It appears to me that more and more developers are taking long and longer between updates so I am curious as to what most people feel is an acceptable length of time and how much content is needed to be considered a real update?. A rare few developers are able to put out quality updates every month and others take 6+ months. I am only referring to developers that charge on a monthly basis.
What is an acceptable length of time between updates ?
- Thread starter Dave98424
- Start date
- Nov 6, 2019
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Well judging from Steam, most of the games are "worth" $10-20, so anything past that would be a tip, subsidy or however you want to put it, rather than "getting your money's worth". So its always going to be subjective.
I would say that if you don't see anything substantial on at least quarterly basis I'd rethink my level of support. Particularly if they are just plugging someone else's assets into someone else's engine rather than developing something new.
I would say that if you don't see anything substantial on at least quarterly basis I'd rethink my level of support. Particularly if they are just plugging someone else's assets into someone else's engine rather than developing something new.
- Apr 23, 2019
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Well, you should ask yourself how many people are working on each project and how they divide the tasks. The bigger and more experienced the crew, the faster they'll be done with it. You can't expect an amateur two-person team to pull off the same amount of work than a ten-person company of actual professionals...
I'd advise you to take a good look at their Patreon and evaluate how's that money being used, if they are hiring or just hoarding it.
I'd advise you to take a good look at their Patreon and evaluate how's that money being used, if they are hiring or just hoarding it.
- May 28, 2017
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Normal game development, the studio eats all the costs up front and releases a mostly finished game (which they may later release DLC for) and THEN recoup their money. If you pay per update they'd be motivated to decrease the time in between, if you pay per month then they'd be motivated to stretch it. If they are done in 6 weeks, it's very tempting to make it take 9 weeks so you get extra moneys.
Some people won't be your Patron until a game is completed and then they do 1 month for $15-$30 so there is some incentive to finishing a game, but often milking makes more.
What I personally find acceptable is that it takes as long as it takes + 7 days. If it takes a team 4 months to add 3 hours of content, Then I'm fine with 19 weeks. If it takes that team 2 1/2 months and they only release it after 4 months though..
$1 a month for 2 years is still usually more than the game is worth.
Some people won't be your Patron until a game is completed and then they do 1 month for $15-$30 so there is some incentive to finishing a game, but often milking makes more.
What I personally find acceptable is that it takes as long as it takes + 7 days. If it takes a team 4 months to add 3 hours of content, Then I'm fine with 19 weeks. If it takes that team 2 1/2 months and they only release it after 4 months though..
$1 a month for 2 years is still usually more than the game is worth.
It depends on how much money the developer is getting and how big their team is for me. I don't expect fast updates from developers that have a real job, and their adult game is just a hobby. But people that are getting paid big bucks to develop a porn game, then continually have delays and lackluster updates, I do get annoyed at that. But there's not much you can do other than simply not support those kind of developers.
- Oct 24, 2018
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Depends on the approach the dev takes. With someone like DPC or Philly whose updates are complete chapters, the 3-4 month cycle they're on is reasonable. When a dev doesn't work that way, they really need to set a minimum number of words, renders and animations per update and I believe going monthly is best for maintaining that discipline.
- Jul 10, 2017
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A small time hobby creator can have their game "blow up" and a lot of people pledge support, more than he/she could ever imagine. But it doesn't necessary mean that person want to go pro and start hire people and create a proper game study. So what level of income someone get from create these games just reflect they managed to hit that nerve that made people support their game.
People that start "oh you make so much money now so we deserve faster/bigger updates etc" just look themselves blind at money.
The average adult game on patreon can only dream about the level of income like DarkCookie have etc. Also if you have a proper/good rl job, throwing it aside to start full time with these games would be rather foolish.
Of course, talking about developers that have goals like "I will start working full-time on this game", then hit that goal, and hit the next "I will hire a X person to do Y job", and yet development moves at a snail's pace.
- Jul 10, 2017
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Majority of the time, many of these "goals" never get reached. Some creators probably mildly panic when they do and start wonder what to do. What some creator put as goal I ignore all together, I just look at what he/she created so far, and how updates keep coming. If people want to put in goals that is more believable have it be about update rigs and buy equipment that make it faster and easier to do what they do.
Many of these people doesn't even want their family and friends know what they do as a hobby. Can't really believe they would want to start hire people, go full time and start a studio...
I suppose the answer is, how long can a dev keep milking their Patreon's before they leave. ICSTOR for example still has over 6,000 Patreon's and has still not mentioned the next update on their Patreon. If people choose to keep paying for nothing, then the acceptable length of time can be 12 months minimum.
- Jul 10, 2017
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So, looking at all he made in the past. If a "new" user find his stuff, he shouldn't sub to him, because its not worth it when he not pumping out a update atm? Patreon is a platform where you support the creator. Not a store for from buying a product.I suppose the answer is, how long can a dev keep milking their Patreon's before they leave. ICSTOR for example still has over 6,000 Patreon's and has still not mentioned the next update on their Patreon. If people choose to keep paying for nothing, then the acceptable length of time can be 12 months minimum.
People support a creator for whatever reason, just as they stop support a creator fort whatever reason. Heck I seen people in here complain about a creator milking, when he had 3 pledges.... It's like as soon as some creator start to grow in size and supporters people go all nuts unless they keep pump out content at a steady phase. So, who milking who?
So if a creator is not creating and sharing then they no longer need supporting. Otherwise it is just empty promises.
- Jul 10, 2017
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You inside their closet spying on the creator and know exactly what they do whenever?
Since you almost always have to download the complete game file with each update, I personally prefer updates with a significant amount of content. That's why I always check the change log. If the update is tiny, I'll pass.
I would rather wait 3 or 4 months (maybe longer if it's a game I really like) for a mostly bug free, large content update than download a buggy, tiny update every 3 or 4 weeks.
I would rather wait 3 or 4 months (maybe longer if it's a game I really like) for a mostly bug free, large content update than download a buggy, tiny update every 3 or 4 weeks.
- Apr 30, 2017
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So they should put the cart before the horse? Maybe the development moves at a snail's pace because they can't afford to spend all their time working on the game until they have enough support to increase the hours they can put into the game or outsource parts (ie: hire people) to speed up development. God forbid a dev should have logical goals when starting out! lol. But if you're talking about devs that have been doing it for many years, then yes I can see your point.
Yeah, what dev would ever start a studio? Oh wait, plenty do... Most do keep it secretive, only posting pictures of the studio on twitter or their website and going under their pseudonyms, here's one example of a team that doesn't mind if their identities are known though,
You must be registered to see the links
And even if devs don't want to be as open as the above, plenty of people take jobs in many industries that they choose or need to keep secretive, what would keeping it from their family and friends have anything to do with it? Hookers do it all the time.