much on someone else to keep things running and they simply vanish on you then you are in deep shit. Or if they create content for your project ALWAYS make sure that you have the rights over it AND have them deliver/save it somewhere you can always access even while they are still working on it.
As the saying goes: If you want something done, do it yourself.
And: Better save than sorry.
Sadly I cannot say I am all that surprised. Follow BS for the last year or so, I have seen continuous friction in the team, just from what they publically let out. Missed dates, failed promises, all pointed to a poor situation.
ReplyDeleteI had been a Patreon supporter, but was considering cancelling due to the known issues. Turns out things were far worse in the background.
Honestly, I'm surprised so many people are taking H-bombs side without hearing the whole story.
ReplyDeleteWe don't know what really happened and haven't heard S-purples side of things at all.
With that being said I stopped funding Breeding Season ages ago because the are assets were the only thing that ever got updated. When was the last time any real gameplay or story was added the Breeding season?
Well, out of those two people one is directly responsible for taking down one of the biggest projects out there. If anything I'm on the side of people, who won't be getting anything for pledging their support.
DeleteThen, though, new projects seems to be getting people following it pretty quickly, so maybe I'm completely delusional about everything in this life.
Well fuck, that sucks. I came here to see if there were any updates and I find out that Breeding Season is pretty much now dead... The worst part is it'll just be those two saying stuff and the only people who can really say who's fault it most likely actually was (so we know who to trust) resigned earlier this month and doesn't want to comment on it.
ReplyDelete*Sigh*
Fenoxo learned about owning parts of stuff really early on and CoC turned out phenomenal in my opinion. I hope you let others help you and work with you but you take a lesson or two away from this... I know it's early stages but work hard and please don't drop this.
I was pretty curious about whole thing, but it seems information regarding it all around the place. Mind giving me a hint on how fenoxo does it or whatever are procedures? Link with information would be fine.
DeleteDifferent Anon here.
DeleteAs far as the public/we know Fenoxo has 5 ppl permanently in his team (Fenoxo, Gedan full time coder, Savin Writer, Adjatha and Shou Artists).
But there are multiple writers/artists that he pays for things they make (often fans that write things for him to put in). He even has a bounty-board for things he wants ppl to do (it's mainly for his trusted writers). The code is only really touched by himself and Gedan (even though writers are HEAVILY encouraged to pre-insert parsers where things change due to gender etc.).
Finally: Who owns the things? Fenoxo has ALL the rights about the things that get put into the game, so if someone vanishes he still keeps the content. Once submitted content belongs to him (whats in is in). Ofc if someone asks him to remove their content he may do it, or he will remove content that brushes ppl the wrong way/change the content (he will ask the creators first ofc if they wanna help/are ok with it/explain WHY he wants changes).
So in the end Fenoxo has full control over his project.
best thing i can think of as advice would be to make sure any and all things related to the project are owned by the project and not individuals
ReplyDelete