I know they've been around longer. But I've been on f95zone for 1.5 years now and I already had my first subscription service open for 1 year at that point. This makes me feel like it is not the time and the effort that is the problem, but me being stupid at making stuff.Geez, you're raking it in, dude!
Maybe time is a factor. If the other developers are there longer, it stands to reason they've already build a larger following. My guess is that at one point in time, they also only made 50 bucks.
With subscription based revenue streams, the general consensus seems to be that the only real way to grow is to reliably put out the content. Pick a schedule, then stick to it. If you want regular payments, you've gotta give regular updates. JFTR: I don't make the rules, so don't shoot the messenger.
HTML Desert Nightmare [v0.69] [Primal356]
- Thread starter Deleted member 3952135
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You want honest feedback? I am not a gamedev but i have quite a bit expirence in leading teams or general dev stuff. I saw a lot of different types of developers.
It is not the time or effort. it' looks like just inexpirence in Development.
First make yourself clear what do you want to tell. I think you have like 5 different games in dev in parallel. Not a single one in a finished state (correct me if i see it wrong)
This is for me an indication of lack of focus. I assume you have story in mind, a world you want to show. with it's own characteristics etc.
Do you want to tell a story only or make a game? Because right now you try to do both things at the same time but nothing full.
Example here: for a story you have to many branches which tells you what? there is a dessert planet and slave training? For a game the 'game mechanics' are lacking.
I cannot give you an answer on what do you want to do but my recommendation/feedback would be, get clear what you want to have. Assume you need to go to any investor/Budget responsibility and get upfront x amount of money. Have a concept and show what you want to make. Becasue basically that is what Subscribers are, your Investors. They invest money to support you getting a product.
right now it feels like -> i have a Story, some Renders and this Webpage Framework, throw it together and hope something comes out. It feels like a techdemo Prototype to try something. If you are getting a product, i am sure people will start backing it.
If you want to make a VN, have an interesting story with some decissions (there are good examples here). If you want to make a game invest on your 'gameloop' and build the world adventuring around the gameloop.
The problem is this easy to say hard to do thing. The original concept was to have one project, The Zeta Sector, which is a text based story with ai images. It all fell apart when it saw daylight, because the AI engine I used didn't allow for NSFW images + people felt like it was a chore to go through because there were a hundred possible branches, but only 2-3 went to meaningful places. I started to add images with daz renders. But I'm unable to throw enough money at the problem. It eats hundreds with each meaningful update and I myself can never spare more than a hundred. I threw in other titles that are smaller, the only purpose of them was to have asset flips. But even at that point I couldn't get enough money. No amount of help from outsiders helped me either.
To sum up, what I have right now is the consequence of a failed launch and every decision that could go wrong going wrong in the aftermath. I have to work at titles like the desert one at this point. With the other games no amount of money can help. I want to reel it towards a game because VN's use a lot of graphic assets and I can't afford those. But it is true that this is very much work in progress, since I have all the wrong decisions and their aftermath that led here.
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It's also difficult to factor things in with these subscription services. For instance, one of the 5 entries, the shorts, used to run on Deviantart with 34 subscribers. So it almost had as much revenue as my channel. Then one day my Deviantart was deleted without explanation. I made a new deviantart since then, but 33 out of the 34 subscribers decided to be air. I get favs from them every day so I know that they are there.
3 of 4 the games were actually making progress. But then my Patreon was removed without any prior warning or reasonable explanation. And 64 of the 75 members decided to be air. More than a month passed since then, and I made many posts about it, so the majority of the people should know.
This leaves me with more than $200 gone from the revenue and 4 of the 5 things on the channel was rendered uncontinuable. And now everybody is shitting on my head because I have so many unfinished stuff. I try to raise the issue and have a reasonable solution about it, but everybody keeps saying that I'm a piece of shit person for wanting money. This has quite a habit to it actually. Basically it goes like this: I make the update on f95zone. I get a 1000 downloads and 2000 online browses. Then I get 0 new subscribers but 10+ comments about how much of a piece of shit I am for wanting money, being late with updates, not continuing an expensive project, making a certain creative decision, not making a certain creative decision, you name it. So basically you have to be a developer and a punchbag at the same time.
I thought I add this, because on the surface it really looks like an easy thing to do. But in reality it looks like this: "OP changed from Patreon to SubscribeStar. Therefore I'm air." Then 2 weeks passes. "WHERE IS MY UPDATE YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT?!"
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Dev log (02/09/2025)
I decided to make a quick dev log because I'm finally back home, and production can resume at full speed.
I made a few quick renders because I want the caravan encounter to be a repeatable. This way you don't miss it if you don't engage on the first try.
I added 3 more tiles as well, and I'm at the process of figuring out what to do with the slave paths. I want it to be a game that goes for the descent rather than being a VN. If it were to split to a different story every turn there would be way too much stuff for me to buy and I would be unable to keep up with the expenses.
At the same time a game has to have some sort of a story too. So I'm already at the process of figuring something out
I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the engine problem. I will have a couple weeks off work, so I think this is the best time to start learing the Ren'Py engine. It might benefit the game on the long run. Or it might not. Either way I think this option is worth exploring because the images in Twine are either very small or they are way too large. Once the decision is made, thanks to the 5070Ti the renders could be remade quickly, so this shouldn't be a problem.
Oh, and please do what the lady says. Trust me, she is showing her good side here!
I decided to make a quick dev log because I'm finally back home, and production can resume at full speed.
I made a few quick renders because I want the caravan encounter to be a repeatable. This way you don't miss it if you don't engage on the first try.
I added 3 more tiles as well, and I'm at the process of figuring out what to do with the slave paths. I want it to be a game that goes for the descent rather than being a VN. If it were to split to a different story every turn there would be way too much stuff for me to buy and I would be unable to keep up with the expenses.
At the same time a game has to have some sort of a story too. So I'm already at the process of figuring something out
I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the engine problem. I will have a couple weeks off work, so I think this is the best time to start learing the Ren'Py engine. It might benefit the game on the long run. Or it might not. Either way I think this option is worth exploring because the images in Twine are either very small or they are way too large. Once the decision is made, thanks to the 5070Ti the renders could be remade quickly, so this shouldn't be a problem.
Oh, and please do what the lady says. Trust me, she is showing her good side here!
just put in a cheat menu pls. i am just spamming robbot+well the whole day. are the dunes meant to do something? also you only meet the caravan once?
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dont like the story change at all. Just keep it simple, this isnt the game for an overarching hero story. Maybe a game for a slave story...