Ren'Py The Headmaster [Mykock's Manor Ch.3] [Altos and Herdone]

[TheDevian]

Two full time devs should have a way better output than that. I honestly feel like they were faster at updates before they went full time. Funny how that works.

That 'feeling' happens a lot for players, when devs improve, they pay more attention to things they didn't notice or overlooked before.
As we do things, we learn, as we learn, we try to get better, better quality takes more time. It's just a fact of life. Obviously there is a point where that will start to go the other way, but solo and small teams have to wear a lot of hats, and you know what they say about someone who is a Jack of All Trades, they are a master of none. In other words, it takes a lot longer to mater many skills than only one.

But again, why were you replying to me about this?

 

[401Grem]

I wish some of them had hairier bushes or nipple piercings

 

[Boblet]

I've been following this game since June 2020, and I was a patron for some time. Back in June 2020, the game was in Chapter 2, and today, after five years, it's still in Chapter 2. Considering that there will likely be Chapters 3 and 4, plus probably 1-2 more updates for Chapter 2, this suggests a development timeline of more than another 10 years.

But when you look at the details, it gets much worse:

- Debbie, Cassandra, Amy, Priti, Faye, the Twins, Alice, and Liz still don’t have their punishment systems completed. I don’t remember exactly what level each girl is at, but the last four are very low.
- If an update adds new levels for the girls, it usually includes around 3 levels.
- Liz, Faye, the Twins, and Alice still need around 9 more levels each.
- Debbie, Cassandra, Amy, and Priti likely need about 3 more levels each (I don’t remember exactly).
- This adds up to around 48 levels, and I’m not even counting Zoe.
- 48 / 3 = 16 updates.
- The average update cycle is 9 months, which means 12 more years of development just to raise the levels. And keep in mind that The HM isn’t just about leveling up—there are tons of loose ends.

My advice: don’t wait for the end credits.

I don't know about the timing per se, but updates have clearly slowed. In another post Devian explains possible reasons for this, relating to quality and complexity as a game gets larger. I can understand that. My disappointment has been that the dev also appears to get sidetracked. Mole rats was the worst offender--a year long foray. Mycock's manor to my mind is another (though others disagree). New plots still continue to be posited, like interractions with another school. With so much left to do, I would very respectfully encourage the dev to progress the many already existing plot lines and student levels.

 

[Vualen]

Nice animations, and models, good sounds and moans , but I find it frustrating as you cannot actually progress without walkthrough

 

[2kDNwRRGjgJWLxv]

This game is so funny

 

[NTRprise]

So I've run in the bug with spying on Maxine in Rachels room, sadly I didn't it in the right order and im locked out of progressing the quest lines. This bug has been in the game for 2 years now and the Dev didn't fix it in that timeframe ?

 

[ubblesnop]

If Altos treats this game as his life’s work and has no intention of finishing it, that’s fine—it’s his right. Projects like this can be cool too, but I think creators of such games should clearly state that on their Patreon. There are players (like me) who aren’t interested in games that will never be completed.

The need for completion is a strange modern thing. I don’t get it at all, personally; life goes on forever, it doesn’t *end*, it simply moves on to new characters; so why should our stories have these weird, imposed notions of endings? The happily-ever-afters are stomach turning, but so are unsatisfactories, unanswered questions, etc.

In another world, Game of Thrones is still running, without the sabotage of an imposed ending, and virtually 100% of fans are far happier.

Some psychologists argue that happiness is having things to look forward to. A visit from your girlfriend, the birth of a grandchild, a Parisian vacation, that magazine subscription that delights you, the latest installment in the long-lasting series of novels.

In short, this is a story that *shouldn’t* end. There shouldn’t be an endpoint to it; there is no one story question that, once resolved, would leave the rest of the characters in some completed state. I hope to be delighted by new installments for the rest of my life.

 

[Gegecucu]

What in the fuck happen???

What do you mean?

 

[YYYgamesYYY]

and you know what they say about someone who is a Jack of All Trades, they are a master of none. In other words, it takes a lot longer to mater many skills than only one.

