- Sep 9, 2017
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Problem is, in my experience, most projects actually end up abandoned, or at least its 50/50. Time will tell how many projects on average actually end up completing since Patreon funded projects is still a fairly new phenomenon.
I think the cause of so many abandoned projects is due to an inherent flaw with subscription funded games. That being; There is literally no real incentive for creators to actually complete their games. In fact, there is more of an incentive to not complete the project. That's why so many devs just keep going until they get bored and basically can't get themselves to work on the project any longer and just abandons the whole thing in the end, often times without even telling their supporters.
It makes sense tho, you receive money every month for developing a game but what happens when that game is complete and there is no more development going on? Most supporters will stop giving them money of course. You can try and start up a new project but what if lots of your supporters aren't really interested in that? At best, you keep most of your supporter and your income does not change, at worst, you loose a ton of money. Its litterally better, from a financial standpoint, to not complete games ever and prolong development for as long as humanely possible.
The only exception are for creators who plan to make their life career about creating adult games, they might be more inclined to build a good and reliable track-record for the longevity of their career. But vast majority of amateur devs don't plan on doing this forever.
Supporters are much more inclined to keep throwing money at the same project, even if development is extremely slow or non-existing, rather than supporting a new project due to a bias in the brain called the
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. I honestly wish this was more known among supporters and they start being more picky with whom they throw money at because its honestly disgusting how so many creators are taking advantage of this.TL;DR: There are financial gains for devs to never complete games. That is why half, if not most, projects end up being abandoned and never finished. Devs are essentially taking advantage of supporters.
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