derpmcderp

Member
May 30, 2020
187
982
I checked in on the game today and was as amused as I thought I would be. I saw a helpful post by a member named Uncle Loco. He had all of the posts by BD/Mackenzie from March 22nd of 2021 until yesterday. I checked the first one, and then another, and another. By the time I was on the 6th BD post I was laughing out loud. I decided that I would kind of curate a rough list of dates, excuses, release promises, and release sizes for anyone who wishes to read a condensed version of the past almost 2 years of this game's development. This is not 100% accurate. There may have been things I missed but this isn't an historical document. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and marvel at the endless drama that is TWO YEARS IN THE LIFE OF BRAINDROP (or TYITLOB as good ole BD would call it.


3/22/21 - Blurry eyes, hilarious explanation, expect release in 2 days. Size – 600+

3/26/21 - Unexpectedly his eyes have failed to heal, he will not 'fuck around' with his sight, expect release in 5 days. Size – 1000+

4/6/21 - Eyes almost healed, choosing to add renders, expect release in 3 weeks. Size – 1000+

4/20/21 - Headaches continue, unorganized, expect release in 2 weeks. Size – 1000+

5/3/21 - PC issues, sunstroke/sun allergy, expect release 'soon'. Size – 1500+

5/11/21 - Planning his weeding, planning to become a father, moving across the country, tear down and clean PC, expect release in 'soon'. Size – 1500+

5/29/21 - Getting married, honeymoon, expect release in 1 month. Size – 1500+

6/26/21 - Grandfather in hospital, expect release in 1 week. Size – 1500+

7/14/21 - Cooling system in PC leaked, rebuilt and cleaned PC, had a cold, expect release in 2 weeks. Size – 1500+

7/29/21 - Leaked on GPU maybe dead, trying 'things', PC taken apart, learning Blender, expect release 'soon'. Size – 1500+

8/9/21 - Converted all PC to air cooling, parts not delivered on time, has a new secret plan for future releases, expect release 'soon'. Size – 1500+

8/20/21 - Wife has minor injury, built a custom keyboard, realized he takes longer now because his work is better, expect release 'soon'. Size – ?

9/10/21 - Sick so has quarantined to friend's garage, took several 'tests', all were negative, expect release 3 weeks. Size – ?

10/2/21 - Daz kept crashing, expect release 'soon'. Size - ?

10/8/21 - Unhappy with lighting, redoing a scene, expect release in 1 week. Size - ?

10/15/21 - Released an approximate 200+ render Beta update. Expect another Beta update in 1 month. Size – 200+

11/8/21 - Wife, mother, and grandfather all separately hospitalized, expect a Beta update in 3 weeks. Size – 350+

11/28/21 - Complications with birth of child, expect 2 Beta releases next month. Size – 350+, 250+

12/3/21 - Beta release by Dec.24th, next Beta release by Jan.6th, full 1500+ render update by Feb.14th. Size – 350+, 250+, 1500+

12/17/21 - Online friend died, Beta may be delayed. Size – 350+, 250+, 1500+

12/23/21 - Christmas stress, mental 'issues', Beta delayed 1 week. Size – 350+, 250+, 1500+

12/30/21 - Has a new phone, anxiety, fatherhood, Christmas stress, will release Beta along with Jan.6th Beta release. Size – 600+, 1500+

1/20/22 - Was unprepared for fatherhood/game developing/life, release schedule reset to 'unknown'. Size - ?

1/25/22 - Beta release expected in 2 weeks. Size – 250 to 350+

1/31/22 - Will now only release full updates, expect full 1500+ render update in 5 weeks. Size – 1500+

2/11/22 - Almost done with update, release expected in 3 weeks. Size – 1600 to 1800+

2/25/22 - 1 scene left to render, release expected in 3 weeks. Size – 1600 to 1800+

3/5/22 - Forgot to save and program crashed, release expected in 2 weeks. Size – 1600 to 1800+

3/18/22 - Reworking the timeline, release expected in 2 weeks. Size – 2200 to 2400+

3/30/22 - Reworking the timeline is harder than anticipated, release date unknown. Size – 2200 to 2400+

5/3/22 - Grandfather died, release paused. Size – 2200 to 2400+

5/10/22 - Contemplating breaking update into 'chunks'. Release date unknown. Size - ?

