Okay there is a site that basically monitors Patreon creators, income and statistics. Called Graphtreon. You can put in any creator and get statistics on that creator as long as it's public. Now with Braindrop he has hidden his monthly income from his supporters but it does show how many supporters he has. A year ago his earnings were public so it has that information.
Now those months that his earning were public, you can do a little math. You can get an approximate number of how much he is making or will make when he turns on the switch to charge his patreons.
He is making close to 7 dollars per patreon or so. So you multiply that by 3490 and he making close to 25K a month.
Now why am I bringing this up. In April he charged his patreons because he said he was working. Yet there is no proof of that work in the form of a 2000K render update. This has been going on for months before that he was working it. Instead he is now making birthday renders and this side project which only has 165 renders. And that instead of working on the update that he charged his patreons for. He isn't going to do that now but do this other stuff?
Okay from a business prospective, it's a smart move. I mean he is not charging people right. So he keeps his patreons but all he has to do is tell people he is working on a big update and say I am going to charge for the month and he gets his payday check.
If he kept charging his patreons every month with little to no update at all. He would lose his patreons. Let's say that 3490 or whatever it is now, drops to 1200 patreons? I guarantee his update speeches would be singing a different tune. Maybe he would be pushing out the big 2000K update?
I said previously that it sounds like financial fraud to me. Maybe he is stalling because he doesn't have this 2000k render update which by the way, he said was almost done. He had little left to do. But no he is now working on a 8 episode project which has nothing to do with the main game? What what?
Whether he lost his grandfather is true. He is playing the "I am sad, feel sorry for me. I am not going to give you the update that I promise and charged you for April, but I am still working on the game but only birthday renders and now this 8 episode filler". "I love you blah blah blah" "Thanks for supporting"
Now I don't know if Patreon has a legal department to investigate claims? But if there was a legal team that would investigate their creators on their site when their creators are making up excuses of why a particular update isn't out but it charging patreons for it. I would be amiss if Braindrop or any other developer were telling the truth.
People weren't supporting him to do an 8 episode project that has nothing to do with the main game. They were supporting him to work on the game he started on. I would suggest any supporters to unsubscribe for now. Because right now BrainDrop is taking advantage of his supporters. Regardless if he is not charging you this month is irrelevant. All he needs to do is turn on that switch and make bank because his current supporters are not leaving since they feel that he isn't charging.
I mean it does seem like this 8 episode project came out of nowhere.
Of course, anyone following him should be suspicious.
There's a direct correlation between the gravity of the excuse and time since last update.
Time since first delay/Excuse given:
1 month / I'm working on the finishing touches
2 months / I have quality concerns that need to be addressed
3 months / I don't want to release it without it being perfect
4 months / I'm feeling stressed and my health is important
5 months / I have family issues that are stressful
6 months / I'm feeling depressed and it's making it hard to focus
7 months / grandpa died and i'm on the brink of mental breakdown.
Each one builds for a calculated reaction from patreons and to stave off any criticism.