About to finish a game. Worried about privacy. Any recommendations or tips?

[ArchieGold]

I have just about reached the point where I can release a game. I plan to create a patreon and link it here. I have a email that doesn't have my name in it. But obviously I will need to share my name with patreon and link a bank account. I am assuming this will be protected from patrons and such.

1. Is there anything else I need to know or be aware of?
2. And if I fill out a game thread request with my game, will I own the thread and does that offer any benefit or is it just more work?
3. Renpy distributables are anonymous correct? As long as I don't have dialogue with personal info in it?

Just really fucking nervous now that I'm gonna get outed as a person that makes porn games. Would really appreciate guidance/reassurance as I take this next step.

 

[Garynelson]

i'm not sure how it works but i hope you all the best!

 

[RedPillBlues]

2. And if I fill out a game thread request with my game, will I own the thread and does that offer any benefit or is it just more work?

Well I can at least answer this one. If you fill out the request you can ask for ownership of the thread as well as a game developer tag. Ownership of the thread allows you to change the OP as you wish, as well as the tags (within the rules of the site ofc). You could look at this as just more work, but its also easier to get things done that you want done instead of having report the OP every time you want any little thing change. The dev developer tag is mostly just a tag, but it will also give you access to the small developer only part of the forum.

As for being outed as a porn dev, I cant really think of one where it happened to someone that was actually trying to keep it a secret.

 

[anne O'nymous]

3. Renpy distributables are anonymous correct? As long as I don't have dialogue with personal info in it?

Yes, but be aware that until the recent versions, the full path to you project was available through the error messages, and embedded in the rpyc files. It's not the case anymore, but it regress at some point, so don't put your project in a too obvious path.

 

[ArchieGold]

Yes, but be aware that until the recent versions, the full path to you project was available through the error messages, and embedded in the rpyc files. It's not the case anymore, but it regress at some point, so don't put your project in a too obvious path.

So would placing the file in users/public/documents and then building the distributable from there be fine? or is there a good alternative file path to use?

 

[anne O'nymous]

So would placing the file in users/public/documents and then building the distributable from there be fine? or is there a good alternative file path to use?

Any path that don't include your login name on the OS is fine.

 

[Yngling]

I plan to create a patreon and link it here. I have a email that doesn't have my name in it. But obviously I will need to share my name with patreon and link a bank account. I am assuming this will be protected from patrons and such.

This is the real weakness in your plan.

Getting money for a project almost always makes real privacy difficult.
But it depends on who you are afraid of: your neighbours or your government.
I suppose you don't really need to worry about the neighbours.
I suppose the only way to hide from your government would be crypto.

I think you need to ask yourself the question: how much money do I realistically expect to make with this and is it worth it?

 

[ZorasSon]

You already created another e-mail address so that's good. The biggest problems in these cases are when people use their personal e-mail and end up with burnout (due to the thin line between work and personal life).

For privacy, as long as you double-check the files (like anne said) you should be fine. Also if you took any irl photos for the project make sure the exif is clean.

The only other thing you could think about is taxes, but it really depends on where you live. You might just have to say you do commission work or game dev, or you might need to add more information (such as adding Patreon as your "workplace"). At the end of the day most people that work with taxes (either the government or if you use a service to make your documents) don't even care about what you do, so you don't need to worry about that.

 

[kristijanEX]

Haha, I want to play the game if it's worrying you about your own personal security.