VN Ren'Py Abandoned Stray Incubus [S2 Ch.2a] [Flynn974]

Ebonheart (FR) said:

To make a long story short, in case you missed what happened, Flynn, the developer, had to leave the project due to serious family and personal issues (I think partly health-related). Since then, two people from the community have stepped up to continue the project, so production of the game should be resuming. That's the latest news we have.



Flynn probably won't come back; his departure seems final, and he likely intended it that way. Given the personal and financial issues he's facing, it wouldn't make sense for him to return, even in a different role.

Also, I don’t really see him coming back to a project he started, then left, to take on a smaller or non-decisional role. It was his game, after all. Plus, with his current issues, I doubt he’d have the time or desire to do that. I think it's best if people leave him in peace. The project will continue in a different way, and we need to accept this new reality.

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Yeah, I went and read back a few pages back, what a shame.

I don't really have any expectations for this under new management, creative projects like this usually suffer when it changes hands since it's no longer the creator's vision. Nevertheless I still wish the new devs all the luck possible.

packor said:

well, the claim is that dev's came out and said that Flynn will never come back. That didn't happen at all. Words should not be put in people's mouth. In this thread's recent activity, news evolved from:

Flynn abandoned this project, it's dead > Flynn left the assets to us > new dev's.

A lot of people tried to make random guesses without knowing what is happening IRL that totally contradict what actually ended up happening. They're just guesses, and that's fine, but don't make a claim without solid evidence.

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Well, I mean, it’s pretty understandable why he might’ve made that mistake out of simple misunderstanding, and it’s important to differentiate that from a bold statement. It’s a small nuance. Especially since the main point of his message was to say that Flynn left and probably won’t be coming back, which is pretty much the same thing the dev moderator said — he is probably one of the last people who talked to him, and possibly one of the mods who helped pass along all the assets, notes, and renders left by Flynn to the new devs (you can check on Discord, in general and announcements). This moderator also kept us updated on everything going on since Flynn left.

Also, we can use reason and logic even without having all the proof we might want. If we waited for 100% certainty with undeniable proof, we’d probably never say anything at all. We can’t stop people from speculating, whether they’re right or wrong — it happens all the time, especially in a space like this where we’re here to talk things through. Honestly, you’re kind of contradicting yourself with this stance, especially when we think back to when you were supporting the idea that Flynn could be recruited by the new team as the writer for the game (again, check AsTc3r’s message and Flynn’s last one to see why that hypothesis probably doesn’t hold up, at least not right now).

I had also stepped in before to try and clear up some of the pointless drama, toxic comments, conspiracy theories, and accusations being thrown around about Flynn, trying to somehow but wrongly make sense of his departure or abandonment of the game. I shared Flynn’s last message from his Discord (I’ve even self-cited below for reference). Nobody was perfect in these discussions, that’s for sure, but we do have some solid info to back up our points, mainly from the Stray Incubus Discord. If people could just check the info there themselves, that’d be a good start, especially since it’s free. It doesn’t answer everything, but it gives us a solid foundation for analyzing and talking about the situation.

And yeah, of course, we’re in a new reality since Flynn quitting, and that’s a pretty big shift. People are expressing doubts and asking questions, which is totally normal. Some people are clearly having a hard time accepting Flynn’s departure and the fact that this new situation is likely permanent, at least compared to the old context. People have a hard time accepting change and letting go of what they used to enjoy, especially when what they loved is just gone now. It’s a tough lesson, but it’s one we all have to learn at some point.

AsTc3r said:

I already talked with a F95 mod and they said the thread could be continued since its a direct continuation not a remake and we also work with the stuff flynn left behind.

For the other part i said it clearly enough didnt I? Flynn wont come back to SI, in no way or another, he just wont, please just accept that. It was his final decision and there is just no way back for him sadly but thats what it is. He has to live with that and we do too.

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AsTc3r said:

Ebonheart (FR) said:

Seeing all the silly theories about why the game stopped and people arguing in the thread trying to prove they're right, I’ll just share the last message Flynn974 posted on his Discord server. You can check it out in the 'flynns-final-message' section at the top left of the channel tabs.
I think arguing over those reasons, or trying to prove that one person or another is right, is pretty childish and unhelpful. Spreading rumors and false claims doesn’t get us anywhere either.

Flynn974 clearly explained in his message the serious and important reasons behind the halt of production on his AVN and why he stepped back from this activity. I have no reason to question what he said, and even if I did, it wouldn't change the current situation.
I’m sharing this message with you all, sorry if it’s already been shared, so everyone can check it out freely and maybe get convinced or at least learn about the reasons Flynn gave.

