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Getting To The Next Level: Is Patreon a good idea to consider moving forward?

Well, Chronology has been going on for a while, but recently as you guys may have followed, I decided to take it to a more polished level by phasing out borrowed/ripped assets in favor for custom ones, carefully curated to meet the aesthetic, spirit, and style of RPG that I want Chronology to be. The most notable examples of this would be the facesets and battle characters you've seen so far, courtesy of JosephSeraph




The eventual goal with this is to turn Chronology of the Last Era into a polished, quality RPG on the RM Ace engine that's good enough where I can hopefully put it on Steam for everyone to enjoy and maybe even turn a profit. As someone who has created this great beast of mine for fun with no real aspirations in game creation, that idea excites me fantastically.

However, it also costs money.

I am able to afford the great talent that Chronology has been blessed to have so far. But as development goes on, things will cost more and more money, because well, some things you gotta pay for if you want quality. I can be creative, cut costs, and even learn a few skills myself to save a few $$$, but there's no real way around spending money on Chronology. I don't mind doing this, but if I were able to find a way to help fund Chronology, that would free up my pockets, accelerate development (considerably), and ultimately result in a better product.

The question is, is this viable? A good idea? Is Patreon something that would work with Chronology and what it wants to be?

Posts

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I've heard that Steam Early Access is not a good fit for linear, story-based games (aka most RPGs), but does quite well with procedurally generated or arena type games - the reason being the latter types of games are always fresh, especially as creators add features and polish. The former suffer from play-fatigue - there are only so many times that players will be willing the play the first 20% of your game before they tire of it, and overall leads to a net negative perception of your game in the long run. Keep that in mind before going Steam Early Access.

Kickstarter comes with not-insignificant overhead costs, and (often) a boatload of new commitments. This can take away from your time spent on your project, and also complicates things if things (schedule, design, launch, etc) go awry. But you stand to collect some decent coin.

Have you considered ... finding a private donor? A well-off uncle or cousin or close friend? Or, alternatively, forming a conglomerate of like-minded individuals who could pool resources (and perhaps money) and share items and skills where appropriate, and feed off of each others success in building a brand?

I now know of two people who are going down the route of commercialization of their hobbyist games, and after considering their options, took loans from family to reach their goals instead. They say they are less constraining, with more agreeable terms.


Do you know how much coin you need to pay for assets?
A private donor would be cool, but as you can imagine, finding someone who's willing to give you free money towards an endeavor isn't easy. So unless someone with moneybags falls from the sky, that's not happening. I come from a humble background as well, so family loans aren't a thing either. To give you context, I'm the first person to even attend college in my family, much less graduate with military service. So that's not an option for me.

I have enough income to see Chronology through to the end (nor will it bankrupt me), so it's not a matter of getting enough money to finish it, it would just be faster (and probably 'better', as more money means a higher quality ceiling) with you know, more money.
author=kentona
I've heard that Steam Early Access is not a good fit for linear, story-based games (aka most RPGs), but does quite well with procedurally generated or arena type games - the reason being the latter types of games are always fresh, especially as creators add features and polish.

This is def the common sense that I've gathered. But people still do this with linear games anyway? People in general are still figuring out how Early Access is supposed to be. Valve is also usually pretty forward on giving input and feedback on how best to go about tailoring the process to whatever circumstances your game is in. But still, it def currently favors the infinite replay-ability games that don't rely on set-piece content.

There's https://itch.io/refinery (or https://itch.io/docs/creators/refinery for more info) which is an alt early access but it's possible they might have some sort of solution to how RPGs fit into the whole "Yeah this game is gonna take awhile devwise and it's linear but you can contribute to this in a way that makes sense" The drawbacks that it probably doesn't have quite the same exposure as Steam EA.

What I'm really getting at is there isn't really a perfect platform for indevelopment RPGs yet but that might require some pioneering from someone's part. It's definitely a problem that should be solved.
Oh, wow. Good luck with this. You've been working on this game forever, so I can't wait to see what the end product will be, especially if you're putting money to it.
WIP
I'm not comfortable with any idea that can't be expressed in the form of men's jewelry
11363
author=Darken
What I'm really getting at is there isn't really a perfect platform for indevelopment RPGs yet but that might require some pioneering from someone's part. It's definitely a problem that should be solved.

I'll see what I can do.
author=WIP
author=Darken
What I'm really getting at is there isn't really a perfect platform for indevelopment RPGs yet but that might require some pioneering from someone's part. It's definitely a problem that should be solved.
I'll see what I can do.


Keep us posted. ❤
Well, I don't really know much about Patreon, but I'm guessing it's unlikely to backfire (Unlike Kickstarter, where failures do generate stigma.), but won't be a game-changer either. I just checked out JoSe's Patreon again and it's at 46$/month, while unity's is at 28$/month so something within that range after a few months' time is realistic. Whether or not that's worth the effort is entirely up to you.

