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I really enjoyed this game. My friend and I played it this morning and we were hooked. It took us a game to figure out the rules but once we got it we were on our way. From Utopia to visual novels, Scylez has got real talent. This developer is going to be a name in the future!

Hey Scylez! It has been several months since I left a comment and it looks like your work has really done well. Like me, your work has really reached a lot of people.  I am not surprised. I am still as inspired as I was when I first played this game. Since I played it, I have been writing outside of my main job and I have achieved success again that I never thought I would. I could make a living off of my writing again, and I never thought I would say that again. You are partially to blame for that "shame on you" XP.  Anyway my purpose for leaving this comment is to volunteer my services as a writer. I want to get in touch with you personally to give you my credentials (I would prefer to do it there instead of publicly) is there a way I could reach you that would make you comfortable and give you/prove my credentials?

Thank you for such a nice reply! Just as you feel great from messages from fans, it feels amazing to receive replies from artists I enjoy. I remember back when I wrote professionally. When I received an email from a fan I was over the moon. I never thought anyone would read what I wrote. Those were the days. 

As a funny aside, I used to write erotic fiction. I never told anyone I knew about it. Well, I made an error when trying to hide my identity and of all people, one of my grandmothers (a hyper religious woman) found one of them. She called me and said she found an "interesting book" and asked me if I'd read it. Of course I denied it but she pressed me on the issue. I got angry and said, "Yes I did and I also wrote..." and I listed them out for her. At that point I think I had about 150 short stories. When I finished she just laughed and said "I always knew you were a pervert, now you're a professional pervert. I'm proud of you son." After that I told the rest of my family and the reception was warm. Heck my close friends even bought some of my books. My best friend at the time was upset to hear about what I did. I was supposed to be his best man at his wedding, but he removed me from the guest list. Such is life.

My apologies for the long aside. The main reason I'm writing this is because I think you're writing budget is too high. Writing is very important, but for a startup you need to do what you can to keep your costs low. That is, until you turn a profit, then you should jack them up. When I started my publishing company I started writers at "token" rates, and when I started turning a nice profit I bumped up the pay. I paid seven cents a word at the end, but that was after a long time of showing profits.

Your projected art budget looks good. If you take the time to search you can find a lot of younger artists who would take lower rates for exposure. Take some time (ie a few hours) to browse (please don't hate me for listing a few of these) e621, furaffinity, Weasyl, FurryNetwork, and sofurry. I found an artist on Furaffinity to do cover art for me in the past. The pay was low at first but like the writers I drastically upped the pay over time.

Anyway, sorry for the long message. Please keep up the amazing work. I'm going to play your rendition of Utopia again. Your AI in that game is good and I feel like I'm playing someone who knows what they are doing. 

Take care!

I'm excited to hear things are going well for you! I've played this game several times and enjoyed it every time I did. I think I've found most of the content, though there are a few pieces of art I couldn't get. I really enjoyed the art and story for this game. You are immensely talented, and I know your next project will be just as good as this one.

Running a game company is tough. I was the business manager for the fiction publishing arm of a PnP RPG company and I also ran my own publishing company for a while. Keeping a team motivated on a long project is a major challenge, but when it's done, the feeling is the best in the world. 

When you said you weren't taking things seriously my eyes went wide. I'm very interested in seeing what you can produce when you've got a team working with you. 

Your game reinspired me to start writing again. I don't get to do it as much as I want to. I keep having silly things like my job get in the way, can you imagine (joke)? But I’m still doing it. Maybe if I can build up my confidence back up, I’ll start publishing again.

Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to run a small video game company? I’ve thought about funding a project similar to yours, but I don’t know what to expect. I’ve done some research, but I can’t really get a concrete answer. I guess it depends on the scope.

Anyway, you’ve got a lot of fans in your corner and all of us are excited to see what the future brings for you! Keep up the amazing work.

Utopia fans unite!

Hello and thank you for such a nice reply! I honestly didn't know you'd reply after such a massive wall of text. I am actually getting back into writing though it's going a bit slow. Work has been crazy and between that and real life it's kind of hard to find the time, but I am slowly putting words to paper.

You can absolutely use my post as a testimonial. I really enjoyed the game. There were a few things I had issues with but I was having too much fun with the story to really worry about them. I can give you a full rundown if you like though I'd want to play through the game a bit more to really get a feel for it, dig into different scenes and choices etc.

I'm going to check out the rest of your stuff. Anyway take care and I look forward to the finished product. I'm gonna throw a sale your way.

Well ...after silently following this game after clicking a random ad on a website (e621 yes I am a pervert) I would not admit to frequenting, I'm ready to leave a comment.

Wow...just wow. This was a good story. What you did with erotic fiction is what I have hoped to do with erotic fiction for years. Tell a fascinating story with a good helping of erotic content mixed in. I was hooked the first time I played.  You are a talented writer, artist, and coder.  When I played this I just went along with the ride and lost myself in the world and story. The world wasn't as expanded upon, which was fine because the characters, story, and everything else was so well done.

I honestly felt the main story line led me on by the nose and the biggest decisions that had the biggest impact on the  story was made for me, but I was okay with this because it was how I think how it would have turned out anyway. The antagonist's takeover was very believable but not likely to succeed and I think the breaking by the main characters busting into the redprint hideout would bust them even if the protagonists "failed." I have a hard time figuring your (very competent) protagonists would have failed in their ventures into the redprint's headquarters. I also liked the antagonist and I understood his motivations. I sympathize with him enough to make him a good villain.

As a former professional erotic fiction writer who returned to the yolk of the professional world you really inspire me to go back into the world of art. I miss it way more than I'd like to admit. That is one thing I wanted to comment on, all of your main characters, save three, were artists, which helped in their likability for me.  In my first and only playthrough I ended up with the person I figured I would (Corsica without seeing erotic content of her like I did in the e621 ad, this is not a complaint). I wonder if there I anything I could have done to ended up with someone different.

Half a month ago, I wanted to offer you editing work for free. I wanted to get back into game design and writing work again, just for fun (without the pressure of having to do it for money). It is the least I can do for a fan of the game Utopia (intellivision). I am a fan of that game even though I am too young to love that game, but I still do.

Anyway thank you for creating something for letting me breathe as an artist again. Please let me know what I can do to send money your way to do something like this again.

You are a very talented person. You inspire me to try to write professionally again.