Economic Health of the Patreon Funded Hgame Market

[Obscure]

March 1st

230 Patreons reporting a possible $438,605 monthly and possible $5,263,260 annual volume.

$650 Median and $1906.98 Average monthly income.

While a sizable increase in Patreon volume this adjustment reveals little new information. It does however allow us to more clearly see the $5,000 plateau and the hesitation of patrons to finance further.

The slight reduction of Median and Average values hints at a market nearing it's saturation point.

Spoiler: February

178 patreons reporting a possible $383,891 monthly and possible $4,606,692 annual volume.

$712 Median and $2156.69 Average monthly income.

I think it looks pretty healthy as far as niche markets go, with a fairly even distribution.

Reference from The Comprehensive Patreon List on ULMF.

 

[GeeSeki]

Huh... that right there is pretty goddamn interesting if I do say so myself.

 

[Langtry]

I like Patreon but it seems to be a breeding ground for/statistical abnormality of:

• People with major health issues.
• People with doctors who can't seem to diagnose them properly.
• People with diseases and conditions that before now have been unknown to medical science.
• Family Drama and/or personal problems.
• People with really bad Internet access.
• People with really shitty computers.
• People with hard drive failures.
• People who make no backups.
• People who have endless problems with hosting companies and APIs.

The same excuses - some may be genuine - get used by a lot of mod makers or those who distribute their work for free but at least they aren't, depending on size, making a small fortune every month - even factoring in the cut Patreon takes and taxes - I'm okay with people being a bit lazy or getting distracted sometimes but with some projects it's beyond the joke at this point.

There are some decent examples I've continued to support. I've supported a lot of projects in my time but not continued to support very many. There are a few others I'm keeping an eye on - the demos look impressive but are really short - and I'm open to recommendations at this point.

Even for the games I have continued to support the output really isn't commensurate with the money they're making.

Some of the games are pretty much the equivalent of Unity or some other game engine demos that plagued Steam Greenlight and Early Access at the start.

I'm actually surprised that given the money and consumer base that seems to be available that some company or group hasn't come up with something that has both decent gameplay and adult content... hell all that's coming to mind currently is Kamidori Alchemy Meister which kind of had both, even something like Monster Girl Quest which I love arguably didn't have the best game play.

Even just focusing on the adult content that does get made, a lot of it tends to tick the same boxes and fetishes. I know there's a viable porn market for a lot stuff that just doesn't make it into the gaming realm.

 

[Graav]

People who have endless problems with hosting companies and APIs.

It never happened here >.>

 

[Langtry]

It never happened here >.>

Like I say, there are situations where it could be genuine and a lot of it depends on everything considered against the project and taken in context.

 

[asestado]

I hope that one day we will have games like dragon age with sexual content and not just with the romantic scenes

I'm actually surprised that given the money and consumer base that seems to be available that some company or group hasn't come up with something that has both decent gameplay and adult content... hell all that's coming to mind currently is Kamidori Alchemy Meister which kind of had both, even something like Monster Girl Quest which I love arguably didn't have the best game play.

Even just focusing on the adult content that does get made, a lot of it tends to tick the same boxes and fetishes. I know there's a viable porn market for a lot stuff that just doesn't make it into the gaming realm.

I liked a lot too that Kamidori alchemy Meister, in fact i still play it from time to time. My top 3 translated h games are:

-Kamidori Alchemy Meister -> I loved the heroines and most characters, however the only problem that i have is that the sexual content was truly late, about the gameplay it was a bit grindy but that's it.

-Kichikuou Rance -> In my opinnion it's a lot better than sengoku rance, it was a great game in so many points... however it was a bit too dark, quite in the line of rance VI but with more suffering and feelings.

-Big bang age Daibanchou -> Extremely interesting gameplay, a lot of good mechanics and good characters. I liked a lot that there are many events in which you don't act fast then a character will suffer the consequences. But i hated the loyalty mechanic and those star events that were incredibly hard to get without a guide.

I think that any of those 3 even if you take all sex scenes they would be great games.

