VN Ren'Py Newbie Dev: So.... should I make a patreon?

[JAI_INVESTIGATOR]

Hi all I'm JAI!

I'm a newbie developer and I'm creating my first story based visual novel

You must be registered to see the links

I'm posting as I was after some advice from experienced devs and members about whether I should launch a patreon page.

Some background
Recently I noticed my game has been uploaded here to f95 (yay!) and I am in the process of trying to get a dev badge. For that process it seems the best way to prove I am the dev is the show proof from my patreon, but I don't have one... So it got me thinking... should I get one?
I've been weighing a lot of pros and cons in my head about it and I was hoping to some feedback from the fine folks here to help me figure out what's best! To do that I've listed some of points for and against below:

Case for

• Helps show I am the dev!
• Most games on itch.io have one, even those much less formed than mine, so it kinda makes sense that I should too
• I think my game could have appeal to certain groups, it's a fairly vanilla NSFW romance adventure. MC and LIs are working age people and it's a slice of life game. I don't think there's a lot of games like that so if I did have a page it might be a good way to build a community of people who would be interested in the game.
• Money, even a little, might help me to invest/improve the game
• Might be a good way to have some polls to help determine the direction of the game. My first version of the game had some minigames that no-one cared for, so I was really happy to be flexible based on feedback and I removed those. I'm hoping if I had a community, that I knew really cared about the game, that it could help me improve the game not only like that but maybe even for narrative or story beats (for example I never intended to have a harem option but I might be amendable to that if I knew it was for a passionate community that was voting for it).

Case against

• Money creates expectation... This will never be a full time thing for me, it's just a hobby that I do, and I worry that putting a patreon up could create a lot of expectations (when things are made, how things are made etc.)
• I do not want to deal with tiers and all of that... I would probably only have one tier and it would pretty basic. I wonder if that might create a perception of a lack of effort which might rub people the wrong way.
• My game uses AI cg, not trying to start a debate here (I can appreciate arguments for both sides and I can honestly say I only use it as I know the game could not exist without it) but I know that will instantly put a lot of people off side. I am not an artist and I won't ever call myself one, I'm just good at prompting and using AI tools. I would think to myself , that if I did get any backers, that money would be going to the game as a whole; to my skills in writing, programming, and assembling cohesive/appealing images. However, I know that for a lot of people it will be me taking money out of the pockets of artists. Is the possible negative perception I will receive from this worth the benefits I could gain?
• I feel I could be influced to sacrafice a fair bit of my creative vision. While I'm happy to be somewhat flexible I do worry slightly about bending too much just to appease... I have some hard no's (NTR, Maledom, incest etc.) so I'm hoping I can stay to my convinctions but if I'm accountable to paid backers could this inadvertently turn into something that I don't enjoy making anymore as I follow what the crowd wants?
• What if I ever want to quit? Is there a way to bow out gracefully when money is on the line?
• If I'm honest I don't think my game is that popular. Am I getting to big for my boots?

For all that do, thanks for reading all that! Any advice would be awesome!

Thanks!
JAI


TLDR

Newb dev struggling to decide whether to make a patreon, can think of lots of pros and cons, looking for some general advice from those more experienced.

 

[DumpTruckLover]

I think you're overthinking it. Most people probably won't pay anyway (especially considering the game uses AI), so there's no need to worry. My advice is to create a Patreon page—it will make it easier for you to communicate with people.

As for money creating expectations, if you make it clear from the start that game development is just a hobby for you and not a profession, people will treat you accordingly. Of course, if you say something like that, you should also keep in mind that the already small amount of money you'll receive might decrease even further.

 

[Midzay]

I thought you could specify not only Patreon, but another site as well. I have Patreon, it doesn't work at all. But I have the game development page here. I gave the moderator a link to Patreon and explained that I don't plan on getting paid for the game. But the moderator can see my development progress on that site. And it worked.

 

[Waterthose]

You don't even need another site to prove you are dev. I didn't have a SS or Patreon until v0.3 of my game, so they asked for proof that you are making the game (scripts renders etc). I also thought it would create some kind of community for feedback by putting Discord with it. Turns out, more than half of my patrons are silent and will not reply to anything so that didn't really work. F95 tends to be pretty great compared to every other site for feedback.