I've been pirating games since the early 80's... and this Dev, I think, needs some guidance on how to stay in the game.
Unless you are going to code in some DRM shit, there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent the game from leaking. It's gonna happen, usually a minute after you release it to your first Patreon. So - like someone else in this thread already said - you need to learn how to manage that and make it for your benefit.
Think of all of us as unpaid Beta testers and free advertising. We DL it. We play it. We tell our friends. We complain about bugs or request content... all of this is good for the Dev. It's part of that feedback loop you need to have a successful product.
Personally, the way I usually do things is I pirate and try dozens and dozens of new games. I'll give then a quick whirl, see if I like them, and for about 99% of them, I'll then just delete them. But for that 1% I really like, I'll actually go and buy the full version and support the dev. I'll also talk friends into getting it. I used to even run some fan websites for certain games and almost all the devs I got to meet and talk too, were 100% aware of this sort of piracy and totally fine with it. They all did it themselves, lol!
Why do you think Free to Play games like Fortnite are the big dogs these days? They need those millions of non-paying customers to provide the foundation for their game. That way, the game is so much better quality and the smaller amount of players who do spend money, spend a LOT of money. Trying to keep your product in a small bottle with a very few supporters is suicide. IMHO
