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[OLJoy]

I heard that the development of this game came to a grinding halt due to complications

Is that true?

From the blog: "Triple X Tycoon development has fallen into deprivation"

Which simply means we ran out of money shortly after the campaign failed.  Naturally the project took a backseat and was re-evaluated to high hell. We figured it was still doable.  We never actually recovered from losing our artist which is why there has been a lack of new screenshots.  After much shuffling and thumb-sitting we concluded that the only money that could go into it would be from the lead dev's pocket and not the company's.

Reason being is that if your campaign fails, you've lost money and time.  We could afford to lose the time since we knew a there'd be a game engine at the end no matter what.  But we never had money, we just had to come up with funds as we went along.  During projects like this, nobody gets paid except the contractors. When your company's only source of revenue come's from old or legacy products there isn't much to go around. 

Most of the team we built around it had to be disbanded until we were down to 1 artist and 1 programmer.  Once our artist left for personal reasons we were out of "good" time (since we always worked ahead of schedule).  Any resources spent on Triple X Tycoon from then on would be spent at a complete loss for us.  From a business perspective we probably should cancel it.  We rolled a versatile engine that could be used for something else in 4 months after all.  That's a win.  But I don't know, I guess Triple X Tycoon is still kind of cool to us!

It never came to a grinding halt, but it definitely did slow to a crawl. So what now?

We're just focused on releasing a minimalist preview which is barely a demo.  It will allow a player to step through some of the games features in order to get a feel for what's going on.  From there, depending on how people respond to it we'll see.

[EuchreJack]

Looking forward to the demo.  Hopefully, you can drum up some interest when there is something to play with.

I think you should still consider opening yourself up to donations, even with the disclaimer that this is a commercial work.

Since you like humor, I'd suggest a picture of a toilet with a goldfish with the phrase "Throw your money away here".

By the way, although I'm suggesting a humorous donation button, I honestly believe you would get some money from it.  Plus encouragement.  I heard politicians say their favorite campaign contributions are the $1 ones, as that means another vote.

[OLJoy]

Looking forward to the demo.  Hopefully, you can drum up some interest when there is something to play with.

I think you should still consider opening yourself up to donations, even with the disclaimer that this is a commercial work.

Since you like humor, I'd suggest a picture of a toilet with a goldfish with the phrase "Throw your money away here".

By the way, although I'm suggesting a humorous donation button, I honestly believe you would get some money from it.  Plus encouragement.  I heard politicians say their favorite campaign contributions are the $1 ones, as that means another vote.

Thanks for the suggestion! 

Update, we could be getting the art sooner than expected.  But it's just one of those cat and mouse games now.  You talk to this person and that publisher, cross your fingers, hope your early investors don't put a hit out on the founder kind the thing. 'Tis the consequences of broke independence.  Also, we sent out a newsletter update for once.  We'll have to show the game one way or another..so what better place than Exxxotica?

So if you're into these, go sign up for our newsletter.  It's cheaper than a dollar and it makes us look better when begging The Other Man for money to finish this thing.

If you're new to this discussion and interested in our project, great! Chris (programmer) has taken the liberty of chronicling our struggles here.  If you'd like to cuss us out or ask deep intellectual questions email the janitor[at]joy-toilet[dot]com

[ChrisLeJohn]

UPDATE:

It's been a little while, we've all been busy with our shitty day jobs.  As a result of those shitty jobs, we've managed to pull another UI out of visual hell.

Before

After (which is still not final but our eyes have stopped bleeding)

The box art randomizes itself so you're not looking at the same damn thing.  They generate based on the type of film you shot.  If this was a photo set review it'd be a little different.  This is the result of kinna-sorta hiring a guy to do a limited set of work, we hope to hire another guy this month and get the ball moving, albeit a slow ball.  BUT, it doesn't have to be this way! Which brings me to my next point.

We moved our fundraising effort to IndieGoGO, which was a fairly sudden decision.  We really just want to finish the damn game and be done with it.  If you think we should finish the damn game and be done with it, support us?  Hell, we might not be able to love-you-long-time, but we'll sure as hell try if you do.



Campaign page

The tiers and FAQs have been updated to better portray the risks and challenges we are/have been facing since last October. Right now, we're working to show off a new "special" item which I think will give you all a better idea of what this game will actually be! I'm hyped, even though I've been staring at the guts of it all for months.

As always, got questions?  Let us know.

[OLJoy]

Special items in Triple X Tycoon tend to be a little sentient.

[Graknorke]

As long as it's only a little sentient then I'm pretty sure it's not morally wrong.

[OLJoy]

As long as it's only a little sentient then I'm pretty sure it's not morally wrong.

Morals?

We finally were able to get around to animating things! Which means we're closer to a real gameplay video, which means we're closer to a demo.  Oh, the game now has goblins in it. It's a Joy-Toilet thing. These guys are really good photographers.

PS: Our IndieGoGo is still a thing.  It's less suspect on your credit/debit card than OffBeatr was.  We try.

[Graknorke]

Done.

[OLJoy]

Done.

You are a gentleperson, and a scholar.

[ChrisLeJohn]

So I'm going to post a new screenshot since most of everything here is already obsolete.  Except this one might require some explaining.  It started out being an idea that popped up at a meeting we had.  Our guys/girls are really not the kind of people that like to reign in their "creativity" so feature creep stuff never actually ends up being a backburner thing, it ends up being "oh I'll just pull an all nighter and get that in there". Well, Soup decided we should include clowns, because maybe your performer(s) could be eaten by the clown since why not? That reminded me of SkiFree, my childhood, so naturally I voted yes. JBurns was wary of coulrophobia but the vote had spoken and so it was to be.

The clown, isn't ALWAYS under the bed.  He comes out for air and shit.

By the way, we posted a new dev blog.

[Graknorke]

Is that a reached goal I see?

[OLJoy]

Is that a reached goal I see?

Indeedy, and we couldn't be more hyped! Here's a quick update:

NOTE: If you helped back the project and you didn't open the email we sent out recently, here's a compressed version.

New Trailer

We're working on a new trailer, one that's arguably more "Triple X" than the first one, it's also a bit more modern. At least compared to the 70s trailer, appropriately named so.

New Forum

It ain't bug free, but it exists. If you're the type who likes to get in early, knock yourself out. Soup (one of the designers) might be the game's biggest fan already! Go join him in filling out the Wishlist.

Extended UI

Our simulation engine focuses on the people, the performers, time, the consequences and the rewards. It's well known now, but it took some arm bending to make us take the whole graphics thing seriously, but damn we're glad we did. Here's a look at our beloved motel from the outside, you'd never know what was going on inside room 69.

Of course this comes complete with a few other locations you can choose to shoot in, we'll get to that later on.

www.triplextycoon.com

[ChrisLeJohn]

Since the impending new trailer involves a casting couch or something.

Reality Queens Presents: The Juggler #8

Also, new code commit thread on the forums, if you're into that kind of thing.

Oh, and we now have model talent "types" in the game. That includes punk, bro, girl-next-door, average-joe etc you get it. This applies for male, female and trans performers. 

[Innsmothe]

Is it going to be a hetero exclusive production?
Not that it really matters, but from an RP kinda thing it would be really interesting if you could get 'alternative films' mainstream before IRL.

[ChrisLeJohn]

Is it going to be a hetero exclusive production?
Not that it really matters, but from an RP kinda thing it would be really interesting if you could get 'alternative films' mainstream before IRL.

Oi, very much LGBT friendly.  In fact, we openly promote (new trailer alert) non-hetero aspects of the game as well. Black, white, green, gay? It's all good.