Braindrop , I completely empathize with what you are feeling, with the pressure and the guilt. However, your opinion of your own performance is not what the vast majority of us see. We love you, Braindrop and think that you are doing an amazing job, more than amazing really. We have watched you start from a completely unknown developer with a demo 9 months ago, which was great all on its own, into a great successful project we all love.
Let me make a few points to try to help you put things into perspective.
1) Patreon is not an agreement between the developer and his pledges to release a certain amount of content at a certain interval. It is not. I am sure you know this, but look at the Patreon terms of service. Patron sponsorships are to support a developer in his project, that is it. Any promises that you make as to release dates, amount of content, etc, are completely unnecessary. I understand why you are doing it, to give yourself a goal and a target, and let the fans know what is coming, but you have to stop giving specific deadlines, just give occasional progress reports, whatever you feel like doing, and your real Patrons will stick with you. You might lose a couple of entitled people, but like you said, you are not doing this for the money, so let them go, you'll keep getting new ones that appreciate your game.
2) Regarding the angry DMs. F* them. Not a one has ever developed a game or has the slightest idea the work involved and what a toll it can take on a developer. This entitled attitude some people have has got to stop. For those that are actually putting up money, they are free to stop subscribing if they don't like your quantity of output or your project. Good luck to them in finding another game of such consistently high quality, with such love put into it.
2) I love WVM, but I truly think that your work model is unsustainable long-term. I know you are dealing with a lot in your personal life, and I am very sorry about what you are going through. This Coronavirus thing is terrible, even for those who are not sick, so I think everyone is dealing with a lot these last few months. You, with your recent loss in your family, and grandpa being sick are dealing with much more than most. However, even before all this, I saw that the amount of content you release and your aggressive schedule is way more than any other dev, especially any other single dev. Even if everything is going great, it is not reasonable to work 80 hour weeks, week after week, on game development. You are bound to get burned out. Look at the best rated and most-loved games on F95 and on Patreon: Bad Memories, Light of my Life, Unleashed, Where the Heart Is, Haley's Story, Become a Rock Star, City of Broken Dreamers and even the big team efforts like Being a Dik and Dating my Daughter. All these devs are doing an amazing job. None of them have even 1/5 of your output. Only Haley's Story releases on a near monthly schedule, and each update is shorter than your weekly updates, and Haley's story has several people on the team working on it. All the others I mentioned release every 2-4 months or more. If you look at their threads or Patreon feeds, you see hardly any comments about "Why is the dev so slow", or "Why is it taking so long", etc. And if anyone tries it, legions of fans, including me, come back with a polite or less polite comments about how hard it is to make a game of high quality, and that devs have lives too.
You really have to reevaluate your schedule with respect to WVM. I would much rather wait a few months for updates, than have it cancelled or decline in quality because the dev can't take it any more. Plus, we all care about you a lot and we want you to be as happy developing WVM as we are to play it, happier even, since you get the great sense of accomplishment and praise from all your fans.
So here are my suggestions, and I hope you at least think about them seriously, because I care about you a lot and want the best for you and your game:
1) Make a schedule for yourself for game development, which is reasonable and flexible based on your personal life and personal responsibilities. Only you know what will work, but try for something like 4 hours a day 4 days a week. Or if you feel you can't make it that short, try 6 hours a day 4 days a week. Just stick with it for a month or so and see how you feel. And if you want to take 3 or 4 or more days off, just do it. You don't have to announce it to anyone. We are not your boss
. Just take the time you need. Try to post at least some status once a week, even if it is a few sentences, and we will all be happy just to see what is going on.
2) Stop giving specific dates and deadlines. Never again. Just give updates like, "Well, week x is going well, I've made good progress on the scene with Baily and look forward to starting the new scene with a surprise girl. You guys will really like it. More info next week." If you want to post a few spicy renders to keep us all undated feel free.
Please take the time during this break to think about what I have said. I think that you and WVM will be much healthier long term if you slow way down and stop giving specific deadlines, and stop being so hard on yourself. Can you point to any single dev, any one, that has even half as much output as you do and has such a well loved games? I've played hundreds, and I can't think of any. You can be a wonderful top level developer with lots of fans without being the absolute fastest.
And seriously, if there is anything I can personally do to help you out, send me a message. You devs have given me a lot, and I'd love to give back what I can. If a dev is going through a hard time, I want to help.
