Thursday, May 3, 2018

Goings ons


Still working on stuff. Frustrating delay-of-the-day is the need to get some expensive dental work done.

Unfortunately, Aster didn't really sell much on DLsite. They stuck it away in a nebulous shooter section, so it doesn't get the exposure of other action games. While I think that if it were a better game it wouldn't have mattered, it is somewhat frustrating to see it not get a normal chance. Might sell it on Nutaku, but man I really don't want to go through the process of preparing promotional stuff again.


So, I'm currently figuring out what to do. Probably Patreon animations. The dental stuff is time sensitive, so I can't simply wait until a game is finished; which is what I would do if that wasn't the case. Every situation like this kinda just widdles down my patience; I just want to work on games have nothing else to worry about.

After I finish what Patreon animations I need to do, if I need money again I'll probably switch from animations to a patreon game. Even an initial week or two of getting something to a "build on" state would be wasting less time than I do spinning my tires on some of these animations.

38 comments:

  1. These could easily have been edited to be one post.

    Kyrieru: Re-promoting it on Nutaku might be worth it in the long run. You have my support!

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  2. Is funding you via a monthly patreon payment on the table? I wouldn't mind funding you regularly.

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    1. Nah, I still don't think so. I still think that Patreon only makes sense for me if it's only paying for content when content is made.

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    2. The best way I can really see it is technically we would be. If time goes by and no progress is being made on the content we are looking for people will start speaking up by removing the funding. Now granted this may possibly change stance on if the game ends up getting released for the original price, much cheaper or even free.

      I only say this based on MITY who is doing the Avatar visual novel type thing who is pretty much just doing monthly updates. I know not the same type of game but I feel your content is bounds over, plus original versus just using popular girls.

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  3. I would say patreon is the best way to fund your games. In my oppinion, i think your games are even better than what Future Fragments has to offer, and they get TONS of cash on patreon for their work. If someone has a chance to earn a good monthly income there, it is you.

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    1. And instead of pledging 2 dollars for 3 votes, you could have pledge tiers for 1-5-10-15-20 dollars to give pledgers more benefits like posters, access to a discord group, early snapshots of the game, ect. Like. Just look at Musfan's patreon. They have about 100 pledgers, and they make about the same as you do on your patreon. Wouldn't hurt to try, right?

      https://www.patreon.com/musfan

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    2. In general, I would want the value of the content to match the amount people pay. To me, paying $4 per month is way too much for any game, since all it takes is a couple monthes and they've already past the value of a full game. I'd prefer to have more patrons, but have each of them paying far less.

      That said, I'm not big on having a bunch of extra stuff. I prefer that it's paying for content, and that's it. I think I'd get bogged down with extras more than I do with doing patreon animations.

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    3. I honestly think that you are being way too fair for your own good. Patreon lets people pay you what they want, even if it's just support to allow you to work on the game without distractions. Many Patreons are basically just straight up support features. I read Chinese webnovels, and there the translators also use Patreon. In most cases 3 dollars a month let's you read 1 chapter in advance, which is nothing considering that they release 2 chapters a day. Many youtubers doesn't give their Patreon supporters any additional benefits either, but still have a large amount of support. I would probably give 3 dollars a month to you, if I knew you where making progress. If monthly demo was added, even better.

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    4. Eh, I wouldn't use other Patreons as examples lol. There are a lot of scummy devs out there.

      Some things are very niche and unviable financially, and therefore people are willing to basically pay for their existence. I'm not really in that situation with H games. It would be different if I was making some type of game few people wanted to play, but platformers are pretty reliable.

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    5. Idk Kyrieru. Me personally want you to be well off so you can focus on the things you want to do. Not just games, but life. Even if people pay you more than you could ever make with just games, it would still put you in a good position to keep making them without trouble. People pay you for your content after all. And you aren’t shady either. If people overpay you, then they pay you cause you deserve it. If you had a patreon for your games, then people pay you to support development of current and future games. Idk. Just think about it some more.

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    6. There is absolutely nothing scummy about how the content creators I mentioned uses Patreon. The transaction is 100% consensual and the support can be drawn back at any time. It would only be scummy if they deceived their patrons.
      Patrons would not be paying for your existence either, we would be benefiting by you being able to avoid financial distractions and therefore finishing the products earlier.

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    7. I didn't mean them specifically, but I'll avoid the long discussion of what's good practice when it comes to crowdfunding, and simply say that certain kinda of crowdfunding don't feel right to me personally.

      @Mormon Jesus: That's the thing, it wouldn't be overpaying if I deserved it lol. If I was releasing kurovadis sized games every month, people could feel free to pay me $5 per month.

      I think I should stop bringing up financial stuff though, on this blog. For a while I've felt as though I shouldn't post misc none-game stuff since it would make it seem like I'm wasting time, but every post being about troubles probably comes off as very whiny.

      I'll make sure whatever I post about next is something more positive.

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    8. "Some things are very niche and unviable financially, and therefore people are willing to basically pay for their existence. I'm not really in that situation with H games."

      Says the guy who cannot work on his game because he doesn't have the money to pay his bills. I doubt any of us can convince you to set up a patreon, but I think the real reason it's a problem is because you don't want to commit to deadlines or a real schedule on one project that you can be held to.