 

[Savin]

I like Patreon but it seems to be a breeding ground for/statistical abnormality of:

• People with major health issues.
• People with doctors who can't seem to diagnose them properly.

As the employee of an hgame company on Patreon: glad to know I'm not the only one. :V

 

[asestado]

As the employee of an hgame company on Patreon: glad to know I'm not the only one. :V

Well there are many cases that are MUCH worse in that sense . For example the game "dungeons and prisoners" with ILL.

You at most would be a novice on that level for now!, and i think everyone prefer it that way . Do not level up that thing!.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

I like Patreon but it seems to be a breeding ground for/statistical abnormality of:

• People with major health issues.
• People with doctors who can't seem to diagnose them properly.
• People with diseases and conditions that before now have been unknown to medical science.
• Family Drama and/or personal problems.
• People with really bad Internet access.
• People with really shitty computers.
• People with hard drive failures.
• People who make no backups.
• People who have endless problems with hosting companies and APIs.

The same excuses - some may be genuine - get used by a lot of mod makers or those who distribute their work for free but at least they aren't, depending on size, making a small fortune every month - even factoring in the cut Patreon takes and taxes - I'm okay with people being a bit lazy or getting distracted sometimes but with some projects it's beyond the joke at this point.

There are some decent examples I've continued to support. I've supported a lot of projects in my time but not continued to support very many. There are a few others I'm keeping an eye on - the demos look impressive but are really short - and I'm open to recommendations at this point.

Even for the games I have continued to support the output really isn't commensurate with the money they're making.

Some of the games are pretty much the equivalent of Unity or some other game engine demos that plagued Steam Greenlight and Early Access at the start.

I'm actually surprised that given the money and consumer base that seems to be available that some company or group hasn't come up with something that has both decent gameplay and adult content... hell all that's coming to mind currently is Kamidori Alchemy Meister which kind of had both, even something like Monster Girl Quest which I love arguably didn't have the best game play.

Even just focusing on the adult content that does get made, a lot of it tends to tick the same boxes and fetishes. I know there's a viable porn market for a lot stuff that just doesn't make it into the gaming realm.

That's why I don't pledge on patreon.
Seriously, I don't have anything against, and surely would become a patron myself but, as always, sometimes good ideas got derailed because opportunists...

 

[stuntcock]

I'm actually surprised that given the money and consumer base that seems to be available that some company or group hasn't come up with something that has both decent gameplay and adult content...

For most entities, that sort of project would be either impossible or sub-optimal.

• if you're a serious development studio then most of your employees will balk at working on porn. They don't want that poison on their CVs.
  
  • Also: your investors, partners, and advertisers will abandon and/or sue you.
  • You can't do this sort of thing on a lark, even if you think that there's money in it.
• if you're an adult-focused studio with a few artists and programmers then you can earn higher ROI by writing a Skinner Box phone app which doles out small doses of tittilation in exchange for free-to-play micropayments.
  • It's preferable to setup a small-but-consistent revenue stream instead of a 12+ month development cycle ending with the release and sale of a final product.
  • Sales of a boxed product can be heavily curtailed by piracy, market saturation, poor marketing, poor reviews, Steam suddenly deciding not to sell the censored version of your game, etc.
  • Users of your cellphone app will tend to remain addicted to your game for a while (due to habituation, sunk cost fallacy, etc). Revenue will decline over time, but the rate of decline tends to be predictable. Businesses like predictability.
    
  • If your shitty cellphone "game" proves successful then you can develop more content for it. If not, then cut your losses and move on to the next one. If you've spent 12+ months on a real game then your options are "success" or "bankruptcy".
  • Bonus: since your cellphone game doesn't need to innovate on game mechanics, you can reuse lots of code between projects.
• if you're a solo dev then you can probably deliver either compelling game mechanics or engaging adult content, but it willl be difficult to deliver both.
  
  • It makes much more sense to focus on the adult side. After all, bay12games has the most detailed game in the world, yet it doesn't even reach the Top Ten of the list shown above. Sex sells.
    
