- Jun 19, 2017
- 167
- 428
I was thinking about what you said with that example and I think the key to success for any developer with backers is just being consistent and talking to the followers. There are a lot of middle of the road developers that find success just because they operate like clockwork. Daniels K pops to mind. I think he only really had one good game and the rest have been meh, but damn he delivers the updates at damn near the same time every month and seems to work on a one-game per year schedule. His stories may not be great, but the renders are and his work ethic is not only unquestionable but well proven at this point. That sense of reliability really helps to put people at ease and get the donations rolling in. I think this has always been the bane of P&P, they just aren't consistent and leave their audience hanging for ages while people wonder if this thread should get the abandoned tag or not. I think they have the potential to pop off again, but I also think that they lack the will to do so.its a bit of a case of: damned if you do damned if you don't.
like all start ups you need to invest up front so you gain size and can deliver what people want and the money will grow with it.
if you don't the invest up front then you never get the size so you can deliver what people want.
P and P peaked at $3300 but fell back for the reasons you wrote.
the problem for P and P today, is that they are an old start up who did not invest to grow big enough, so now what do they do...?
The only way out, that I see, is to invest in them selves (ask Patrons to chip in) and build a dev shop. They absolutely have top notch talent and the right grade A skills, and the experience to pull it off - what's missing is a scaled up dev team that can ramp up the release schedule. For instance NLT do 2 releases a month and P and P do 1 release every 6 month. NLT makes approx. $100,000/month and P and P makes $1200-$1300/month.
I know it's not fair comparison but there are similarities, e.g. look how small NLT they were when they started similar to P and P (they did have a comic business that seeded them but their first game was very simple - inferior to LotV), they use same RPG engine, rendering, etc. but made an investment in 2019 that payed off and today NLT can afford animators and writers, big team to crank out bi weekly releases with pro grade animations etc.
the point is that P and P can still invest in them selves and build a dev shop, copying NLT start up model.