YandereDev
patreon
2018 Transparency
🕑 Added 2019-01-06 23:27:09 +0000 UTCIn 2016, 2017, and 2018, I wrote blog posts titled "Transparency" to provide information about how the Patreon money was being spent. Now that we're at the beginning of a new year, it's time for 2019's "Transparency Post"!
First, let's start off with an important fact: No matter how much money I make through Patreon, my personal monthly salary is capped at $3,500, and any money past $3,500 is stored as a surplus so that it can be used to compensate volunteers. Last year, this surplus was at $22,863.30.
Here is how much money was raised over the course of 2018:
- January - $4,706.84
- February - $4,393.51
- March - $4,499.29
- April - $4,574.03
- May - $4,554.77
- June - $4,383.12
- July - $3,900.78
- August - $3,562.47
- September - $3,347.13
- October - $3,306.64
- November - $3,683.17
- December - $3,701.11
That's a total of $48,612.86. Since I'm capped at 3.5k per month, $42,000 of that went to me, and the other $6,612.86 went into the surplus for paying volunteers, bringing the total to $29,476.16.
In 2017, only three volunteers asked for any form of compensation at all. However, in 2018, a lot more money was sent to volunteers:
- QVA - $1,020 (3D Modelling)
- Sheltor - $1,100 (3D Animations)
- Hikari - $600 (2D Artwork)
- MysticBlare - $200 (Music)
- Mom0ki- $125 (Panther Vocals)
- Tyler Gonelli - $250 (Panther Instrumental)
- Marissa Lenti - $154 (Guidance Counselor voice)
That's $3,449 in total. Subtract that from $29,476.16, and the surplus is currently at $26,027.16.
EDIT: I'd like to share another fact about the surplus. If Yandere Simulator needs $100k in order to become a reality, and I have a surplus of $26k, then I only need to ask for $74k when I do the crowdfunding campaign. No matter what, this money is going towards the game's development.
Patreon Decline
If you compare this year to last year, you'll observe that the health of my Patreon is declining. There are several potential reasons for this:
- A lot of people are choosing to boycott Patreon as a result of Patreon de-platforming certain people for their political beliefs.
- A lot of people's Patreon pledges are being canceled by their banks, who mistakenly believe that the payments are unauthorized.
- In June, Patreon re-categorized Yandere Simulator as an "adult game" (even though it's not), preventing people from being able to access the Patreon page as easily as before.
- Unlike most other creators on Patreon, I don't offer rewards to backers, such as early access to builds, sneak peeks at upcoming content, access to development streams, etc.
- Because the only two tiers are $1 and $100, many people may have developed the impression that they are only allowed to donate either $1 or $100, and that there is no in-between.
- I practically never mention my Patreon or ask people to support it; most people probably don't even know that it exists.
- The game's development has lasted much longer than originally anticipated, and some of the game's supporters are starting to lose faith in me.
- I am the target of a smear campaign designed to brainwash people into thinking that I'm an evil villain.
The Patreon's decline is probably due to a combination of all the above factors. However, it's worth noting that the Patreon took a sharp nosedive after June, which was when the smear campaign went viral and reached hundreds of thousands of people. The Patreon began to recover in November, after I defended myself and offered to debunk a lot of the false claims that were being made about me. As a result, it seem safe to conclude that the smear campaign is clearly the primary cause of the Patreon's decline.
Unfortunately, I'm in a situation that is pretty difficult to recover from. Once it becomes trendy for people to trash-talk you, it's impossible for you to become more popular; only less popular. Once you have been made an object of shame and ridicule, nobody is willing to listen to your side of the story, or believe anything you say. As time passes, more and more people are exposed to the propaganda against you, causing the hate-bandwagon to grow larger. Your potential to achieve success will only drop lower over time.
A significant number of people have swallowed the Anti-YandereDev narrative, and are determined to indoctrinate as many people as possible into the Anti-YandereDev cult. A pessimistic - yet realistic - view of the situation is that the Patreon will continue to decline, and will never return to its previous heights.
