Patreon Top 50 depressing

kongflcl

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Jan 14, 2018
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Not sure if its even worth a discussion but just something I really wanted to express and its not the type of thing you post as a FB status x'D

Nverjos isn't in the Top 50 and EvaKiss is only 33rd. Compared to every thing else in that Top 50, it makes no sense to me. I know everyone has their own taste but it reminds me why its so hard to find real quality games on here, developers with truly ambitious ideas or projects with amazing writing obviously aren't what the community wants. The fact that Camp Pinewood draws in significantly more than than Good Girl Gone Bad blows my mind.
 

DarthSeduction

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I get why Pinewood draws in more... rule34 is a gold mine. But I agree that both games should be much higher. The two of them, Depraved Awakening, Wicked Choices, and probably sisterly lust are my top 5. I know that DA wasn't on the top 50 as of the release of the latest version (it came up in a discussion with philly about other stuff), and I very much doubt that WC has made it either.
 
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DarthSeduction

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Its sad how many of those developers I don't even know by name... like, I know so few of them that it would be a pain to figure out who each one is.
 

Gomly1980

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Jul 4, 2017
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Camp Pinewood is fun.

Good Girl Gone Bad has me playing a female protag (which I usually enjoy) but the "lesbian" (term used loosely because the path was shit) route is barebones so the only way to get content is to chase dick which I don't enjoy.

I know some people love it but I found it lacking in so many ways and there is the old saying "you are never the only one" so if I didn't like it neither did others. If i'm playing a female I need a lesbian path, i'm not interested in chasing dick, not my thing but I don't judge others their kinks ..... except NTR, fuck that shit right in it's arse with a rusty copper pipe.

Can't complain about Fenexo, loved his shit since Corruption of Champions first launched and TiTS is arguably my favourite CYOA.

A lot of the top earners were around when H games were just taking off and we didn't see many of that type of game from western developers (tons of Japanese stuff, a lot of it contains niche content) so they got the lions share.

New devs need to build up slowly but some of them think they can earn thousands simply putting a game out there.
 

toolkitxx

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Considering that EvaKiss only started the Patreon in July 2017 i think you are misinterpreting the stats quite a bit. They have to be seen in combination of length on Patreon and number of works published. Consider that and you will actually see her surpass quite a few that have been there much longer and have delivered more works.
 

anne O'nymous

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Like @Gomly1980 said, you can't just read this graph in regard of the game(s) made by the creator.
Take Fenoxo by example, there's a full site and forum in addition to the game. So people don't only pledge for the games, they also pledge for the forum. In the same time, having a forum mean that they also have a large community behind them, and have build direct bond with them. It help having more pledge and/or more higher pledge.
In fact, in the top 50, only Akabur probably shouldn't be here. But in the same time he's on the scene since so long. And it's also a factor to take in count. Look Icstor, personally I don't love his previous production ; he's one of the main reason why people now hate RPG maker games. Still he's on the scene since a long time and have already finished a lot of games. For those who love his work, these said finished games are a guaranty. So, they care less that he's mostly milking his patrons, because they know that they'll see the end of the game one day.

This said, there's other people who should be in the top 50. They'll perhaps achieve it on day, but they are too young on the scene, have never finished a game before and, the most important fact, they started to late.
Look at the amount of game actually on the market. 1801 Creators of adult games on Patreon, probably more than 1000 games in progress available here. Let's say that today I release the first version of the most amazing game ever seen, what do you think will happen ? I can answer you, nothing will happen. The game will stay one among a thousand, some people will love it and start to pledge, but it will take at least half a year before it start becoming a hit, and another half year before I reach the top 50.
This simply because the scene is saturated, and it will not stop in a near future. If you want to be really seen, you now need to promote your game. Else few people will give it a try since the start, some will join around the fifth/sixth release, and the majority will perhaps try it when you'll release the final version. Then, perhaps that your next game will become a hit since the start, but don't expect to have success before this. It can happen, but it's a miracle, not a rule.
 