5/16/22 - Plagued by uncertainty, have decided NOT to release the update in 'chunks', have created DITLO. Size - ?

5/28/22 - Cannot handle it if release goes poorly. Released DITLO. Size - ?

5/30/22 - Will now be releasing the update in 'chunks', will release 2 in June, entire update to be released by August 1st. Size - ?, ?, 2400+

6/13/22 - Decided to make the first 'chunk' release larger, will still release 2 in June, entire update to be released by August 1st. Size – 700+, ?, 2400+

6/24/22 - Mental 'issues', reworking scenes, one 'chunk' update on the 29th, entire update to be released by August 1st. Size – 700+, ?, 2400+

6/28/22 - Adderall caused a day-long panic attack, WVM only a hobby, 700+ 'chunk' release not ready, 300+ 'chunk' release ready now. Size – 300+, ?, 2400+

6/29/22 - 300+ 'chunk' released. Size - ?, 2400+

7/29/22 - Avoided social media, added a path to next 'chunk' delaying its release. Size - ?, 2400+

8/24/22 - Mackenzie hired to handle PR and 'keep it real'. Size - ?, 2400+

9/7/22 - A 300+ render update is planned to release 'soon'. Size 300+

9/20/22 - 300+ 'chunk' released. 400+ render update expected to be released in 10 days. Size – 400+

10/1/22 - Entire BD household is sick, update expected to be delayed 1 week. Size – 400+

10/28/22 - 'Large' update planned for Nov.19th. (There may have been a 400+ render update released, I forget). Size - ?

11/11/22 - Unknown issues with Patreon, release has not been delayed though. Size - ?

12/19/22 - BD has appendicitis, then has pneumonia, no access to social media in hospital, update delayed. Size - ?

1/12/23 - FIRM release date of Jan.26th. Mackenzie had no access to technology at family home. Size - ?

1/25/23 - BD has decided that he needs to redecorate the home of the MC. Hilarity ensues. Size - ?
I made a spreadsheet out of this data and came up with the following quick math:

Lowest Delay Between Posts: 1 day
Highest Delay Between Posts: 38 days
Average Delay Between Posts: 14 days
Average Sick Delays Per Month: 0.74
Average Family-Related Delays Per Month: 0.52
Average Technical Issues Delays Per Month: 1.13
Sum of Average Issues Causing a Delay Per Month: 2.39

By your list, he has posted actual playable content 3 times in 23 months. That means he's averaging 0.13 playable content releases per month. Which means his patrons are overpaying every month by about 99.86% (YMMV on this).

I could probably break this down by release size if we really want to get stupid granular, but I think you get the point.
 
Last edited:
Oct 22, 2017
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1,183
...
By your list, he has posted actual playable content 3 times in 23 months. That means he's averaging 0.13 playable content releases per month. Which means his patrons are overpaying every month by about 99.86% (YMMV on this).
...
I really appreciate you breaking this down further!, but I feel this section makes it all look worse than it is (which is saying something, as it is bad af).

If you pay 100% of your pledge per month and get 0.13 updates, based on the assumption the pledge is paid on a update/month base, this would mean you over-paid 87%, as you got content for 13% of your money?

BD didn't officially aim for monthly releases most of the time that is covered here though, but more like every 2-3? months I think (though the schedule wasn't even defined in between). And other games being updated every 4-5(6) months isn't that uncommon anymore.
So while he might have released 0.13 playable content updates per month, this is like ~0.33 updates per scheduled update. And 0.65 updates in other games reasonable schedules.

This doesn't make any of it really better, but it means if a Patron didn't expect monthly updates (which they shouldn't have), their over-paying isn't as crass as you show it. That is if they even pay for content only.

Some games I support, I support based on a 'money-per-content' assumption, calculating what an update is worth for me and dividing it through the months of the devs' schedule (and I over-pay even those compared to what I am willing to pay on say Steam for a game), others because I want to support the dev(s) so they can do their thing. Those I sometimes over-pay compared to other games in a way I refuse to think about it on any game/content related scale.
 

derpmcderp

Member
May 30, 2020
187
982
I really appreciate you breaking this down further!, but I feel this section makes it all look worse than it is (which is saying something, as it is bad af).

If you pay 100% of your pledge per month and get 0.13 updates, based on the assumption the pledge is paid on a update/month base, this would mean you over-paid 87%, as you got content for 13% of your money?