It's worth mentioning that I never actually attempt to draw attention to my Patreon. I don't mention it in blog posts, I don't mention it in my videos, and I don't mention it within the game. (This instantly debunks the theory that I'm a scam artist intentionally prolonging development to milk the Patreon.)
It's possible that if I did begin promoting the Patreon, then it would recover to its previous state. However, promoting the Patreon would also fuel the narrative that I'm greedy and only care about money. So, my hands are tied.
I'm sure you're wondering how the health of the Patreon correlates to development. I'll describe several scenarios:
- What happens if the Patreon drops below $3,000? I'll keep working on the game, but I'll probably start releasing more YouTube videos in order to increase my income.
- What happens if the Patreon drops below $2,000? I'll start making more of an effort to promote the Patreon, and I'll probably start offering some form of backer rewards, as well.
- What happens if the Patreon drops below $1,000? Yandere Simulator will cease to be my full-time job, and will become a hobby that I occasionally work on. I have a lot of simple game ideas (games that should take less than a year to develop) and I would shift my focus to these games instead of Yandere Sim.
Development Speed
Why is Yandere Simulator's development taking so long? As stated above, it's due to a combination of multiple factors:
- Yandere Simulator is an open-world sandbox game; the most complex type of game to develop, with the longest development cycle out of all game genres. It's extremely uncommon for a small indie team to take on a project like this one.
- After working on a single project for 4.5+ years, you begin to lose motivation and enthusiasm, which reduces productivity.
- Being the target of a multiple-year-long character assassination and harassment campaign is guaranteed to make you miserable and depressed, which severely reduces productivity.
Imagine trying to run a marathon, but you have heavy weights tied to your legs, making it difficult to take a single step - and those weights are invisible, so nobody can tell what's slowing you down. As a result, you're accused of being slow and lazy, which actually makes the weights become heavier. That's the best metaphor I can make for this situation.
In Closing
It feels wrong to end the post on a dreary note, so I'll try to be optimistic:
- The Patreon has been on an upward trend since October!
- Although I was experiencing a lot of harassment for the majority of 2018, it diminished in the final months of the year.
- Now that there are very few things remaining before I can finally implement Osana, a lot of my motivation and enthusiasm for working on the game is finally starting to return.
If you have any questions about anything I mentioned in this blog post, you're welcome to ask in the comments below!
Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!
Comments
YandereDev
News about development in general? Or transparency-related news? I'll make a "2019 Transparency" post in January of 2020. For development news, my YouTube channel and development blog are the best ways to keep up-to-date. I only make posts on Patreon when I feel like I have a big, exciting announcement to make. I am still preparing the game's next big feature, so I'm not ready to make a new post yet. Within the next few days, I'm planning to upload a new video (Yandere Simulator's introduction cutscene). The reason it's taking so long is because I'm waiting for a composer to finish the music for the intro (and I'm also waiting for an animator to touch up some of the animations). While waiting for those assets, I'm currently working on implementing the "Mysterious Obstacle" - a very important part of Osana's week, one of the only features remaining until Osana is complete. Because I make regular announcements on YouTube and my development blog, I presumed that my patrons would simply check those two places when they want to see my latest progress. But, if patrons get concerned when a few weeks pass without me making a post on Patreon, then I can try to make more frequent Patreon posts.
Funkie - Adult Games Dev.
Any news, please?
YandereDev
Eventually; probably once the game is closer to release.
damon burback
have you considered hiring a promotion team or taking to funding advertising to expand the amount of platforms your game is being seen on. i know for a fact edgy teens love this sorta stuff now but their numbers on youtube and facebook are limited.
Offshore - Adult Games Developer
Awesome news, keep up!
YandereDev
I used my personal savings for that, not the Patreon money.
Golgom
Okay, but what about buying the Subreddit?
Como se descarga yandere simulator en android
Ok
Can I dowlond android version
YandereDev
In this context, "adult" means "pornographic". Yandere Simulator is not pornographic; it's not an adult game.
