Dragontwin Looks Incredible and Has Me Thinking About the Business of Games | Unpacked

I think my concern is what happens when the game is finished. Are the people who sank a few hundred into Patreon through the life cycle then going to be happy to also pay full price? But if you make a Patreon release, you’re then losing money and interest from the wider audience. Will this then encourage lengthy development cycles? I think the early adopters will have to make some smart, good faith moves for people to not write it off as a scam like Kickstarter developed a reputation for but I hope it works out in the end.

What Patreon tier gets me an AIN game? No? How bout a mod for another game instead with art assets so i can Grinderbin my way through the lands? Good vid Nick. Wicked looking dragons

I'm starting to enjoy this series more and more. Interesting insight into Patreon as a model. I'm still skeptical but if its done well and people are into it, it could be a viable strategy.

I love to hear about people trying other funding models and something other thank Kickstarter (even if just another mass platform), and it looks like they've put it to stellar use. However, I have no interest in "content." I only pay attention to a Kickstarter update is if there's drama. I am encouraged that it may be a viable way to fund a game, as described in the video, but it has a certain pointing at the finger, not the moon energy and I away the first time a dispute in the fanbase starts up over whether or not the game is done.

I was unaware of games funding through Patreon, but it sounds promising for certain kinds of creators. Like you said, the developers have to be good at creating web content in addition to actually making their games, but so long as they can do that and maintain transparency about the project, it seems like a solid option in a precarious climate.

Shoutouts to Engine of Destruction and Moonana Games, two more developers who are on Patreon to fund development of their projects and release content to entice people in. There are other indie developers doing that but those are the two that I just became aware of. I remember this sort of thing came up during a big piracy discussion back in the 10s over anime studios. About how pirating anime takes money from the animators and how people support them in other ways, like buying merch or even DVDs of the shows. One point brought up was Patreon and I think Trigger started a Patreon to try to recoup some funding. I don't see anyone talking about it anymore though so I imagine it fell through. It seems to be working better for game developers at the moment and I hope it remains as such but I don't see this as a viable business solution long term. It can help kickstart (no pun intended) development and maybe even sustain it longer term but you can't survive on Patreon forever. Unless you're wildly successful, you're only going to be able to support 2-3 people on average. Stuff like Dragontwin is the exception, not the rule, and that needs to be kept in mind for these sorts of discussions

I see STP, I click. And thanks for the editors note about AI generation. Has SW made a policy decision there?

This is fantastic for ongoing games which never really "end" development, but we've seen especially in the H-game space that this incentivizes delays and never really finishing your game.