BD didn't officially aim for monthly releases most of the time that is covered here though, but more like every 2-3? months I think (though the schedule wasn't even defined in between). And other games being updated every 4-5(6) months isn't that uncommon anymore.
So while he might have released 0.13 playable content updates per month, this is like ~0.33 updates per scheduled update. And 0.65 updates in other games reasonable schedules.

This doesn't make any of it really better, but it means if a Patron didn't expect monthly updates (which they shouldn't have), their over-paying isn't as crass as you show it. That is if they even pay for content only.

Some games I support, I support based on a 'money-per-content' assumption, calculating what an update is worth for me and dividing it through the months of the devs' schedule (and I over-pay even those compared to what I am willing to pay on say Steam for a game), others because I want to support the dev(s) so they can do their thing. Those I sometimes over-pay compared to other games in a way I refuse to think about it on any game/content related scale.
This is why I say your mileage may vary depending on what you believe you are owed. In my opinion, someone who does this as a full time job, making significantly more per month than most people on this website if not all of them, owes a regular output stream to his audience. And I'm not an unfeeling robot, I am not saying you MUST do it every month without fail - shit happens. But for me, he crossed a line.

Just look at that rate. He should want that to be as close to 1.00 as possible. When he went from hobby to fulltime, he should have just started knocking this out of the park. He certainly talked it up like he had to content to do just that. He used to feel bad about not hitting goals, but now that he's gotten away with it so much he doesn't even apologize for it anymore. He's not sorry - if he were he wouldn't have curated his garden to only contain new patrons and old copium addicts. A reasonable person in his position would say to himself, the number of angry people is well beyond what could normally be written off as haters. Especially because so many of them practically apologize themselves in one form or another explaining that they didn't want to give up on him.

If BD put out a 50 render release once a month, which is almost nothing, he wouldn't be in this position. If he had done six releases over the last 23 months instead of three, he wouldn't be in this position. The thing the metrics don't capture, is how much energy he spends on his Mind Drops. He has a seemingly unlimited budget for complaining about all the problems he has, and he budgets so close to zero energy for the thing that created his fanbase that if he's not a liar outright, he's a self-sabotager. Either way, I think people should face reality here and realize what they are enabling with their wallet. The more money you give him, the more of this behavior you can expect to receive.
 
Oct 22, 2017
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1,183
This is why I say your mileage may vary depending on what you believe you are owed. In my opinion, someone who does this as a full time job, making significantly more per month than most people on this website if not all of them, owes a regular output stream to his audience. And I'm not an unfeeling robot, I am not saying you MUST do it every month without fail - shit happens. But for me, he crossed a line.

Just look at that rate. He should want that to be as close to 1.00 as possible. When he went from hobby to fulltime, he should have just started knocking this out of the park. He certainly talked it up like he had to content to do just that. He used to feel bad about not hitting goals, but now that he's gotten away with it so much he doesn't even apologize for it anymore. He's not sorry - if he were he wouldn't have curated his garden to only contain new patrons and old copium addicts. A reasonable person in his position would say to himself, the number of angry people is well beyond what could normally be written off as haters. Especially because so many of them practically apologize themselves in one form or another explaining that they didn't want to give up on him.

If BD put out a 50 render release once a month, which is almost nothing, he wouldn't be in this position. If he had done six releases over the last 23 months instead of three, he wouldn't be in this position. The thing the metrics don't capture, is how much energy he spends on his Mind Drops. He has a seemingly unlimited budget for complaining about all the problems he has, and he budgets so close to zero energy for the thing that created his fanbase that if he's not a liar outright, he's a self-sabotager. Either way, I think people should face reality here and realize what they are enabling with their wallet. The more money you give him, the more of this behavior you can expect to receive.
I'm completely with you on this.

I just don't see any 'your mileage may vary depending on what you believe you are owed'. It might be more posts back than I checked? I double-checked but still didn't see it, sorry if I'm just blind ...

It also makes a difference if you say someone over-pays 99% or 87% or ~50%.
Just wanted to point that out.

We both agree the situation is bad, we expect(ed) more from BD and it should have been easy for him to avoid it all.
 

derpmcderp

Member
May 30, 2020
187
982
I'm completely with you on this.