Also, I’d like to add that the dev was respectful and transparent with his community of backers by explaining why he’s stepping away. He could’ve easily chosen not to say anything, stopped communicating with his supporters, and kept taking money from them while leaving his accounts active on the platforms where Stray Incubus was hosted.
To me, that doesn’t really give anyone a valid reason to go after him or question his integrity. That’s just my opinion on the matter, though.

I'll leave it up to you to form your own opinion with all the facts, in case you haven’t read this message left by the developer.

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For the other part i said it clearly enough didnt I? Flynn wont come back to SI, in no way or another, he just wont, please just accept that. It was his final decision and there is just no way back for him sadly but thats what it is. He has to live with that and we do too.

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Ebonheart (FR) said:

I’m not sure if you’re playing on a classic Windows PC, but in general, the saves are stored here :

C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\RenPy\<GameName>\saves

You should normally find your saves there, separated into different types (auto, manual, and persistent saves). If you were worried about losing your saves by deleting the game to free up space for exemple, no worries – your saves should remain stored in this location on your PC.

As for Season 2, didn’t it have a sort of quiz at the beginning to ask about the choices you made in S1 ? Honestly, I can't quite recall. I play so many different games that I’m not sure if it’s a quiz or if you load a previous save. Have you tried starting a new game from S2, if that's possible ?

Otherwise, skip through all of Season 1 and see if there's a prompt at the end to transfer the save to Season 2. Start S2, try loading the latest save, and if that doesn’t work, check if you can start a new game directly from Season 2.

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yeah i checked that location, but unfortunately my persistent got overwritten.

My saves themselves are fine, its just that i like to give every save page a title so i can remember what happened in the story at that point, and when I opened Stray Incubus 2, it overwrote my persistent file for Stray 1 and therefore deleted all of my save names.

anyways, thanks for the advice. just gotta suck it up and move on

OnlyUsedForNever said:

yeah i checked that location, but unfortunately my persistent got overwritten.

My saves themselves are fine, its just that i like to give every save page a title so i can remember what happened in the story at that point, and when I opened Stray Incubus 2, it overwrote my persistent file for Stray 1 and therefore deleted all of my save names.

anyways, thanks for the advice. just gotta suck it up and move on

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No problem, sorry about your little mishap, good luck solving your issue ! ^^

Ebonheart (FR) said:

Well, I mean, it’s pretty understandable why he might’ve made that mistake out of simple misunderstanding, and it’s important to differentiate that from a bold statement. It’s a small nuance. Especially since the main point of his message was to say that Flynn left and probably won’t be coming back

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you're trying too hard to push this idea. I don't really care about that. He said that dev's said something about Flynn. I said that they didn't. That's it. There's no need to keep repeating yourself about how you don't believe he will come back.

packor said:

you're trying too hard to push this idea. I don't really care about that. He said that dev's said something about Flynn. I said that they didn't. That's it. There's no need to keep repeating yourself about how you don't believe he will come back.

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I didn’t repeat myself just to respond to you, but it seemed important to try to make this clear to those who seem to have trouble accepting the current situation. The person here just made a small mistake regarding AsTc3r’s status, but I felt that the main point of the message was more important than a confusion in the label.

Everyone sees things from their own point of view, and it's not a big deal—everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just wanted to highlight what seemed relevant and important to me here. Anyway, I’m not going to spend all my time repeating obvious things to anyone who wants to hear it or not, I’ll get tired long before that ! x) And discussions that tend to go in circles don't interest me either.

Overlord070 said:

Yeah, I went and read back a few pages back, what a shame.

I don't really have any expectations for this under new management, creative projects like this usually suffer when it changes hands since it's no longer the creator's vision. Nevertheless I still wish the new devs all the luck possible.

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It's possible, but I prefer to give the new developers a chance and see how the game evolves moving forward. There's no saying it will necessarily be something negative in the end. I'm staying optimistic for now.

Ebonheart (FR) Thanks for being so active here. Flynn loved working on the game and I still cannot believe he's not working on it anymore.

Ebonheart (FR) said:

If you want to be somewhat or very picky, then yes, it's true that this person (AsTc3r) who gave us some news since Flynn left isn’t one of the two new developers (peggy1303 and ischwhit), but a moderator from the Stray Incubus Discord. In reality, it's not a big deal, since AsTc3r has an official role and seems to speak for the development team.

Otherwise, I agree with Wolfeszorn and AsTc3r – Flynn’s not coming back, it’s pretty clear, and his decision was final. Sorry to those who are saddened by this, but it's the reality we have to accept.

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thx for the correction. Of course i know that AsTc3r was/is a Discord mod. My mistake was that i was under the impression that it was a direct response / comment made by the new devs. But yeah. Doesn´t change the fact that Flynn is done.

Wolfeszorn said:

thx for the correction. Of course i know that AsTc3r was/is a Discord mod. My mistake was that i was under the impression that it was a direct response / comment made by the new devs. But yeah. Doesn´t change the fact that Flynn is done.

