Part 1/2
A moving post, but also very, how to put it... perplexing.
I admit that I was not and am not a huge fan of this game.
When I saw the main character at the very beginning, it was like a punch in the guts, from which I have not recovered and it is still in the back of my mind. Even knowing that his appearance changes later, I was not able to get it out of my mind. It was simply not the main character I could insert myself when playing an adult game. For some, it was a plus, a very cool element, for others an unpalatable lump.
Despite this, I visited this page from time to time, whether because of nostalgia or routinely reviewing the progress of games marked in my itch.io library.
Now, reading this last post, the feelings and emotions of the authors intertwined with something that very strong comes to the forefront - Money.
It seems that money is the main factor in many decisions, no matter how much ambition or feeling was put into the game.
This is not bad in itself, many projects supported even with the best intentions end up with insufficient financial resources. Personally, however, I think that this is not the point when we undertake to create something as large as a game.
It is primarily about answering a certain elementary question, which often authors realize either too late or answer too early before they even understand the amount of work that has to be put into creating a game.
The question is - what is your project for you and what do you want to achieve with it?
There are several ways to answer this question:
1) You want to fulfill your ambition/dream and as a result, apart from the recognition of fans, achieve material profits that will allow you to further develop or even live from your games - in this case, creating games evolves from a hobby or passion to the rank of work, but work that is your passion.
2) It is your passion/hobby that you like to do in your free time outside of work and family life, which allows you not only to develop but also to fulfill your own ambitions - in such a case, you devote the time that you have free outside of any other duties, during which you could do something else, this may result in slower work on the project, little progress and a long time to create new content. On the other hand, giving the project practically for free, no one expects regular updates from you (only signs of life), and some may even support themselves with donations, appreciating your hard work, or at least supporting you with a kind word.
3) It is a kind of escape, a casual adventure that does not affect your private and professional life, does not have a big influence on you - just another adventure and fun in life, in which you do not owe anyone anything, not even yourself. You do not accept donations or anything else, you just have fun with graphics, words and stories, if something comes out of it, great, if not - that's also great, you had a good time.
4) You are not able to answer this question - and here begins a certain problem that I see in you. - I have the impression that no one has sat down in front of the mirror and said to their own self "what the hell do I want to do with this" on the one hand you have put an incredible amount of energy into it, on the other hand there is the prospect of small monetization and the necessity of professional work. The project has become a burden, it has started to steal hours that you would normally spend on something else, maybe work, rest, family? And this without the expected remuneration. In that case, isn't it worth sitting down and thinking about whether we are taking a step back or a step forward? Anything is better than standing in a straddle.
Unfortunately, this is a problem that you have to answer for yourselves.
As for monetization, I haven't had the opportunity to play long enough to reach the event described in the game that explained what happened to your Patreon.
Normally I would guess that there was some problem with using the Koikatsu engine (just like Steam does not allow publishing such games on its platform) but there are too many games based on HS, HS2 or Koikatsu on Patreon for that to be the reason.
In this case it is not very important. However, I am wondering about your indication of how big a blow the loss of Patreon was.
There are projects that have never used Patreon, apart from that there is a whole host of alternative monetization of their projects, e.g.:
- Ko-Fi
- Buy Me a Coffee
- Subscribestar (I see you use this)
- Kickstarter etc.
You can always use a few of them, which I think can successfully replace Patreon.
To sum up, I think that before the next project you simply have to sit down, talk and prepare for what you want to do and for what purpose the project will be created, already knowing after this game project what can await you