Post Release Debrief

Man, what a frustrating day. I probably shouldn’t be writing this on Day 1 of the release, as this blew over pretty quickly last time, but hey ho, I need to vent.

So, Chapter 2 got released and all the feedback or reviews I have received about the actual update, has pretty much been extremely positive. Like 95%.

Trouble is, the new update is bringing new eyes to Origin Story in general, and with a wave of new eyes comes a new wave of the loud minority trashing it, arguing on forums, spamming bad reviews on all my pages etc… all because of that optional 3 render scene in Chapter 1 during the flashback of MC's birthday dinner.

I’m preaching to the choir here, because the fact that you’re on my Patreon means this clearly hasn’t bothered you too much, but I just want to be vocal about my decision to include this scene.

I’m a new dev who has only played other VNs. I had never been part of any VN community or perused any forums in great detail, and as such, I never really comprehended the absolute vitriol that anything vaguely “NTR” generates.

While I have been writing “the script” for Origin Story over the past year, I had included other scenes that would absolutely turn some of these guys into a raging mess. I wrote them simply because I didn’t think there was any harm in witnessing a character who doesn’t become a love interest until Chapter 10+ having some minor sexual interaction with another. Or that it wasn’t bad to have a sex scene that features a villain mimicking one of the love interests with the intention to cause emotional harm to the MC by convincing him they’re cheating on him, because in my head I know that’s not the actual LI.

I just didn’t think any of it was that bad.

For many reasons, I decided against including most of these scenes before I even began to work on Chapter 1 in Daz, and certainly long before I released it. Some of them, I have decided to remove since witnessing the backlash after the release of Chapter 1 because they served no purpose to the story other than comedic effect and including them is more hassle than its worth.

But there’s obviously one scene still intact, the ONLY scene in the 20 chapters I have written where a character who is a future optional LI has a sex scene with another character other than the MC. This is obviously the Parker restaurant bathroom scene. I’ve said this before, but here we go again, my original intention with this scene was to give MC the knowledge that not only is Parker a sexual being, but that she enjoys young men… a cougar if you will… and that serves to give MC the knowledge that she might be amenable to starting things with him.

Now, could I have done it a better way? In hindsight, probably.

Could the inner monologue have been clearer as to why what he witnessed made him so horny for her, rather than it coming across that he’s just a cuck? Definitely.

Did I fail to see that a woman simply being sexual would cause a whole bunch of people to go into a total meltdown? Yes sir, sorry.. or ma’am. I’m an equal opportunist raised completely by women, sue me.

Are there other huge spoilery reasons for why I included this scene that I won’t go in to? Absolutely.

But I included this scene for one other reason… my naivety…  because I didn’t think it was that bad.

Witnessing someone, in a flashback, engaged in oral sex (not even penetration) with another character long before the option to start anything up with that LI is available can’t be that bad right?

For most, no. But for some… hell yes.

Today should have been a day of being excited to see what people think of Chapter 2 - and thanks to those of you who gave me such nice feedback, joined the patreon, jumped on the discord, defended me etc… you were the diamonds in the rough – but instead it has been a day of me failing to not let the backlash get to me. Honestly, it’s making me dread future updates, because this will surely keep happening with each one. After spending so much time working on this, when I could have been spending time with my wife or son instead, it’s incredibly disheartening.

I’m starting to understand why so many Devs abandon their projects. But I won’t let that be me.

So now I’m faced with a dilemma.

Do I rewrite this scene to remove the action with the waiter? I already have - I hope - a good way to do it which will achieve the same outcome I was going for, while eradicating all the unnecessary vitriol coming at me and the game on future update release days. Maybe then I can save myself the stress and won’t dread the next update release.

But then I face the accusations of sacrificing my integrity or my “vision” to pander to the vocal minority – though honestly, it feels like they’re not the minority anymore.

But it is literally just one tiny scene.

One tiny scene that’s bringing the wrong kind of attention to Origin Story and preventing it from reaching a wider audience.

Eurgh.