Out of curiosity, I noticed there are around 150 patrons in the credits of the game who belong to Legend (36.50€) and Legend Vet (60.50€) levels (otherwise they wouldn't be there).
So if we take a look at the current amount of patrons (about 1800), the worst case scenario in terms of incomes would be:
150 * 36.50 + 1650 * 1.50 = 5475 + 2475 = 7950€
Even if we still assumed there are no Legend Vet patrons and only half of the remaining 1650 are Advanced (6.50€), we'd still be talking about:
150 * 36.50 + 825 * 6.50 + 825 * 1.50 = 5475 + 5362.50 + 1237.50 = 12076€
To summarize, with this sort of reasonable configuration, the last update would've cost around 30000€. Not bad at all, right? It doesn't matter if people come here to unwind/troll after every update, there is a very important support/interest in the game and, as long as this continues (I'm sure it will), nothing will change in terms of development pace. At least I hope the current playable day is finished this year, but we'll see about that.
All in all, well done L&P, you have a very good product (numbers don't lie).
Regards
Earlier this year I did run some quick numbers regarding this, and by that time, when L&P only had 1800 patrons (right now there are around 2000 + 100 in SubscribeStar), the support was at least 8000€ (based on the amount of people who appear in the credits and the patron level required for that), but probably around 12000€. So I think 10k to 15k is a reasonable value and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a little bit higher.Thanks.
This is now making more sense to me now. Switzerland is a very expensive country. Around 10k usd is not that much for it.
I'm sure a lot of people will not like what I'm about to write next and facepalms are incoming but: I don't think anymore the people complaining he makes so much money and he should be doing this and that are right. If he works 40 hours per week for this, it's kind of a good salary but nothing out of proportion for the zone he lives in. In my eyes, especially considering the quality of his latest update (render wise), it's not that easy to find an artist to create similar quality stuff and pay him enough that he is satisfied and still have enough for himself.
Of course, one could think big picture here, hiring someone else, and improving the workflow could bring him a lot more patrons, which would increase his income. That is true in my mind, but no one says that L&P is the smartest bulb out there.
Do I wish he would do something and start getting updates out every 2-3 months? Yes, I would love it.
Do I think it's realistic to expect this will ever happen? With this new information in mind, no. Unless somehow in half a year, one year his steam release is a huge success, I don't see anything changing.
Let the facepalms come.
But the key point here IMHO is not how expensive life is in the dev's country. What's more relevant is what you promise (in terms of quantity, quality and time estimated to finish the game) and what you actually deliver. The game was planned to be finished somewhere between 5 and 10 years time (don't remember exactly) and, based on where it is now (6 years later, finishing PD13 and with tons of animations yet to be prepared), the very best scenario would be 25 and that's being veeery optimistic. And what happened with this promise of hiring someone once the support reached certain level? Well, just another dead promise..
We could discuss this again and again but the truth is, even if it may sound illogical, the only way to speed things up is by stop supporting the game. Since I'm not paying, it's not up to me, and I know there's always a risk that L&P eventually gives up and the game gets abandoned, but I don't see any other way. People tend to wake up when they see danger coming, and not being able to pay the bills is something that definitely motivates people.
Regards
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