Update
Hello there!
I have been silent for a while now. To be honest, I really just wanted some quiet and time to rest, and I'm still enjoying it and am gathering my creative ideas. Thank you to everyone who supported the development of CoC. I still think that we made a great game.
CoC was released, and honestly, it did underperform my expectations. Not by a lot, but it definitely did. So overall I'm not unhappy with the release, but I also wanted to at least reach DM's sale, which didn't happen. It's a weird feeling when you think you give twice the effort into something and somehow it doesn't even reach your last project. All in all, the game currently sits at a 94% positive rating on Steam, which is exceptionally high! Almost 10% more than DM. That is something I'm really proud of, since it really is not easy to achieve. In the end, it seems like the gaming market just got that much more competitive on Steam compared to when DM released. Welp.
As for my next project, I want to make something smaller. I don't want to get back into another 3-year-long development project. It just sucks the life out of me after a while.
So you might be wondering what I'm planning to do next. I didn't feel comfortable yet to reveal it, since this way I didn't have any expectations to meet and could work at the pace I wished to. And to be honest, I still don't want to reveal a lot of details about this project. All I want to say is that it is a DLC for Drain Mansion and that the idea is that it will feature CoC returning characters.
It was very fun to go back to DM and see how much I improved with pixel art and first it started as a fun "how would CoC characters look like in DM style" project, but then I realized this could be the smaller project that is actually kinda fun to make (and besides I never made a DLC yet, so there are some new technical challenges as well).
I WILL make a post about this in much more detail later on, but for now I only wanted to give a small heads-up that I'm not dead and am still working on something, but it might be a few months before I officially reveal the project. For now, I won't be answering any questions about the game (like when it will release, how big it will be, etc.); I will do that later. But I have been mainly doing graphics work so far, and some technical stuff, but everything is in a very early state currently. Until then, here is a very small sneak peek of Anne being in DM style:
I will also post a poll for patrons asking which returning characters you would like the most from CoC! Please vote on your favorite(s), and I'll definitely consider those when making the DLC.
Thank you for reading and still being here. I truly appreciate it.
Comments (22)
The endings didn't deliver. None of the heroines got hot closure. Nice gameplay and stuff but you are selling porn, not riddles. You are lucky to have sold even this much, people just appreciate the effort and passion put into the game. Target content - lackluster. You do you, I doubt you can learn from this. Since game ended up in this way, it means nobody around here is intelligent enough to understand the problem. That or the developer can't comprehend. Briefly reading comment section, indeed, just bunch of morons.
I'm a bit late to this scene, but I played Cycle of Corruption of Drain Mansion over the past couple months and loved them both. Hope you don't get too discouraged and will continue this storyline.
Hey dude, can't wait to see more from you - you've got golden hands! Wishing you success and that it brings you a lot of joy.
Good luck . You did great though !!
I think people tend to avoid talking about an ugly fact that exists right at the center of all creative projects: there's an unavoidable amount of luck that goes into it. Great projects can do poorly and bad projects can be successful for basically no reason at all. As someone who is a veteran of these kinds of games, I can assure you that your game is about as measurably and objectively great as games like this can be. Please don't take the output as "proof" that your input was flawed. This scene has more gems at the bottom and dogshit at the top than any other, as far as I'm concerned. Just look at how quickly you've amassed a couple pages of well-wishers; that doesn't happen with games that are bad, even when they do get lucky. You made something special. Trust me.
Thank you for the kind words; I appreciate it. In the end, I do think that luck also played a role in this. But I would also like to emphasize that CoC wasn't a failure. Many H-devs wish to reach this level, and I don't want to seem like I'm being ungrateful. CoC sells about 15% less than DM. I guess I just expected somewhat better. But I'm still proud of the game we made, and I think the reviews on Steam also confirm that it is something to be proud of.
I’ve been looking forward to this new game’s launch ever since the CoC project began. I hope you can go back to polish DM, filling in missing character CG illustrations and voice lines alongside overall game improvements, and now feels like the ideal time. While CoC features superior production quality compared to DM, DM draws me in far more. These two games are practically the only adult titles I’ve purchased on Steam, and I left positive reviews for both. Keep up the great work!
Honestly, I loved the art of DM. If you were ever thinking about a future concept, I would love a DM style game where you are the succubus, or at least one of the minions to the succubus lord.
CoC is great, and a big step-up in quality for the pixel art (and gameplay IMO) from Drain Mansion. Both are fun, but I personally like CoC more. I ended up buying both games on Itch mainly to avoid DRM and blasting my gaming habit to friends lol. Sorry to hear the Steam side of CoC didn't meet expectations. I hope you're able to keep relaxing and tackle your next project when ready!
Definitely the Imp. Imp's my fave.
It's always the imp!
I know for me i didn’t know this game was full released already could be a case of not enough marketing. Definitely was a great/ better game than drain mansion when I was playing betas
It's weird because it got more marketing; that's for sure. But it wasn't as successful for whatever reason.
Honestly I've been waiting for this i came for DM and I'm glad I stayed for it 🙌
Awesome to see another project surprised its gonna be continuing in DM but a very welcome surprise. Also liking that Anne is gonna be in it very much my favorite character Can't wait till its release👍
wish you luck on the DLC
I look forward to this project! Will you also implement toy connection to this DLC as well?
I'll definitely look into it!
Hang in there man. It really was good! All you can do is keep making games, learning and when you finally get that lucky break I'm sure people will look back to CoC and buy it at that point
I wish you luck on your next project, and you have improved a lot between your two games; I wish you the best, and keep up the great work.
Lower sales could've been due to how steam verifies age in the UK now, requires a credit card which a lot of us just don't get. Meanwhile Drain Mansion pre-dated that change, ik personally it affected whether I got the game on steam so I imagine it's not due to a quality drop or anything don't worry (especially with that 94% congrats!), hope the dlc is well recieved and good idea tbh dm has a great structure for dlc-adding
Yeah, that could be one reason as well, but I think there are many reasons. Another thing is that AI games are flooding Steam, and that in itself is not the problem; the problem is that people actually buy them.