You're right about some points, but this in not the right way for funding a game. For example, Breeders of Nephelym, i'm not into it actually, it's not for me, but i supported their devs one time with paying one month price. Why? Because they are published their games FREE on Steam. Free. I just wanted to support them for doing this. But also they have 5700 patreon subs! And even they just wants $10 for access the game with full features. Not $50. But Bioasshard devs, want $50 for a couple of hair and outfits. It's like an EA game with full of lootbox. DLC hell. Yeah we can unlock these without paying, but the terms for unlock these, almost impossible. You know this too. Even there is no save system.
They should be on Steam with fair price. And if there are some people who wants to support the game, they still will support them on patreon. The only neccessary thing for this, transparent development and fair prices.
Another example is Fallen Doll. They have 8500 patreon subs. And this line at their patreon page:
"An accumulative $24+ pledge will get you the full uncensored game after the development is completed
(You will receive the steam key once the game enters early access) "
You see the difference right? One of them, asking to you for taking your money each month and probably development will gonna take years, other one says "oh, if you're pay $24 total, then you will access the full game when the development is complete. This way should be the way for funding.
Before I even fully read this, no, a lot of the unlockables really aren't that difficult to get, if at all difficult. The only one I've yet to actually get is the R3make outfit you get for shooting the emblems in mission 4... which, I didn't even notice a single emblem on mission 4 admittedly, so that one could take you awhile as I believe you have to repeat the mission to even get the outfit, so I'm assuming there isn't enough of them on the stage to get the costume in one go. The lack of a save system doesn't hurt you being able to really get any of the unlockables, as most are just unlocked through repeated play/playing through the game, or meeting certain criterias, like more than 60% accuracy during a mission, finishing a mission with full health (possibly no damage required? Not sure, I got the prior one mentioned and this one both on mission 3, in which I took no damage, used the ladder/high ground to kill the dogs, and just sniped most of the zombies, though they aren't much of a threat as long as you don't stand still), finishing the third mission in less than 6 minutes and 30 seconds, killing 20ish enemies when you get trapped in the room with all the zombies on the first mission, and finally just killing like 70-100ish enemies overall. The game keeps track of your kills/health/items between missions, so it DOES have some saving going on, just no in mission saving, which isn't absolutely necessary per say, but they DO need it to at least have a way to save to checkpoints, and have decent, well paced check points if they choose to have no manual saving/save points.
Whether I fully agree with developers using patreon, or how they are currently using patreon is another matter in itself entirely. While I do think they've had some bumps in the past for sure, like the Online login DRM, I don't really necessarily believe this is the case of a game that's attempting to milk its player base, so much as it is maybe just a poorly planned/overly ambitious one. Especially for what sounds like largely one developer working on it with a PC that just isn't fit to do so. Is it an ideal? Hell no, and I can definitely understand people's hesitance to trust certain patreon developers, but Versus X for the most part has been fairly upfront and pretty receptive to feedback, and has actually had a good deal of progress being made on the game, unlike projects that just wind up in permanent development hell and that I DO think might actually milk their consumer base a bit much. Versus X is a bit more in the middle, but not due to ill intent, mostly just improper management/lack of tools if anything, as this one did have a fair bit of implementation with new systems, model work, and two fully new maps at that.
Regardless, I definitely do think they could do better on the PR/marketing side of things in this case for sure, and there are H-games in development on patreon and steam both right now that do a far better job for sure. In some ways though, I'd worry to see this game pop up on Steam just due to the notoriety it could gain, and being somewhat a clear RE inspired parody from the name, to the character, to even just the gameplay mechanics, while it wouldn't LIKELY lead to a cease and desist from Capcom, it most certainly could unless they simply put it out fully for free, which, they already pretty much do aside from locking down customization, which on the one hand, yes, it'd definitely be nice for it to be free, but at the same time I can understand why they'd want to put something that's mostly fluff behind a paywall. Even in the case of Nepyhlym you DO have them time gating and putting certain features behind a paywall to obviously try and gain more financial support, its just whether or not you view these features as necessary to the game experience is when it becomes more of a core issue.
Like I said originally, everyone is free to complain really, I just don't see some of these complaints, especially ones related to gameplay/unlockables being fully justified which ultimately is just my stance/opinion on it, even moreso if (and I'm entirely uncertain of this) if the most you have to pay to access those features is $1. If you want to simply wait until the game is finished being developed, or in a more complete state to support, then go for it, hell I often forget this game even exists until they make a new build, and its basically how I view most projects that take a long time to develop, a nifty little trait I picked up in the many years I've been waiting for Project X to reach its end admittedly, among a few other games that never will like Nanocrisis and the like.
However, if there is a good suggestion I'd give to the developers, the pay X amount and you get the game on release would actually be a really solid one, its something I liked about the Future Fragments as well... or at least I think they are one that also is going to give out the game free to people if they've pledged a certain amount. Don't quote me on that though.