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User_51567

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Like @Gomly1980 said, you can't just read this graph in regard of the game(s) made by the creator.
Take Fenoxo by example, there's a full site and forum in addition to the game. So people don't only pledge for the games, they also pledge for the forum. In the same time, having a forum mean that they also have a large community behind them, and have build direct bond with them. It help having more pledge and/or more higher pledge.
In fact, in the top 50, only Akabur probably shouldn't be here. But in the same time he's on the scene since so long. And it's also a factor to take in count. Look Icstor, personally I don't love his previous production ; he's one of the main reason why people now hate RPG maker games. Still he's on the scene since a long time and have already finished a lot of games. For those who love his work, these said finished games are a guaranty. So, they care less that he's mostly milking his patrons, because they know that they'll see the end of the game one day.

This said, there's other people who should be in the top 50. They'll perhaps achieve it on day, but they are too young on the scene, have never finished a game before and, the most important fact, they started to late.
Look at the amount of game actually on the market. 1801 Creators of adult games on Patreon, probably more than 1000 games in progress available here. Let's say that today I release the first version of the most amazing game ever seen, what do you think will happen ? I can answer you, nothing will happen. The game will stay one among a thousand, some people will love it and start to pledge, but it will take at least half a year before it start becoming a hit, and another half year before I reach the top 50.
This simply because the scene is saturated, and it will not stop in a near future. If you want to be really seen, you now need to promote your game. Else few people will give it a try since the start, some will join around the fifth/sixth release, and the majority will perhaps try it when you'll release the final version. Then, perhaps that your next game will become a hit since the start, but don't expect to have success before this. It can happen, but it's a miracle, not a rule.
Very true.

A lot of "newbies" think they can make a game and earning thousands of dollars every month within 1 or 2 updates.
But after 3 months of "only" an income of $100 they will cancel the game and go back to get a "normal" job .
And honestly i'm perfectly fine with that... I'f you want to go into this business only to make a quick buck and don't care about Developing and all the aspects..... Well i'm glad that most of those dissapear.

And don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of Devs in this top 50 who really don't deserve that amount of money they earn every month.... Not for the amount of content they deliver.

I recently started the development of my own game and already put in around $1700 on DaZ assets only and i expect that i'm not going to earn money with it this year.
And i'm guessing that with all the Art, programs and 2 people that i hired for translation and extensive bugtesting that that's going to be at least a couple thousand more before i'm even around the 0.1 version that i want.

And the reason that people don't pledge so fast anymore is because there are so many creators who are in it for the money... (First step... Make a amazing 0.1, make a good 0.2 and follow that up soon with a 0.3 because you wanted to give the fans more) And there are so many devs who just stop at that point and let the money just roll in (might not be that much but it's something)And a lot of those people will create a different Patreon page at that point and repeat the process.
So people now will wait a couple months to see if the dev is really invested in his/her project before trusting them. (thank god)
Most of the time with new games i will support 1 or 2 bucks, and then with every update i will increase it...With a missed update i will decrease it .

But i do believe that the Moneygrabbers are ruining it for the people who actually have a passion/love/talent for this line of work.
Patreon is amazing... but it's a also a disease at the same time :)
 

anne O'nymous

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Patreon is amazing... but it's a also a disease at the same time :)
Very true, and in more than one way. People who want easy money not just start a game, they start a game which seem to appeal for pledges. So, not only we have tons of games, but we also have tons of games which looks the same.
In the end, people like you, who don't just "make a game", but try to create something, are mostly hidden, drown by the mass of average games.
 