  • It's uncertain that your audience really cares about game mechanics. Ceteris paribus they'll prefer a game with good mechanics to one without ... but to actually create those mechanics (and the supporting GUI elements, tutorials, animations, level design, extra playtesting, etc) may force you to make too many compromises elsewhere.
  • If Fenoxo told us "Hey guys, we're going to pause all of the sexy writing for eight months in order to replace our map grid with a more realistic hex-based movement system and revamp the dialogue system for proper declension of genderfluid pronouns" then folks would probably riot
• if you're a small web-based indie team then your project is somewhat precarious; it can be quickly derailed by various forms of drama.
  
  • Disagreements over IP, revenue sharing arguments, deadline stress, project leadership disputes, contributions/slacking, personal drama, etc...
  • If your project becomes too technically complex, then replacing a team member will be difficult and time-consuming.
  • When someone departs, the whole project could be stalled -- and everyone's livelihood will be in jeopardy.
    
  • If you use standard frameworks (such as ren'Py or RPGMaker), simple systems, and shallow mechanics then you can draw on a larger talent pool. If someone gets sick or goes AWOL then you can potentially replace them and carry on.

 

[Obscure]

Patreon funded H-games have severe limitations that are not present for other more seriously minded video game endeavors. Namely that we live in a part of the world where H-games cannot be sold. Until Steam produces a robust childproof barrier and can begin the sale of Western H-games donation fed games are the name of the game.

This strongly limits the highest peaks of income and does not incentivize completion of products.

Lets briefly refer to a game like Populous. A simple game with floaty mechanics that produced about 4 million dollars for it's programmers at the end of it's 6 month production. There is no mechanic for this kind of run away success in our Patreon fueled economy.

There are maybe 20 products on the list that could reasonably expect to pay a programmer the two thousand dollar a month salary that they would be even vaguely competitive.

 

[Obscure]

After all, bay12games has the most detailed game in the world, yet it doesn't even reach the Top Ten of the list shown above. Sex sells.

Ya know... It's not the lack of sex that limits the broad appeal of Dwarf Fortress. It's the fact it is fundamentally impenetrable to most video game players.

 

[Tinman]

I like Patreon but it seems to be a breeding ground for/statistical abnormality of:

• People with major health issues.
• People with doctors who can't seem to diagnose them properly.

Sometimes shit happens. I have plenty of experience with both problems, and the solution to the diagnosis issues was solved by a doctor asking 1 question. Medical professionals can be disturbingly incompetent sometimes. Granted, if I was making a game and using Patreon for support I'd never mention my health issues. I could be dying of cancer and the most people would get is "I'm going to be dead in a week. Here's the source code now stop funding me."

 

[Lord Arioch]

First of all, thanks for that intelligent analysis, stuntcock.

I use Patreon out of necessity; I have to pay other people to work on the game, and I can no longer afford to do so out of my own pocket. I do have a few things to say about the system though;

i) It is less a meritocracy, and more of a crapshoot - As the old adage goes, it isn't so much what you know, as who you know, and this certainly applies to Patreon (and not just in our community - look at Neil Gaiman's wife sitting up there at #3). When it comes to getting pledges, a good word from someone with a lot of followers is worth a thousand solid version releases. If you'll forgive me the sin of immodesty for a moment, I think SoC is shaping up to be one of the better games, at least quality wise, but I am still far behind a lot of basic RPGmaker games with broken English and average uncanny valley 3D posing due to the lack of any signal boosting. Hell, Carnal Souls is still doing okay from the original exposure it got from Fen, despite producing very little since. Which leads me to my next point....

ii) Despite what people think, the market does not punish bad behaviour - People vote with their wallets, right? In our field, this is demonstrably not the case. People do unprofessional things all the time, like changing code language well into development, constantly missing deadlines and delays, not communicating at all between releases, vanishing for long periods, dumping the current project to start a new one, and so on. Akabur ragequit his Hermione game at a stage nowhere near what he promised and still did fine, and S-Purple walked away from the largest debacle in our industry's short history and was making 7k a month pretty much immediately. I don't know if there's a high turnover, or people are just very forgiving.

