Tonsure is a great word, isn't it? I remember, as a much younger man, reading Meyrink's Walpurgisnacht (or perhaps it was Der Golem, my memory isn't what it was), and wondering what the fuck one was.
Ren'Py Seeds of Chaos [v0.4.05 Dev] [Vénus Noire]
I'm not the person you're talking to, but it occurs to me that the funding structures are so different as to be meaningless.
With a patreon, you have a comparatively consistent funding source that gives you immediate feedback as to whether your project's direction is appreciated by your most important supporters - you can make your project vast in scope, and so long as you have the organizational skill to keep it from becoming a muddled mess, you can just keep adding to it in perpetuity, and know that people like what you're doing enough to make it worthwile. Or, alternately, cut back and reassess your priorities when you notice nobody actually wanted the fifty CGs of lesbian catgirls you commissioned for an event chain only two percent of your backers went through, and you're only getting a third as much money per month as you once did. Furthermore, one can start a patreon as a relative unknown, and grow over time through the strength of your work - you don't need much advertising or anything to get started.
With Kickstarter, you have a fixed budget and the only people paying attention to your updates (should you even offer an early-access model as opposed to waiting until its polished) are a small cross-section that may or may not just be a vocal minority. You have to have a rigidly defined scope from the beginning, and possibly be prepared to pare things back if any part of the development process ends up troubled. Complicating things further, for a project in this field, you can expect relatively few sales after the game is finished - you'll be reliant on a kickstarter for your next project as well, with no guarantee of future funding. Especially if you wanted your next project to be fairly different from your last. You're also much more heavily constrained by your reputation at the start of your project - an unknown developer will struggle to get anyone to even notice them, while an established presence is given a lot of trust regardless of what they're promising. The first time, at least.
Going from one funding model to the other isn't that easy, as it usually involves fundamentally restructuring your project - at least, if you were taking proper advantage of both. Both can, and have, seen many creative ventures succeed - but the challenges facing either tend to be quite different.
(Personally, I think Patreon makes more sense for things like games, books, and comics, as it gives the developer more freedom to adjust to demand, and patrons to withdraw support if what they're getting doesn't match what they imagined, but that's a bit beside the point.)
(Uh, just to be clear, though... I've never actually done either, just known people who have.)
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- May 10, 2019
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[B]T51bwinterized[/B] how do i change alexia's corruption is the debug menu? or thru console commands?
I do agree that It is more flexable, but in same way you aren't sure what are you producing. All depends on support you get. Second thing is as it could be good for developer it is bad for consumer as it molds a iteam in to a service. You aren't paying for finished product, you are paying for contributing funding it when service is rendered void you are left with nothing. Developer can delete all data and send it to the moon if he wish, and that only if they will be kind enough to actually finish it - they do not have to.
Another thing to ponder is if you are crowd funded (service) how you can claim that someone pirated your thing? You were paid to do work, you are providing service. No one took your workhours and put in in other project, nothing was pirated. Thats another issue with it.
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- Oct 17, 2017
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Step 1: You become a Scion of Chaos tier backer ($25). That's the one that unlocks developer mode.
Step 2: You connect your Patreon to your discord.
Step 3: You ask us the question in the Backer channel of the discord.
Provided step 1 is complete, I can happily help with steps 2 and 3.
I hope this answers your question!
- May 10, 2019
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I mean, if you were supporting a complete tosser, sure, they could do that. But it's generally pretty clear when someone has the kind of issues that would lead them to burn all their work in an act of spite or depression - if you're going to be paying someone for months on end, it's usually a decent idea to read what they're writing.
As for the possibility of the project failing, sure, that happens (I'm still dissappointed that Reclaim Reality won't be finished) - but if a project has been in steady development for months and doesn't sound terribly desperate, it's generally a safe bet that they're going to be in steady development for several months after you start contributing. Perhaps something will derail it at some point in the future, but at that point, you've gotten what you've paid for - several more months of content for something you enjoy. Perhaps you won't have seen the ending like you'd hoped, but just how many incomplete games are there on F95s "latest updates" page at the moment? How many webcomics are out there at the moment? Clearly, finishing a project isn't necessary for people to enjoy it, though it's doubtless preferable.
Now, personally, I'm not usually interested in contributing to patreons - my personal position is that I can buy a good game for sixty dollars, and I'd usually pay well more than that for your average patreon project. But for something that is truly unique and wouldn't otherwise be made, it would be silly of me to begrudge the platform instead of the price - issues of trust are going to exist in every relationship like this, yet they will continue to be necessary until we reach a post-scarcity society that allows them to work for free.
Now, as for the issues on the developer's side, I do admittedly have some concerns - there's always a temptation to bend your creative vision for financial support, one issue that I suspect is behind the recent boom in incest themes; similarly, it encourages developers to design their projects in a way that creates clean break points every month, and cliffhangers to promote patron retention, even if it doesn't quite match how things would have flowed naturally.
But these issues have to be weighed against the prospect of the project not existing at all. The same issues plagued the art scene during the Renaissance, and many famous artists made what their patrons desired rather than what they personally would have preferred. How many have heard of Michelangelo? And how many have heard of the artist who couldn't afford his paints? It's easy to point out that the model has its flaws - it's a lot harder to propose a system without them.
