Ok, there's just way too much misinformation here.
That happens when you decide to cancel a project after nothing for a year or whenever and then come back to say it's happening except not as you advertised on the board where the topic is most active. People will speculate and misinform based on limited information.
Optional because I plan to publish it on steam. If you're a Patron, you get the H-Scenes exclusively.
This clarifies it, but I feel like you're just adding to your workload unnecessarily for a game people will actively search for the adult version of. What you're basically doing is removing the content from what is essentially a porn game (even though you explained later in your post that it originally wasn't) and then publishing it on steam. Someone else did this not too long ago and not only did the steam version get negative reviews, but it was a shit-storm. Now, imagine if the developer of a game did that. You're begging for trouble, sir.
That game plan was when the animator decided he does not want to work for me anymore. That game is also NOT DIVINE ARMS.
Okay, that's fine. That game is irrelevant to the discussion.
AND THAT has also changed since and the animator agreed to finish the sets.
Again, neat, but wholly irrelevant. You've settled that matter. The other game is the one you plan to give patreons exclusive h-content to. Again, trouble; but, that's your decision. Moving on.
For those who don't know, Divine Arms was initially NOT an eroge but I had to convert it to one when the original sponsor abandoned it, so it has gameplay on it designed for steam etc.
I'm not seeing how game-play can be viably exclusive to a platform like steam. If you mean to say it was initially developer for steam but the sponsor ran out and you decided the h-game community seemed a viable alternative to make your money so you could eventually release it on steam or whatever, sure. I'm just not sure how game-play becomes exclusive to a platform, is all.
People often go to patreon and donate without reading anything.
Many such cases!
The game is no renpy or a dedicated game making tool, so my engine had a lot of bugs and incompatibilities that needed to be fixed and that was what I have been doing and it just works now on the current build and should also work for the style of the current animator.
"Your engine" which works similarly to so many others and does nothing exclusively, so what was the point? I mean this as a legitimate inquiry because, like many other content creators who post their "pet project" on here, you take onto yourself the task of re-inventing the wheel when what you want already exists. Why do you want to impress us so much? We're connoisseurs of pornographic content, man. We're not the type of people to rate your game based on how flashy and complex shit is under the hood. Throw a few cg's up, toss in some basic game-play elements, and we're good. If we want a video game with complex mechanics and storytelling to rival Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, we'll look to the non-porn stuff.
Previous Patrons need only to email me and have been messaging me to get the newest and latest build/demos or can always ask for a refund. When I was going through real life problems, I advised everyone to lower their pledges or delete them until I sort things out, which dropped the campaign to 4k. For those who think I'm swimming in money, it was only 10k for one month and has been playing in the 6-7k mark since. 2k of which goes to the animator and the rest to licenses and other expenses.
While I'm not as wholly informed about the going rate of labor in the gaming industry, I feel like you're over-spending a bit on what are essentially a few flash animations. I guess if you're insisting they work within the constraints of your engine (again, the wheel already exists. Use the damn thing), that's accurate. Still, 6-7k while taking a loss of 2k still leaves 4k. That's enough for rent, food, etc even after patreon takes their cut. I, and others, also don't really care about whatever issues are going on in your life. As stated above, we're only here for the porn. We don't need a sob story to empathize with the struggle. We have our own and our porn is one way we choose to entertain ourselves.
Second issue is, while your sob story appeals to some people and gets them in the feels (we call them "gullible fools"), there are those who show interest in a project, invest, keep up with the project, and then when that project stops showing progress or whatever, they either pull support or check in intermittently while forgetting to pull support. Eventually, those people are making enough money in their life that they can afford to forget about $20 here and $20 there "magically" vanishing from their bank account or paypal. I would wager at least 30% of your support is those people, 50% are people who spend with their emotions, and 20% people who legitimately believe you'll complete the project one day.
If you had been concerned about people not spending their money until you had your life sorted out, you would have killed the patreon or, at the very least, adjusted it to the "pay-by-update" option.
I knew transitioning from an animator to a coder is no easy task and i was slow. Very slow at it. I guess some people need to try coding for themselves and while they're at it make their own game... but I also realize as I type this that explaining probably won't work.
See, this is the problem. You're admitting you not only had no idea how to build the wheel, but that you had a set of skills which made you unfit for even making the attempt. You knew that you couldn't do something, had no formal education in it, but chose to waste everyone's time (and money, which you took without much of a conflict in conscience) on pursuing it anyways.
I still am thankful for my Patrons for letting me study better coding along the way of developing. There have been numerous mistakes, but I am going to be well prepared for Unity when Divine Arms get finished. Of course I will finish it, specially now I've worked so hard and a long time for the engine.
This. Fucking this. Right here, I want to say very mean things and promise physical harm. "I'm so glad you all supported me emotionally and financially to pursue something which I had no education or training with while I promised the completion of a project which your money was originally meant for. Thanks!" I want bad things to happen to you, man. You gleefully took people's money while promising something you had no intent of working on at the time, made up some sob story to keep the money flowing, and then came back to say "lol thanks for the money and also I'm going to release 2 versions of this game, one of which I'm making exclusive for the idiots who gave me free money. No guarantee on quality, either!" You had multiple options to do the moral and right thing instead of taking that money, and instead, you chose to outright scam them.
I apologize for the babyrage a while back. I'm no PR, I'm no AAA, I'm no marketing strategist.
The thing is, you don't need to be AAA, or PR guy, etc to be a decent Human being. Until the point you admitted it was a scam, I was simply dropping truth bombs to help you moving forward. Seeing that you not only pulled that bs, but then got upset when people called you out for it really makes me less empathetic to your case. I can see they were right in what they said and their positions were justified. Your apology also means nothing to people like me. Whatever good will you hoped to generate with this post just evaporated.
I can't spoon feed every Patron who doesn't read or understand how patreon works.
It's not "spoon-feeding" when you're obligated to produce proof of something in order to appease people you are responsible to, or wish to attain the support of. It's called getting your name out there and if you can't even be bothered to do that properly, then you don't deserve the support you think you're entitled to. Either put in the work or don't get upset when people accuse you of being a lazy sack.
I'm just a highschool graduate who knows how to draw and learned to animate and code from youtube university, who, one day decided to do porn games again.
"Again", though I've never heard of anything you've done in the past. Also, not sure a university for youtube exists given it's run by google and they have their own campuses. You also already stated you didn't actually do any formal study of the engines you want to use, so which is it?
I probably don't deserve the money I'm getting, in your eyes, but It's not my fault people still see the potential in what I can do.
You honestly don't deserve a single goddamn dime since day one. Also, your "potential" was a 20min flash game and then fucking off for a year or more to futz around with an engine you knew nothing about while taking money from people. Oh, and you wrote a few sob stories to keep the money flowing.
Again, if I wanted money I could have just cloned/exploited mobile games and flooded droid/apple/pc gamestores.
First, it's easier to run a scam on something you promise based on a 20min flash game than it is to clone something and claim you're working on it/made it yourself. Don't assume everyone is stupid because you think they are.
Second, before I get real mean, kindly get hit by a truck. An 18-wheeler, preferably.