Despite this I do think that, as Churchill famously said of democracy, Patreon is the best of a bad bunch. I don't see Kimochi replacing it as I'm not sure most game makers in our industry can budget properly if half of them can't even do enough design pre-development to choose the right platform, but we'll see, I guess.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

First of all, thanks for that intelligent analysis, stuntcock.

I use Patreon out of necessity; I have to pay other people to work on the game, and I can no longer afford to do so out of my own pocket. I do have a few things to say about the system though;

i) It is less a meritocracy, and more of a crapshoot - As the old adage goes, it isn't so much what you know, as who you know, and this certainly applies to Patreon (and not just in our community - look at Neil Gaiman's wife sitting up there at #3). When it comes to getting pledges, a good word from someone with a lot of followers is worth a thousand solid version releases. If you'll forgive me the sin of immodesty for a moment, I think SoC is shaping up to be one of the better games, at least quality wise, but I am still far behind a lot of basic RPGmaker games with broken English and average uncanny valley 3D posing due to the lack of any signal boosting. Hell, Carnal Souls is still doing okay from the original exposure it got from Fen, despite producing very little since. Which leads me to my next point....

ii) Despite what people think, the market does not punish bad behaviour - People vote with their wallets, right? In our field, this is demonstrably not the case. People do unprofessional things all the time, like changing code language well into development, constantly missing deadlines and delays, not communicating at all between releases, vanishing for long periods, dumping the current project to start a new one, and so on. Akabur ragequit his Hermione game at a stage nowhere near what he promised and still did fine, and S-Purple walked away from the largest debacle in our industry's short history and was making 7k a month pretty much immediately. I don't know if there's a high turnover, or people are just very forgiving.

Despite this I do think that, as Churchill famously said of democracy, Patreon is the best of a bad bunch. I don't see Kimochi replacing it as I'm not sure most game makers in our industry can budget properly if half of them can't even do enough design pre-development to choose the right platform, but we'll see, I guess.

So sad but so true...

 

[Dragon]

First of all, thanks for that intelligent analysis, stuntcock.

I use Patreon out of necessity; I have to pay other people to work on the game, and I can no longer afford to do so out of my own pocket. I do have a few things to say about the system though;

i) It is less a meritocracy, and more of a crapshoot - As the old adage goes, it isn't so much what you know, as who you know, and this certainly applies to Patreon (and not just in our community - look at Neil Gaiman's wife sitting up there at #3). When it comes to getting pledges, a good word from someone with a lot of followers is worth a thousand solid version releases. If you'll forgive me the sin of immodesty for a moment, I think SoC is shaping up to be one of the better games, at least quality wise, but I am still far behind a lot of basic RPGmaker games with broken English and average uncanny valley 3D posing due to the lack of any signal boosting. Hell, Carnal Souls is still doing okay from the original exposure it got from Fen, despite producing very little since. Which leads me to my next point....

ii) Despite what people think, the market does not punish bad behaviour - People vote with their wallets, right? In our field, this is demonstrably not the case. People do unprofessional things all the time, like changing code language well into development, constantly missing deadlines and delays, not communicating at all between releases, vanishing for long periods, dumping the current project to start a new one, and so on. Akabur ragequit his Hermione game at a stage nowhere near what he promised and still did fine, and S-Purple walked away from the largest debacle in our industry's short history and was making 7k a month pretty much immediately. I don't know if there's a high turnover, or people are just very forgiving.

Despite this I do think that, as Churchill famously said of democracy, Patreon is the best of a bad bunch. I don't see Kimochi replacing it as I'm not sure most game makers in our industry can budget properly if half of them can't even do enough design pre-development to choose the right platform, but we'll see, I guess.

For most entities, that sort of project would be either impossible or sub-optimal.