"Jack of all trades, master of none, but often times better than a master of one."
Jack of all trades usually is faster than a master of one.

Even if everything you say about noticing things previously overlooked was true, that's bad strategy. I stopped supporting this game because of how much development slowed down. With maybe one hour of content per year, you'd be paying $60/hour for a renpy game. That's insane.

Also do a diff on between versions, very little dev is actually happening, so please don't pretend like development has slowed down because more thorough work is being done.

I don't even fault a dev for trying to milk their game's patreon for as many years as possible, just don't act like that isn't what is happening.

 

[TheDevian]

"Jack of all trades, master of none, but often times better than a master of one."
Jack of all trades usually is faster than a master of one.

Even if everything you say about noticing things previously overlooked was true, that's bad strategy. I stopped supporting this game because of how much development slowed down. With maybe one hour of content per year, you'd be paying $60/hour for a renpy game. That's insane.

Also do a diff on between versions, very little dev is actually happening, so please don't pretend like development has slowed down because more thorough work is being done.

I don't even fault a dev for trying to milk their game's patreon for as many years as possible, just don't act like that isn't what is happening.

It is a bad strategy to you. But to anyone who cares about quality over speed, probably disagrees with you. Considering that they have almost 3000 paid supporters, I would have to say that there are a lot of people who disagree with you.

By 'more work being done', I mean that it takes more work, to get the same number of renders because this might be a hard thing for people who have never done any thing before to understand, but doing a better job takes longer than a half-assed one.

Yeah, because the person who has never worked on a game before, knows better than someone who has worked on many. Right.

 

[marcodelamoret]

Thanks for the update

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

The need for completion is a strange modern thing. I don’t get it at all, personally; life goes on forever, it doesn’t *end*, it simply moves on to new characters; so why should our stories have these weird, imposed notions of endings? The happily-ever-afters are stomach turning, but so are unsatisfactories, unanswered questions, etc.

In another world, Game of Thrones is still running, without the sabotage of an imposed ending, and virtually 100% of fans are far happier.

Some psychologists argue that happiness is having things to look forward to. A visit from your girlfriend, the birth of a grandchild, a Parisian vacation, that magazine subscription that delights you, the latest installment in the long-lasting series of novels.

In short, this is a story that *shouldn’t* end. There shouldn’t be an endpoint to it; there is no one story question that, once resolved, would leave the rest of the characters in some completed state. I hope to be delighted by new installments for the rest of my life.

I must say, that I actually strongly believe that a story should work towards an ending so that in the end it is remembered as a really great story.

The problem I see with stories that go on ad infinitum is that it often happens that at a certain point the story becomes unfocussed and so somehow arbitrary or starts to go round in circles and becomes irrelevant. I really like this game and I think and hope that this development will bring many more wonderful updates to this VN, but I also hope that at some point it will find a good and worthy end so that people will remember the great game and not the developer who didn't know when to stop. But at the moment I don't see that coming at all as the game has a very clear main story-focus which is supported by lots of wonderful 'sub stories', that don't drift away from it.

 

[somethingpersonal]

Hi, I can't find the compressed version for this last update. Is there none?
Thanks in advance)

 

[Xantoser]

The need for completion is a strange modern thing. I don’t get it at all, personally; life goes on forever, it doesn’t *end*, it simply moves on to new characters; so why should our stories have these weird, imposed notions of endings? The happily-ever-afters are stomach turning, but so are unsatisfactories, unanswered questions, etc.

In another world, Game of Thrones is still running, without the sabotage of an imposed ending, and virtually 100% of fans are far happier.

Some psychologists argue that happiness is having things to look forward to. A visit from your girlfriend, the birth of a grandchild, a Parisian vacation, that magazine subscription that delights you, the latest installment in the long-lasting series of novels.

In short, this is a story that *shouldn’t* end. There shouldn’t be an endpoint to it; there is no one story question that, once resolved, would leave the rest of the characters in some completed state. I hope to be delighted by new installments for the rest of my life.

