Taking the bull by the horns...

This has been updated with something important. That’s why some of you got a notification about the change... check the end to see what was added.

A dev buddy from Argentina told me, some days ago, something like "You need to give people a reason to pay". Not those exact words, but that was the gist... Meanwhile, he’s making $900 a month on Patreon after less than two months, and here I am, stuck at under $270 after more than a year.

Sure, there are big differences... his game, even though it's NSFW, has a completely different style. Plus, it’s made in Unity... And he pushes out updates pretty often. Of course, he doesn’t have to render anything, just tweak the code... and his game doesn’t really have a story yet — it’s more like a tech demo for now. I’m not looking down on his work at all. The guy’s basically a genius at what he does, and I couldn’t make anything even close in Unity without spending years learning... I’m just comparing realities. On the other hand, I’m also making quite a bit more than a lot of other NSFW devs here on Patreon.

But my fellow dev’s words kept echoing in my head... especially since I’ve been paying close attention to some stats and noticed things are trending down. I already had the idea before our conversation, but what he said, and the steady drop over the past two weeks, really made me reconsider... I need to make some changes.

One of my main traffic sources right now is Oppaiman... The setup there is pretty simple: I post an update and it’s available to download for the minimum tier, and after a month it becomes free. But it’s not working. I was hoping some people would eventually upgrade their subscription, but that’s not happening — and it’s not gonna happen if I keep doing things the same way. On the contrary, a bunch of them just download the game and unsubscribe the same day or shortly after.

Just look at what happened with version 0.5 over there:

I set the filter to "Year" to see all the downloads since the 0.5 was added there (same day as on Patreon) up to today... and those $52? That’s all version 0.5 made during its one-month paid period.

The funny thing is that now, after version 0.5 has been free for a little over a week, it was killing it for several days and it’s still on the front page... but sadly, that hasn’t translated into any real results here.

In comparison, check out what happened with version 0.4:

And version 0.45 too...

There’s a clear and steady drop in the number of people paying, and an increase in those just grabbing the game for free.

I don’t want to end up in a hole that’s hard to climb out of, and I don’t want to be forced to cut off the free downloads... after all, I come from F95 😅

Just think about it for a minute and do the math... what’s the minimum wage in your country? Me, based on $270 a month, I’m making way less than two bucks an hour doing this (assuming an 8-hour day, 5 days a week).

I’ve got a real part-time job. So whenever I can, in my free time, I work on the game, plus I work full-time on it on my days off (twice a week). That’s about 6 hours on normal days and around 10 hours on my days off... roughly. So that’s around 50 hours a week, not the usual 40 hours used to calculate those less-than-two-dollars per hour... so no, I’m not being cheap.

Maybe I’ll piss some people off, but I’ve gotta grab the bull by the horns before it tosses me around... though I might still end up on the floor with a big hole in my balls.

So... during the next few days, I’m gonna make some moves, and I’m letting you know now because I like to be upfront...

I’m gonna create a higher $30 tier that will have more voting power and access to some stuff I’m not totally sure how to implement yet, but it’s about helping create intermediate events... I’m not talking about the competitions themselves, but what happens on the days between them... Whatever they choose will happen, and only those at that tier will get to weigh in on it... plus, of course, they’ll still get all the perks from the lower tiers.

That tier’s gonna be called Mother, since by now you probably all know she’s the one really in charge...

Second, I’m gonna hide the $2 tier and no one new will be able to subscribe to it anymore. People already on that tier keep everything, it’s just that new folks won’t be able to join. So the first subscription tier will now be $3.50 (Follower).

Third, and maybe the most important... people who get the game for free are now gonna have to wait a lot longer. Right now, the gap between paying users and free ones is about a month... now it’ll be one full update. So, for example, the next update 0.55 won’t be free to download until version 0.6 is out for my Patrons.

Fourth... I’m gonna separate the tiers again. I used to do it like that before, but I merged everything for convenience since having downloads on different dates was way more complicated for me back then — I had a crappy PC that made working on the game a real struggle, plus a crappy internet connection to upload files (sometimes links would get deleted from inactivity and I had to re-upload). But now I’ve got a way better computer and fiber optic internet.

Anyway, the split will be minimal with just two variants... The MOTHER, BOARD MEMBER, DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT, and PREMIUM VIEWER tiers will get the game as soon as each update is ready, just like now...

VIEWER, FOLLOWER, INTERESTED (will be hidden but stays active for existing members), and CURIOUS (hidden several months ago) will get access to the game 15 days later.

Because of all this, I also have to change the way I handle things on Oppaiman... A lot of people do it without even telling anyone... like, some put their game at $10, and if you check their Patreon, you’ll see that at the $5 tier you can get the exact same game. I’ve looked into it, checked their posts, and there’s no public announcement anywhere. I’m doing it openly... With each update, I’ll start by setting the game at $10, then after 5 days it’ll drop to $8, and 10 days after that it’ll go down to $5, where it’ll stay until the next update comes out — and then it becomes free.

As I said, this might come back to bite me, but if you don’t take a shot, you’ll never cross the river — and I need to give my time the value it deserves.

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EDIT: I had a private chat with one of my subscribers who’s always super supportive and full of ideas. And right after that talk, I ended up having another idea... go figure. Without that convo, I probably would’ve never thought of it. So yeah, huge thanks to you 😍

On top of everything else and the current perks, the MOTHER, BOARD MEMBER, DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT, and PREMIUM VIEWER tiers will now also get early access to alpha releases of the game. These aren't for testing or anything like that—just incomplete versions, previews of what the final version will be. Let me give you an example so it’s clear... Right now, I’m finishing up work on the alternate route for version 0.55. After that, I’ll start working on the original route, and once that’s done, it’ll become the full 0.55 release. What I’m planning is to release what I’ve done so far, which is basically half of what the final version will be... That’s what the mentioned tiers will get to see. And this will be just for them. It’ll never be posted anywhere else—not even on Oppaiman. Totally exclusive previews.

EDIT 2: Just to clarify, the money shown on Oppaiman doesn’t mean I’m making that plus what I get here on Patreon. It’s all part of the same thing. Oppaiman works with the Patreon API, so if someone 'buys' a game over there, they’re actually subscribing to one of the developer’s tiers on Patreon... so yeah, it’s all included in the same $270.