• if you're a serious development studio then most of your employees will balk at working on porn. They don't want that poison on their CVs.
  • Also: your investors, partners, and advertisers will abandon and/or sue you.
  • You can't do this sort of thing on a lark, even if you think that there's money in it.
• if you're an adult-focused studio with a few artists and programmers then you can earn higher ROI by writing a Skinner Box phone app which doles out small doses of tittilation in exchange for free-to-play micropayments.
  • It's preferable to setup a small-but-consistent revenue stream instead of a 12+ month development cycle ending with the release and sale of a final product.
  • Sales of a boxed product can be heavily curtailed by piracy, market saturation, poor marketing, poor reviews, Steam suddenly deciding not to sell the censored version of your game, etc.
  • Users of your cellphone app will tend to remain addicted to your game for a while (due to habituation, sunk cost fallacy, etc). Revenue will decline over time, but the rate of decline tends to be predictable. Businesses like predictability.
    
  • If your shitty cellphone "game" proves successful then you can develop more content for it. If not, then cut your losses and move on to the next one. If you've spent 12+ months on a real game then your options are "success" or "bankruptcy".
  • Bonus: since your cellphone game doesn't need to innovate on game mechanics, you can reuse lots of code between projects.
• if you're a solo dev then you can probably deliver either compelling game mechanics or engaging adult content, but it willl be difficult to deliver both.
  • It makes much more sense to focus on the adult side. After all, bay12games has the most detailed game in the world, yet it doesn't even reach the Top Ten of the list shown above. Sex sells.
    
  • It's uncertain that your audience really cares about game mechanics. Ceteris paribus they'll prefer a game with good mechanics to one without ... but to actually create those mechanics (and the supporting GUI elements, tutorials, animations, level design, extra playtesting, etc) may force you to make too many compromises elsewhere.
  • If Fenoxo told us "Hey guys, we're going to pause all of the sexy writing for eight months in order to replace our map grid with a more realistic hex-based movement system and revamp the dialogue system for proper declension of genderfluid pronouns" then folks would probably riot
• if you're a small web-based indie team then your project is somewhat precarious; it can be quickly derailed by various forms of drama.
  • Disagreements over IP, revenue sharing arguments, deadline stress, project leadership disputes, contributions/slacking, personal drama, etc...
  • If your project becomes too technically complex, then replacing a team member will be difficult and time-consuming.
  • When someone departs, the whole project could be stalled -- and everyone's livelihood will be in jeopardy.
    
  • If you use standard frameworks (such as ren'Py or RPGMaker), simple systems, and shallow mechanics then you can draw on a larger talent pool. If someone gets sick or goes AWOL then you can potentially replace them and carry on.

I logged in just to say I loved these reply sooo much! I still to this day don't understand how someone could cosign what Akabur did there!

 

[Langtry]

if you're a serious development studio then most of your employees will balk at working on porn. They don't want that poison on their CVs.

I'm okay with such content too by the way, but there's no stigma associated with working on violent games or games filled with gore. I find it funny that the same people who rabidly defend such games balk and get all indignant if they see a naked character in a game. I suspect it's more of a cultural perception issue than people worried about poisoning their CV. See the adult games industry in Japan.

If such a stigma does exist, perhaps it's inherent to every new medium. See how some tech jobs were treated in the 80s and 90s. See YouTube commentators, etc.

There could be a subsidiary with an innocuous name for adult development, you don't need to add everything you work on to a portfolio or include it in a CV. I'm sure a few people have worked on something like a complete failure or a shitty mobile game.

The porn industry in general has probably had to deal with such stigma but it keeps going on and improving the quality of its product while diversifying.

If Fenoxo told us "Hey guys, we're going to pause all of the sexy writing for eight months in order to replace our map grid with a more realistic hex-based movement system and revamp the dialogue system for proper declension of genderfluid pronouns" then folks would probably riot

It's not a zero-sum game or an either/or situation. You can devote time to both. You can devote the bulk of it to the sexy writing while occasionally doing a bit of work elsewhere. It also depends on the nature of you game. Not every game will need fully developed maps, inventory systems and combat mechanics. In the game we have a variety of games with diff

I just don't like when people say that something has always been the way it is and there's no point trying to change it.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

I'm okay with such content too by the way, but there's no stigma associated with working on violent games or games filled with gore. I find it funny that the same people who rabidly defend such games balk and get all indignant if they see a naked character in a game. I suspect it's more of a cultural perception issue than people worried about poisoning their CV. See the adult games industry in Japan.