      I don't get it, wouldn't having no money worries and being able to work full time on Noaika be a good thing? You spend way too much time on side projects that become outdated before you release them, ensuring you make no real progress on what you really want to do.

      Just my opinion, chuck it in the trash if you want. Just a frustrated fan of yours who wants to play your games, not wait 3 years to hear that you've worked on stuff that'll never be finished.

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    9. Not viable as in the final product would not make enough money to justify the time investment. With H-games, they're more than viable (After releasing Eroico, I had enough money to finish 3+ games of the same length/dev time).

      Thing is, if this were my first time screwing up, I'd have some good will to spend, but I don't. At the end of the day I need to drop whatever expectations prevent me from doing 3-4 animations per month, and just get the "fund-raising" out of the way. Then I could focus on a game, sell it, reimburse people for the goodwill, and get back to Noaika.

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    10. To be fair your animations are really good, but i'm not here because I want animations. I'm here because I love your games.

      When you say you have to spend all this time on animations to get enough money to be able to work on your games and you won't let any fans help you financially it shits me.

      I want to pay you to work on Noaika.

      I want that money to guarantee some kind of progress with a release at the end of the tunnel (not too soon, just not in another 3 years).

      Once Noaika is done, I would consider continuing to support you on your next project.

      I'm SURE I'm not the only one and I don't see what's wrong with this scenario.

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    11. Well, it would be the same problem as taking preorders. I made $1500 ish, it ran out, and then I was left with people who had pre-ordered, but no game yet, and had to start the Patreon.

      If I started a Patreon that was purely support, not enough people would join for it to sustain me financially, and then I would have to do Patreon animations anyway. I'd be in the same situation as now except with a bunch of people who felt like they paid money for nothing.

      As it is, I make money to support myself by doing animations, and then I can work until I have to make another one. If it weren't for the dental stuff, I'd have enough money from Aster and the previous Patreon animation to finish the game, but that's life.

      My only real hurdle now is getting over my mental roadblocks and finishing animations. After I get the dental stuff handled, then I'll decide if I want to try a game instead of the animations for support on the side.

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    12. Pre-ordering a game and supporting someone via patreon aren't the same thing. They might seem similar enough, but the mindset of a customer entering into it is totally different.

      Do you seriously believe more people would pay you to do animations than would support a patreon for game development?

      "My only real hurdle now is getting over my mental roadblocks and finishing animations."

      I swear you've been saying this for 18+ months. While it might sound like I'm slamming you, I honestly want to help in some way and I feel like you would rather struggle.

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    13. I might send you an email, don't really like having this kind of conversation on a public comments section.

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  4. Here we go again. See you in 2020 maybe.

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  5. Take care mang~

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  6. Aww! I love this cute Dog Girl! Please Keep working on her! >.<

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  7. So I was wondering do you plan to ever release games on GNU/Linux as
    well? I mean GM2 has the ability to export to other OSs besides Microsoft Windows.
    Maybe I am the only person here who wants to play your games on my main system, which is GNU/Linux. It really sucks balls to play on a VM... Maybe you could consider it in future?

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  8. I think a game you regularly update is best. It will give you a steady income (hopefully) and let you keep in touch instead of falling into the dead zone.

    Best of all, there is no demand to have a finished project right away.

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  9. It didn't sell well even being at the tp 10 of weekly ranking? Well, shame that the dl categorization of the game blocked it.
    You may delat the Nutaku selling after working the patience of promotional material again. It doesn't have to be right now.

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    1. It did okay initially because it was displayed under new releases. However once it dropped from the weekly rankings, the only way to see it would be an advanced search.

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  10. Do you think I care about your blasé attitude?

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  11. Looks like you did , or why would you reply 😜 bago

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  12. Sorry to hear. Once I get my shit together I hope to post videos of it on Pornhub and any place that allows such content.

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  13. What is the difference from "aster" in "dlsite" ?

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    1. They are basically the dame. However the DLsite version costs more, as DLsite takes a cut of the sales.

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  14. Please no patreon animations. As good as your animations are, they really aren't what I want to see. I would absolutely support you on patreon if you set it up to support game development for your current projects. I just want to see you release something. I genuinely think you underestimate how much support you would get if you just focused purely on development.

    You've said in the past that releasing even 1 of the side project games would be enough to make swiching focus back to Noaika viable, right? So why not at least try it? If you set up the patreon for anything at all, do it with the goal of releasing the side game you've been working on. After it's released if you really feel bad about it, you can put the patreon on hold all together. Like you've said, you wouldn't need it at that point, because the games proceeds would be enough to support Noaikas development.

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  15. I'd love to see a game similar to Zell's made by you. Your pixel art and animations are amazing, so I'd definitely thrown in a monthly donation for something of that caliber.

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  16. No one is forcing you but please take your begging audience into consideration when it comes to Patreon. Wouldn't change the fact that people will get their pre-ordered Noaika that may be even better due to the Patreon giving you some freedom. On a separate note. I really love your mario/sonic concept. The gameplay of your games have always had a professional or unique feel to it. Super excited. Hope your dental work goes smoothly.

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  17. http://contra.wikia.com/wiki/BR-W9

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  18. Is there a phone version

    And can you make it compatible with my boy or GBA emulator

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    1. PC will generally be my focus, so I don't have any plans for android versions of my games.

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