Chapter 3 - Review: Is This the End for RomCom: Divergence?!

Short answer: No.

...

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the clickbait title and image, nothing is actually at risk...

Ah, wait! Don't leave just yet, please!
Look, if you stay with me for a minute or two, I promise I'll give you a reward~!
You like rewards, right~?

Anyway

It's now been a week since the Chapter 3 public release, and two weeks since the early release.
With Chapter 3 out, we're officially halfway through Episode 1...

So I think this is a good time to take a step back and do a little review of RCD's current state, the latest release, and maybe ask what you like (or don't like) about the game so far!

Just a heads-up: this post isn't a proper devlog about Chapter 4 (the next one should be in about two weeks).

Boring numbers

Base game: ~2500 renders, 18 animations

H-Patch: ~600 renders, 90 animations

Script: 97,433 words

Soundtrack: 53 musics, 77 sound effects

About Chapter 3

Chapter 3 was a big success compared to Chapter 2, which was itself kind of like the game's second birth.

I don't have every single stat, but on Itch we were at about 2.5k downloads for Chapter 2, and we're now a bit over 10k total downloads.
As for other sources... well, based on the numbers from my Pixeldrain and Mediafire accounts, it's a bit over 6k.

So altogether, Chapter 3 should be sitting at a bit over 14k downloads from what I can track.
So yeah... I'm pretty proud of myself for those numbers!

Itch's situation

I didn't realize it before the last release, but apparently removing the payment option re-indexed my game?
Well, that's good enough for me!

I do feel sorry for the kind people who donated during the Chapter 2 release, since I honestly don't know whose pockets their money ended up in... but at least it wasn't a huge amount.

Android's issue

I already mentioned this on Patreon and Subscribestar, but let me apologize one last time to my older Android players.
I messed up the package name during development and completely forgot about it, so Chapter 3 was treated as a brand-new game... meaning your saves didn't transfer.
And since we're already this far in, fixing the package name now would just cause even more problems for other players. So I decided to leave it as-is.

Seriously... everything Android-related makes me feel like a monkey smashing rocks together.
At least you'll get to laugh at my package name all the way until RCD's completion!

About the writing

This isn't exactly a new issue... I mean, I already had to rewrite the entire Prologue and Chapter 1 for the Chapter 3 release.
But yeah, it feels like I'm not quite there yet.

The main problem is the pacing: every event just comes one after another without really giving the player time to breathe.
I'm still a beginner when it comes to writing, so I definitely struggle with that. But I'll do my best to improve it for Chapter 4!

Funny thing: I actually ended up dropping the Toaru Majutsu no Index series (despite really loving it) because it gave me that same feeling. So trust me when I say I take pacing issues in my own writing seriously.

On that note, I feel like Chapter 2 handled pacing a bit better... but what do you think?

Renders and animations

I had to cut back a bit on animations for Chapter 3, but that was more because I lacked the skills than a lack of time.
Well... I guess I lacked the skills because I lacked time? Yeah, let's go with that.

So I tried to put a bit more effort into the renders themselves, I hope it shows!

Although, personally, I think one of the best renders I ever made was for Maya's first time, back in Chapter 1.
I really think I nailed the angle and lighting for that one...

Monetization, death, and taxes

Honestly, from the start I didn’t think a game like this would do well… I mean, just look at that description! And does the story even make sense?!

Though I secretly hoped to hit it big on day one, give the middle finger to my old boss, and work full-time as a dev! (Yes, all that with that crappy 0.1.0.0! My dear older followers will remember!)

No worries though, I'm a bit of a pessimist/realist, so it didn't take long to be brought back down to earth and start working on the game again! (See my Christmas update from last year!)

Ah yes, for the new folks who haven't checked my other pages:
I'm only working on this game after I get back from work, or on weekends.
Well... that's not totally true these days, but that's the general idea.

Making this game is really important to me, so don’t worry, I’ll see it through to the end, success or not.
But I’m immensely grateful to everyone supporting this project financially, you’re awesome!
And nothing would make me happier than being able to reinvest back into it one day.

About Subscriber perks

...So that brings us to the perks I'm offering to my generous subscribers...

Class councils won't be a thing for a couple more updates, and the early release isn't really that big of a deal...
So that leaves us with the Scene Scribbles, Misaki's Treasure Box, and Katsumi's Notes.

Well, to cut to the chase: it wasn't a success... in fact, the last two were a complete failure.

Those bonus contents don't seem to appeal to those who already have access, so I guess I shouldn't expect them to attract new people either.

I still plan to keep doing them, though, because they're more of a byproduct of my work on the main game, I don't spend that much extra time on them.
And for the Scene Scribbles, they even play an important role in the game's atmosphere.

But I'd love to hear your thoughts...
What didn't you like? Or what other things would you like to get as rewards?

I'm thinking of trying my hand at 4k renders, but honestly... with my current skills, I can't help feeling like a total hack.

And so... I need your feedback!

It can be on every point mentioned above, some of them, or even completely different ones!

There are a lot of things I didn't mention (music, release schedule, the way I write these posts, etc), but this post is already longer than most of you will read before skipping to get to the reward, so-

Thank you for your time, support, and (hopefully) feedback!

I'll also leave this link to a new poll, which I'm sure will bring some interesting results!

...Are YOU excited for Call of Uma: Crisis Kingdom - Online?

-Haptales

TLDR:

Oh...? A lurker-skipper has appeared~
Enjoy the attached 4k Sayuri picture~

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