Hello! In a recent post you said that When Stars Collide will remain free after the full release because it was monetized through patreon. Do you think it's possible to make money primarily through this model? If you're ok with sharing, did you make more or less money than you did through Gilded Shadows and Changeling? I've been thinking of maybe becoming a vn dev and I really like the idea of making money via a patreon and leaving the game free afterwards, but I haven't seen a lot of devs try to do that so I don't know how realistic that is.
I really think it just depends, like most success does, on the product. Just about anything is possible if you have a game people are really hyped about.
(Side note here but even Gilded Shadows and Changeling are not comparable in regards to success. They really aren't).
VNs one to another are radically different from each other. Even marketing strategies aren't fully universal, much less monetisation strategies.
I am in a position to be able to experiment with monetisation and try different things to see if some release styles are, for instance, better for my chronic pain or better in other ways. And then move on from them if they are not.
I won't say you can't rely fully on Patreon right out of the gate.
But I would caution against trying it for a first project for most people. I think that going a more stable, proven direction might be best in terms of allowing you to build both an audience and confidence. That means potentially using patreon as a supplement for a project meant to be monetised in other ways. You can always try to shift more fully to patreon later when you have a following or a successfully completed project.
Trying something experimental for a first project turn out amazing or it can be ea complete disaster. And I think a lot of new developers need to build confidence before they can weather a disaster or failure. So trying something with a more proven track record first can help with that.
Because plenty of people do have a lot of success on Patreon while others struggle. And it can be hard to find your groove there - which is made even more difficult when you're in the middle of game development. Especially a first game, which tends to be chaotic and more of a trial than the others you will make later on.
My patreon has never been particularly and wildly huge so I'm also terrible person to get patreon advice from. ( *︾▽︾)
