First off let me make one thing clear. I have no hard judgement whether or not you're running a scam, my prerogative here is that if you set yourself up to look like a duck, walk like a duck and quack like a duck you have absolutely no right to call other people out on treating you as if you were a duck. People are rightfully skeptical not because they're being mean or negative, but because you've failed to communicate for well over a year, repeatedly. I won't claim you deserve outright scorn for the disastrous PR you've done over the last year, but you're mad if you don't think the criticisms you're getting are unjustified.
Hah, alright guy. Here you go:
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I obviously redacted the names, and I censored the payments to developers who I didn't get permission from to post their earnings.
I'm not sure what to tell you here, this is a list of transactions that's true, but you claimed to have an itemized list and this hardly fits the bill. Now, you actually came out and took a step in the right direction and I'm not so cynical to dismiss this outright, but if this is the best you can do then you were not wrong in thinking people were likely to dismiss this. Anyone can look at this and be no better off in understanding where the money went. Personally, I'm satisfied, but then my concern about this Patreon was never outright malice, it was ineptitude (and given how you've handled PR, can you blame me?).
In total I sent my team $8002 for their work in October. I haven't taken a paycheck for months, not even for living expenses. It may come to you as a surprise that real talent costs a pretty penny. Most of the remaining costs were assets, which you'll find in that list. I'm sure though that people like you will just say something like it's photoshopped, or the earth is flat and everyone is against you, or whatever.
There is no need to be petty, I'm well aware that my grasp on the situation is simple at best (which is why me and others are asking for more information, after all) but I do understand the difficulties in hiring and retaining people in that industry, and how expensive consistent quality can be. On the flip side, these issues also mean you need a solid plan to make sure you don't run into trouble, and it's the lack thereof (or lack of communication thereof) that has people worried. I also doubt anyone worth considering will assert that your list is fake, I understand the worry there, but you need to ease up a bit. I'm certainly not the only ex-Patreon supporter here (and yes, of your project) that simply lost faith due to how little was shared, this time last year you mostly talked about how the work you were doing was going to accelerate your overall output which was followed by long periods of silence. You lost me, and presumably some others, during that time.
The real giveaway that we have nothing to hide though is the fact that people who do contribute and see our work don't come back here and say "these guys are doing nothing, they are con artists." Like I said, the evidence there points to the contrary.
Except quite a few people in this thread are ex-supporters who came in and said "They don't seem to be doing anything" myself included, and while it's easy to read over the part that says "seem" that remains a vital sticking point. Lack of progress made me stop supporting you, your previous statement is outright false. While there are quite some chaps here that will actually claim that you're running a scam, the important takeaway is that your communications with the public has broken down to such a degree that a large number of people wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the project collapsed on itself. While I'm glad you're finally taking some time to address these concerns your attitude is going to cause more problems (you're being far too cynical, for starters, we're not here sitting around waiting to flay you)
The only valid complaint is that the decision was made that a major foundation overhaul of the project was necessary, resulting in us being unable to get a playable version out in the expected time. I totally own that. I take responsibility for it. But I still believe it was the best course of action to make the game as good as it can be.
Honestly, not at all. The main valid issue is that a complete overhaul is rarely justified and even more rarely works out, we have literally decades of examples in software production where one overhaul leads to the next, and the next, and the next, and a disaster. People have every reason to be worried about this sort of thing, especially when an overall lack of coherent planning seems evident. Much worse in that, however, is just once again the complete lack of communication, and when you did get around to it there was far too little, far too late, and you really need to start playing catch-up here. You can fix this, it's not going to be trivial but it really isn't too difficult either. Give us some kind of schedule, a timeline, a projection of what you've done so far and what you're planning in the near future. Consider using the same method as the developers behind Subnautica (a project that has had several overhauls and major delays, but have been largely clear in what is going on and what they had done)
So, the least you could do until then is not make up garbage data in a poor attempt to call us a bunch of thieves and liars.
I actually agree here, making shit up or over-dramatizing things serves no purpose, and while I hesitate to point out the irony in how you've been arguably making up garbage about the people here it simply must be stated that there is no real reason for it. You can feel free to ignore excess heckling and fantastical bullshit, but don't use that as an excuse to blow off legitimate concerns. Really though, I can't state this enough, you
need to do something about your PR, if it's not your forte or you find yourself struggling then get help from any of the number of supporters that'd likely be more than willing to assist.
