60k/month Expectations

[Xviv]

If someone's pulling 60K a month off a game, I expect this to either be a really high production value game, or to be seeing a picture of the dev's new porsche before the end of the year.

I would not, however, expect or demand any kind of "update schedule", as constant updates would likely be a distraction from actually finishing the project. Some kind of completion schedule, on the other hand, would be expected on something with this kind of budget. otherwise you're looking at a smaller version of star citizen.

 

[lilipip]

I woulde hire a lot of people, and also I would try to dev two games at the same time, I would spend more time on create a great story.

 

[Krosos]

At $60,000 you could afford to hire at least 10 devs, and have a ton of money to spend on outsourced content. Our experience would explode with content, lol.

Open Source ,Open Community, Open Project and you never gonna believe what's going to happen, neither will your competition when it suddenly turns above their head without them noticing it or way to late.
You need a lot of specialized Firepower in Humanoid Realtime Simulation Development, especially non clone based hybrid humans if you just stay on the shoulders of others R&D it's not really as efficient. But of course you need to find your balance between reinventing the wheel and improving it as well.

 

[GNVE]

It seems wierd to link the amount of money to the speed of updates. If you take that logic to the extreme an AAA game should take a day to develop and release at least an alpha and have a final product by the end of the week. As long as you are up front with your patrons I think a longer time between updates might actually be benificial for the quality of the product (or at least it could when done right).

With 60K a month I'd set up a small team who at least some of the time work within the same office. I think this works better than a team spread all over the world. Unfortunately I live in a high income country so the amount of money would not get me as far as it would get me in other countries but it is what it is.

Also I'd probably try to split the money with a secondary project. Every game will eventually come to an end so it would be best to have a follow-up lined up that is developed enough so that Patrons don't need to wait a year before a new playable demo.

Last I'd probably use some time of my team to develop secondary revenue streams (in case Patreon money where to dry up for whatever reason).

 

[trdx]

It seems wierd to link the amount of money to the speed of updates. If you take that logic to the extreme an AAA game should take a day to develop and release at least an alpha and have a final product by the end of the week. As long as you are up front with your patrons I think a longer time between updates might actually be benificial for the quality of the product (or at least it could when done right).

I don't think it's weird to think about this, when more money equals less frequent updates.

Also I'd probably try to split the money with a secondary project. Every game will eventually come to an end so it would be best to have a follow-up lined up that is developed enough so that Patrons don't need to wait a year before a new playable demo.

Yes, this is an interesting idea.

Last I'd probably use some time of my team to develop secondary revenue streams (in case Patreon money where to dry up for whatever reason).

Examples?

 

[GNVE]

I don't think it's weird to think about this, when more money equals less frequent updates.

Sorry it was the last post before bed and somewhat tired I had read: more money should equal more frequent updates. My bad.

Examples?

Well I doubt I have good ones. I haven't given it *that much* thought but here are some very non-crystalized ideas roaming in my head.
So the best idea I have would be to use some of my time to make tutorials. There are Ren'Py tutorials and Daz tutorials but I haven't so far found someone who integrates the entire process of making a VN. This would however be more about me wanting to help other developers though. I do think it could bring in new patrons on a separate account that is less likely to be axed for whatever reason.
Second idea: Say I have an actual 3D artist making custom assets to use in my games and I have 30h of work for him/her Maybe I'd still give out a fulltime contract and use the remaining hours to create assets to sell in a store like Daz/Renderosity/Renderotica. (Maybe even sell some of the assets that where used in a game after an exclusivity period).
third idea I have is improving the tools I use to create the games I make. If I could justify the budget to either improve or make the tools I want/need I would probably sell/monitize those tools to at least recoup some of the development cost and if all where to go incredibly well even make a separate business out of it. This would also benefit the patrons for my game directly since I could actually work faster/better.
I doubt there would be a large enough market for branded merchandise but it might be worth doing some research into it (branded sex toys, waifu pillow, hoodie/T-shirt or something who knows).
Lastly I could even see myself saving up some of the money to make a more traditional game that can be distributed more traditionally. (I love making these games and telling these types of stories but that doesn't mean I don't have one or two more traditional game ideas I'd like to play). This last would however probably not be funded by patron money directly though. I'd feel bad using that money to develop something completely unrelated and they'd have to pay to buy. Developing a secondary project as I said in my original post I could justify morally to myself because the patrons will still get access to it eventually and it will have the content they expect (i.e. sex in one form or another).

Again I do want to stress NONE of the ideas above have been thought through enough let alone researched enough to have a good underlying business case and I have some or a lot of doubt about the viability of many of them. They are just vague ideas atm.