Ignazzio

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Oldest devs who were here when our market started had considerably easier than any modern dev as they were unique. Now it's impossible to reach DoD, DMD, BB etc. level as playerbase is spreaded over hundreds of similiar devs. To reach such a thing dev needs unique gameplay-style and probably art-style which is hard to do as most games we have are renpy VN or simple rpgm VNs. All with the same daz models. Older devs have their brands so they don't need to do much while new can't reach enough quality to overcome them. It's also a matter of content ofc. Mentioned CC probably won't reach top 50 as even if optional it still appears as RPGM game with focus on futas. It's popular but nowhere near incest and in comparison it's offputting for many people as you ignore it. GGGB has amazing quality and writing but it's still a VN. It's different thanks to its branching and quality writing cuz dev is a woman who are not so sex focused. But probably being a woman makes her views different than ours therefore it's really one of the very few female protags I know of that's neither an innocent teen or a milf. Plain, normal girls don't work in Japan so I suppose they won't do it here as well. List will surely change but it will take years and new one will be probably as depressing as this one for those who are deep in our community.
 

xןʞ

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Also: Stuff that is popular here isn't necessarily popular elsewhere on da webz and vice versa.
 

Daxter250

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lol summertime saga... being 1st... simbro being 9th... oni being 21th,
while faerin and bbben aren't even in the top 50.
 
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Ignazzio

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Yeah it's a shame for BBBen but it's mostly due to his ancient engine. AIF-style new generation engine would be his only choice to reach wider publicity (and great thing for us). He's been already making adult games when most of our devs were in their kindergartens. As for faerin, MotH is very standard copy (even if well made) of BB's gameplay with simple incest ideas so it might take him a lot to reach such level. Way too many competition for devs like him.
 
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Benn Swagger

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I've been knowing some of you here. You guys prefer story with porn. But majority paying customer prefer porn with story. That's why I want to say before to all of awesome story specialist developers, that you should enhance your sex scene quality & quantity to attract more paying customer.

But if you're an idealist story creator, like in movie industry, the one who winning Oscar usually rare gain success in monetary aspect. So it's your choice ... to be praised as story maker, get thumbs up a lot but less success in getting patron ... or sell your idealist in exchange of better quantity & quality of sex scene ?

lol summertime saga... being 1st... simbro being 9th... oni being 21th,
while faerin and bbben aren't even in the top 50.
Some of these dev was damaged by 2 factors.
1. When Patreon start witch hunt to controversial content.
2. When Patreon change it's donation style, that put weight cut % to consumer instead the creator, some months ago.

While no.2 revert back, the damage on the top 100 lists is very significant. Faerin was in the top 50 before, but drop a lot from being reviewed (no1) and when no2 happen.
 

Yoshiiki

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Very true, and in more than one way. People who want easy money not just start a game, they start a game which seem to appeal for pledges. So, not only we have tons of games, but we also have tons of games which looks the same.
In the end, people like you, who don't just "make a game", but try to create something, are mostly hidden, drown by the mass of average games.
It's true, but it often falls under promotion. More people know about your game, more supporters you can get.
Then comes mentality. Let's not forget that probably a huge chunk of developers consider patreon as a form of making money (to which I agree if content is free and it's not a future commercial game) instead of a way to pay for development while expecting proper profit from sales. It's not that hard to spot which ones are quite focused on money making via patreon. But, it's the same case as for AAA games, people want them so bad, they get fucked over to a point where we have Battlefront 2 shitshow.
On the one hand, you can't blame someone trying to take advantage of that to (milk) money, point fingers is best what you can do, there is still an issue of people just paying so they get their thing even if the thing will never come or at really, really slow pace.
You won't change the people, not happening in short period of time. So it all falls under you (as a dev). If you can sleep with it at night or made up some excuse to soothe your mind, fine.
I know, sounds harsh but that's how it is.

Also, just to have a laugh. Rank #1215/1812 in adult games, that's something *shrugs*. And now: it's just a number, people following numbers tend to forget about their passion for what they do.
 

BeWilder

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Interesting stuff, and I have to agree with many of the points made here.

One thing of note, and far be for me to criticize other devs, but after all the bashing I see for MrDots and DS on here (some of it very rightly earned) it's a bit nice to see neither of them on the top 10 and DS barely in the top 25. Something at least?