The Kickstarter route, however, is something I believe you are right to have reservations about. As far as games in our engine go, I think the only successful Kickstarter was for OMORI, and while it was a pretty great success as far as fundraising goes, it could hardly be any more different to your game stylistically. Under its trailers, people already wage fandom wars between it and Undertale, which, let's be honest, is never going to happen here. Other, more applicable examples are OMNIS: The Erias Line (game's demo was showered with praise here, and for good reason, yet the Kickstarter for the full, Unity-made game was disastrous, both due to failure to build up connections with media outside of RMN, and the nihilistic tone of the pitch - probably the surest poison to one's prospects there, given the fate of this other, once enormously promising project.) and Shadows of Adam (technically custom engine, though no-one could tell the difference), which succeeded after a tense campaign that gave its creators a lot of grey hair, built enough connections with game media to ensure it had Youtube playthroughs + Metacritic score right out of the gate...all for a launch that, I think it's fair to say, we all wished would be better..

Point is, the entire kind of 90's style JRPG is niche. The most high-profile effort to fill it, by Squenix-published I Am Setsuna, hasn't gone over that well and was considered a failure by them. This is actually good news for you, because that unfortunate game at least made mainstream reviewers pay attention to this style of game for the first time in years. Like it or not, Chrono Trigger is old and far from most people's reference frames, while most people are happy enough with the current real-time Tales of.. and Final Fantasies. Game journalists are no different to their colleagues in other fields, in that they do not deal in completed, concrete products (that's our job) but in growing, self-perpetuating meta-narratives. Simply showing your game as is at whatever stage of development you consider presentable and/or invoking 20+ y.o games entire generation has not played is unfortunately liable to get you filed into "another quirky game from a no-name dev on that outdated engine that weirdly refuses to die" meta-narrative in the minds of most journos, and consequently in the "not worth writing about, won't make waves anyway" category.

To be fair, most indie games fall into that category by now, and statistically, we are not really doing worse then, say, Visual Novels or Adventure Game Studio point-n-clicks. In both cases, breaking out of that requires a clear hook that'll allow for creation of a new meta-narrative. Playing on contrast with Setsuna, targeting those 26% of its Steam owners who were sufficiently disappointed by it to leave a negative review, to position yourself as the Astroneer to its No Man's Sky without ever saying that out loud - I believe this is ultimately the best pathway to success, and which will enable both a successful fundraising campaign (whether Indiegogo, Kickstarter or even Fig) , and above all, good sales at the end of the line. Of course, that also requires playing it (assuming you haven't already) and knowing where it went wrong, both in your own opinion and according to those dissatisfied by it, so that you can signal strength in those same areas from the start.

In all, this is my take on the matter. You may disagree, but I hope it was at least worth reading.

P.S. And I agree with others, stay away from Early Access. I don't think I can recall a single linear, plot-driven game that entered it and lived to tell a happy tale. (I think Yesterday Origins fared decently, but it was 80%+ finished since it only spent there 2-3 months, and thus neither here nor there.)
...I've been sort of hesitant to respond to this thread, since it sounds like you have everything under control here Feld, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in anyways. I agree with NTC3's sentiments. I think Patreon would be a worthwhile endeavour:

bleet, the creator of Huntress of the Hollow, and Fleshchild, started her own patreon awhile back, to help fund some of her rpgmaker projects.

She currently has 11 patrons and is currently generating 57.00 USD a month, which isn't a lot, I'll admit, but she is mostly pursuing this as a hobby though, while also juggling a part time job and attending school at the same time.

She also started a small discord channel with clockworkprince , in order to help dole out patreon awards, such as early access to her games, beta testing, art work and as a general way to keep in touch with her fans and help generate interest towards her games. She has also obtained a small following of 57 followers through this discord channel. (...it's actually a pretty cool discord channel with a very chill community)

I'd say, this is a moderate success for someone who is pursuing rpgmaker games, as a hobby.

I also think "Chronology Of The Last Era" has quite the following on RMN.

Pursuing Patreon, if done the right way, will be the same thing you're doing right now, here on RMN, except you'll be earning a small bit of money on the side that you'll be able to use to help spend towards improving this game of yours.

Like 57.00 USD dollars a month, may not be a lot, but it's something.

It wouldn't hurt to try this - as long as you remain realistic about your goals.

EDIT: Stick to knowing what you can actually get done and leave nothing to chance.
Today's the first time I've heard about Lotia (recently released on Steam). Here's a link to the successful Kickstarter campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crayonponyfish/lotia

I won't deny that a lot of effort (graphically) has gone into Lotia, but if a game like Lotia manages to secure more than 10.000 $, I think CotLE will have a very good chance to achieve a similar sum all the more. Feldschlacht, you should at least consider a Kickstarter campaign, even if you'd do it only for the PR. Even a failed Kickstarter campaign can only be of advantage. People who are interested in playing your game will buy it nonetheless, so the most important thing is to create customers' awareness.
I recently learned of a hentai game that was making $42000 a month on Patreon before the lead ran off with the money. He went on to found a similar hentai game that is now up to $24000 a month.

Maybe you should rename this game to Pornography of the Last Era and then enjoy your Scrooge McDuck-style money vault?
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