YandereDev
Thank you, I appreciate your support a lot!
Rocco Laudadio
I was only a $1 supporter because I wanted to recieve the email updates of your progress. I didn't realize that your Patreon support was in decline last year. I just upped my support to $5. I do a little bit of coding here and there at my job and I find it fascinating listining to you methodically break down your plan of attack to get this project done.
Lixouri Mraz
<a href="https://youtu.be/ZlobPsPWFhY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/ZlobPsPWFhY</a> All fans of Evangelion and Yandere simulator dedicated repeat P.s Please yanderedev rate
Everything will be okay. Just keep on working on things, explore new ideas and know that you have a fan base supporting you always! We believe in Yandere!
Offshore - Adult Games Developer
Keep up the good work!
Soufrière
Huh. Not sure where my last comment went or why it disappeared. To make it shorter this time, I wish you and YanSim a fortuitous 2019. Hopefully things will look up for you on the money front. I'm glad you still have a surplus even after the insanity of the past few months. I plan to up my contribution starting next month.
Sergey
I support some long term projects on Patreon and was always happy as these provide frequent (monthly) updates, so I can play these. I never thought or had any ideas of that being wrong. People make games and they are happy about that, I like their game hence I support them and play these games. Some projects did have drama because some people wanted that game to be complete here and now, but as I'm software developer myself I know how things work, so I never understood these battles. I'm happy as long as there are frequent (periodic with well established period) updates with fun stuff inside even if game never complete. I guess that would be best path to follow - just ignore the foul crowd and develop the game. Whatever happens as long as you do that your true fans will be there for you. Good luck!
Don't worry, I'm not good at hating people I'm told to hate. (Which is ironically, the reason I too was targeted for smears, but I digress) I'll stick around for as long as is financially feasible WE NEED THE GOBLIN SLAYER! Besides, his theme song friggin rocks :P
Well here's to a drama-free 2019. Hopefully some of the people spreading hate will have moved on so you can work in peace. If you don't already, you should put a nice big patreon link at the end of your videos like every other youtuber with one c:
YandereDev
<a href="https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/hey-whatever-happened-with-that-whole-tinybuild-thing/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/hey-whatever-happened-with-that-whole-tinybuild-thing/</a>
Terebonkoff Game Studio
Keep up the good work!
Len
If I recall correctly, wasn’t tinybuild helping? Did something happen and I’m jus unaware?
Mored4u
Try to rent pro people full-time ($3500 monthly) to speed up & ask patreon for that money (put huge patreon like $75 $50 $25 $15 $10 $5) to achieve it. Note: Belive me, poeple pay anything to get something.
I said in on YouTube and I'll say it here: If you make an Udemy course explaining your technical approaches in your other prototypes I will buy it. I'd love to watch your videos styles for a 2D fighting / beat em up tutorial for Unity, specially if you make it fun and engaging. That way you get a new source of income! You could outsource that if it suits you, but I am being serious I'd pay for that. About your drama episode, if you have been true to yourself and have done your part on becoming a better businessman, then you are fine. Keep it up.
I hope you can finish the game ASAP. Hating on you will just decrease the development time, IDK why people don't see that.
As someone who wishes to become a game developer myself, I don't have much to bring to the table, monetarily, but I do want to say that I've been following your channel and have been wishing you the best for your project. It's a shame that Patreon doesn't understand the ESRB rating system, but I think anyone knowing what Yandere Simulator is wouldn't be offput just because Patreon is ignorant; I wish you the best.
YandereDev
I spoke to Patreon, and they said that they've re-categorized Yandere Simulator as an adult game because of the violence. It has nothing to do with Patreon assuming that "yandere" relates to hentai.
Just keep working on it and as soon as I can I will help out with my pledge as well
gamersglory
You make more then most of us also the NSFW classification is because of Yandere in the name they automatically assume it has to do with Hentai. No visibility is something we adult devs deal with all the time.
Lulou
Baka.. now I have to increase my pledge. Jokes aside, I wish all the best for you and the game in the coming year.