Edit responding to edit:
I considered a few different replies to this, from the scornful to the sarcastic, but they all came across as rather harsh.
Instead, I'll just ask you to please not insult my intelligence just so that you can have another reason to criticize Patreons.
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Hold up, there’s something I wanted to hamper on.
Writing is not easy. It takes time. It takes effort. Dare I say, a bit of talent as well. It’s not just something you can do *well* without practice. And fucking hell, this is not something you should treat like filler that connects one sexy CG to another.
Because that’s what literally happened to GoT. Things like witty dialogue, strong characterization, character consistency – all of these things took a back seat, to make room for another “wow” moment. Writing stopped being a thing that carried the show, and started being a tool that connected one predetermined set of impressive visuals to another.
I don’t work on exposure. And even though I do take pride in my work, it can be a fucking headache:
- Every character has to be unique, with their own unique set of motivations, personality, and – ideally – different speech patterns.
- Events have to keep a good pace, with sex events evenly spread between dialogue segments (If possible).
- A balance must be achieved between player choices (to engage the player) and not creating a multistate nightmare that is impossible to manage.
- Dialogue should be witty, or at the very least passable.
- Characters must be kept consistent between multiple writers, who each have their unique style of writing.
- Character events must follow predetermined arcs, and said arcs must be created if none exist.
All of this is not just something you can conjure with a snap of your fingers. It takes planning, thought, and worse of all – time, time, time. Hours have been put into analyzing Rastedel and every branch of it, making sure each provides a satisfying conclusion.
If somebody thinks writing is easy and cheap, I encourage them to endeavor on their own, make a career of it. Who knows, maybe they’re the next fucking Brandon Sanderson.
You know what? This is the kind of philosophy that brought us GoT Season 8.
Writing is not easy. It takes time. It takes effort. Dare I say, a bit of talent as well. It’s not just something you can do *well* without practice. And fucking hell, this is not something you should treat like filler that connects one sexy CG to another.
Because that’s what literally happened to GoT. Things like witty dialogue, strong characterization, character consistency – all of these things took a back seat, to make room for another “wow” moment. Writing stopped being a thing that carried the show, and started being a tool that connected one predetermined set of impressive visuals to another.
I don’t work on exposure. And even though I do take pride in my work, it can be a fucking headache:
- Every character has to be unique, with their own unique set of motivations, personality, and – ideally – different speech patterns.
- Events have to keep a good pace, with sex events evenly spread between dialogue segments (If possible).
- A balance must be achieved between player choices (to engage the player) and not creating a multistate nightmare that is impossible to manage.
- Dialogue should be witty, or at the very least passable.
- Characters must be kept consistent between multiple writers, who each have their unique style of writing.
- Character events must follow predetermined arcs, and said arcs must be created if none exist.
All of this is not just something you can conjure with a snap of your fingers. It takes planning, thought, and worse of all – time, time, time. Hours have been put into analyzing Rastedel and every branch of it, making sure each provides a satisfying conclusion.
If somebody thinks writing is easy and cheap, I encourage them to endeavor on their own, make a career of it. Who knows, maybe they’re the next fucking Brandon Sanderson.
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Fuckin' A.
Though you forgot one of the most important things.
Wine. Two or three glasses, Or mead, Or Whiskey, Or Gin. Once some of those go in me, my inhibitions drop and the orc cocks and elf titties plop right out of the page.
Without them, I find myself punching myself in the head looking at empty Google Doc pages.
- Feb 25, 2019
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Hey, hey, that's not fair. Transformers and Wolverine movies sucked just as much after the writers strike was over.
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- Dec 24, 2017
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I assume Mouse as in the character from Jessica's Curse.
Lucky. When I try that trick, I end up with five paragraphs of meandering introspection after every sentence in a conversation instead of three, without any naked people or plot progression at all.
...I really need to find some main characters who are willing to speak without thinking.
- Feb 25, 2019
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Personally, I find the hardest part of writing smut is that it's almost impossible to write something convincingly smutty if I'm not turned on, but it's much harder to write something good if I am.
- Oct 17, 2017
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Dragonball Evolution.
Fun? Sure.
Well-written? Lol.
Honestly, I just think that having random wooden sculptures is fun. I don't know if Arioch will approve, but I for one am in favor of allowing people to donate in novelty wooden handcrafts. XD
- Sep 1, 2017
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You do me too much credit.
I personally find that I have to abstain for several days before I can write 'smut'. Otherwise, I just write novice-grade fantasy stories with sieges and battles and killing and stuff. Your standard fare story, all told.
Which is not surprising, I can scarcely go two days without jacking it.
Or if that is not up anybodies alley, I have a sword and serpent relief.
It's actually my first 'proper' work from two-three years ago, and not the practice stuff from when I was screwing around with small figurines from thirteen years ago when I was a kid. I'm a fan of rougher looking pieces so I left the chisel marks in the background.
Edit: Oh yeah, the wood is Poplar. It's a decent beginner wood, fairly easy to carve and doesn't like to split very much.
Hey now, I don't want anybody to take a beating from their Corporate overlords. Once I sell some stuff to finance my Re-enactment gear, I'll totally become a patreon supporter.
All I meant to say that writing/copywriting is dirty cheap price wise. It is not any kind of philosophy.