Then again, I can't say shit now can I?
 

anne O'nymous

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On the one hand, you can't blame someone trying to take advantage of that to (milk) money, point fingers is best what you can do, there is still an issue of people just paying so they get their thing even if the thing will never come or at really, really slow pace.
You won't change the people, not happening in short period of time. So it all falls under you (as a dev). If you can sleep with it at night or made up some excuse to soothe your mind, fine.
I know, sounds harsh but that's how it is.
Milking works sometimes, so honestly I can't blame devs who practice it. Personally I'll not give them my money but I also have no reason to prevent someone to give them his own money. I know that I'm not a reference so, those who pledge must have their reason and, since they continue, it's probably because they don't see this as milking.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the community is really big. There's surely more than half the patrons (all creators counted) who don't even know that there's forums like this one. Not necessarily forums where you can have the games for free, but forums where you can talk with other members of the community, discover other games, sometimes better ones. They discovered a game by chance, liked it, and decided to help the author. Like adult content is hidden on Patreon, they mostly know nothing about the other games and genuinely think that they do the right thing and help the right guy.
We all started by being like them, until our curiosity led us here. And I'm sure that all of us thought at least once something like, "well, until now I thought this game was great, but it's nothing compared to this one I just discovered". Well, some are less curious, or more suspicious ; after all, at first glance a forum where you can find so many games for free isn't necessarily a place where you want to put your computer.


Also, just to have a laugh. Rank #1215/1812 in adult games, that's something *shrugs*. And now: it's just a number, people following numbers tend to forget about their passion for what they do.
It's a question of ego. Whoever you can be, being in the top 50 of Patreons adult games creators is surely not a bad thought when you wake up. You've made something of your life, not directly by being on the top 50, but because the game(s) you make are liked and led you at this place.
For some, not being the last is already an achievement. We should probably pity them, because it imply a very low self esteem and a lack of confidence, but if it can help them to feel better, once again who am I to judge them ?
This said, you're right anyway, it shouldn't be a thing. But it is, for the creators, but also for some players. There's a thread somewhere here, started by someone complaining that a (for him) shitty creator made $800/month, which was apparently a shame. Seriously, who care ? He found people ready to give him some of their money ? Well, I'm glad for him but it mean nothing more than this.
 

Yoshiiki

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It's a question of ego. Whoever you can be, being in the top 50 of Patreons adult games creators is surely not a bad thought when you wake up. You've made something of your life, not directly by being on the top 50, but because the game(s) you make are liked and led you at this place.
For some, not being the last is already an achievement. We should probably pity them, because it imply a very low self esteem and a lack of confidence, but if it can help them to feel better, once again who am I to judge them ?
This said, you're right anyway, it shouldn't be a thing. But it is, for the creators, but also for some players. There's a thread somewhere here, started by someone complaining that a (for him) shitty creator made $800/month, which was apparently a shame. Seriously, who care ? He found people ready to give him some of their money ? Well, I'm glad for him but it mean nothing more than this.
Not exactly what I had in mind. You can't be a marshmallow that is too soft so it can't push forward, you won't achieve much with that. You need to be competitive. This being said, there is a point where a successful dev, doing something really good, falls into milking territory because he/she saw numbers and is only following them. You need balance and some rules, there is often lack of one or another, sometimes both. That's the point when someone needs to smack back some sense into them. Unfortunately, "someone" doesn't exist most of the time.
If a poor man wins a lottery, he will probably spend it all. Person who climbed the ladder will invest lottery money to make more money.
 
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Daxter250

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Milking works sometimes, so honestly I can't blame devs who practice it. Personally I'll not give them my money but I also have no reason to prevent someone to give them his own money. I know that I'm not a reference so, those who pledge must have their reason and, since they continue, it's probably because they don't see this as milking.
or maybe they are cows and love to be milked!

or they are just fucking masochists and want to be punished like that!