If such a stigma does exist, perhaps it's inherent to every new medium. See how some tech jobs were treated in the 80s and 90s. See YouTube commentators, etc.

There could be a subsidiary with an innocuous name for adult development, you don't need to add everything you work on to a portfolio or include it in a CV. I'm sure a few people have worked on something like a complete failure or a shitty mobile game.

The porn industry in general has probably had to deal with such stigma but it keeps going on and improving the quality of its product while diversifying.



It's not a zero-sum game or an either/or situation. You can devote time to both. You can devote the bulk of it to the sexy writing while occasionally doing a bit of work elsewhere. It also depends on the nature of you game. Not every game will need fully developed maps, inventory systems and combat mechanics. In the game we have a variety of games with diff

I just don't like when people say that something has always been the way it is and there's no point trying to change it.

Yessss... You can be all gore but don't you dare to show a nipple...

 

[Dragon]

I'm okay with such content too by the way, but there's no stigma associated with working on violent games or games filled with gore. I find it funny that the same people who rabidly defend such games balk and get all indignant if they see a naked character in a game. I suspect it's more of a cultural perception issue than people worried about poisoning their CV. See the adult games industry in Japan.

If such a stigma does exist, perhaps it's inherent to every new medium. See how some tech jobs were treated in the 80s and 90s. See YouTube commentators, etc.

There could be a subsidiary with an innocuous name for adult development, you don't need to add everything you work on to a portfolio or include it in a CV. I'm sure a few people have worked on something like a complete failure or a shitty mobile game.

The porn industry in general has probably had to deal with such stigma but it keeps going on and improving the quality of its product while diversifying.

.

That is because throughout history, violence not only has been normalized, it has been glorified! Glorified in fiction, glorified in reality, and even glorified in religion. Nudity and sex has been demonized, and I mean overly demonized to the point where I have to constantly explain that nudity and sexual aren't synonymous. You can have nudity without it being sexual, and you can have sexual with a figure that is still fully clothed.

Then again, I also have to explain to people why artist draw the nude figure and why we don't just draw the figure with clothes on it when doing figure drawing.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

And thinking spartans fought naked...

 

[Dragon]

And thinking spartans fought naked...

A lot of people would call that a orgy.

 

[Obscure]

Artists pretended that Spartans fought naked so they could draw those naked male bodies all over those clay pots.

Of course the fictional world of clay pot art is a perfectly good world to put your game in.

 

[Obscure]

Patreon is the best of a bad bunch. I don't see Kimochi replacing it as I'm not sure most game makers in our industry can budget properly if half of them can't even do enough design pre-development to choose the right platform, but we'll see, I guess.

Nutaku has devoured and replaced Kimochi after it died. The Nutaku game selection is very different the Patreon funded group. It is still 90% free to play cow clickers and translations of vanilla Japanese games.

 

[vinfamy]

i) It is less a meritocracy, and more of a crapshoot - As the old adage goes, it isn't so much what you know, as who you know, and this certainly applies to Patreon (and not just in our community - look at Neil Gaiman's wife sitting up there at #3). When it comes to getting pledges, a good word from someone with a lot of followers is worth a thousand solid version releases.

Would I be correct in saying that this is partly because Patreon has a very limited Search/ Explore function? It's quite rare for random people to just stumble across your page. This essentially means that you must already have built a big audience (or know someone that does) before even starting out on Patreon. It's extremely hard to gain any traction if you're just starting out in this niche, even if your first game turns out to be a masterpiece.
I do agree that some of the game developments on Patreon are earning the sort of money that their current progress simply does not justify at all. Not saying that these games are bad ideas or don't have potential, it's just that they are being developed so slowly (especially considering that half of these people apparently quit their jobs to do this full-time) that it's hard not to be suspicious sometimes whether an author is slowing development deliberately to 'milk' his/her patrons.

