strange_girl
patreon
For the future of this studio
🕑 Added 2024-08-05 14:11:44 +0000 UTCHi everyone.
I'll be honest and real for a moment.
For the past few months, since Itch shadow banned us from the ranking pages of tags and searches, things have not gone well in our studio.
We lost almost 90% of our traffic and revenue, which really affected our finances and our ability to properly compensate our team members, which resulted in a lot of them leaving and joining other studios, or starting their own. They're all talented and I don't want to promise them something I can't guarantee, especially with the state of things with Itch io.
Now, we're still working on our games.
Despite the lack of considerable manpower and skill required, we're still working on our games.
However, we're burnt out.
I'm burnt out.
We've released a few updates since the shadowban and they received some decent success, but not quite good and honestly very far from the response we were getting before the shadowban.
This is really not helping us, especially since working on them for months without any end-game reward is making us all very upset.
Anyway, the point of this post and poll is to ask you guys what you think of our situation and how we'll move forward.
Whatever you guys decide we'll deeply consider and we would appreciate it.
Cheers,
~SG
Comments
Кто-то Ктотович
Where is tentacle breach game on patreon?
LOVExLYFE
And as for development wise, take a break. You deserve it, and also maybe figure out another place to advertise this game. And I’m sorry in advance if I sound demanding or rude.
LOVExLYFE
Something that definitely isn’t helping is the fact all the files and posts are on kemono. I recommend you to secure the posts and early access files better. as right now people can just to to kemono.su, look up “strange” and find all the stuff here for free.
Ttrreess
I think you should just take a break, and not work on anything maybe :). Take care of yourself and your team first!
Aerial Ace
These type sof situations aren't easy and it can sometimes feel like there's no easy or good answer. I'd say choosing one game to focus on. wether it's a current project, rework, or new game. It's probably best to choose something the majority of the studio likes or enjoys working on the most. It'll take time but as long as you're working on something you actually enjoy. It'll help smoothen things out.
guy_incognito
I'd suggest just working on one game like tentacle breach, then when that's done try and make a couple of games in different styles.. eg. a Tower Defence game.
Belisaurius
Honestly, you've been spreading yourselves thin by working on all these games at once.
Alixandra Sparks
Sorry to hear you are going thru a rough patch. I can tell you put a lot of love and effort into your games and I hope you can find your footing again soon. I think you should focus on one big game at a time, your most popular/promising one. And work on small (and I mean very small) titles on the side, that way you can keep the ideas flowing while attracting attention and creating proof of concept for possible future games.
LaughingGrim
You are gonna need a new platform to promote your content but aside from that I think you should focus on your popular titles like tentacle breach or pursue a light game to grab attention like naughty laundry. But sorry about you being burned out. Being shadow banned is a horrible thing to happen especially with all the effort you put into your games and community.
Kiya
Is there a possibility for a different marketing structure? I agree that Itch basically drives most payed NSFW content, no matter were it's posted. Perhaps there is an alternative you are able to post or advertise to. If the shadow ban is not amenable?
StrangeGirl
Thank you so much for the kind words! Whatever happens, we'll continue working on and make games for this patreon and studio :)
Kill.Me = Killian Merphy
I've felt that burnout... stay strong... do what you do well... and do what you love even better... then no matter what... you can look back at what you accomplished... and know it was worth it
StrangeGirl
Unfortunately, most of us, especially me, don't want to take a break. We're not getting any younger, so we'd like to continue working while we still can and the fire is still flaming on.
Antonio Broadnax
Dude your studio is great and one of the only ones I subscribe to. That being said. Take a break homie. It's well deserved