I just don't see any 'your mileage may vary depending on what you believe you are owed'. It might be more posts back than I checked? I double-checked but still didn't see it, sorry if I'm just blind ...

It also makes a difference if you say someone over-pays 99% or 87% or ~50%.
Just wanted to point that out.

We both agree the situation is bad, we expect(ed) more from BD and it should have been easy for him to avoid it all.
I edited my post to add it later because I realized I forgot to say it when I originally wrote it, that may be why.
 
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Oct 22, 2017
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I edited my post to add it later because I realized I forgot to say it when I originally wrote it, that may be why.
I'm assuming you mean this part: ' (YMMV on this) ' ?

I would never have expected it to mean that - googled it right now while writing this and got the confirmation this is an actual abbreviation?

I apologize because I could have checked that one earlier - it's just nothing I expected to have that much meaning for this and just assumed it was some affirmation/slang/whatever for what was already there that I didn't get. I actually had thought about it before shortly but just discarded it as 'no idea what that is supposed to mean - will surely be nothing of importance' ...
 

derpmcderp

Member
May 30, 2020
187
982
I'm assuming you mean this part: ' (YMMV on this) ' ?

I would never have expected it to mean that - googled it right now while writing this and got the confirmation this is an actual abbreviation?

I apologize because I could have checked that one earlier - it's just nothing I expected to have that much meaning for this and just assumed it was some affirmation/slang/whatever for what was already there that I didn't get. I actually had thought about it before shortly but just discarded it as 'no idea what that is supposed to mean - will surely be nothing of importance' ...
Yeah that's always how I have heard it used - to basically indicate that how you feel/what your experience is/etc. will be affected by your individual situation/values/whatever. Is this old people internet speak now, have I finally turned into an internet boomer?
 

Aardvaark77

New Member
May 23, 2021
14
152
I really appreciate you breaking this down further!, but I feel this section makes it all look worse than it is (which is saying something, as it is bad af).

If you pay 100% of your pledge per month and get 0.13 updates, based on the assumption the pledge is paid on a update/month base, this would mean you over-paid 87%, as you got content for 13% of your money?

BD didn't officially aim for monthly releases most of the time that is covered here though, but more like every 2-3? months I think (though the schedule wasn't even defined in between). And other games being updated every 4-5(6) months isn't that uncommon anymore.
So while he might have released 0.13 playable content updates per month, this is like ~0.33 updates per scheduled update. And 0.65 updates in other games reasonable schedules.

This doesn't make any of it really better, but it means if a Patron didn't expect monthly updates (which they shouldn't have), their over-paying isn't as crass as you show it. That is if they even pay for content only.

Some games I support, I support based on a 'money-per-content' assumption, calculating what an update is worth for me and dividing it through the months of the devs' schedule (and I over-pay even those compared to what I am willing to pay on say Steam for a game), others because I want to support the dev(s) so they can do their thing. Those I sometimes over-pay compared to other games in a way I refuse to think about it on any game/content related scale.
I agree that money wise he hasn't put out any more or less content than other creators. That wasn't the part I was poking fun at. It was the absurd number of excuses and delays that when looked at as a whole becomes a farce.

If you look at the first excuse I bothered to find he promised a 600+ render update in TWO days! Over the next two months of excuses that promise ballooned to a 1500+ render release at any moment. In fact, from his first excuse, it took him SEVEN months(with about 15-20 random excuses) and the release was 200+ renders. What happened to the 400 renders he had ready? What happened to the 1300 extra renders?

From there in December he promised a 1500+ render update by January 6th (among other 'bunch' releases in between). This promise eventually ballooned to a 2400+ render release at any moment. This time it took him 7 more months(and 20+ more random excuses) and he released a 300+ render 'beta'.

It has now been another 7 months and the last absolute no excuse promised release was three days ago.

I may be off by a bit but he has roughly released 500 renders in updates a full TWENTY ONE MONTHS after saying he had a 600+ render update ready to release in 2 days. No sense even bothering to wonder about where the imminent release of 2400+ renders went.

I don't care about workflow. As I said before it is the lies and absurd excuses that made me amused enough to put them into a list. If he came out tomorrow and said "look guys, I have been lying for the last two years. I have done the absolute bare minimum to maintain the free flow of money. I am sorry. I am going to work now and there will be a release when there is a release". I would at least respect that.
 
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