The dream that wasn't meant to be
Alright folks,
as you can maybe already guess from the title,
I will continue making adult games, but...
I will not continue HHR for the forseeable future.
After lots and lots of thinking, pondering and going in mental circles for over 3 months, weighing several options, I always ended up at the same conclusion regarding HHR:
It just won't work.
Between HHR-specific issues, me-specific issues and what's going on in the world in general, I just don't see it.
I'll be honest with you:
The previous post on this topic was already supposed to say mostly what this one does... but, tbh I got cold feet at the last second, and instead made that "story-HHR vs. TM2" poll.
In hindsight, that was a bad idea, because the proposed "story-focused HHR" wouldn't solve some of the biggest challenges I'm facing with it.
The reasons
1) Mental Disconnect
The biggest issue.
HHR was my dream project in 2022, with the original idea pre-dating even TM.
...But that was over 3 years ago, and the vibe and idea behind it was something I came up with when I was still a more naive and less negative person.
Some events in my worklife and the world at large over the past ~2.5 years have made me such a negative and pessimistic person that working on this game now actively depresses me, because it reminds me of better (or at least, less bad) times.
And it's actually been that way since even before launch.
My gut feeling had already warned me this would become a problem.
But since HHR was the game I always wanted to make, I brushed away that feeling, hoping it would get better once I got into the groove.
...But it never did. My gut feeling was right, and I should've listened to it.
2) HHR is too big for me
The other 'big' issue. Literally.
HHR always meant a lot to me... probably too much, as weird as it sounds.
Because as a result, I kept scope-creeping characters and story elements into my plans that were not part of the original idea, and grew the concept and cast to a size I can't really mentally handle.
I thought I had been realistic enough about the scope of my plans... but if we factor in issue 1) and issue 3) below, ultimately I wasn't. I had been deceiving myself.
With HHR, I was basically chasing an old dream... and when I stepped onto the road towards it and reached for the stars, I got run over by the Truck-kun of reality.
Sucks, but it's true.
3) (Lack of) Time
I've mentioned this before, but due to my health slowly getting worse (age, genetics, lifestyle mistakes) and what's going on in the world in general, it feels like my window of opportunity to make those games might be shrinking faster than any of us would like.
3 years at best, only about 1 year at worst is my estimate.
And due to 1) and 2), that's far too close to make HHR the game it was meant to be.
Probably even if I somehow managed to overcome issue 1) and develop it at full speed.
4) Priorities
Related to the time issue, I also have some other, smaller concepts I really want to realize before it's too late.
And those ideas are more limited and realistic in scope, and right now I'd also feel more at home with those mentally, too.
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Anyway, those are the big ones.
There's some additional smaller reasons that contributed to this decision, but the 4 above were the main ones.
I'm not doing this lightly, I understand the stigma of a dev abandoning a game early.
But no matter how promising the concept, characters and story of HHR might be, it ultimately had one major conceptual flaw:
It doesn't properly account for my own weaknesses and limits, and even less for my current state and the situation of the world around us.
What's next (for the rest of 2025)
- GoV 1.0 for subscribers later this week (with some new Mia content)
- public GoV 1.0 and TM 1.1 (bugfixes, some new content) in late November
- SubscribeStar-exclusive: early access to next (final) Venus Stories episode
- subscribers will also get some exclusive Christmas benefits in December
Okay, but what's the next main project? TM2?
Actually... not exactly.
I want to be extra careful to not bite off more than I can chew again, since I want to avoid a repeat of this situation at all costs.
So while it is TM-based, calling it TM2 might raise wrong expectations, so I may go with a different title.
What I can say is, I want to focus on fewer girls, prioritise number of scenes per girl over number of girls, and take a new approach on the kink side, too.
I'll talk more about it later in a dedicated post; this one is too long already, and I need to flesh out and decide on some more details first (and finalize character models).
And when?
Realistically, not before sometime in January.
I might throw in another vacancy month after Christmas if I feel it might take too long.
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In any case, thank you for your patience and support so far.
I hope some of you will stick around and maybe give the next project(s) a chance, despite my failure with HHR.
-OnionCuttingNinja