Before Patreon gold fever the western erotic games scene was small and populated by hobbyists who didn't expect anything in return for their work. After Patreon popularity everyone think he can be the next Icstor when in reality is really hard to make bank now with so many sharks in the pool.
I don't know if that was the case here but many games are abandoned because of that. If you're in for the money your game will end abandoned or being a milking machine.
I hear you and totally see where you are coming from, but look at where adult games have come since way back when before the "Gold Rush". I say the same thing to a lot of people who want to become a dev. If you are in it for the money odds are flipping burgers is what you need to be doing.
Let's enter a time machine and go back 10 years, and we want to play adult games before the boom! Yee haw!
The year is 2011. Harry Potter is still in theaters! Everything is great! People are occupying wall street! No BLM! no #metoo Donald Trump is just a reality star on the apprentice! Robin Williams is still alive! Bill Cosby is still a good guy! What's going on in adult gaming?
We go into the house, and get on the internet! it is fap o clock baby!
We enter f95zone into our search engine. Zero results found...
Maybe the site is just down for a little while... Lets try an alternative "Fapnation" into search engine... NOTHING
What are our options then?
Go to playforceone.com on the plus side Flash is still working and they got some games there... What else we got...
We goto vdategames.com alright got some games there too... a little point and click fun...
We roll over to dateariane...
Then we find some websites with a few minigames... Very small market high demand.
Thats about it. Maybe there is a few adult game sites, but there isn't really much good stuff out there at that point in time. Its very bare bones. If you learn Japanese I'm sure you might be able to play some Japanese games. So you say fuck it go look at some hentai.
Back in those days... You wanna fap? Look up some porn, or erotica. Not much out there for the gamers.
What are the options now? Plenty to pick from thousands of games from thousands of creators.
If nobody was making any money at this I guarantee you that there would not be near the selection of adult games.
It's completely unfounded to start about money, Patreon or income here. Ardanos was a hobbyist. I've been a supporter from the start and it was clear from the first moment that this was a side-project for him and not his main source of income. He wasn't the best communicating dev but he has always been clear about his intentions, and if a lack of support would've been the reason for him to abandon the project he would have let us know.
Even if you are a hobbyist you don't live in a magic economic bubble where money won't help out, and influence your decisions. Lets say he is an average guy and works a normal average job with a median income at about 35k a year 40 hours a week which is the norm for the us. About 2.9k a month.
If he started making 5-600 a month on the game would that be his main income? No it wouldn't, and he would still make much more from his main job, and he would still need to keep his main job.
Lets say an unexpected bill comes up & he is only making $100 a month on the game. Some of that free time will need to dry up. He will need to work extra hours, or get a 2nd job. Then where is the time to make the game? How can he justify working on the game where it don't make the money he needs?
Lets put him back in that same situation where an unexpected bill comes up. His game is not making $100 a month instead it is making 5-600. He can justify working on it by the logic of "This makes me money and helps with the bills. It is a good second income. I should keep working on it. Maybe I can make more money from it and focus more on it."