I get what you’re saying, but I think you’re mixing up life with storytelling. Life’s all over the place, random, and doesn’t really have a clear ending until it does. But good stories are about SOMETHING and they have structure. They need a beginning, a middle, a climax, and an end (even the ancient Greeks knew that, so it's not a modern thing) Without an ending, it's just... things happening, and that’s not really a story. It’s like random events. In case of adults games: events pulled out of developer ass in the fly.

About that thing you said regarding GoT still going: I see what you mean, but honestly, if that show kept going, it would’ve just fallen apart even more than the last season did. People would’ve stopped watching, and it wouldn’t have had any direction. There had to be an end.

If you look at any classic story, it’s about resolving something, tying things up. Without an end, it’s not really satisfying. Stuff just falls apart, characters don't progress, there is no meaning and nothing matters anymore. And if a story just drags on without an end, it’s not a story anymore, it’s a soap opera.

Now, I’m not saying a story is worthless just because it doesn’t have an ending. Sometimes authors don’t finish or something happens. But that leaves you with this feeling of unfinished business. You know there’s something missing, and it’s frustrating. It’s still good, but without closure, it’s hard to feel fully satisfied. Long-running shows or books can be fun, but they tend to lose momentum. There’s a reason for that: they forget where they were going.

Sure, happy endings can be cheesy, but a good ending doesn’t have to be happy. It can be sad, bittersweet, or even open-ended. But it has to feel like it fits with what the characters have been through. If a story has no end, it loses its meaning. And there's no pay-off.
The best stories are the ones that end. Even if it's sad or unexpected, the closure makes it powerful.

So no, I don’t think it’s weird to want a story to end. I think it’s just a matter of respecting good storytelling.

 

[raim]

cant find compressed version
compressed version?

 

[Dweedle]

I never really tried the Mycocks Manor until now, is it basically just a patreon poll? That seems kinda wild to me to spend all that time writing, rendering, developing. It feels not as substantive as like a holiday side story even, but still would require the same amount of work.

 

[chrono1337]

So is there not any new content this "update" ? All my quests are "coming soon" or to be continued.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

So is there not any new content this "update" ? All my quests are "coming soon" or to be continued.

The "update" was not for the main game but for Mycock's manor.

 

[chrono1337]

The "update" was not for the main game but for Mycock's manor.

Makes sense. I was wondering why there was nothing.

 

[torpedogoat]

I never really tried the Mycocks Manor until now, is it basically just a patreon poll? That seems kinda wild to me to spend all that time writing, rendering, developing. It feels not as substantive as like a holiday side story even, but still would require the same amount of work.

Mykock's Manor is similar to a holiday side story. It's a Patreon side story. Here is the idea:

When you play the main game, it is clear that some rich and powerful people with a lot of political influence are behind the school. They created this boarding school for adult girls in a remote part of the country, and they are making sure that the girls are isolated from their loved ones. They even filter the Internet. And they hired the Headmaster not despite, but precisely because of his, let's say, unorthodox method.

These powerful people (I would have to replay Mykock's Manor to check if they are ever referred to as an organization) stay very much in the background, and it is rare that we learn anything at all about them. Occasionally they want a particular girl to be sent to the school, or ask for photo or video documentation of interesting views and events at the school.

In a way, the game's Patreons are the real-life equivalent of these powerful people. Mykock's Manor is a kinetic VN that plays with this analogy by addressing the Patreons as if they were in-game characters and asking them for their wishes on the direction of the school. Things such as which type of more revealing school uniform to go for. This side story currently consists of three parts, each of which ends with a poll questionnaire that we can just skip to get to the next part. In Part 1, a person representing a Patreon visits Mykock at his manor. Here we get an idea of the kind of employment that these powerful men ultimately have in mind for the students. But the students serving at the manor are not quite there yet. The story currently ends with Part 3 in a private spa that is part of the manor.

I don't think that the developers spend too much time on this. They are trying out various kinds of clothing and other things in renders to see what works and what doesn't. And then they quickly build a superficial story around this to let Patreons decide between the reasonable alternatives. The alternative would be that they do most of the renders anyway, perhaps a bit more quickly because they needn't be so perfect and needn't fit together. But we wouldn't have this rather nice side story that helps bridge the time between updates of the main game.