I'd love to but my finances have taken a turn. I'm trying to work out where I can get back to supporting you for $5 a month again but...well, life is bollocks currently. $30 is just a larger ask than I am used to seeing.
Totally understand. COVID has hit a lot of people hard, and these certainly aren't essential expenses.
- May 24, 2018
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No on July 10th its droping, i think if i remember correctly....
What tier will it be at that point? I may be able to swing sub $20, wish that Patreon had a one time payment thing instead of sign up and then cancel.
- May 24, 2018
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Quote from Discord:
- Thunderstruck, Perpetually Drink, & Fiona's Fan Club - July 7
- Inline for Thunder- July 10
- Wannabe King - July 15
- Pina Colada - July 20
- Oct 9, 2018
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We all counting on you broThank you!
I look forward to the 15th... I think I can swing that.
- Apr 2, 2018
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235k thread views and that level of activity hasn't garnered a single high tier patron that shares content? This is my shocked face.... LOL
- Nov 14, 2019
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Ya' know, when one does the math...
Look, these games take time, effort and creative energy from the Devs. They are not easy to make. Having said that -- and currently my monthly Patreon bill is about 120/month for games I believe in, so I do pony up -- we must also realize that a commercial game runs $30-80 bucks. Complete. A hardcover novel is, say, +/- 25 (USD). Complete. So, in about 3 months at a $10 level one has pretty much paid for a full game or VN. If a Dev starts raising (I'm not talking about this Dev; this is a general comment) levels or trying to guilt trip Patreons; I am not impressed. Yes, an artist should be compensated for their work, especially someone like this Dev who is putting out an excellent product. But one must also consider the fact that ofttimes supporters lay out far more than what could reasonably be considered "market value". That is a choice, I know. I don't get full value from a number of the Devs I support. I do it because I want to help and insure that they can keep producing.
So when I see people facing a conundrum such as the folks above, I feel a bit sad. One tends to wonder how much they have contributed in toto to the game. At the end of the day, nonetheless, Patreon is Capitalism in action. If a Dev can get more than that mystical and elusive "market value" for their product --- well --- God bless 'em!
Look, these games take time, effort and creative energy from the Devs. They are not easy to make. Having said that -- and currently my monthly Patreon bill is about 120/month for games I believe in, so I do pony up -- we must also realize that a commercial game runs $30-80 bucks. Complete. A hardcover novel is, say, +/- 25 (USD). Complete. So, in about 3 months at a $10 level one has pretty much paid for a full game or VN. If a Dev starts raising (I'm not talking about this Dev; this is a general comment) levels or trying to guilt trip Patreons; I am not impressed. Yes, an artist should be compensated for their work, especially someone like this Dev who is putting out an excellent product. But one must also consider the fact that ofttimes supporters lay out far more than what could reasonably be considered "market value". That is a choice, I know. I don't get full value from a number of the Devs I support. I do it because I want to help and insure that they can keep producing.
So when I see people facing a conundrum such as the folks above, I feel a bit sad. One tends to wonder how much they have contributed in toto to the game. At the end of the day, nonetheless, Patreon is Capitalism in action. If a Dev can get more than that mystical and elusive "market value" for their product --- well --- God bless 'em!
Yeah, I was thinking about this last night. If there were investors willing to invest the type of money that a "regular" game developer would see then the Patreon concept wouldn't make sense. Unfortunately due to the stigma of "Adult games" there aren't going to be any people willing to invest in a traditional funding model. Essentially Patreon lets people feel good about helping someone make a game but without the strings attached that an investor would bring to the developer. I wonder if we will ever see investors or an adult gaming company sell public shares in order to generate funding. I've been trying to support small developers who may not be seeing the big bucks of the big adult game developers but with everything the way it is have had to cut back. I never approached the $120/month range, at most I was half that.
Anyway, I look forward to supporting Thunderline and Last Call in the near (hopefullly) future.
- Apr 2, 2018
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The ability to offer a game at 30-80 bucks requires a sizeable volume at the end of its creation (if we are comparing to AAA games especially)....and the funds at the beginning to produce the content in the first place. Indie devs will RARELY (should say never, but there are a couple that have large followings) have that amount of revenue...and even fewer have the startup funds to make a complete game to sell.
That is the double edged sword. Like you said, it takes quite a bit of time and resources to make a game....and the less % or number of people that "pay" for it, the flat costs cannot be spread out over a large enough paying player base. Without those supposed brave souls, these games are completely dead in the water. Many popular ones end up suffering that fate shortly after production started for that exact reason.
Totally reasonable. Issue is with the small market overall here and the ability to publicize your product. Standard devs have a much larger market to draw from. Adult VNs basically have the big players and then the rest of us that are getting very little. It's a shame, and I wish we had something more equitable for everyone. I can assure everyone my actual hourly rate for the game is below minimum wage.
- Apr 2, 2018
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- Nov 14, 2019
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I have absolutely no doubt your final sentence is correct. Sad but true for most of us who create or perform. Those who do well are, by far, the exception. And you make a helluva product.
- Nov 14, 2019
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Oh, I agree for the most part. That is why so many of us tend to support our favorite Devs over the long haul, month after month, even though we are spending far more than might be considered logical.
As a full time Twitch streamer and as a musician, I face the same issues: heavy initial capital investment, ongoing costs for maintenance and service providers, content creation... the list goes on. In the end, it has to be a labor of love or it doesn't work. I'm fortunate, though retired, my careers set me up well enough so, while far from rich, I am comfortable in my old age and can pursue my passions.
There is an old joke: "A musician is someone who puts $5,000 worth of gear into a car worth $500, then drives 50 miles to a gig that pays $25."
So it goes...
- Apr 10, 2018
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You must be registered to see the links
So, the good news is that the Daz optimizations and changes I worked on during Last Call .3's development really helped speed things up towards the end. I did encounter a few small issues, but I've updated my notes for when I use these steps for new content in the future.
Renders were finished for Last Call .3 on July 4 evening, so that has given me almost a week to work through a to do list and test out some other things in Daz. It has been a break from game renders and script work, at least. These to dos are usually improvements or fixes I notice as I do game renders. Doing two games now often means double the work with some of these fixes, but nothing too huge.
I've started work on To Be A King .2 while Inkwell begins work on the Last Call .4 script. One of my big things with Last Call .3 was using some new Daz and hardware improvements I made to add more background characters to a scene to make it come alive. You'll be seeing this in To Be A King, as well, though a bit more sparingly given its setting.
Last Call .3 is where you begin to really see our branching paths. It was a massive update, but players won't necessarily see many more renders on a single playthrough than .2 provided. Enjoy those branches, and remember that there is no harm in playing through multiple times to enjoy all the content.
That's all from me! Enjoy Last Call .3! And remember that we are only on our third release here. Major story elements will take time to play out. Have a great weekend, everyone!
- IT Roy
Out of curiosity have they ever said how many updates the complete game will be?
Going by that dev post, either twice, or more, depending on how much it is branching, compared to the previous one.
- Aug 5, 2018
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Unlocked
Last Call 0.3 has it's release! We hope you enjoy!
Release contains:
700+ renders
2 Large lewd scenes and 1 small one dependent on path.
Bug fixes reported from 0.2
PC:
Mac :
Android (compressed)
You must be registered to see the links
Last Call 0.3 has it's release! We hope you enjoy!
Release contains:
700+ renders
2 Large lewd scenes and 1 small one dependent on path.
Bug fixes reported from 0.2
PC:
You must be registered to see the links
Mac :
You must be registered to see the links
Android (compressed)
You must be registered to see the links