So, I'll do this once because anyone coming to the defense of this game is not arguing in good faith.
Perspective:
- Creator makes $60k a month off this game from Patreon.
- Works on the art solo since launch Aug 2016 + staff for coding added the past year.
- Since launch in Aug 2016, made $1mil in 3 years. The update schedule 'stabilised' to how it is, every 3-5 months, 2 years ago. Taking longer despite making more money, 'not a grift' lol.
1) The creator has total control over how the money is spent. Pocketing it and taking longer to release updates is grifting the system.
2) I'm sure the $60k a month in Patreon money has nothing to do with it.
3) If we're talking 4-5 months between updates the past 2 years and the game released at 0.1 when the Patreon went up, that's an update every month for the first year then slowing to once every 4ish months once over $15k a month was rolling in. 'not grifting'
4) Artists stream for free all the time, what king of a justification even is this? Sharing your process with fans isn't a luxury, it's a smart way to connect with fans and get valuable feedback/constructive criticism FOR FREE.
If this isn't a grift, what has the creator done different since establishing the update schedule 2 years ago? The monthly has quadrupled, so if you can't update any faster... maybe start another game? Make use of the fans money instead of pocketing it with nothing to show for it.
Complaining is my kink, stop shaming.
It's 100% a grift, the update model hasn't changed in 2 years and the income since has quadrupled. The payment system is not at fault, the creator has the responsibility to spend the money and has chosen to simply pocket it all. This is up to the Patreon's to reward/punish, and clearly horny is getting in the way of punishment. Guess the creator doesn't have much of a conscience regarding the situation either. In this case, Patreon forcing audits would be the only solution.
1) And? That's not an excuse to pocket all the extra income since the update schedule was made firm 2 years ago.
2) All developers do this, and they don't expect anything extra for it.
3) That kind of time waste to replace an animator is 100% on the creator, you should expect better and not parrot that as a legit excuse.
4) Better than twitter, here's some other 18+ game devs you can look up and check yourself:
- Siren's Domain has two game's in development making ~4k each a month with staggered updates, providing an update every month combined. Does the art for one, employ's ScarletAnn for the other, both animated and gameplay all updates.
- Heaven Studios does one game making ~$3.5k a month, updates once every two months. Employs multiple artists, CG with lots of transitions and variations, new gameplay each update.
- Gunsmoke Games, known for Something Unlimited, makes $14k a month, update every two months. Solo effort for the art, extra staff for updating the game to a new engine whilst still providing new updates, sporadic animations but consistent CG and gamplay each update.
It also goes without saying all those devs up above provide bug fix updates and half-updates when content is delayed. Literally nothing different from this game, or any other game you can find on F95.
That gets to the crux of the issue. The creator of SS is doing nothing for all the extra money coming in, same way a pyramid scheme rewards the person at the top the most for doing absolutely nothing past starting the scheme in the first place.
Hopefully at some point Patreon will be required to audit projects so there is some semblance of transparency where the money is actually going, so runaway grift's like SS can be reigned in. Because based upon the response from some users here, Patreon's aren't likely to demand accountability for SS anytime soon.