 

[Lord Arioch]

Nutaku has devoured and replaced Kimochi after it died. The Nutaku game selection is very different the Patreon funded group. It is still 90% free to play cow clickers and translations of vanilla Japanese games.

From what I've seen, most of what is on there at the moment are simple VNs, which makes a lot of sense as they quite easy to budget for (x sprites, y CGs, at flat rate, etc.), but I wouldn't be surprised if it went the way of typical Nutaku fare.

Would I be correct in saying that this is partly because Patreon has a very limited Search/ Explore function? It's quite rare for random people to just stumble across your page. This essentially means that you must already have built a big audience (or know someone that does) before even starting out on Patreon. It's extremely hard to gain any traction if you're just starting out in this niche, even if your first game turns out to be a masterpiece.
I do agree that some of the game developments on Patreon are earning the sort of money that their current progress simply does not justify at all. Not saying that these games are bad ideas or don't have potential, it's just that they are being developed so slowly (especially considering that half of these people apparently quit their jobs to do this full-time) that it's hard not to be suspicious sometimes whether an author is slowing development deliberately to 'milk' his/her patrons.

Unless they've changed it since the last time I looked, all NSFW products are hidden from Patreon's search function, which means the only way to get people to the page is via direct links. If you are a new creator (like myself), all you can really do is keeping working while pimping your game across the various h-forums and hope that you eventually get some exposure from someone / somewhere with a bit more clout. There's a lot of luck involved unless you already have a built in following, as you say.

 

[balitz Method]

I like Patreon but it seems to be a breeding ground for/statistical abnormality of:

• People with major health issues.
• People with doctors who can't seem to diagnose them properly.
• People with diseases and conditions that before now have been unknown to medical science.

Literally everyone who makes porn games is dying. It's either a curse or people are too embarrassed to say they haven't been working on it.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Nutaku has devoured and replaced Kimochi after it died. The Nutaku game selection is very different the Patreon funded group. It is still 90% free to play cow clickers and translations of vanilla Japanese games.

Sorry if spam too much, but I really liked your description.
On a personal note: Maybe I am weird between weirdos, but I find a hard time to find a game which satisfies me...

 

[Kesil]

Maybe I am weird between weirdos, but I find a hard time to find a game which satisfies me...

You're not. I have yet to find a (smut) game that fully satifies yours truly.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

Sorry if spam too much, but I really liked your description.
On a personal note: Maybe I am weird between weirdos, but I find a hard time to find a game which satisfies me...

Everyone's personal combination of likes and kinks are unique. You'll almost never find a game that appeals to everything you like, unless you made it for yourself (in which case, you'd probably be the only one it appeals to in its entirety). Even then, people's tastes change over time along with your moods and sometimes you discover or rediscover things you like that you weren't aware of before. Personally I tend to look for something that satisfies a particular thing when I'm looking for something to satisfy, rather than a perfect game that deals with everything. It's probably one of those things that's impossible to achieve anyway.

 

[Obscure]

Oh yeah, I'd be super excited if Agarest: Generations of War was actually a good strategy game and a full eugenics game along with a dating sim. And not a terrible Triple Super Combo game with with sparkly lights attached haphazardly to a dating sim.

"Okay, so the redheaded barmaid turned zealous witch hunter will be mother to my descendant."

"If I god wills it."

"Well, of course he does. Now the blond elf ranger with a heart of gold?"

"I have a name."

"I don't care. You'll be bedding down with Rexor the Destroyer this generation to give birth to my son's new right hand man and/or woman."

"Please no sir, Anything but that."

"See this is why I tied you up before discussing this with you."

"But he's a werewolf!"

"Please, it's wolfperson. Can you just try to be politically sensitive?"

But yes, satisfaction does elude us.