- Aug 23, 2018
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That's case by case. It's perfectly possible for a content creator to park everything there without a paywall and just operate the place like a tip jar, and I've seen that done. Traditionally, artists with patrons would offer their biggest benefactors bonuses such as first refusal on purchasing of a new piece which would equate to paywalling store access by today's standards I guess. I've seen some creators do something similar on Patreon actually, by granting access to purchasing limited merch such as artbooks and prints before they go public... if they don't sell out before then.
The sad fact of the matter is that people sub on Patreon with expectations without actually looking into what they're being offered, and then they get upset when the expectations they've made aren't met.
Game development is generally a very slow process, especially when you want a quality product. It's not like a skilled digital artist who can pump out 1 or 2 pieces per week and simultaneously maybe even produce variants of their work or a writer who can just dump their latest fan fiction document into a post every time they finish a chapter, art and writing and coding and UX design and in the case of working with 3D even virtual cinematography skills such as lighting and shot composition etc. all come into play with these kinds of projects. Anyone expecting speedy releases on the regular in exchange for their money probably shouldn't even consider supporting a game project that's a work in progress.
