What the dev has to say about releasing 0.1 for free "Please note that this is a one time offer"
Single goal listed "When I reach 2000 Patreons I will be able to hire a voice actress for Megan."
Good but slightly inconsistent renders. Feels a bit like a Melody clone with unrealistic expectations from the dev. Will keep an eye on this one.
I'll be totally honest with you. I'm new to this scene. I've made games before (Two L4D/L4D2 campaigns with >500k downloads) but never worked with Daz3D or Ren'Py, let alone published a game this way. It is a scary journey once you press the upload button and reveal the hundreds of hours you've poured your heart and soul into.
I'm a pirate myself so I don't have anything against people pirating my game, hell I'm even expecting them to; I'm just glad that people are enjoying it! But doing this is very expensive, believe it or not. I'm paying out of my own pocket for everything and my computer is actively rendering 80% of the day atm. I don't feel it is wrong to
ask for pledges to support that, but I'd never expect that people will pledge. That's just a happy bonus, second to people enjoying the game. But as I do a patreon campaign to support the project, it is very unfair to those who choose to support me to not give them something in return for it. In my research of Patreon creators of adult content most let patrons interact with the dev and see sneek peaks of what's to come etc as reward for their pledges. So I put that Episode 1 is free for everyone, but in the future I will personally not reach out to anyone that actively uploads the game to this site that would be hypocritical. Besides, I'm certain that it will be up within a day or two if people still are interested in the project.
For your second concern, I have looked in to voice actresses and wages. It is a profession. It is expensive. Also, if you have the demand that the actress must do all planned episodes it really adds up and there must be an incentive for her to commit to the project. Is it unreasonable with 2000 patreons? Yes maybe, but I can always adapt depending on the size of the donations. Once again, I am new to this. My only passion is to see this project through and adapt along the way. It is a learning process and no correct way of doing it. I just believe it is important to be transparent about it and be able to listen to feedback from the community.
I truly appreciate your concerns! They make me reflect and want to improve. I hope you'll stick around for the next update.