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You're welcome ! That's exactly my point and yours, but it seems that for some, AsTc3r's status matters more than the actual situation regarding the game or Flynn. Oh well, it's not a big deal; at least it brings some activity to this thread. I hope we’ll hear some news soon about the future of the game, just to switch up the conversation around here a bit.

Im gonna share parts of his last words to give you a small insight. Please note Flynn giving up on SI was NOT because of financial troubles, some stuff just cant be fixed with money. It is a personal and private matter that had to lead to his decission and we wont share more about that to respect his wishes. But again, it was his final decision and we cant change that. The only thing i was able to do, is letting fans have hope, to have SI getting an actual end to its journey one day.

AsTc3r said:

Im gonna share parts of his last words to give you a small insight. Please note Flynn giving up on SI was NOT because of financial troubles, some stuff just cant be fixed with money. It is a personal and private matter that had to lead to his decission and we wont share more about that to respect his wishes. But again, it was his final decision and we cant change that. The only thing i was able to do, is letting fans have hope, to have SI getting an actual end to its journey one day.

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Thank you for sharing all of this with us. I hope you didn’t feel pressured to address these points just to settle some of the ongoing debates in this thread. It should also reassure some people that, in addition to being a moderator on the SI Discord server, you’re well-informed about everything that’s happened and are speaking from a place of real understanding, which I never doubted.

It would be great if, in the near future, we could move past these endless discussions about the reasons behind Flynn’s departure or his (unlikely) comeback. He left for serious personal reasons, and now it’s time for us to look ahead. The game's story is not over yet.

Ebonheart (FR) said:

Thank you for sharing all of this with us. I hope you didn’t feel pressured to address these points just to settle some of the ongoing debates in this thread. It should also reassure some people that, in addition to being a moderator on the SI Discord server, you’re well-informed about everything that’s happened and are speaking from a place of real understanding, which I never doubted.

It would be great if, in the near future, we could move past these endless discussions about the reasons behind Flynn’s departure or his (unlikely) comeback. He left for serious personal reasons, and now it’s time for us to look ahead. The game's story is not over yet.

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I know him in IRL since well he went to study in germany and i live here so yeah we are still friends and i have ways to reach him if needed but people should just move on since he wont come back for SI.

AsTc3r said:

I know him in IRL since well he went to study in germany and i live here so yeah we are still friends and i have ways to reach him if needed but people should just move on since he wont come back for SI.

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It’s good because it means you can still hear from him. You’ll be able to keep him updated on the game, even though he probably has other things on his mind right now. But it’s helpful to still be able to communicate with him. We all need to get used to the fact that Flynn is gone, definitely, and that Stray Incubus will change. I’m still hopeful, though. The game could’ve ended with Flynn’s departure, but there’s still hope it can continue and give players a satisfying ending in the future.

Uh...so this game is not actually abandoned and is waiting to be continued with new team?

w.iT said:

Uh...so this game is not actually abandoned and is waiting to be continued with new team?

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AsTc3r, the moderator of the Stray Incubus Discord, posted two pages ago that the game's production has been taken over by two new developers. By the way, the search function is pretty handy—you know what the little magnifying glass does, right ? But since I'm nice, I'll drop these two sources below.

AsTc3r, not sure if it's on purpose, but it's hard to read your username and your moderator colleague's on Discord with the colors you both picked. As someone with bad eyesight, I don’t thank you, man

AsTc3r said:

Hello Everyone Fans of Stray Incubus,
i am happy to announce the successors to Flynn for the development of Stray Incubus, peggy1303 and Ischwhit
I know many will fear, that it'll be not the SI you all know, but it's inevitable that things will change. However they are given everything Flynn has left us with, so they can continue the story roughly like Flynn envisioned it to their best capabilities.
I wish for everyone to be patient and looking forward what is ahead of us. Updates on the release of a new chapter will follow.


Additional for F95:
There is no more reason to specualte for you why Flynn has left us. The reasons are valid and be glad he is not a milker as other devs turned out to be. In fact he worked for the new chapter 3 even till the announcemt and the hard cut was less painfull for him eventho it still was, since he had to give up on his own project he loved and cared for.

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w.iT said:

Uh...so this game is not actually abandoned and is waiting to be continued with new team?

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yes, it was abandoned, but also, yes, it has been taken over. They haven't produced any work yet. The abandoned tag will be removed if any actual new content is put forth.

Well, if there is any chance that Flynn974 ever reads this: thanks, dude, for your hard work first of all and most importantly and for not just disappearing without any word!
I wish you all the best for all the challenges ahead!

Never was a supporter regrettably but was actually coming around on it.

well, i know i promissed fanarts just until the dev team was changed but...
I also, tought my favorite render froom back in the day couldnt just vanish, right?

Has the game been abandoned?